Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class

Rating:
Summary: Old is Gold
Review: A very regular customer at my salon was recently bedridden for a day after attending what the instructor labelled his first lesson of yoga - 'Yoga Boot Camp'. Having heard her story, which I will not reiterate, I suggested she buy Bikram's Beginning Yoga, and offered to find out if it was still in print. I had purchased my copy whilst working in Saudi Arabia some 19 years ago. I pulled out my copy and re-read it - words of gold. It so inspired me I did all the exercises after 13 hours at work - and yes, I still felt the way I had during my early years of yoga - wonderfully relaxed, stretched out, and eager to repeat the lessons tomorrow.

Rating:
Summary: This is NOT a book for do-it-yourself yoga beginners!
Review: A young couple I am casually acquainted with sang the praises of this book with almost religous fervour, so I ordered a copy. I was very disappointed.

I was certainly impressed with the author's obvious sincerity about his system of teaching hatha yoga. And he is clearly a skilled and inspiring teacher. In fact, I would be delighted to take his class if I lived near his school. But, study yoga from this book? No way.

Many of the poses he uses in his Beginning Yoga Class are traditionally considered quite advanced. I found his how-to descriptions for doing the poses to be unclear and hard to follow. The photos are generally of limited help, since they mostly depict the finished pose, when a sequence of photos is necessary. He does include an "ideal" and a "reality" description for each pose. Unfortunately, the idea was better than the execution. An inexperienced yoga student would have an extremely difficult time trying to figure out how to do these demanding poses from this book.

The author's presentation style combines charm with irritating bombast. Tucked away are some gem like insights. The most important, is that if you devote an hour and a half a day to yoga practice for two uninterrupted months you will make great progress. Oddly, few yoga books adequately emphasize the cummulative benefits of doing your yoga without interruption for several months.

Unfortunately, I do not believe that many people could pick up this book and stick to this program everyday for two months. I believe that a more traditional approach is much more likely to succeed -- start with simpler poses and move on to more advanced ones as you progress and practice every day.

I fear that a beginner would simply give up on this highly eccentric program and also give up on yoga. That would be a great pity, since there are good yoga books and videos available to those who can't find a yoga class near where they live.

Rating:
Summary: A great companion to the classes
Review: As a new student to Bikram's Yoga (just two months),I bought the book to further my comprehension of the poses and their benefits. As such it has been invaluable. The book does a better job than I would have imagined of describing how to perform each posture, and describes and shows not just the "ideal" way to do the pose, but what you can realistically expect your body to do and not do as someone brand new to the practice.

Personally, I would have a tough time sticking with the yoga and being sure of my form if I were relying on the book exclusively and not attending classes. But as a companion, it is so helpful in understanding what I'm supposed to be doing and why I'm doing it (i.e. specifically what each pose does for the body and mind. It's worth mentioning that Bikram's narratives are often quite funny, which makes reading the book that much more enjoyable.

The book has encouraged me to continue attending these very challenging classes, for several reasons. For one, reading it reinforces in my mind the benefits I'll receive if I stick with this practice. Secondly, the pictures of students today alongside pictures of those same students 20-plus years ago are an incredibly inspiring advertisement for what this yoga can do for your-- the folks appear not to have aged at all!!!

Rating:
Summary: Bikram's Back, Better Than Ever, After 22 Years
Review: Bikram Choudhury's classic Yoga work has finally been revised. Unlike the second edition of many popular books, this one is better than the first. It's good for what it has and good for what it doesn't have. The book retains Bikram's detailed, often hilarious, commentary and descriptions of how to perform each of his 26 postures (asanas) and breathing(pranayama). It also retains his unique "ideal" and "reality" versions of the poses, a great help to novices. In addition, there are more than 200 high quality black and white photos to augment Bikram's commentary.

What the book doesn't contain is just as important. It eschews adding anything about the new, trendy forms of Hatha Yoga that have taken over American popular culture. After all, Hatha Yoga has been a highly successful form of physical and spiritual renewal for more than 5,000 years. As Bikram in his new introduction states,"Americans are very inventive, even if what they invent is wrong. They are inventing posture after posture, making up names for them. Then they sell their wares to innocent, uninitiated people who do not know that they are getting ripped off, even getting hurt. There are more flavors of Hatha Yoga in the West than ice cream. Americans think that's wonderful. I tell you it is disastrous. Most of these so-called Yoga systems are not Yoga at all. Giving them a Sanskrit or Bengali name doesn't make them Yoga."

Bikram's series of postures and breathing performed in a 100-plus degree studio, taking 90 minutes, is one of the more challenging but worthwhile things you can do for your physical and spiritual well-being. It is certainly unique and is totally different than many of the so-called Yoga Systems available today. This book explains it all. Study it, take a Bikram class. They may change your life.

Rating:
Summary: Bikram's Book Still Hot After All These Years
Review: Bikram Choudury's classic yoga work has stood the test of time. This second edition retains most of the original Bikram witticism's and golden nuggets of advice recorded by co-author Bonnie Jones Reynolds from Bikram's classes. The accompanying photos of celebrity and non-celebrity classmembers illustrating each of Bikram's beginning yoga class's 26 postures and breathing exercises have, for the most part, been updated from the 22 year old first edition. The introductory and medical advisory sections have also been revised, benefitting from the many yoga classes and years of experience that Bikram and his expert teachers have had.

