La Prensa Médica

The power of sequence and how a 26-pose sequence healed a shattered knee

Gabriel Azoulay

In 1963 a Yoga Champion turned Body Builder injured his knee when his spotter dropped a heavy weight on the fragile joint. In the hospital the doctors told him he would never walk right again.

Depressed and defeated Bikram Choudhury called his yoga guru, Bishnu Ghosh crying. Bishnu Ghosh told him ‘you come home, I will fix you.’

Over the course of the next 10 months Bishnu Ghosh took Bikram through a series of 26 poses. When he could walk again, they took the same sequence to the hospital in Calcutta and proceeded to help hundreds of patients. Bishnu then told Bikram to go to the West and ‘heal their bodies.’

In 1995, a yoga student called Mary Jarvis was hit by a truck and left with an almost paralyzed body.

In her words:

“In January of 1995, I came back to yoga wearing a neck brace and a back brace, weighing 159 pounds, barely able to move, in incredible 24 hour chronic pain, and very depressed. I practiced this yoga every day for 2 years to avoid surgery, and demonstrated to my students that you can lose weight and heal yourself with this Bikram yoga practice.  I know what it’s like to practice this yoga being 40 pounds overweight, in incredible pain, barely able to move…and I know how to get out of it. There is not anything unique about me. Anyone and everyone can do what I have done.”

Utilizing the newest science, Bikram Choudhury took the 26 poses to Switzerland and explored their effects on the body, demonstrating how the poses were affecting muscles, organs and the nervous system.

But what about the sequence itself?

As much as the culinary science discusses the importance of certain ingredients working together, so do yoga poses have a different effect when mixed together.

In this presentation, International Yoga and Thai Massage Master Gabriel (Gabe Yoga) Azoulay shares the science behind the 26 poses and explores the power behind their relationship.

While Yoga indeed has an effect on the mind, Gabriel will share how and what the physiology of the human body undergoes when these 26 poses are practiced together.

A unique presentation as Gabriel unveils both effects of specific poses, AND their relationship together. Rarely do teachers or practitioners choose to explore the effects of a sequence of poses.