The Bikram Yoga sequence is so different and brilliant, with all 90 minutes a necessity. The first part is called “the warm-up series.” The first four poses, Half Moon, Hands to Feet, Awkward, and Eagle, bring about a mind-body connection. Conversations from outside the room and thoughts about your day are long gone. We used to say, “The mind that you came in with is now sitting on a shelf in the back of the room, waiting for you after class.” You’ve just had some challenging poses to concentrate on, so the stage is set. You “know” who’s in the room with you; you are used to the groove of this teacher; you’ve gotten used to seeing yourself TODAY in the mirror; your breathing tempo is in place; spine, muscular body, and joints are all warmed up, and then it’s “party time.” It’s just the right amount of release to that pressure valve.
Before we even begin the warm-up series, you need to warm up your lungs, get your breathing going, and exercise your likely weakened respiratory system. Lined up in a row, centered on your mat, the teacher walks up to a podium with a microphone headset on: “Pranayama – Standing Deep Breathing, good for the lungs and the respiratory system. Breathe in by the nose, out through the mouth, always use your throat.” The Bikram Yoga dialogue begins. Staring straight ahead in these huge mirrors, you start to recognize how different this is. What is the teacher saying? You realize that the teacher will talk the whole time, not demonstrate the postures, and talk loudly, too.
Pranayama – Standing Deep Breathing
Pranayama, Standing Deep Breathing, is one of the most challenging ways to breathe, yet it’s the very technique that, in a short time, will expand your rib cage and lungs to the point of dizziness; it’s where we realize the shallow breaths we take all day long. We start our yoga practice with what’s most important: breath, which is life. It’s the very thing we all need, eight billion of us.
Thank goodness breathing is automatic since we do it about 10,000 times daily. Imagine if we had to think about it – go, gracious God. However, like all things, it will fade, become numb and shallow, and atrophy if we don’t exercise it. The lungs gather the oxygen to take to the heart, which circulates throughout the body.
Breathing techniques have become a big subject in our world today, bravo, and Bikram Yoga has its own genius breathing techniques. In my estimation, in all the years I’ve done this breathing, it has truly improved my health. Prana: life force, Yama: a discipline we extend throughout the body. Pranayama – Standing DEEP Breathing.
Many years ago, Larry King was interviewing Dr. Andrew Weil. At the end of this one-hour interview, Larry asked Andrew if there is one thing we could do to improve our health. Without hesitating, Andrew said, “You could all learn how to breathe.” I think back then, it was a “duh” moment for me until I stopped to consider: “Wow, I never thought about my breathing.”
Ten cycles, two sets, and you are already sweating and dripping from your elbows, and you might already feel so out of place as this breathing is not intuitive. Don’t despair; you’ll get it in time.
Half Moon, Hands to Feet, Awkward, and Eagle poses
Half Moon with Hands to Feet, Ardha Chandrasana with Pada Hastasana, is simply stretching the right and left sides like a half moon, then a back bend and forward bend, done twice. It sets up the spine for class. Breathing is now normal, in and out through the nose, and bam, hearing the bold dialog, we hit the spine hard – two sets. The teacher is shouting (so it seems) and, as Bikram says, “You’ve got to kill yourself.” What he means is to work hard to kill the mind you came in with. If you dilly-dally in this posture and don’t invest in the actions, your class will be extra hard. Climb into the “torture chamber” now with all the effort you have today to do these poses. Tune in to Half Moon and watch your monkey mind shut up, even shut off. You are at one with your movements and the words of the dialog, which are commanding and at a tempo much like a metronome; this is your moving meditation.
Bikram’s last comments to us teachers in the 2023 recertification were, “Get your students to understand what they can do and the actions to make them go further into what they cannot do.” The quicker you work with what you have, with form and effort, the faster you’ll benefit.
Awkward pose comprises three parts to strengthen the joints and the muscular body. It’s good for bone density, and in my estimation, it separates the men from the boys. Just a few minutes in, your heart is racing, and your shoulders are aching. While trying to do the posture, it’s inevitably here where many start to give up. Why? We challenge our stamina and the mind, which fills up with deflating, self-defeating thoughts. “Negative thoughts are nine times more powerful than positive ones,” Bikram states, and it’s right here, as a teacher, where I see it. You’ve got to take action anyway to override the noise holding you back. It’s a beautiful thing to see a sea of individuals fight for themselves!
The mental chatter that we often think isn’t there shows up in the classroom with just you and large mirrors everywhere. Ironically, it’s very quiet in the room, yet the amount of bashing you give yourself is so loud. What an illumination. “You always underestimate yourself,” says Bikram. Do the posture, do the class every day for the rest of your life, and all this shifts. The events in your life don’t bring happiness; it’s your ability to be present. Show up with presence, and there’s no room to judge.
