The Basics of Bikram Yoga

​Christopher C. “Chris” Babcock, MD, DMD, is an accomplished oral surgeon who has practiced through Louisville Oral Surgery and Dental Implants since 2018. When he isn’t leveraging his MD and DMD at work, Dr. Christopher C. Babcock enjoys many active hobbies, including Bikram yoga.

Although many people mistake Bikram yoga for “hot yoga,” the former is actually a category of the latter. A number of different yoga styles can be called “hot yoga” if their practice occurs in a hot room.

Bikram yoga is a specific form of hot yoga that involves repeating 26 common hatha poses in a cycle of sets that repeat over the course of an average 90-minute session. Although some advanced Bikram classes will incorporate inversions and other more difficult poses, beginner classes will generally stick to easier poses such as triangle and tree poses. Most Bikram yoga classrooms are quite hot and kept at relatively high humidity, often reaching temperatures as high as 105 degrees Fahrenheit and humidly levels of 40 percent.

Christopher C. Babcock, The 104th AAOMS Annual Meeting

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