What are the 26 poses and 2 breathing exercises of Hot Yoga?
Bikram Yoga is one of the most popular styles of yoga in the world. The original Hot Yoga inspired by Bikram is exactly the practice we teach at Hot Yoga Chelsea in Nomad, NYC. Since being founded, Bikram yoga maintains its original 26 yoga asanas and two pranayama breathing exercises that never change. That’s why sometimes you may hear people refer to the practice as 26+2. The class is done in a 105°F heated room, just like the one offered at Hot Yoga Chelsea NYC.
A Bikram yoga practice with these postures and pranayamas stretch and strengthen the body, and the heated room helps to go deeper into the postures and sweat out toxins. Most poses are performed twice and they’re typically held between 15-60 seconds depending on the pose. Here are the poses by their commonly used English names:
1. Standing Deep Breathing (Pranayama)
2. Half Moon
3. Awkward Pose
4. Eagle Pose
5. Standing Head to Knee
6. Standing Bow Pulling
7. Balancing Stick
8. Standing Separate Leg Stretch
9. Triangle Pose
10. Standing Separate Leg, Head to Knee
11. Tree Pose
12. Toe Stand
13. Corpse (Savasana)
14. Wind Removing
15. Sit Up
16. Cobra Pose
17. Locust Pose
18. Full Locust Pose
19. Bow Pose
20. Fixed Firm Pose
21. Half Tortoise Pose
22. Camel Pose
23. Rabbit Pose
24. Head to Knee Pose Stretch
25. Spine Twisting
26. Blowing Firm
For over 50 years Hot Yoga has been working for millions of people around the world. The old saying goes: “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.” That’s how we feel about Bikram Yoga. The original method taught by our certified instructors remains and continues to grow around the world and New York. You’ll come to class practicing the same postures every time, day after day and soon, year after year. But we guarantee you won’t get bored. You’ll come to find that the postures and practice may be the same but what changes is you.