“You come into this life to give, not to get,” says Bikram, and that, too, will become more inherent by doing this practice. None of this is cerebral; you can’t get there with logic. Bikram Yoga allows you to take that knowledge of what you think you know of life and apply it in your body through these poses. In that integration, your character will be confronted, dismantled, rebuilt, and grow to produce the fruit of the human being YOU are becoming. “Don’t give up” is said in the dialogue. In Bikram’s words, “You are minus 10,000,” meaning that you’ve got a lot of stuff to get through before you even start. Don’t give up – “Once you have it, you have it forever,” Bikram adds.
Eagle pose is the final posture in the warm-up series. All poses are in sequential order, so this one opens the joints, “14 major joints of your skeletal system that you are opening, seven on each side,” a teacher might say. This posture helps blood pressure, the lymphatic system, and more. It looks like you are twisting like a pretzel, and for the most part, you are, while holding your eyes forward and maintaining some stillness, breathing normally on one leg. After two sets, you’ll hear the teacher say, “Party time.”
Party Time
One of the more unique phrases in a Bikram Yoga class is Party Time. I asked Rajashree recently where this came from. “Bikram never wanted anyone to leave the room, yet it became obvious that students were leaving the room to get water, so he became more flexible. It’s a way to inspire and encourage.
The Concentration Series: Standing Head to Knee, Standing Bow Pulling, and Balancing Stick poses
Practicing Concentration, Determination, Self-Control, Patience, and Faith with Dandayamana-Janushirasana, Dandayamana-Dhanurasana, and Tuladandasana.
So, now it is time to look in the mirror at YOU and decide before you even begin not to give up. The following three postures, balancing on one leg, are challenging you enough to give up, so “try 100% right way without giving up, that is the ultimate destination,” says Bikram’s dialogue. At first glance, you’d think this was weird or interesting at best, but over time, YOU get it! Life is not a destination; it is a journey – destinations are few and far between, and our culture lives for those: the next holiday, next challenge, next year, but LIFE, real everyday life, is the stuff in-between. Where are you on a Tuesday morning when you’ve got the same routine to do today? Are you showing up for this amazing day in front of you with the same vigor as Christmas? More so, the paradigm in this is that Christmas is like any other day you make of it!
So, here we go with more of what is required of you in the next poses: Standing Head to Knee, Standing Bow Pulling, and Balancing Stick. All are performed on one leg, elevating your heart by design and forcing you to dig deeper. In the warm-up series, we warm up to our surface level. Now let’s see what you’re made of; better yet, use these postures to MAKE more of YOU.
Why? Because you get the chance to sharpen your concentration, determination, patience, faith, and self-control skills by doing these three poses. You have these attributes, but do you use them? You’ll soon find out. Did you pick up your foot right away or hesitate? Did you fall out and get right back in, or are you still standing there? Is your grip tight, or are you letting it slip? Is your knee truly locked, or are you moving on without the patience and the faith to wait until that standing leg is locked? And how are your emotions? Are you frustrated, turning your thoughts to doubt? Are you buying into distractions that prevent you from doing the pose, or are you focused in the mirror? Do you stay the course despite the screams in your head or sounds from the person next to you? Do you override these typical tendencies that veer us off our path?
The intensity is real, and so is the confrontation. The room is simply you and a massive set of mirrors covering the walls. There’s nowhere to go but within! With enough time in this torture chamber, YOU start to rise. “The only way out is through,” you may have heard. Bikram states, “It’s the only subject in the world where the subject and the object are the same.” YOU!
In the asana or posture, holding still and breathing normal is your moment to shatter what holds you back, bringing forth a muscle in you and aiding in your unique story here on earth. There is a saying about consciousness: You can live without it, but likely not a very good life. These postures confront a numb mind to become a present mind, using concentration, your superpower, to revise your levels of awareness. Did you hear about the tomato? Right before the knife touches its skin, the tomato is already sliced. We have that razor-type concentration, but you can’t use it if you don’t know how to use it. So, grab your foot, lock your knee, try to touch the mirror, and continuously kick your leg up to exercise these skills within you. Fall out? Get back in. Hit frustration? Good, try again.
Are you exhausted simply reading this? Well, good, YOU are on your way; we’ve just started!
Bikram says, “Stay with the pain, the pain of suffering!” It’s all for you to work through and get to the other side. “Bikram Yoga will give you the satisfaction of living; that is a realized life,” he says, “If something rattles your peace, then you are the loser.” How many of us can feel so controlled BY life when life should be something we greatly receive? It doesn’t control you; you control it by your choices, responses, and willingness to interact with life and make the most of it. “Bikram Yoga is the owner’s manual to your life. Yes, you were born but given no instruction manual.”
