namasteph yoga blog

I’ve just started learning the Bikram series at home. Living in Los Angeles, I’d actually love to experience the bombastic personality Bikram in person (his school is a short drive away), but I can’t. Hot yoga is counterindicated for my chronic fatigue syndrome.

(CFS sufferers have a tendency towards orthostatic hypotension, which means we have thin blood and/or low blood pressure that can cause dizziness or even fainting when standing up quickly. Working out in an overheated room causes the blood to thin…thus, it stands to reason, if you already have a problem with low blood pressure or low blood volume, working out in high heat is probably a bad idea.)

But I’m curious about the different yoga styles and wanted to see what all the fuss was about Bikram. So I got his beginning yoga book and learned about his series (a separate review of the book will be posted later). Bikram created a specific sequence of 26 postures (plus two breathing exercises) that he claims works out the entire body in a way no other yoga series does. I wanted to find out if there was truth to the hype.

I finally did the full series yesterday, probably not properly, and I cheated and didn’t do everything twice as indicated. (Mostly, I did, however.) Still, I got a good workout, and it took me an hour to get through everything (though, I did add restorative supported bridge pose at the end).

Bikram has two sections to his series. First, a standing series, and then a floor series. Most of the poses were doable (even, surprisingly, standing head to knee), but the two that got me were the toe balance and the “fixed firm” (his name for reclining hero). I can’t even sit upright in hero without a block underneath me, so fixed firm is a long way off.

His standing series was a bit heavy on balance poses and a bit light on hip openers (no warriors here). The floor series reminded me a lot of the Sivananda series…lots of backbends that move the spine one way and then the other. A few parts are practically identical to Sivananda (cobra -> locust -> bow).

Two major elements missing from Bikram are poses that work on the upper body and inversions. Heck, I think even just the addition of plow would be helpful here, and even Sivananda, which is light on the arm stuff, has an arm balance (crow) at the end.

Overall, I really like this series because it works a lot on the spine in the same way the Sivananda series does. This is why I am not too keen on doing vinyasa flow or power yoga classes all the time - they don’t do jack for your back unless the teacher actively decides to add backbends at the end (something other than just bridge pose).

With that in mind, I think I would happily incorporate the Bikram series into my home practice, and perhaps add shoulderstand and plow at the end when I want some inversions. I don’t think I’d make this my sole yoga practice, and I won’t ever do it in full heat, but it’s a good series to know.