Hot yoga is HOT.
It’s a growing trend within a growing trend. Nationally, yoga is growing explosively as people look for ways to be happy, healthy, calm, and relaxed and the benefits of the practice, for both mind and body, become scientifically validated. And hot yoga is the fastest growing segment of the yoga movement.
The name most identified with hot yoga is Bikram Choudary. Bikram yoga is a precise sequence of postures and breathing exercises (26 postures/2 breathing exercises.) To be an official Bikram class, the class has to be held at a Bikram studio, last for ninety minutes, mirrors on the wall, carpet on the floor, 105 degree temperature, 40% humidity, and use the specific script, known as “The Dialogue.”
The Bikram approach does have definite benefits. Worldwide, you can walk into any Bikram studio and get basically the same thing every time, with slight deviations here and there. Bikram yoga is very popular, very effective, and generally very safe. It’s a solid introduction to and foundation for yoga which has changed the lives of millions of people for the better – including ours.
Lately, Bikram yoga has been in some hot water (pardon the pun). There have been legal battles because Bikram Choudary copyrighted his series and dialogue and sued countless hot yoga studios which weren’t official Bikram studios. In 2012, his copyright was revoked as it was decided that yoga postures are public domain and was ruled that any yoga studio can teach his series. That made it a bad enough year for Bikram, but things got worse with multiple claims of sexual misconduct, abuse, and even rape – against the guru himself.
But the Revolution began before the scandals. Our Studio Director, Rebecca Jordan-Turner, certified by Bikram in the summer of 2002, felt limited being locked in the series and dialogue, and began moving in and out of the Bikram world as early as 2003. She wanted more education for herself and to be able to incorporate additional postures and work directly with the people in the room.
For Rebecca, the yoga itself was never the problem. The heat was never the problem. The problem was always and only the restrictions placed on how it could be taught. For the rest of us, joining in the revolution, we were bored with the Bikram series and wanted more. More challenge. More growth. More heart.
On one hand, the thousands year old practice of yoga belongs to everyone. But, on the other hand, a specific yoga sequence is like a work of art, a combination of common elements put together in a way to create something new and beautiful. It never felt quite right to Rebecca to just go out and regurgitate Bikram’s sequence. It’s his. He made it, and it has changed lives.
All the revolutionists at our studio have tremendous gratitude for Bikram because he taught us a great deal of what we know and fueled our love of yoga. Out of respect for Bikram, our studio will not teach the classic 26 posture series. What we do instead is use the series as a foundation for our own sequence, our own work of art, “The Revolution Series.”
The Revolution Series, developed by Rebecca over 10 years of teaching, is an extension and expansion of the classic 26 postures of Bikram yoga. Our series maintains the deep healing and slow pace of the Bikram series while incorporating additional postures, specifically twists, inversions, and some vinyasa (“flow”) elements. This allows for a well-rounded, invigorating practice which is still safe and simple enough for the beginner, yet can be made challenging enough for the most experienced and advanced practitioner.
We wanted a sequence of our own, that we could expand, contract, evolve, and develop with our own words and to move our bodies in the way that felt most powerful, beneficial, and natural to us. We wanted to fill in the missing colors where we felt the Bikram series fell short, take away redundancies, and add in new elements. Our teachers wanted to be able to respond to the people and happenings in the room without being confined to a script.
What was created was something that left us all kind of stunned. The Revolution Series isn’t just different than the old series, and it isn’t just moving things around for the sake of making something different. We feel that it is something truly better, more well-rounded, and more complete. Invigorating. Refreshing. Fun and easy, but able to be made challenging when you want it to be. In our studio, people are doing things with their bodies that they didn’t think was possible. The Revolution Series isn’t just different – it’s revolutionary.
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