Good Sweat
Ashtanga vs. Bikram: Our subjective yoga crib sheet
Bikram Choudhury (at left) and K. Pattabhi Jois
Flow classes are having their moment as the practice du jour at New York City yoga studios. So it’s easy to forget the yoga schools that go their own way, like Ashtanga and Bikram.
Ashtanga enjoys the reputation as the toughest physical yoga practice, and Bikram, a patented hot yoga style, as the most superficial. Despite how they’re characterized, both schools command their own very passionate followings. Here’s what you may—or may not—be missing.
GURU
Ashtanga: K. Pattabhi Jois, from Karnataka (formerly Mysore) in southern India (pictured at right), revived this ancient yoga style, then spent a lifetime teaching it world over. He eschewed wealth and his students remember him as jolly and content. His death last year seals his status as one of yoga’s most venerated gurus.
Bikram: Bikram Choudhury hails from Calcutta (pictured at left). At age 17, a weight-lifting accident crushed his knees and left him crippled. After practicing yoga, he regained the use of his legs. He copyrighted his asana sequence in the 1970s (and has defended it successfully against copy cats), and enjoys showing off his collection of Rolls Royces.
HQ
Ashtanga: Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute is in Mysore, India.
Bikram: Yoga College of India is in Beverly Hills. (Yoga 90210?)
SET SEQUENCE
Ashtanga: Six multi-step series. Most practitioners are at primary or secondary series. Practice progresses according to skill.
Bikram: A set sequence of 26 poses, and 2 breathing exercises, often repeated twice.
A Bikram bikini
ATHLETICISM REQUIRED
Ashtanga: Sun salutations form the basis of the class. Interspersed are nine seated poses and five navasanas (think: killer core work), plus a 10-breath shoulder stand, and a suspended lotus that takes everyone’s breath away.
Bikram: You’re likely to be able to get into these dozen standing-balance poses like half moon, chair pose, and triangle followed by a dozen floor poses such as cobra. The series begins with pranayama and a mini corpse pose is giving halfway through. No inversions.
HEAT
Ashtanga: Comes from the yogi
Bikram: Comes from the 105-degree room
INSTRUCTION AND CORRECTION
Ashtanga: Instructor leads classes and offers corrections. At advanced levels, yogis rely on inner know-how and practice self-correction.
Bikram: Instructor cues poses. Yogis are encouraged to “meet their own eyes” and use the requisite wall of mirrors as a correction tool.
MOVEMENT
Ashtanga: Non-stop
Bikram: Stoppy-starty
DIFFICULTY
Ashtanga: Years of practice is required to acquire all the poses, which increase in difficulty (e.g.: moving into full wheel from mountain pose) and from group to individual practice. Requires strength, flexibility, and endurance.
Bikram: What makes the poses demanding is the heat of the room.
Madonna practicing Ashtanga yoga; she also did Bikram
FLACK
Ashtanga: It’s too hard. You need a vinyasa practice first, then you start ashtanga.
Bikram: It’s too dangerous. The heat makes you think you’re more flexible than you are.
THE BRASS RING
Ashtanga: Staying with your breath during the poses
Bikram: Staying in the room
SPIRITUALITY
Ashtanga: Awakenings through the sutras and self-study, chanting and a humbling number of chaturangas.
Bikram: The body is god, and moving through the sequence on your mat is the message and the meditation
THE VIBE
Ashtanga: Serious external practice with serious inner-life investigation
Bikram: Survivor Island yoga: A hot-mess road through delirium, near breakdown, and miraculously still alive at the end
THE FASHION
Ashtanga: Lululemon, Hyde, and Be Present
Bikram: Bra tops, hot pants, and the odd bikini
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Loved this article! Had me laughing all the way through (as a lover of Ashtanga, of course). Anyone interested in Ashtanga should check out Erika Hildenbrandt’s classes at YogaWorks in Soho. She is an incredible teacher. Happy yoga-ing!
Have you even taken a Bikram class? Maybe you did and had a bad experience which led you to the unfair biased opinion. There is so much you seem to not understand, and yet you rely on cliche half-truths to write a devisive, misinformed article. Not very yoga-like in my opinion.
Hi Scott,
Yes, we have tried Bikram. Many times, in fact. What’s misinformed about the article? We work hard testing classes out, interviewing teachers, and evaluating experiences, so if there’s something you think we’ve missed, please let us know. As for the post being “not very yoga-like”–what’s “not yoga-like” about having an opinion and a sense of humor?
Best,
Alexia & Melisse
Well+Good
I’m not sure I agree. My boss, Leeann Carey, says that you don’t need athleticism to do yoga or half moon pose. You just do what your body is comfortable with. She has a free yoga video on the half moon pose that your readers could benefit from: http://planetyoga.com/yoga-blogs/index.php/free-yoga-video-pose-breakdown-of-half-moon-pose/
Ha! This article had me cracking up! As someone who practices Ashtanga, I appreciate the tongue in cheek humor. I’ve been dating a guy who practices Bikram and we agreed to try each other’s yoga classes. I was hoping to “convert” him to Ashtanga but after practicing alongside him at his yoga studio I honestly think Bikram is better for him.
