Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class (Second Edtion)

The book contains nearly 200 photographs illustrating each of the poses. Each asana is also accompanied by detailed directions on how to do it the right way. Can't quite twist your leg around your head or touch your nose to your knee? Bikram will tell you how to modify poses so one day you, too, can resemble a pretzel.

This is not an easy workout. Even intermediate students will find Bikram's yoga routine, which requires about an hour to complete, challenging. Need encouragement? Beginning Yoga contains suggestions for maintaining proper yoga practice, a section on the medical benefits of yoga, notes from Bikram's students, and a good dose of Bikram humor and philosophy. If you can't get to one of Bikram's 100 yoga centers and want to give his style of "hot yoga" a try, open up Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class and let Bikram work his magic on your body, mind, and spirit. --Ellen Albertson

Product Description
All yoga students, beginners or advanced, will benefit from this accessible book. It studies each of the 26 movements, breathing exercises and rest poses that form the basis of every Bikram yoga class. Regular practise will completely transform your health by reversing and preventing illness. This is the only guide available on Bikram Yoga. 'It's never too late, it's never too bad, you're never too old, you're never too sick to start from scratch once again.' Bikram Choudhury Bikram yoga began when Bikram, a former yoga champion, made a full recovery from a crippling accident thanks to yoga, heat and his guru, Bishnu Ghosh. His guru then sent Bikram to Bombay to heal the sick with yoga. Finding that he did not have enough time to help everybody individually, Bikram began to develop an accessible sequence of postures that everyone could follow and benefit from. Today, every class follows the same sequence of 26 postures and exercises in a studio heated to 100 degrees F. This reader-friendly guide studies each of the 26 movements in detail, showing and describing the 'ideal' position as well as what the beginner is more likely to be able to achieve initially and the problems they are likely to encounter. Each move is also accompanied by details of its specific health benefit and a student's personal experience of the posture.

I knew nothing about yoga before I started, so I intentionally chose this book for it's defined program and limited set of poses, as opposed to others that have a smorgasbord of poses that I could dabble in. As other reviewers have pointed out, some of the poses are not easy, and there are many that I still probably only get 25% right because I don't have the strength and flexibility, but the honest effort I make is paying off.

I found myself getting more and more out of shape because nagging injuries stopped me every time I tried to start an exercise program. My formerly active lifestyle was slowing way down, and I just felt bad -- and felt bad about myself as a result. Bikram's yoga has turned that around in 2 short months. I've lost some weight, gained a tremendous amount of flexibility, added muscle tone, and feel a lot better about my long term health outlook.

I do the full program (it takes me about an hour and 15 minutes) at least 4 times a week, usually 5 or 6. I'll probably take a class with an instructor eventually.

Is Bikram's yoga the best way? I don't know. But it's working for me.


Bikram's Back, Better Than Ever, After 22 Years   August 26, 2000
Michael Charles (Long Beach, NY USA)
62 out of 66 found this review helpful

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.


Extremely useful for this Bikram student   November 20, 2000
Gregory Whitfield (Vallejo, CA United States)
117 out of 134 found this review helpful

I believe one reviewer missed the point of this book. It is not intended to be a do-it-yourself yoga course. It is a guide to the yoga student who attends a Bikram yoga class. I'm fortunate to have a Bikram studio only two blocks from my house in San Francisco. Classes are crowed and instructors don't have time for a lot of one-on-one instruction. That's why it is helpful to read through the descriptions, especially after you are familiar with the poses. It gives lots of hints which cause lightbulbs to go off in my head. Bikram at home? First of all, you *must* have a super-heated room and a wall-sized mirror. And an instructor is mandatory, especially if you are beginning. It's not yoga for sissies, and I'm pretty much a sissy. But you will be surprised how good you feel about yourself after completing 90 minutes of stretching,sweating and pushing yourself to your limits. The other thing is you get maximum benefit from your workout even if you are beginning, as long as your pose is in good form.

A great thing about the photographs is that he uses a variety of ages and body types so that no one is excluded. Thin, fat, young and old are all there. And I was delighted with Bikram's sense of humor--he's a great showman! He's not afraid to be silly and by doing so he takes some of the sanctimoniousness out of yoga.


So you wanna be a Bikram hottie?   July 30, 2005
L. Gonzalez (El Cajon, CA USA)
22 out of 22 found this review helpful

I started taking Bikram's yoga class without prior knowledge or experience with the style and I'm still fairly new at it. This book is definitely intended to be a supplemental guide to attending classes and it is helping me understand the medical benefits as well as clarifying proper pose form.

The book is well laid out and breaks each of the 26 asanas (poses) into "Ideal" which describes the technical elements of the pose and "Reality" which describes how to get through what you will most likely experience as you are trying to contort and stretch your body into the pose. It has amusing anecdotes from his students that describe their successes, failures fears and experience with the practice and Bikram.

There is a medical advisory section in the back that describes how to handle injuries and medical conditions and how Bikram's will help.

I love this book. It's a fun, easy read and is written as [I imagine] he speaks - you sort of get a sense for what kind of person he is. I recommend it as a supplement to the class.

If you are currently practicing or thinking about taking Bikram's yoga classes, you will get a lot out of enjoyment and education from this book.


A Miraculously Helpful Set of Postures   November 20, 2002
Carl E. Gunther (West Hollywood, CA USA)
53 out of 63 found this review helpful

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.