Sit comfortably and, for the first time in class, relax your belly and let it hang out! Arms long and straight, palms always facing down for Pranayama-work. Relax shoulders. Deep breath. Ah! Now you’re ready.
The focus of this exercise in one the exhale. Inhale is vacuumed in naturally. Start with an easy, relaxed “flutter” of the diaphragm. Short, sharp, exhales using your belly as a pump. Imagine you’re shooting out darts of air with each exhale. Find a rhythm. This an energizing, cleansing breath. Perfect way to seal your class.

Spine Twist

The Artist as a Young Man

No yoga sequence is complete without a good old spine twist at the end!

For the spine to twist effectively, it has to be straight. Pressing your back hand into the mat, use your arm as a “second spine” to get more length. Both sitbones need to connect with the earth. Each posture has a primary focus and a byproduct – beyond the twist (the primary focus), notice the beautiful stretch along the outer thigh (byproduct), releasing tension from the ITB. Pull both of your shoulders away from the neck, puffing your chest open at the same time. Using your breath, lengthen on the inhale, twist deeper on the exhale. Twist from the belly button as opposed to the lower back. A sacrum-based twist places too much strain on the Sacro-Illiac Joint. Twisting happens mostly in the Thoracic Spine. This is a great detox posture – wring out your internal organs … Woohoo! Amazing what yogis get excited about.

Stretching

Do it the Bikram Way

This is a Flat-Back Forward-Stretch – not rounded like the previous two. Start with a long, flat spine, belly pulled in, shoulders pulled away from the earlobes. Tilt hips back, not sitting on the coccyx but on the sit bones. Over time, your heels slide forward until the legs are straight. Once that box is ticked, lock the knees out and then, only then, start to pull, looking forward. Touch your forehead to your toes!  (Don’t laugh! ☺)

Head to Knee

Yeah, I know, this is where you want to give up and just throw in the towel. But keep going! So close to the end… and these are such great postures.
Head to knee is similar to rabbit in that it’s a rounded-back forward-stretch. A lot going on here – throat compression (that’s why you tuck your chin and get your forehead planted on your kneecap), hamstring stretch (that’s why you flex your foot), spine stretch (rounded back). Square your shoulders over your stretched out leg. This, by the way, is where you perfect Standing Head to Knee Pose. Same mechanism, just on the floor.

Rabbit

You can probably find a hundred forward stretches that are easier than this one, so why is it here, in a beginner sequence? Most spinal injuries happen during forward-bending, so Bikram has chosen a very complex one specifically to limit the stretch. This means that until the technique and understanding improves, the practitioner won’t be able to push it too far.

It’s all about the hands and arms. Anchor yourself with powerful grips on the heels. Make sure you get the grip correct, cupping your heels with your palms, baby fingers side by side. Pull with your arms to stabilise your entry. Tuck your chin, making yourself into a tight little ball as you round down into the posture. Roll in one vertebrae at a time. Forehead to the knees, crown of the head on the floor. From there, anchor yourself with your arms, lift your hips and explore into your spine. You should feel pretty safe if arms are doing their job. There’s nothing as effective as a rabbit after a camel to neutralize the spine. As you learn how to do it right, the stretch moves into the upper-back and eventually all the way down to the lower back. This is a winner – complete spinal stretch … and you really do look like a rabbit. Bonus.

Camel

This is jewel in the Bikram Yoga crown. When you experience a good long camel, it can feel like you’ve just undergone 5 years of therapy in less than a minute.

No amount of talk will convince you that you can do this posture until you do it. Don’t rush in and frighten your spine. One step at a time: just explore, breathing through any fear and discomfort.

Keep hands on the lower back, elbows squeezing together for as long as possible while you let your head fall back and look for the floor behind you. Lengthen in the front of the body rather than collapsing into the lower back. Two cardinal rules of camel: press hips forward and lift heart up! Get the sense that you’re lifting and arching as opposed to collapsing. Don’t clench the bum; instead, imagine you have a beach-ball between your knees and squeeze into it, to activate the inner-thighs. Notice the intensity spreading across your chest as your heart opens. Be fully present with that feeling.
Come out slowly, hands supporting lower back, head up last. If you want to burst out crying or laughing, go for it. All sorts of weird emotional stuff can come up after a camel posture – you’ve just released all sorts of stuck energy. Avoid water after Camel, this pushes the emotions back down and prevents their release.

Half Tortoise

Half Tortoise (with a crow perched on top)

What a great release! You’ve just done 5 back-bends in a row so you might be feeling a bit fed up. This is your chance to let go of pent-up agitation and step back into your centre. Half Tortoise is a very grounding posture. We use a similar variation (child’s pose) at the start of our Vinyasa yoga classes to get everyone calm and peaceful before officially starting the class.

Press your hips back towards your heels, and at the same time extend into the fingertips to ensure an effective spinal stretch. Half Tortoise also offers the chance to work with your breath. The lungs have a larger surface area in the back of the rib-cage than they do in the front. Being able to breathe into the back-ribs significantly increases the percentage of lung capacity you are using. You get more for less effort … yeeeah!

Fixed Firm

Some people can do this posture the first time they try it, and others take months, even years to complete it.  It doesn’t matter, as long as you’re feeling a juicy stretch  and there’s no warning pain in your knees. This is one of the postures in the Bikram Yoga sequence where Less is More.

In yoga you want to feel a muscle stretch as opposed to joint pain, which is potentially damaging. Joint pain is a message from the body that you’ve gone too far. Work gently, patiently. Yoga postures are a microcosm for anything you tackle in life – apply patience but be persistent.

Floor Bow

Floor Bow

Bikram likes to say:  “If you can do a good bow, you don’t have to chase after the gods, they’ll chase after you!” Translation please? A healthy spine equals a healthy body, which equals a healthy life.

Bow incorporates all of the previous three postures, working the entire spine, upper, middle, lower. Not only is this amazing for the back of the body, it also opens the shoulders and the heart area. In fact, this is such a great posture that we’ve started using it a lot in our Vinyasa Yoga classes in order to prepare for full wheel.

Grabbing the outsides of your feet, kick so much that your body rises up, bow-like, off the earth. Pinch the shoulder-blades together, opening the chest. Knees squeeze in towards each other, forming long parallel lines from shoulders through to toes. Then just breathe – little sips of air. Embrace the intensity roaring through your body. And …. Change! Aaaaaah.

Full Locust

poorna salahasana

The higher you get, the lighter the body becomes… and one day, you levitate right off the earth (okay, so we haven’t actually seen that happen yet in a Bikram Yoga Class, but that doesn’t mean it can’t ). Don’t just think of this as lifting up; think of arching your spine, reaching for heaven with your fingertips, your whole body working and alive. Open your chest and your heart, inner-thigh are muscles active but no bum-clenching!