by Bob Trowbridge

Created on: April 23, 2007   Last Updated: April 26, 2007

Bikram Choudhury is a colorful yoga teacher who has managed to get himself connected with the Hollywood scene. He calls himself the "Yogi to the Stars." He lives in Beverly Hills and teaches his style of yoga at the Yoga College of India in Los Angeles. He also teaches in San Francisco, Tokyo, Paris, London, and Calcutta, India.

The Bikram Yoga method is characterized by doing postures in a hot room (105 F) with high humidity. His 26 "asana's" or postures are related to traditional yoga postures but he claims the sequence of postures is special and has tried to copyright them. His workouts are about 90 minutes long and include two breathing exercises.

There has been some controversy as other yoga instructors have accused Choudhury of trying to copyright standard yoga postures just because of their sequence. He also demanded that anyone wanting to teach his sequence should be licensed by him.

The jury seems to still be out as to whether this "Hot Yoga" provides any more benefits than any of the myriad of other yoga styles.

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