About Bikram Choudhury

Bikram Choudhury (born February 10, 1946) is an Indian yoga teacher and the founder of Bikram Yoga, a form of hot yoga performed in a series of 26 hatha yoga postures done in a hot (40 °C (104 °F)) environment. Bikram Choudhury began studying yoga at the age of 4. At 12 he was the youngest ever national champion of India, holding the title 3 consecutive years until Bishnu Ghosh, his guru, asked him to stop competing for the sake of the other participants. Bikram went on to pursue an athletic career as a marathon runner and a champion Olympic style weightlifter, setting world record lifts and competing in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.

At the age of 17, an injury to his knee during a weightlifting accident brought the prediction from leading doctors that he would never walk again. With the guidance of his guru, Bikram created his 26 pose series which restored his health. Quickly he established himself as a world expert teacher, opening schools throughout the East. Combining Eastern doctrine with 3 years of working with Western doctors and scientists at Tokyo University Hospital, Bikram perfected his comprehensive system.

This system was modified for our western culture and to address our common problems of job stress, overeating, bad posture and fast-paced lifestyle. Bikram formulated the series to use and demonstrate yoga’s ability to regenerate tissue and cure chronic ailments. Thus he became know as “The World’s Most Knowledgeable Yoga Teacher”. For nearly 40 years,Bikram has continued to share his curative methods of Yoga therapy all throughout the world.