Set aside notions of yoga as a gentle, restorative or meditative workout. Bikram yoga, a form of hatha yoga also known as hot yoga, features powerful poses and a faster pace than most types of yoga workouts. The real twist in Bikram yoga, however, is that you exercise in a room heated to between 90 and 104 degrees. Sauna-like conditions heat the body so your muscles can stretch for the intense sequence of movements.
Breathing Exercises
Every Bikram yoga workout begins with pranayama, or breathing exercises. A typical opening pranayama is the standing deep breathing exercise. You focus on deeply inhaling and exhaling, filling and emptying your abdomen as well as your lungs. You coordinate your breathing with a sequence of arm movements.
Standing Poses
You spend the first 60 minutes of a 90-minute Bikram yoga workout doing a series of 12 standing poses, always in the same order. Begin in the half moon pose, with your palms touching overhead. Bend in all directions to engage your core and improve your range of motion. You progress through a series of forward bends that demand balancing on one leg or on your toes. Conclude the series by laying down for savasana, or corpse pose, for two minutes.
Floor Poses
The corpse pose transitions you to the final 30 minutes of the workout, which consists of seated and floor poses. You lie on your back, stretching your knees to your chest before straightening your legs and strengthening your core by lifting your upper body toward your legs. Rest your legs on the ground and touch the tips of your toes. You repeat this sequence of moves between every floor pose. The floor poses consist of various types of backbends, including the cobra, half locust, full locust and bow.
Benefits
Bikram yoga offers similar benefits to other yoga styles, including stress relief, improved coordination, better flexibility, fuller range of motion, muscle building and management of various diseases or chronic conditions. The intense level of hot yoga also elevates your heart rate higher for longer, giving you a vigorous cardiovascular workout that burns more calories and helps you lose weight. If you have health concerns, speak to your doctor before starting a Bikram yoga workout regimen.
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