Project Pitch!
A close up on Bikram Yoga
Yoga is growing in popularity and hype. According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), over 13 million adults regularly practice. One of the most popular types is hot yoga.
Bikram yoga, practiced in a 105-degree room, consists of a strict routine of 26 postures, done in the same sequence over 90 minutes. Every class is exactly the same. The claim is that these postures “systematically work every part of the body, to give all the internal organs, all the veins, all the ligaments, and all the muscles everything they need to maintain optimum health and maximum function.” I'd like to examine if that's true.
I'd do this by analyzing the practice using a compilation from at least these two sources (if not these ones too. I like the little characters in the latter one). My analysis will show, using the routine Bikram sequence, the order in which (and amount of times) each part of the body is being worked. I think that while personal experience, anecdotal evidence and popular press articles have brought people to the mat, many practioners are eager to know what's actually happening to their bodies during the poses, and there's been no quantitative analysis done. My project would clarify the haze between posture and benefit to demystify those who already practice or who are thinking of starting.
I'm already in contact with a yoga teacher at Bikram Yoga Lower East Side and am working on getting an official list of postures and time spent in each one from her. She could also serve as a good human source to speak about the practice and it's growing rise in popularity. In order to get some expert opinion on the results of my findings I was thinking of speaking to some exercise scientists who both have and have not studied the health benefits of yoga. I'd be curious to know if there is anything inherently good or bad about working certain muscle groups a specific amount of times. Some people say yoga could be someone's only form of exercise. In gathering these findings, do the experts agree?
There are a number of health and fitness sites I could pitch this to including: Women's Health, Greatist.com, Shape, Fitness, . Yoga.com or the Yoga Journal might even want it.
I would need to learn how to scrape all of these sites for the posture information as well as hone some skills in interactive graphic making for this project. I would need to creates the silhouettes perhaps by using Adobe Illustrator, which I've never used before. I have big ambitions but have outlined what I'd like to accomplish in baby steps so that I have at least something I'm proud of when the deadline hits.
The goals:
Baby step
Create a histogram plotting body part vs. times worked to see if (and how many times) each is used throughout a Bikram sequence. Are some not worked at all? Which ones are worked a lot? It'd also be great to have each block on the chart be a graphic of the posture to see exactly which posture is working the back, thighs, etc. Are there some poses that give you the most bang for your buck?
Next level
Make the histogram chart above appear in time to the actual 26 posture sequence. I'd like to be able to play through (or maybe have each posture show up in a list) and then a little graphic of it moving into the chart so the chart is actually created as the sequence progresses, just like it happens in a real Bikram class. When certain muscles are worked, when in time are these changes are happening?
Super Next level
Have a silhouette of a person who starts off all blue. As the sequence is played, different parts of the body begin to change color (get red to display heat and work) to display what's working, when, and how much it's being worked. I could perhaps use the graphics on this website to help me out.
To Note: Along with body parts that are worked, each pose also claims health/therapeutic benefits. I could easily get this data and use it to generate a chart like the one described in the baby step section and likely next level section as well, not sure about Super Next Level.