It’s inspiring to read books or listen to lectures, but you have to lift your life up and OUT – you do this by using your body as a medium to wake up your mind. Do you recall Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and the great lengths she went to find her way home when it was always within her by simply clicking her heels? Again, the paradigm in all this is that our self, our higher Self of which we are all made, is within the mystery of the small self. To unlock the mystery, like Dorothy, all she needed, and all we need, is to find the key.
Lock the knee, and you’ll find the key – it’s so simple. Don’t believe me? Just try.
Standing Separate Leg Series: Standing Separate Leg Stretching, Triangle, and Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee poses
Dandayamana Bibhaktapada Paschimotthanasana, Trikanasana, Dandayamana Bibhaktapada Janushirasana
After the full-on exhilaration of the concentration series, we begin again with three two-legged postures: Standing Separate Leg Stretching, Triangle, and Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee. Physically, we do a deep dive into the endocrine system to create and release hormones for proper bodily function: metabolism, sleep, sexual function, mood, growth, and much more. Bikram has a saying, “Where Western medicine ends, Eastern medicine (yoga) begins.”
As I take and teach these poses, I often think of the endocrine system. It is likely one of the most fine-tuned systems in the body, and it’s usually off balance. Over the decades of my teaching, these postures have become the most challenging for students, especially Separate Leg Head to Knee pose. It’s not because they are difficult, but because our body is responding to the heightened effect you are giving to the weaker areas of your body. So, get out of your way and do it to the best of your ability for that day.
I had my appendix removed at Stanford Hospital in 2006 and had an amazing traveling doctor. I came in for a stomach ache, and hours later, she discovered it was my appendix, so we had a lot of time to talk. She was so intrigued by Bikram Yoga, having heard about it, and now had a chance to speak with me on the subject. Her parting comment never left me: “Keep doing what you are doing, Michele; Western medicine can cure, but Bikram Yoga is preventative.”
Folks, the tougher the pose, the more we need it. In all its sophistication, the endocrine system cannot be compromised; often, when it is, it’s too late. Yoga is the harmonizer here! Too much or too little of the 50 hormones your body creates and distributes can cause havoc. Your body might be course-correcting an excessive or sluggish amount of a particular hormone, bringing you back into calibration. How often do we hear that chronic diseases are now the most common forms of illness? I put my money on an imbalanced endocrine system, initiating symptoms we frequently relieve yet don’t fully heal. Bikram Yoga will get at the source, so “stay with the pain,” as Bikram says, meaning that suffering is okay; breathe and let feelings of dizziness, lightheadedness, and even tingling pass. Homeostasis will return.
We start with Standing Separate Leg Stretching, an inversion with the head below the heart – good news for the brain and all the glands getting a good flush. “This backside stretch is the most important backside stretch you want to learn,” says Bikram. Stretch the back of your legs, and you’ll loosen any pressure you’ve created in your lower back. Traction your spine towards the floor with your 8-10 pound head and the help of gravity to reopen lost space between the discs.
Then, smack-dab in the middle of class is the crescendo of the series, the Mac Daddy of all poses, and the patented pose of Bikram Yoga: Triangle, Trikanasana. It’s the posture where you use every major muscle, joint, and gland. You won’t believe how fast your heart will pump without moving a stitch. The lower body is sitting down and moving forward, and the upper body is lifting up and back – a traction and spine twist with the equal and opposite force you create.
Over the years, as I’ve practiced this posture, I noticed my progress, especially in the opening of my rib cage. We often don’t realize it, but our rib cage is small and tight because we breathe shallowly, never using our lung’s full capacity. Triangle pose opens the heart, chest, and lungs. The phrase, “This is a perfect marriage between the heart and lungs,” is pitched right when you “twist or turn your upper back.” It’s the first time your lungs cooperate with your heart, and your heart cooperates with your lungs. “They constantly fight with one another, screaming at each other in competition for more oxygen,” shouts Bikram. They MUST work together in this pose. Triangle gives the best fight for the perfect union amongst the two most important elements of life: lungs (breath) and heart (blood.)
Finishing off this series is Separate Leg Head to Knee, which has more medical benefits than all the others combined. As I mentioned, it’s the single posture we struggle with the most, so we need it most. The good news is that after this posture, we have two more in single sets that allow your upper body to stay still and soak in the benefits of these prior postures while the lower body gets a workout in opening the hips and pelvis.