We are all on different paths, some forms of yoga are better for certain people than others (and this from a self-proclaimed Ashtanga snob). I’m glad I got to see him in his element, and I might have him try an intro Ashtanga class but I don’t plan on forcing it upon him. I personally much prefer Ashtanga, but I’m glad I’ve come to terms with dating a Bikram yogini ;)
I’ve taken a lot of both classes (Bikram and Ashtanga) and I love both. I would disagree that the heat is what makes Bikram hard. It does make it harder, but I am not even close to getting all the way into many of the poses. But the authors of this piece are probably much more flexible than I ever will be. I did like Ashtanga more, but the chatarangas after a while really hurt my wrists. To me that is the main benefit of Bikram vs. Ashtanga— less chance of injury in Bikram. I’ve talked to many Ashtanga practicioners who have ongoing shoulder and wrist problems, like I did.
I have tried both styles and definately prefer ashtanga. I think this article was on point and explained the differences well. In response to the first comment from elena (not me just a coincidence) I used to go to erikas class at yogaworks and she is by far the best yoga teacher i’ve ever practiced with unfortunately she is no longer at yogaworks. Any suggestions for another ashtanga teacher would be appreciated
[...] scene was typical of Ashtanga yoga, a style developed by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and known for its signature Mysore classes in which students memorize several series of poses and [...]
I practiced and did a teacher training in the Ashtanga method. I loved it, but improper form pulled muscles on the left side of my body; my scapula, hip and my knee. I had to stop practicing. A year went by, I gained a ton of weight and felt very bad about myself.
I reintroduced myself to Bikram yoga and have found it is very fulfilling. It gave me my practice back. As someone who has been on both sides of the fence (so to speak) Bikram is just as challenging and spiritual as Ashtanga yoga. Your article is very biased. It does not seem to me that you have written it with a equal mindset.
Ashtanga can be very very dangerous for a student who is not ready. I’ve seen many people in Ashtanga class with wrist and knee braces, you do not see that in Bikram.
Hahaha! What a great article! I adore Bikram yoga; to each his/her own. Do what you love, eh? (I like Molly’s comment, and I like “stoppy-starty.”) :)
Pattabhi Jois eschewed wealth while being 6 million times richer than most Indians. I would love to do that and I bet I might feel jolly and content too. And he grabbed every womans ass he could lay his hands on while pretending to adjust them. You can find him doing these things on video. And the advanced students who saw it happen still speak about it. Bikram sleeps around with his students too. But as he says he only does that if they threaten to commit suicide.
PKJ also injured a bunch of students. But they did not stick around to write all these eulogies, nor are they in the shala in Mysore right now practicing, so you can not count them.
Don’t get me started on that crap about reviving his ancient yoga style. The one that no one practiced before him and the same one that he made up with his teacher and then on his own.
Ancient indeed. Your super scientific brain has lots of evidence that it is maybe 65 years old but you are trying hard not to admit it.
When Bikram dies he will be as romanticized and glossed over as PK Jois except maybe that he has lived so long in the west that we have more ammo on him.
And the western sheep will keep on dreaming their group think absurdities about their fantastic saints and imaginary gurus.
Thanks for leaving your bitterness, narrowmindedness, and bias aside to write an informative article so that us beginners might actually learn the true differences in the forms of yoga we have as options [rolling eyes].
A good friend sent me this article and I am amazed at the zeal with which folks defend, laud or condemn the practice of one style over the other.
I am sure both have their merits, and one needs to understand it is always different strokes for different folks :)
For the less initiated and older person, I am sure the heat in Bikram does a lot of good – this does not have to make it greater than any other form (which I am sure does great things for others). I have met a 30 year old woman at Bikram who in a year is totally free of chronic bronchitis and allergies she suffered for over 20 years (during which period she tried every possible medication, without any success)- perhaps she just turned lucky. And, I am sure every other form of Yoga will have similar stories.
Where Jois grew, Bikram is hard to grow – no one in their right mind will pay good money to do Yoga in 105F – in an environment where most people complain of the heat they live in daily! In the West, where outside temperatures are now in the 40s, it costs money to heat up a large room and provide a Sauna type environment and the fee of a few dollars a session is peanuts!
I have no idea how Bikram got his wealth, and if the local centers pay any royalty to him (since he reportedly copy righted his process!). I really do not care :)Any form of Yoga is obviously good, and the first lesson perhaps should be to not compare and condemn – just do it.
[...] When I moved back to Charlottesville a little over a year ago, I returned to AYC. One morning, I arrived at the studio for a 9:30 class, only to find that the start time had been pushed back, and Mysore now lasted until 10am. Thad, one of the Mysore instructors, suggested that I begin learning the Mysore sequence while I waited for my class. Madonna, in Eka Pada Sirsasana (Image Source) [...]
This article was funny! I have just begun my journey to find the best yoga style for me — this past week i’ve done both ashtanga and bikram — and the points in this article were my thoughts exactly! My experience of bikram was very very less spiritual than ashtanga. At no point in the class did they even bring us to focus on our inner selves and the present moment. This led me to think that bikram is solely focused on the physical aspect of yoga. Perhaps people would enjoy this style, but I always feel great after the outer and inner practice of ashtanga. It makes me more calm and patient throughout the day, and makes me more forgiving. My experience with bikram felt like the yoga was purely a sport, yet with nothing to look back on to look for ways to improve yourself.
As a wise yogi once told me…there are realized people in all ‘camps’. Find what works for you and stick with it. Don’t spend you time trying to ‘be right’. If your asana practice works for you, be happy to have found it. I am :)
[...] for her embrace of boutique gyms and a revolving door of personal trainers—from her days as a serious yogi and her dance cardio workouts with Tracy Anderson, to sculpting her core with Sadie Lincoln, [...]