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Often called "the yoga of the stars", Bikram yoga is based on appreciation for the benefits of internal enx external heat as a supplement to regular yoga practice. This movement was brought specifically to Hollywood in the 1970s by Bikra Choudhury and has been a Californian institution ever since.

The secret is the room the workouts are done in. It is maintained at a heat between eighty and a hundred ten degrees Fahrenheit! So this is a very intense experience. This is done to facilitate a deeper immersion of the healing heat into the muscles and allow it to detoxify the glandular system through excretions. This also increases your heartrate and thus boosts the cardiovascular benefits of your yoga practice.

As for the details of the poses and exercises themselves, they hold same throughout all schools of this yoga. You go through a series a twenty six physical postures and then two breathing exercises (pranayama) every time. This allows you to focus on mastering the poses in this heat to squeeze the absolute maximum benefit out of them.

Of the twenty six postures let me say that many are very challenging. This yoga is not for beginners or the light hearted. It will tale you to your physical limits with numerous twists, bends and even one legged stances! You hold most of them for fifteen seconds or longer so the challenge is cemented. This is certainly high octane yoga for people who like to work hard toward their physical/spiritual growth.

There are many benefits to this practice. It has all of the benefits of traditional yoga but is "souped up" by its other elements. It gives you greater strength and muscle tone, and has better fat burning qualities than most yoga practices. Some say through the external heat the practice builds "inner heat" as well but of course there is no scientific verification for this so that it as you will.

Bikram yoga provides the best workout of all yoga and many maintain that its heat-based elements purge and purify the body so that one is cleaner, lighter and more focused when done with the practice. You might even call it yoga on steroids...

This is one of the strongest and most aggressive forms of the art of yoga but you can ease into it same as any other practice and let the heat push you further down the path. I truly think this is revolutionary even though ti was implemented thirty years ago and that it is things like these that will entice people in this aggressive age over to the notion of doing yoga.

Learn more about this author, Royce Radcliffe.
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