Tree pose and Toe Stand
Tadasana and Padangustasana
Tree pose and Toe Stand have less movement and more meditation; by now, you don’t even know your name. These postures are the perfect combination of balance, with everything slowing down TOGETHER, body functions starting to normalize, and the mind is focused on first balancing on one leg and then balancing on your toe. The entire warm-up series is complete, and the real yoga begins. “All those calisthenics in the standing series allow for a more internal practice in the floor series,” says the late Emmy Cleaves, our most senior teacher next to Bikram, having herself practiced for over 50 years. Hatha yoga consists of holding the posture in stillness, breathing always normal, followed by savasana, 20 seconds of laying in “dead body pose, allowing for circulation to return to the normal position,” as Bikram would say.
That was the warm-up, now the real yoga begins
What’s happening after the brief intensity of a pose performed with a tourniquet effect (buildup of pressure) is that you need to quickly turn around and lay on your back to allow for that appropriate amount of time, 20 seconds, for one complete revolution of blood through the body. It moves at twice the normal speed to flush out junk, allowing for the richer blood you’ve created by the excessive intake of oxygen to nourish those less visited areas of the body. It’s not rocket science here, just a SIMPLE way, the RIGHT way, to bring life into atrophying areas of the body. Every day is a day of gravity, and life has its way with us; in fact, aging is related to the effects of gravity. In Bikram Yoga, every posture opposes the force of gravity, maintaining your strength and vitality as circulation stays normal everywhere!
Here we are, starting the floor series with Savasana, Dead Body pose, for two minutes! “Still the body, still the mind,” you might hear a teacher say. We use the body in the first 50 minutes to help us become still and to calm the fluctuations of a monkey mind, where our thoughts swing from branch to branch, like a monkey. In the 21st century, we certainly talk much more about how important it is to be still, find stillness, sit in silence, and all that. Bikram Yoga has built into it the most effective way to be still: work hard and then relax.
These two minutes are a welcome invitation to do what your mind and body want – you’ll notice, ironically, how calm and better equipped you are to lay there than you would have been without the last 50 minutes. “Allow for systems to normalize,” which means return to their optimal effectiveness. Bikram says, “The hardest posture to do is Savasana,” as we fidget with our fingers, hair, and feet and can’t keep still for more than a few seconds. But, over time, as you practice, that will subside. Just keep coming.
As a teacher, at this point, I know with a smile in my heart that the yoga is talking to you. It’s not my job or any teacher’s job to do this work IN you. A good teacher will teach the right way with proper delivery, getting out of the way enough for you to experience this yoga for yourself, which GIVES TO YOU. For the most part, I know a seed was planted, prompting you to come back again. I’ve heard it countless times: “I swore I was not coming back again to something so hard, but I couldn’t stop thinking about my next class.”
Bikram’s guru, Bishnu Charan Ghosh, stated this phrase about 100 years ago: “Yoga maintains youth long, body full of vitality, immune to diseases even at an old old age.” So, of course, you will crave it. Your body and mind, your nature, KNOWS what it is giving you – for you to be YOU!
So after a good two minutes in Savasana, feet close, arms by your side, palms facing up, head straight, eyes always open, and breathing always normal, laying there, getting out of the way, allowing for your healing, wholeness, and restoration to all systems to include your spirit, you are ready for the depth of your yoga practice: the internal organs and spine.
Wind Removing pose
Pavanamuktasana
It’s hard to do anything in life if you can’t go to the bathroom.
How’s that for a sentence? But think about it. Constipation, diarrhea, or anything in between is just awful and takes up so much mental and physical space, discomfort, and despair. You can’t think about anything else if you feel crappy (pun intentional 🙂 Myself included, as most of my life as a kid, I regurgitated my food; had IBS; so much swelling and gas, especially during times of stress. Bikram Yoga and Wind Removing pose have not only helped me but countless others in their struggles with colon pain and diseases. And as we learn more, we know that the gut has a brain of its own. More and more information is coming out about the health of our microbiome – it’s truly the “stuff” that makes you.
Compression on the right side, compression on the left side, and compression in the center, done twice daily, with savasana in between, will slowly calm and reduce the inflammation we attract there. Who doesn’t want a regular bowel movement each day? In addition, this posture balances excessive acids, and get this: we start to think more clearly. A healthy gut means a healthy enteric system, the peripheral nervous system. It is sometimes referred to as the second brain because it communicates with the brain via the vagus nerve, which is the longest nerve in the body that regulates digestion, the lungs, blood pressure, voice, appetite, and more.
