Fitness

A new fitness New Year resolution for 2013: Bikram Yoga

The Holiday season is just around the corner and ‘tis the season to be around delicious food, but it’s also the season to gain a couple extra pounds.

When the first day of January comes around, you’ll probably be suffering from the Holiday-food-hangover and the New Year resolution cycle to lose weight and adopt a healthier lifestyle will take over at around 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 31. That’s when you’ll find yourself rushing to the nearest gym to get a New-Year-resolution-membership.

But before you enter once again into this New Year’s resolution vicious cycle, consider this: Bikram Yoga.

Results are accomplished this way: A 90-minute workout, a set temperature of 105 degrees Fahrenheit, 26 postures and two breathing exercises is what you can expect from a Bikram Yoga class. The health and fitness benefits behind this practice are endless.

Bikram Choudhury was the founder of the Bikram Yoga system, which was synthesized from Hatha Yoga.

Muuyu Yoga reports some of many Bikram yoga benefits:

1. Increased Vitality

If you want to gain more spring in your step and recover the “vim and vigor” of youth, the Bikram series practiced in a heated room is a great form of yoga. It has the potential to reverse the elements of aging, giving you the ability to take much deeper breaths to navigate your way through a hectic modern world or simply run up a flight of stairs! Keep up with a consistent practice and you’re guaranteed to look and feel younger.

2. Weight Loss

Practicing Bikram in a heated room creates a much safer approach to your yoga practice as it allows you to stretch quicker and deeper. This is turn leads to stronger flexibility in the muscles which burns fat. As every fitness trainer knows, building muscle burns fat — doing the Bikram sequence in a hot room jump-starts this process.

Additionally, one of the overall effects of Bikram yoga is a general improvement in diet as the body craves healthier food. As the practice itself sharpens our perception of the mind-body connection, so does our overall awareness of what the body needs, reinvigorating the body’s natural processes to long for healthier food.

3. Detoxification

The massive elimination of toxins from the body occurs during hot yoga, primarily thru sweat. It’s possible to drop up to 10 pounds of sweat (which includes oil, salts and water) during a class. As water rushes out during the course of a 90 minute class, this creates immense benefits such as super clean skin and the detoxification of pores in the body’s largest organ — the skin.

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The postures can be modified at any time and the classes are usually structured to fit beginners and advanced level students.

There’s a million reasons why you should give Bikram Yoga a chance. From stress and pain relief to endurance and peace of mind, Bikram Yoga will give you a different workout perspective and most importantly: results.

If you’re feeling like an overachiever once the new year comes around, try the Bikram Yoga 30-day challenge and it’s guaranteed you’ll look and feel great.