Don't let the "Beginning" in the title fool you. The Bikram series is challenging for not only first timers to Yoga but to students and teachers at all levels. These are the classic Yoga Postures handed down from Patanjali's "Yoga Sutras". As Bikram says in his introduction, "Americans are very inventive, even if what they invent is wrong.They are inventing posture after posture, making up names for them. Then they sell their wares to innocent, uninitiated people who do not know that they are getting ripped off,even getting hurt. There are more flavors of Hatha Yoga in the West than ice cream. Americans think that's wonderful. I tell you it is disastrous. Most of these so-called Yoga systems are not Yoga at all."

The 90 minute Bikram Yoga class in a heated studio (sometimes to 115-degrees plus) is one of the most challenging but also one of the most beneficial workouts you'll find. And it's been around for thousands of years. It took Bikram to put it down on paper and popularize the "real" Yoga once again. Read, analyze and enjoy each page of this book, it could change your life.

Rating:
Summary: Some new pictures and narrative, same old book
Review: Bikram's book is an informative and enjoyable way to learn his style of Yoga, and I do believe that it is basic enough for a beginner, yet is still pertinent and helpful enough for a more experienced student. I was really disappointed to find out that this is basically a reprint of his first book written with the same co-author in 1978. Yes there are some new pictures and additional narrative, but I believe this book could have been updated totally and made into a companion piece with with new pictures, new students and new stories and dialog since Bikram has been a continuing and dynamic force in Yoga for at least 30 years. So if you've never read his first book, by all means buy this one--it gives clear and concise directions and reasoning behind each posture, but if you already own it, the choice is yours--you might enjoy the update, or maybe not.

Rating:
Summary: a complete body workout
Review: Bikram's yoga offers a complete body workout with the lowest chance of injury. After doing his class for ten years, I am convinced that this program keeps me fit in mind as well as body. The new addition of his book shows both ideal postures and the realities of their difficulty. You will find that they seem easier than they are. Do them and feel how hard your muscles have to work to maintain balance and the strength to hold the posture. The new photos show a variety of body types. Yoga isn't just for the tall and slender. I had a recent injury--a bad bruise in a fall--that yoga healed by my doing class every day. I could see the black and blue mark fading during each class. My thanks to Bikram and his teachers for an exercise program I could stay with. It has taught me self-discipline and concentration as well.

~Joan Mazza, author of DREAM BACK YOUR LIFE and DREAMING YOUR REAL SELF

Rating:
Summary: Not really interesting....
Review: First of all, I'd like to say that this book does represent everything you find in a Bikram's class: the stretchings, the pretzel-like asanas. the strange positions you cannot really repeat...

I've got to admit that, after a few lessons, I grew kind of bored... I was looking for something that would "grow" with time, that would change, and turn into something you can study your whole lifetime. I mean, I cannot spend my entire lifetime repeating 26 postures!!!

Some people I know say that Bikram's good, that it's just what they were looking for, though I don't really share that oppinion: it asks for too much repetition, and then, you can achieve... something.

I have always been interested in therapeutic movements, something that wouldn't "heal" me, but that would keep me so interested that would be like breathing: necessary. I found, after a few lessons of Bikram that it wasn't really for me. Also, I truly believe the lessons are missing the one-on-one instruction. which to me, is necessary.

As soon as you open this book, and as I mentioned above, you find what Bikram is about: pictures that you know you won't be able to repeat... postures that leave you sore...

Maybe this book will serve as a compliment for those who really like Bikram-to me, it's just sitting in one of my bookshelves.

Rating:
Summary: This is an inspiring and informative book on Yoga.
Review: I appreciate Bikram's view on Yoga, and he is very inspiring with his knowledge. His in depth knowledge of Yoga is awe-inspiring. I love his book!!

Rating:
Summary: A Miraculously Helpful Set of Postures
Review: I attended classes at Bikram's Yoga College of India for three years, and have received instruction from Bikram himself during quite a number of those classes. About two years ago the college moved to a different location and since then I have continued my practice at home.

Everything they say about Bikram the man is true. Yes, he is an egotist. Yes, with his millions of dollars and multiple Rolls Royces he has fully embraced the materialistic lifestyle of his adopted country and in particular of his home city of Beverly Hills. He is well aware of his egotism and materialism, and revels in both to the point of self-parody.

None of this erases the fact that the 26 Bikram postures are perhaps the most concise, therapeutic, balanced and adaptable compilation of the yoga repertoire ever brought together under a single method.

They are concise, in that every part of the body is exercised, but if the same part is exercised in more than one posture, it is always in a slightly different way, and always in a way that takes advantage of the repetition to further increase the flexibility of the body, and always far enough from the original posture to make the repetition meaningful rather than redundant (e.g., standing head to knee is posture five, while the seated head to knee is posture twenty-four). They are therapeutic, in that circulation is enhanced, muscles are stretched to release toxins, and intense heat and perspiration help to carry those toxins out of the body. They are balanced, in that each posture that stretches in one direction is invariably followed by another that stretches in the opposite direction (e.g., camel pose followed by rabbit pose). Finally, they are adaptable, in that every posture can be done to a greater or a lesser degree, allowing both beginners and long-time practitioners to benefit from exactly the same set of postures.

In so many ways, this makes the Bikram postures "all you really need" - a comprehensive set of postures beyond which you need look no further in order to maintain your flexibility and health.

Yes, just as some others have reported, I too made an effort to attend classes taught by "anybody but Bikram" while I was at the college. While he is very knowledgeable, his constant banter often interrupted the flow of the postures, and his classes invariably ran late as a result. But I will always be grateful to him for having developed his method, which has been of enormous assistance to me in maintaining my physical health and clarity of mind.