Listen carefully, next is an energizing sit-up
Sit-ups in Bikram Yoga are so different from any other sit-up you have likely ever done. Legs straight, heels on the floor, feet flexed, arms over your head, thumbs crossed, arms and head together and go! Inhale breathing and quickly sit up, looking at your stomach as you grab the big toes and double exhale, forehead on the knees twice, and elbows touching the floor. Can you see it?
This double blast ensures that waste is eliminated from the lungs after each pose and that the next inhale of oxygen to the lungs is more pure, providing the energy you need for the next pose. It’s so simple and yet so profound in its benefits. With Wind Removing pose completed, we can now lay on our gut comfortably for the next four poses that go deep into the spine: the spine strengthening series, the meat and potatoes of the class. Healthy spine; healthy life. The spine is the greatest source of energy for a human being. The spine is the body’s battery; you’ve got to keep it charged. Bikram Yoga has figured this out for all of us. If there is one thing that you can do to maintain health and become a realized human being, to fulfill your purpose with joy and abundance, it’s create a healthy spine! Start there, and all else will fall into place.
Spine strengthening series: Cobra, Locust, Full Locust, and Bow poses
Bhujangasana, Salabhasana, Poorna-Salabhasana, and Dhanurasana
Cobra, Locust, Full Locust, and Bow are the four postures on the floor that work three sections of the spine in a specific order, with the final pose in this series, Bow pose, bringing all sections together. The first three are about 10 seconds of intensity, and the last one is about 20. “If you do a good Cobra, Locust, Full Locust, and Bow pose, you will never have to go to the chiropractor,” says Bikram. He touches on more wisdom about the gifts of Bow pose, stating every once in a while, “Do a good Bow pose, and the Gods and Goddesses will chase you.” Over the years, I’ve come to see how much I’ve let life come to me. A “DO-er” for most of my life, I’ve become a “BE-er,” which, ironically, has enabled me to get more from and give more to life.
Lean back or just surrender are the terms we might hear; that’s all good, but there’s more to it, and Bikram knows it. Bow pose is the embodiment of a healthy body AND a healthy mind; your spirit is IN you and, better yet, active. You live less from an ego, a false sense of who you are, and more so with the authenticity of who you are meant to be. It may not be visible to the outside world, but it will become clear. You are living from a different place now. Life still has its struggles, even as you reach this perspective, but you know you are in the right kingdom, with life unfolding as a journey for you to follow.
Cobra pose emphasizes the lower spine; compression to those intra-vertebral discs gives them fluid/hydration/food so they stay cushy and mobile. Locust pose has the same effect, using different parts of the body to nourish the upper spine discs. Full Locust pose, which compresses and opens up the thoracic area of the spine, is said to be the most stubborn and hardest to change. “Doesn’t matter,” Bikram states, “how much or how little you are keeping your spine healthy.” Finally, Bow pose, using 110% of your strength, 10% more than what you think you have, fully coordinates and feeds the whole spine, from the coccyx to the neck.
Some days, your spine will feel ready to do the work; other days, it will feel stiff as a board. Again, it doesn’t matter; it’s all perfect, and you get exactly what you need. Bikram’s challenge is whether you will chicken out and give up on yourself or work hard fighting for YOUR life. He asks you to operate with a “no choice” mentality, and it works. I’ve incorporated that into my own practice. Do things the right way with no choice, allowing the mind to kick and scream, doubt and cry, and feel hopeless or inferior to anything. Let it play out whatever it is; don’t give up – NO CHOICE. “Do it or Die,” says Bikram, and he’s right. No one is going to fight this battle for you, so if you don’t, you will “die” without ever knowing who you are and why you are here.
Bikram’s brilliance
Before we continue with class, because there’s a lot more to come, I’m inviting you to ponder some phrases Bikram will use in his classes, threaded perfectly throughout the 90 minutes. As I continue on my journey in teaching, I’m amazed at the patience Bikram has had for all his students (it’s been said that over two billion people have done Bikram Yoga in some way) and especially all his teachers, thousands by now, with our ignorance and underestimation of a realized self. Bikram doesn’t tip-toe around the paralysis of knowing your greatness. “You are in fear,” he’ll say, and often, without knowing it, we are sabotaging ourselves to stay the same, to stay in a box and stay small. During a Bikram class, right in the heat and heart of an action you will or will not take, he’ll shout various things to stir up the forces that both hold you back and the ones sleeping that make you YOU, which is great!
“Your Spirit doesn’t like you. You have vandalized and desecrated the Temple. You must be a security guard and janitor for the Temple, and the Spirit will return.”
“You all have the same problem: lack of self-realization. Because you don’t believe in yourself, your mind always finds excuses. “I’m too fat, too sick, too poor, too skinny.” Train your mind, and it will listen to you.”
“You still have no idea of how much you can do!”
