There are many types of hot yoga which originated from Bikram Yoga. These include Moksha Yoga, Barkan Method, etc

Ted Grand, a Bikram trained teacher, founded Moksha Hot Yoga in Canada. Moksha Yoga follow similar pricicples, however, has some major differences. In Moksha Yoga, the room is not as hot or humid as Bikram Yoga; it is not a consistant length of time; it doesn't follow a script; it doesn't follow a prescribe series of postures and the training for Moksah Yoga teachers is much shorter than the 9 week training Bikram Yoga teachers are required to attend in order to become a certified Bikram Yoga Teacher.

Moksha Yoga is a form of hot yoga that is ideal for the yoga beginner as well as the seasoned practitioner. Every Moksha Yoga class takes you through a series of strengthening and toning postures in the detoxifying calm of a heated studio. There are Moksha Yoga studios across Canada and abroad.

Jimmy Barkan, creator of the Barkan Method, a hot vinyasa series of postures. The Barkan Method also shares it roots in Bikram Yoga. Jimmy Barkan began as a Bikram Yoga certified teacher before moving on.

The Barkan Method is a style of Hatha Yoga that originated from a lineage in Calcutta, India. The Barkan Method finds its roots from this lineage in Calcutta, but also integrates postures from other styles of Yoga to create variations and even greater range of motion. The yoga classes are practiced in a heated room to stretch and strengthen various areas of the body. The practice brings vital balance and restores all systems to optimal health. Consistency will create a physical, mental and spiritual harmony that will be felt in all areas of the practitioner's life.

Mr. Hot Yoga: How Bikram Choudhury changed the way we exercise

At first, I thought I had happened into the wrong hotel room.

The man at the door was dressed in a cream-colored silk zoot suit and shirt with contrasting black collar and cuffs, jeweled cuff links, an American flag tie tack pinned to his swirly black tie, gold loafers and white fedora, with his longish black hair peeking out from the back.

This is the man who "invented" hot yoga?

I had expected a swami in flowing robes. Instead I found a man who looked like he was part of Michael Jackson's entourage.

"I'm in show biz. I entertain people," Bikram Choudhury said during an interview before presenting a lecture at Rice University. "It's a very boring subject. Why do you want to pay money to go to a hot room and torture yourself? I have to make it a little interesting."

In recent years, Birkram's regimen of hot yoga, incorporating two sets of 26 poses during a 90-minute session in temperatures approaching 112 degrees, has taken off. In 1995, when the first freestanding Bikram studio in Houston opened, it attracted only a handful of students. Now there are six sanctioned studios in Houston — 15 in Texas — and thousands of regulars. He has more than 500 approved studios in the United States and around the world.

"Before, only young kids used to come. Now (people in their) 50s and 60s come — doctors, engineers, lawyers, scientists," Bikram said.

Why has it become so popular?

Click here to read more from the Culture Map Houston post published Friday, October 22nd, 2010 at 11:42 AM written by Clifford Pugh

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