Bikram Choudhury derived Bikram yoga from the traditional hatha yoga and popularized it in the 1970s. Every class of Bikram yoga consists of 90 minutes and exactly 26 different poses done in a preferably heated room:
1. Standing Deep Breathing – Pranayama
You need to start every Bikram Yoga session with this particular posture. It is good for your breathing and it relaxes you and prepares you for the postures that follow.
2. Half Moon Pose – Ardha-Chandrasana
This pose strengthens the muscles in your body and is particularly good for your abdomen and your back. It also helps with problems of pain in your back and neck and in cases of frozen shoulder.
3. Hands to Feet Pose – Pada-Hasthasana
A hand to feet pose stretches your back and your spine and it is similar to the half moon pose. Both poses help with problems in your lower body as they stretch muscles and tendons in your legs, helping with bad circulation.
4. Awkward Pose – Utkatasana
This pose is particularly good for strengthening your legs. It also relieves cold feet, leg arthritis and rheumatism and even menstrual cramps.
5. Eagle Pose – Garurasana
Garurasana improves your kidney function and sexual function. It opens 14 major joints in your body and improves flexibility of your hips, knees and ankles.
6. Standing Head to Knee – Dandayamana-Janushirasana
This pose works all major muscle groups and is good for your internal organs too. It improves your concentration and mental strength.
7. Standing Bow Pose – Dandayamana-Dhanurasana
If you want to move your blood from one part of the body to another, this is the right posture. It’s great for improving your balance, cardio-vascular state and elasticity of your spine.
8. Balancing Stick – Tuladandasana
Clean your veins and arteries, improve your balance and concentration with this posture. It has a positive influence on your pancreas, spleen and liver.
9. Standing Separate Leg Stretching Pose – Dandayamana-Bibhaktapada-Paschimotthanasana
Strengthen sciatic nerves and tendons in your legs, improve flexibility of your pelvis and give your internal organs, especially your intestines, a unique massage with this pose.
10. Triangle Pose – Trikanasana
Trikanasana strengthens every single muscle in your body and has a positive influence on all of your internal organs.
11. Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee Pose – Dandayamana-Bibhaktapada-Janushirasana
Work your abdomen and help conditions like diabetes, depression or memory loss. This pose influences your thyroid gland and improves your immune system and metabolism.
12. Tree Pose – Tadasana
Tadasana prevents hernia and improves your posture and your balance. It is good for arthritis and rheumatism as well as with blood circulation problems.
13. Toe Stand – Padangustasana
If you want to strengthen your knees, hips and ankles or battle hemorrhoids, Toe Stand is the right pose. Of course, it is good for balance as well.
14. Dead Body Pose – Savasana
This pose was basically created to relax your body and your mind and prepare you for a set of postures that are done on the floor.
15. Wind-Removing Pose – Pavanamuktasana
This pose massages your colon and your digestive organs. It normalizes the amount of hydrochloric acid in your stomach and helps with constipation. It also stretches your arms, thighs and hips and improves flexibility of your hip joints.
16. Cobra Pose – Bhujangasana
Apart from being amazingly great for lumbar region of your spine, the cobra pose furthermore improves digestion and appetite and brings relief from asthma and menstrual pains.
17. Locust Pose – Salabhasana
This pose has all of the benefits of Cobra pose plus it can help with varicose veins in legs, and tennis elbow in arms.
18. Full Locust Pose – Poorna-Salabhasana
Increases strength of your middle spine and the elasticity of your rib cage. It strengthens your leg and arm muscles.
19. Bow Pose – Dhanurasana
The Bow pose of Bikram Yoga helps with back problems by strengthening your back muscles. Plus, it helps you breathe by opening your rib cage and lungs and lets them inhale more air.
20. Fixed Firm Pose – Supta-Vajrasana
This pose helps prevent hernia, strengthens your thigh muscles and improves circulation in your legs. It also improves flexibility of your spine, hips and knees.
21. Half Tortoise Pose – Ardha-Kurmasana
It stretches your neck and shoulder muscles and improves blood flow to your brain. It is said that this particular Bikram Yoga pose can help with respiratory problems and can help you live longer.
22. Camel Pose – Ustrasana
Brings maximal compression of the spine and improves flexibility of your neck, shoulders and spine. Helps to eliminate toxins from your body and brings relief with respiratory problems.
23. Rabbit Pose – Sasangasana
This pose brings maximum extension of your spine. It stretches your neck, shoulders and back and can help with problems with sinuses and diabetes, depression or insomnia.
24. Head to Knee Pose and Stretching Pose – Janushirasana and Paschimotthanasana
Apart from stretching your back and leg muscles, this pose is particularly good for your immune and lymphatic system. It can improve digestion and helps with allergies and chronicdiarrhea.
25. Spine-Twisting Pose – Ardha-Matsyendrasana
This pose calms your nervous system. It’s the only pose that twists and stretches your back from your first to your last vertebrae, thus bringing more blood to your spinal nerves and improving the elasticity of your spine.
26. Blowing in Firm Pose – Kapalbhati in Vajrasana
Finish every Bikram Yoga class with this pose. Deep breaths bring more oxygen to your lungs and relax your whole body. It will improve your circulation and bring new positive energy to your body, concluding the session of Bikram Yoga and leaving you in a relaxed and cleansed state.
Check out this video, and see 26 Bikram Yoga poses in 2 minutes.
Namaste.
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