“Everyone comes to my class the same way: broken body, screw-loose brain, lost soul. First, we got to fix the junk body, then we tighten the loose screws in your brain, and when the mind and body are together again, the spirit will return because no one wants to live in a broken-down shit house run by a crazy person.”
“You don’t find time to do yoga; you make time to practice.”
Fixed Firm pose
Supta-Vajrasana
Right about now, you are ready to get some water. Not only because you were beat up in the best way with those four poses on your stomach to take care of your spine but because it’s an opportune time to sit up, set up the next posture, and grab a few sips of water. Fixed Firm, Supta-Vajrasana, is the next pose. At first glance, it might seem easy given everything you’ve already done, but the moment you start to get into the setup, the state of your knees reveals itself. “It took me nine years to do this posture,” says Bikram, which is believable considering his story of the literal smash and shatter of his knee in thousands of pieces from a weightlifting accident, leaving him in what doctors said would be a permanent state of paralysis.
In his depressed state, he knew that it was time to go back to his guru and heal. Unfortunate circumstances, yes, but as God does so well, there’s a greater story here. In this case, Bikram’s return was also the awakening of not only a healed knee but the divine creation of this series we have today and evermore: “It took me nine years to put this together, 1956-1965.” His true calling was not professional weightlifting, Olympic cycling, or yogic feats defying logic, gravity, and comprehension. Instead, it was the path to get back to his roots humbly and, with his guru, devise a sequence that can heal and make all human beings whole. Doing anything his guru asked, Bishnu Charan Ghosh told him, the last time that he’d see his guru, at the airport with Bishnu heading back to India, “finish this job and spread this yoga to the Western world.” Bishnu passed away three weeks later.
I had a chance to hang out with Bikram on his porch in Thailand recently as we sat side by side holding hands, watching the sunset and the vast amounts of people of every age and size on the beach. It’s easy to dive into a conversation with Bikram regarding this yoga; I felt a warmth and connection next to him at that moment and asked if he ever felt burdened by this responsibility. He didn’t seem to need to think about it, “Yes, certainly, for sure,” with resignation and an almost glee that this burden was an immense role he would not NOT take or ever stop. Honestly, it made me question my perspective on the duties in my life that I might look at as burdens with a weary view. This burden for Bikram did the opposite; it gave him over-the-top energy and vigor. This burden was beyond himself; that meant his strength also came from something beyond his own.
“Sit down, Japanese style, hips on your heels, and then separate your feet with your hips between your heels. If your knees or feet hurt, open your knees; no gap between your hips and your heels,” says the dialog. It’s here where you see that everyone is different. Our knees are one of the, or perhaps THE most, sensitive joints in the body. The visual of everyone so diverse in how they feel or behave with this pose makes it evident. By this time, you are warmed up; you’ve given in to the process of this class, so it’s either a normal feeling to have this pose be so tough or, in some cases, it’s easier than you thought. The instructions are precise. There is no collapsing in this pose. The step-by-step, go-slow commands help the student know when to go further and when to stop and be where they are. “I’ve healed my knees with this pose,” you’ll hear a practitioner tell you, or “It took me several months to get my hips on the floor.” It doesn’t matter; what does matter is that you do it to the best of your ability, whether you are healing something or maintaining something.
Half-Tortoise pose
Ardha-Kurmasana
Back to Dead Body pose on your back for 20 seconds, and then the energizing sit-up. It’s right about here that class either takes on more energy or lethargy. You have to put in the work to do the sit-ups and watch how it carries you through to the end. It’s no mistake, as Bikram has the answer with the next posture to energize the brain: perfectly placed, Half Tortoise, Ardha-Kurmasana. Did you know that a tortoise takes 120 seconds to breathe in and 120 seconds to breathe out? Amazing. Our mimic of nature has us slow down the respiratory system by coming down and getting the head below the heart.
The technique in the pose is to keep hips on the heels while stretching the arms forward, working shoulders, scapula, and deltoids. “This posture will give you more relaxation in 30 seconds than eight hours of sleep at night,” says the dialogue. “The floor series is intended for you to get deeper into the organs and the spine,” I can hear Emmy Cleaves say. Bikram answered the question once: “Why two sets?” “Because the second set gives you a chance to improve.” So, now you’re well into the series with your external and internal heat adjusted, and many of these stretches done earlier, you not only can but will go deeper. The stretching of the arms while keeping the hips on the heels might feel impossible in the first part of the class, but now, while still difficult, it is doable.
