Why the Government needs to make Bikram yoga compulsory
August 27, 2009 by Kara-Leah Grant
Filed under Musings from the Mat, The Benefits, Yoga Styles
Bikram Choudhury
There is one simple action that the Government could take which would slash hospital waiting lists.
It would turn us from a nation of porkies into a nation of bendies.
Plus it would seriously put a dent in the increasing number of us who are living with mental illness at some stage in our lives.
This one action would take commitment from us though.
We would have to invest 90 minutes 3 times a week into our physical, mental and emotional health. That’s 4 and a half hours.
For many of us, finding that four and a half hours in between children and work and friends and family would be near impossible.
But the magic of this time is that it positively affects the quality of sleep so that people who do that 4 and a half hours every week find they needs less sleep each night – effectively increasing the number of waking hours they have at their disposal.
Imagine that.
Committing 4 and a half hours every week to something that means you feel refreshed after 6 hours sleep a night,
Something that arrests the aging practice, rehabilitates old injuries and builds the immune system.
In a country as socially engineering as ours, it’s a miracle that this system of creating health and time hasn’t already become compulsory. Perhaps that’s because politicians work such horrendous hours that they haven’t yet caught on to the miracle that is Bikram Yoga.
Yes – Bikram Yoga. A 90 minute practice of 26 poses performed in a room heated to 40 degrees.
This is what should be compulsory for each and every New Zealander over the age of 18. Maybe the age of 14 – if we could peel the teenagers away from their cellphones for long enough.
Because there is no doubt that if we ALL did Bikram yoga, we would solve the obesity crisis, the mental health crisis, the health crisis, and the time-poor crisis most of us experience.
Designed by Bikram Choudhury, this is a yoga series created to specifically attract the western mind by appealing to the ego, and created to specifically heal the western body by focusing on postures which heal modern western ailments.
Bikram was a child yoga prodigy who went on to become an Olympic weightlifter – until a weight lifting accident crushed his knee and left him severely crippled.
European doctors said he would never walk again, but Bikram went back to Bishnu Gnosh’s school of yoga and after six months of intensive work was healed.
His personal experience with the healing power of yoga in the face of Western pessimism lead him to a United Nations sponsored three year research project at Tokyo University Hospital. He worked with doctors to prove that yoga regenerates tissues and cures chronic ailments, making a presentation at the International Medical Conference in 1972.
26 years on and Bikram Yoga is one of the most popular and successful styles of yoga in the Western world. In New Zealand, it attracts a significant following. The Wellington studio fits almost 60 people at capacity and is often full, despite there being at least 3 classes a day on offer.
So if it’s such a miracle, why aren’t we all doing it?
Could be because we’re lazy.
And Bikram is hard.
It’s likely the hardest physical exercise that you would ever do. It will challenge your body, your mind and your ego. For most people, it would be so far out of their comfort zone that they’d want to run screaming from the room. It would make them feel stiff, and weak, and awkward, and weak, and pathetic, and fat.
And who wants to feel like that.
Thing is, most of us ARE either stiff, or weak, or awkward, or weak, or pathetic, or fat, or some combination of all those things.
But being confronted with who we truly are is just too much for most of us to handle. We’d rather pretend that it doesn’t matter that we’ve carrying a spare tire around our waist, or that we have to sit down to put on our socks, or that we wheeze walking up stairs. We pretend it’s a normal part of life, and a normal part of aging.
We don’t want to stare at ourselves in a mirror with 50 other sweaty people and confront the realities of our bodies and ourselves. Nope, we’d rather get sick and break down and overload the health system and reach for the happy pill and just accept that the dicky knee from the old rugby injury is with us for the rest of our lives.
Yet people do start Bikram, and even though they feel awful during class, they come back.
They come back because after completing a Bikram class they discover to their amazement that they feel incredible. Fantastic. Blissful even. And those joyful feelings outweigh the struggle and resistance they encountered during the class.
That feel-good factor lures them back week after week until they note that their lower back no longer aches when they dig the garden. They notice that they’re naturally reaching for healthy food simply because that’s what they feel like eating. And they notice that they have more energy, need less sleep, and feel happier over all.
Class is still hard. Class may still be hard even ten years later. But the rewards are rich, and rising to that challenge week after week, year after year has made them strong. Not just in body, but in mind and emotions too.
A life has been transformed.
Now imagine if every Kiwi was doing this every week. We’d be able to collectively toss away our blood pressure pills, our depression pills, and our anxiety pills. We wouldn’t be lining up for knee replacements and hip replacements and back operations. Our hearts and lungs and livers would support us all the way into our later years. Our binge drinking culture would dissolve away into nothing.
A nation would be transformed.
My recommendation is that the Government forms a working party to investigate the long-term effects of Bikram yoga on the body and mind. After gathering testimonials from long-time Bikram yogis, they’d soon see that it’s absolutely ludicrous that we aren’t all doing Bikram.
In the meantime, I would love to see the Minister of Health, Tony Ryall, get himself to a Bikram class just so he can see what it’s all about.
Whaddya say Minister Ryall?
Up for a challenge?
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You’ve got to be joking. Bikram ‘yoga’?
Since when did to physically ‘push, push, push’ become part of the yoga ethos?
(Probably about when $$ and people’s distorted expectations of what they think they need. But not my principle point here)
In my experience ‘push, push, push’ is to literally quote these BY teachers. Come into an asana and ‘go further, push, now push further’……So disappointing.
I spoke about this to a physio friend of mine and she shook her head. “A recipe for torn ligements……and with due diligence a tendon”
This kind of teaching is blackening the word ‘yoga’ and who knows what the effect will be.
I wonder how these teachers, let alone the students will be in 20, 30, 40 years?
