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Sweatin' with the Yogis

By Benjaporn Karoonkornsakul

I'd say one of the successes of Bikram yoga is this immediate result. I've never sweated so much in my life. Before even starting the postures sweat was pouring off my body. This may sound awful, but the heat quickly escapes your mind as your focus is redirected to maintaining the 60-second poses. A 60 second hold is quite difficult because it involves balancing and holding your own body weight, resulting in a serious workout that reaches muscles never worked before.

Fortunately, Bikram yoga is easier than other yoga programs. It isn't usually necessary to skip postures because you are unable to do them. Each posture is performed in sets of three so it's no trouble to learn and perfect them faster. Bikram yoga requires two sided mirrors, and detailed, repetitive instructions so it isn't necessary to look at the instructor. I was able to adjust my own posture and correct myself, providing an added benefit to yoga — self-confidence.

What if I'm not flexible? Yoga isn't all about flexibility. The aim of Bikram yoga is not to twist the body into bizarre pretzel shapes, but to strengthen the body's natural range of motion, to restore flow throughout all bodily systems. The heated environment ensures a safe stretch as you loosen up over time. It isn't necessary to reach all these positions in order to do yoga. All that matters is to attempt to go to your personal 'edge'. As Khun Karoonkornsakul said, "Don't expect so much. Yoga is not competitive. You have to let your ego go."

How did yoga become so popular?It always helps when you know someone 'in the business' — that is, the entertainment business. Bikram Choudhury has Hollywood swearing by his program; some of his more famous followers including Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Candice Bergen, and Brooke Shields.

It all started in 1972 when Richard Nixon visited the South Pacific. According to CBS, the former President suffered from phlebitis and summoned Choudhury for his special hot yoga. Nixon was supposedly so impressed with the treatment that he gave Bikram an open invitation to come and live in the U.S.

Choudhury has recently been granted copyright protection for his Bikram yoga sequence. In order to guarantee the teaching quality standard, only certified Bikram yoga teachers who have graduated from the 600-hour intensive training course at Bikram Yoga College of India in L.A. are allowed to teach or obtain a franchise to open a studio. As a result, up until now only two Bikram studios existed in Asia, namely in Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Putting Bangkok in the forefront of the Asian yoga movement Thailand has now become the third milestone of yoga in Asia by the introduction of Benjaporn Karoonkornsakul, an ex-investment banker who's been attracted to the Bikram yoga circle since her first Bikram hot yoga experience in Hong Kong. Wanting to stay fit during her travels, Koon Karoonkornsakul agreed to take a Bikram yoga class recommended by a friend.

Having no idea it was going to take place in a hot room, Benjaporn was surprised to find herself sweating profusely. As she said, it's difficult for Asians to sweat, herself in particular, so this one time adventure was highly rewarding. So much so that she decided to enroll in Bikram's training course and has now been practicing yoga for 25 years. This interest has brought her hometown, Bangkok, the first certified Bikram yoga facility, Absolute Yoga.

For Benjaporn, yoga is a serious workout without the dangers that tend to limit the range of other fitness programs. With running one usually tends to turn on a music channel and say, “just give me five songs then I'm done." Many people like yoga for the same reasons as Benjaporn: a 90 minute yoga workout entails a lot of stretching and focus – you can't look around or let your mind wander, you just do it and you're done. 90 minutes have never gone by faster for me, nor have they been, when it comes to exercise, as mentally and physically rewarding.

So, what do they mean by asanas or poses?
Awkward Pose: What a suitable name. A seated, or better yet, squatting pose with knees bent and buttocks near the heels. To add difficulty, all this is done on the balls of your feet with arms held straight out in front. By the second repetition my thighs and upper arm muscles felt hotter than the room.

Toe Stand Pose: It looks more awkward than the awkward pose. This time squatting on the ball of one foot, the other leg rests on top of the thigh. Arms are in a prayer position, which is a good idea, because by this point I was praying to hold this pose as my muscles struggled to balance my body weight.

Camel Pose: Another one on my list to master, it's almost like an inverted Bow Pose. Perched on the lower legs and bent over backward in order to place your head between your ankles, the lower back gets a further workout.

Bow Pose: Not even a locust could reach this state. Ideally the Full Locust Pose is taken to its ultimate limits. Upper body and arms reach up to meet raised legs behind you. Absolutely impossible for me at the time, but like yoga tends to be for most people, I'm destined to come back for more.

Full Locust Pose: The locust in flight. Now the upper body should be lifted with arms spread up and back, but that wasn't about to happen for me. There was no way my ribs were going to get off the floor. Clearly my upper back and shoulder muscles are really out-of-shape.

Locust Pose: Named after an Oriental straight-winged grasshopper with legs and thighs so powerful that it can leap to heights two hundred times the length of its body. In this pose, one lays face down with arms to the side. The legs are lifted up, similar to a grasshopper, providing an intense workout of the buttocks, lower back, and back of the thighs.

Benjaporn Karoonkornsakul, the Managing Director, founder and owner of Absolute Yoga Bangkok (http://www.absoluteyogabangkok.com) has trained to become the first bikram hot yoga teacher in Bangkok. After the first year, Absolute Yoga Bangkok branched out to offer other traditions of yoga and opened more locations to distinguish ourselves as Bangkok's dedicated yoga place. Our future plans are to continue to expand both in locations and in what is most beneficial to the practioners of Thailand.

posted by Cheryl Levesque @ 7:50 PM