“Stay with the pain,” if you recall, as shoulders are supposed to hurt; shoulder scapula coming out of the body. How we live is “forward bending.” Think about it: driving, typing, texting, and everything else we do. On the floor, using the floor to open up tight areas that allow for oxygen to hit the brain: “High-speed blood rushes to the brain to revitalize, re-energize, re-organize overused and unused brain cells, that’s all of them.” Google anything about brain chemicals: dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins, and study the changes in their proper levels by way of how we live now. Doing this posture twice every day will rekindle those important hormones that relieve depression and anxiety.
In one of his recorded classes, Bikram says after this posture, “Turn around and relax on your back; any thoughts you have are like little white clouds passing in the sky.” Bikram’s ability to say what you feel in the moment makes him unique. He sees beyond the norm, into you. Spending time with him in Thailand, I felt that more. I wondered how he can live with that superpower, another burden he gladly accepts.
I’ve heard many students talk about how their shoulder feels so much better, and much of it is due to the healing powers of this posture. But again, I’m also touching on the real point of these poses: “A healthy body is an inevitable by-product of this practice,” as written in Light on Yoga by BKS Iyengar, another yogi of the modern age. In Bikram’s way of phrasing, “You can’t think about anything else if you don’t feel good.” I once heard that “mediocre” means not only adequate but doing the bare minimum. Getting by is not living. Having a body that performs well isn’t it either; it’s what’s necessary even to get started.
It’s the last 15 minutes of class; most classes might have a wind down to the finish. Prepare yourself – not Bikram Yoga.
Camel and Rabbit poses
Ustrasana and Sasangasana
It’s the right moment to extend the spine, both front and back, with Camel, Ustrasana and Rabbit, Sasangasana. Funny, because I’ve taken Bikram’s class for almost three decades, and he doesn’t care about your opinions on these postures, nor your state of mind in how you might feel. He knows what is good for you regardless of your disposition. “Listen carefully, word by word. Everybody together, not before, not after. Stand up on your knees at the top of your towel,” says the dialogue. In our togetherness in this class, we will do this more than if we were doing it alone. However, at times, you can see the anxiousness of this pose in the sea of students even before we start a thing! Fear stops us in our minds before anything has even been proven – crazy, right? The way to crush fear is to show up for it – take just one step and watch it run scared.
Hands on your hips, push your hips forward, head back, go back halfway, grab your heels, full hands palms grip and take a deep breath and push, continuously push, keep pushing, don’t stop pushing.” With distinct instructions to come out of the pose, turn around, relax on your back, and notice the rush of blood to hips, thighs, and arteries, even to the point of dizziness and/or nausea.
I could go on and on about some of the psychological aspects of this posture, but again, to stay on task with the Bikram context of this yoga, he and the yoga don’t care. Do it and heal! Do it and thrive. Do it and LIVE. “A Camel a day” is your modern day, “an apple a day.” It’s in this posture, though, that, over time, allows all students to begin to understand Bikram Yoga in its entirety. Camel pose releases junk, and because it’s so tough mentally and, yes, physically, the ability to even do it twice to any degree reveals what Bikram Yoga is trying to do: trying to do for me, the student, not the teacher, not anyone else, in fact, not any other subject, not ME, but YOU!
Yoga is the only subject in the world where the object and the subject are the same – having means nothing unless you know how to use it. If you don’t use it, you will lose it. Yoga makes you, you. And so it goes, and so you begin to comprehend.
You can’t have a good backbend without its partner, a full forward bend, maximum extension of your spine from top to bottom. I’ve seen it: an opening of the spine as much as 14 inches – I’m not kidding! We have that ability. “Use the towel,” says the dialogue (and I’ve not ever heard Bikram say not to use it,) “to grab your heels, get a nice tight grip, please don’t lose the grip.” Slowly go down, forehead on the knees, automatically top of the head on the floor. Now, pull as hard as possible to stretch your spine from top to bottom. Each joint opens like a pearl necklace. You’ll feel claustrophobic, and you’ll wonder why your hips are NOT moving up and forward even though you are sincerely trying. It’s all a part of the process, but if you don’t do this posture, you’ll experience the inevitable atrophy of the spine, which happens when you don’t use it. Discs will slip and deteriorate. Read about Rabbit pose, and you’ll be shocked by its benefits. “Easy to stretch your upper and middle spine, harder to get into your lower spine.”
Even if you’ve never taken a Bikram Yoga class before, you get the rhythm by now. “Turn around and relax on your back,” are the words you will hear again, gladly hear again, as you gratefully lie there after having done these four sets, two camels and two rabbits. The asana and the savasana together are the recipe for hatha yoga: work hard and relax more. Stress on; stress off. Shut it off; then it gushes out.