Bikram so-called yoga is far removed from meditation, self care and ahimsa. If anything, surely ahimsa is to be observed by teacher and student alike. Neither has been the case in the classes I checked out.
Additionally the teacher seemed to have memorized a script, sounded like a robot. The same metaphors, same phrases. I am all for a certain consistency but it seems so…lacking.
I worry about the image of yoga. I worry about people hurting themselves. I worry about a yoga school wanting to copyright what is the inheritance of our past and gift to the future.
I am much inspired by yoga and the myriad of school and approaches. For me this one is highly dangerous, under-thought out, over-valued and simply bad news.
For the fans, please take an objective look at the practice, the environment and what yoga really should be about. The feeling in my heart is not a good one when I consider Bikram ‘Yoga’.
Marianne,
I wish you a positive experience with our practice one day.
Namaste.
Marianne,
Please try to be a little more informed before claiming that this isn’t real yoga. I have personally met Bikram yogis who have practiced this yoga for decades & their minds, bodies, & spirits are a beauty to behold. This yoga has caused me to look within myself for strength I never knew I had & I am grateful for that “push, push, push” mentality for, without it, I would never push myself to the points I need to go. It is human nature to take the path of least resistance. This yoga does not allow you to do that; & this is translated to othe parts of the yogi’s life outside of the yoga room. This yoga is FAR from disappointing. It’s the best thing that has happened in my life; second only to my husband & daughter. Those who commit to trying this yoga, without prejudices, will surely see amazing benefits. Namaste.
I’ve tried Bikram. I liked it and I did benenfit from it at the time. However, it’s not the “yoga for me”. Just because I don’t get something great from it, doesn’t mean others don’t. If it works for someone else, who are we to know if it does or doesn’t. Personally, I do agree with Mirianne to a degree, but I’m not fully convinced either way.
Since Marianne is curious to know how the students and teachers will be in 20, 30, 40 years, I’d like to invite her to take a moment to read the following article, written by an extraordinary woman named Emmy Cleaves. Emmy took her first Bikram Yoga class in 1973, Emmy is now in her eighties. Ms. Cleaves has been practicing AND teaching Bikram Yoga for over 30 years. She is the hottest, fittest, most energetic octogenarian I have ever had the good fortune to meet.
http://www.bikramyoga.com/News/LAYogaMagazine0105.htm
Not everyone has to like Bikram Yoga. Whatever resonates with someone is quite simply the path that they should choose. Be it Yoga or anything else in life. But proclaiming that this Yoga is not real is an allegation that is uninformed and grossly inaccurate.
Hey Marriane, angry much? The instructor who told you to lock your knee and tried to keep you from running out the room really wasn’t trying to hurt your feelings.
I’ve been attending Bikram classes since 2003, so i haven’t reached the “ten year” mark you mentioned. Funny thing, I seem to be stronger than ever.
I do admit I took some time off to try some “real yoga” for a while — bad experience for me. The inverted poses and upper body work did damage to my neck and exacerbated the arthritis in my shoulders.
I’m a very muscular 48 year old man. Maybe “real yoga” works for you, but it doesn’t work for me. The heat and relative gentleness of Bikram allows me to maintain a regular practice. My resting pulse rate is under 60 and my blood pressure stays very low relative to my age.
In regards to “push push” — I find that communicating with the instructor about limits or injuries helps
Dear Mirianne
Open your mind,let go of your fears and practice yoga. How can you be so negative and full of fears …if you do practice? Namaste
Hey all,
First up – great conversation. Awesome to hear from everyone.
Marianne – Was I joking? Well yeah – I’m for less Government in general and more personal responsibility… but I wanted to get people talking. Mission accomplished
Joseph,
Thank you for your simplicity & acceptance.
Rose,
I’m with you – there’s no way to avoid anything in the Bikram room. Resistance is futile!
Tash,
You’re walking the middle way with great delicacy
Alexis,
Great article, thanks for the link.
Bluebird123,
Man! I can’t wait until I can see Bikram as “relatively gentle”. Right now, of all the yoga styles I’ve practiced, Bikram kicks my arse the mostest!
Gina,
Practice is a path, and after ten years or so, I’ve still got some pretty nasty fears and negativity that comes up. But I’m working on it… and I’m sure Marianne is too.
Blessings all,
KL
@Kara-Leah Grant.
LOL… Yes, the gentleness is very relative. I should have specified that it’s relatively gentle to the joints — yes,it kicks my ass also.
Marianne – I would research Bikram further and I think your fears will dissipate. Bikram himself is teaching in the style he was taught by top yoga masters in India as a boy. It is a meditation and the teacher’s memorized script is a big part of that. During the asanas, you totally let go and only listen to their words as a guide. All thoughts are put on hold and you are totally in the moment. Ie meditating.
Bikram yoga is so great!!!!!
Hey Waylon,
Thanks for that reminder about the meditative quality of Bikram.
During the workshop, Paul and Jaylee often spoke about getting to a stage in one’s Bikram practice where everybody else in the room “disappeared” and you could literally only see yourself in the mirror.
Ninety minute moving meditation – powerful stuff indeed!
Blessings,
KL
Great article!
And, Waylon’s post is right on!
I’ve had a knee injury and because i kept going to bikram and really listened to my body and only did what i could, the injury has healed correctly and in the right alignment. I believe in this stuff. Being able to only focus on my body, my emotions, and the teachers dialogue, i can block out everything, from my struggling neighbor to the sweat dripping in my eyes. It really is a meditation.
I love bikram!
Hey Desiree,
Thank you! Had a blast writing it
It sounds like you’re having an awesome experience with Bikram.
Blessings,
KL