Bikram, or Bikram Yoga, is a form of hot yoga built on a fixed sequence of 26 postures and breathing exercises, performed over 90 minutes in a room heated to around 105°F.
Bikram Yoga was created by Bikram Choudhury, an Indian-American yoga teacher born in 1944, who drew its sequence from the teachings of his guru, Bishnu Charan Ghosh. Choudhury began teaching yoga in heated rooms in California in the early 1970s and is widely credited with popularizing hot yoga in the United States. The sequence comprises 24 asanas and two breathing exercises, always performed in the same order in a room held at roughly 105°F with about 40% humidity, conditions intended to loosen muscles and evoke the climate of India.
Through the 1990s Choudhury formalized the method with nine-week teacher-certification courses that trained thousands of instructors, and Bikram studios spread worldwide. The standardized, franchised format made the practice instantly recognizable: any Bikram class, anywhere, follows the identical 90-minute script.
The practice is now inseparable from the downfall of its founder. Choudhury faced multiple lawsuits alleging sexual harassment and assault, along with accusations of racism and homophobia, and in 2016 he fled the United States for India; the allegations were documented in the 2019 Netflix film Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator. In the aftermath, many studios dropped the Bikram name while continuing to teach the same sequence, often rebranded as "hot yoga" or "26 and 2."
I did Bikram for the first time in May 2026 when 📝Yancy Schwartz was out of town.