There’s nothing fancy to this; we almost always try to put an “advanced” spin on everything that seems so beneficial. I love that Bikram calls it “Bikram’s beginning yoga class.” The word beginning can’t be understated; it is that simple, regardless of knowledge, years of doing, depth in understanding, clever language, medical interpretation, or cultural aspects. Bikram addresses this “non-sense” in this way: someone will explain their level of pain, injury, or hardship, and while he listens, he answers, “Just get your toes on the line, feet together nicely, toes and heels touching each other.”
Head to Knee with Stretching pose
Janushirasana with Paschimotthanasana
The last few poses allow for one more compression, stretching, and twisting, then a final breathing exercise and savanna, and you are good to go for another 24 hours until you return to do this same sequence all over again. It’s like Groundhog Day; however, ironically, not one day will be the same. You’ll notice more, you’ll open up more, you’ll fight less, and you’ll gain peace. But it won’t be in a straight line. Some days, you’ll feel defeated, stiff, or angry, and other days, triumphant with a sense of ease. Yoga doesn’t care; it just wants you to be you. Your journey is its priority, so how you get there, it doesn’t care; keep coming.
Head to Knee and Stretching poses on the floor are two postures in one. Because we can sit up and turn around, and likely most of us can’t put our legs out at 90 degrees, we can get complacent; after all, class is almost over. It’s time, though, to dig in and take advantage of being so warmed up and the fact that you don’t need to balance to accomplish this posture. Even on the floor, if you still can’t get your head on your knee, bend the knee, “forehead exactly on the knee.”
Compressions are a huge theme in this practice, and this is the last time to give the liver, pancreas, kidneys, and stomach some attention. Then, the second part stretches the back side of the body one more time in this horizontal position on the floor. “You’ve got to pull on your toes and walk your hips back,” straightening your legs, “no room for light or air between the back of the knees and the floor,” says the dialogue, and pull as hard as possible – your goal is to touch your head to your feet.
Back in the day, at this point, Bikram would come down off his ten-foot-high podium and stand on someone’s back if he felt they were ever so close to touching their head to their toes. “My guru used to make me bite my toes,” he would say as he bounced on top of a student. If they touched, he gave them a number. I believe that number got to over 1000 at one point. The point, however, is to try.
Half Spine Twist
Ardha-Matsyendrasana
Lastly, the Half Spine Twist – Emmy Cleaves would call this the fountain of youth posture. It restores lost mobility in the spine and is a good rinse for those spinal juices. There are only three spine twists in the series: Standing Bow Pulling, Triangle, and this one at the end, of which we do only one set. It’s still a mystery why there is only one set. If you ask Bikram, he’ll say, “I don’t know; ask my guru.” Or he’ll say, “That’s all we have time for.” However, it is all we really need; otherwise, two sets would be in there. It’s the way to reset the spine. “In this class, you will go around the world in 90 minutes,” I’ve heard him say. It got me thinking about how our spine is the central piece of our solar system; 90 minutes takes us around the sun, and we finish with a final twist, sealing the exercise and work we’ve done to this cosmic piece of our bodies. And lastly is the polish – no joke here: the final breathing exercise, Kapalbhati, is Sanskrit for “skull polishing.”
Final Breathing
Kapalbhati in Vajrasana
“Blow out by your lips very strongly by pulling your stomach in and out. No inhale, only exhale; the inhale is automatic,” says the dialogue. Two sets of 60, the first slower than the second, to massage internal organs; good for digestion and strengthening the abdominal muscles. These exhales get rid of the metabolic waste we stir up in the asanas. “You are flushing the toilet,” Bikram will say – a good visual comprehension in his straight-up fashion.
After Kapalbhati, you’re left with something so miraculous. “Yoga maintains youth long, body full of vitality, immune to disease even at an old old age,” is how you’ll feel. Yes, the asanas are over, but the class isn’t. The final savasana needs to be at least two minutes, absorbing all the benefits and finishing the work in the body and mind without disturbance. The biggest disturbance here is your mind telling you it’s time to go. Over time, that part of your mind won’t have as much control; you’ll arrive at the crossroads of telling THAT mind what to do. “Your mind is your number one enemy,” Bikram will say. Sadly, you’ll discover that. But in time, it will become your best friend.
This class isn’t so much about all the postures in it and their execution as it is about the journey of trying these perfectly sequenced asanas to get you to work your mind and body together. The busyness of its delivery ironically quiets your mind enough to hear your voice, a higher, truer voice, steering the wheel while your body and mind do some work.
Life comes at us, and we react. But with yoga, life chases us, and we respond to what’s appropriate in a spiritually mature manner, becoming a realized Self, a God-realized Self with real power and authority.
Fascinating. Now, get to class!
