| We teach yoga because it dramatically changed and healed our own bodies and minds, and we want to share its magic. |  |
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| Mani | Ralph | Carmen |
bikram yoga teachers are well-trained, dedicated, and compassionate
Certified Bikram yoga teachers are among the most rigorously trained yoga teachers in the world. There is only one way to become a certified Bikram teacher and that requires graduating from Bikram’s nine-week, 500-hour training program, which includes yoga therapy, anatomy, physiology, and two daily yoga classes taught by Bikram and members of his senior teaching staff. One of the benefits of Bikram’s intensive teacher training program is that teachers work through the same challenges as their students. We love to practice what we teach and we’ll be sweating right alongside you in class! A minimum six-months practice and written recommendation from a studio director are required to apply to Bikram’s Teacher Training. A minimum six-months teaching internship is required before certified teachers can apply to open a Bikram affiliated studio. All of our teachers have graduated from Bikram’s Teacher Training, and maintain their good standing with his Yoga College of India by completing recertification requirements every three years. We maintain a connection to Bikram, his training staff of senior teachers, and our global community of teachers and studios. Come to your teachers with your questions. If we don’t have the answer, we will go to the source to get it. Bikram yoga teachers are a passionate, hardworking group of people from all walks of life. We teach yoga because it dramatically changed and healed our own bodies and minds, and we want to share its magic.
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Ralph Newman, M.D. |
Ralph’s determination and strength show us how yoga gives the physical health and mental power to overcome life's difficulties. Ralph began his journey towards Bikram yoga as an overweight teen channeling body mass into bodybuilding and powerlifting. He became an avid runner and cyclist, completing seven marathons. Twenty-six years of lifting and pounding gave Ralph degenerative disc disease, four herniations, and spinal stenosis. Ralph survived a devastating physical attack which burned 9% of his body and left his skin scarred and hypersensitive. Enter Bikram yoga. Ralph credits the yoga for restoring the elasticity of his skin and mobility of his spine. Never giving less than 110%, after four years of dedicated practice, Ralph attended and graduated from Bikram’s teacher training in fall 2008. After training, Ralph was involved in a motorcycle accident that should have been fatal, if not for the yoga having increased his lung strength and capacity. Within two weeks, Ralph was back in the yoga room. Ralph has Bachelor’s degrees in biology and art history from Washington University, St. Louis. He attended medical school at Rush Medical College in Chicago and served as Chief Psychiatric Resident at Long-Island Jewish Hospital. He completed a Psychopharmacology Fellowship at the University of Illinois, followed by two years of private practice. For the past 16 years Ralph has been a prominent forensic psychiatrist.
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Mani Tyler, Director |
Like many, Mani knew nothing of Bikram yoga until it rapidly and
profoundly changed her life. Mani took a chance and 60 classes and 60
days later, she found a new mind, a new body, and a new life.
Serendipity brought her to practice Bikram yoga in Brooklyn, New York,
Florida, and with Bikram at his international headquarters in Los
Angeles. She was trained and certified by Bikram in Acapulco, Mexico
where she completed his rigorous 9-week certification program in fall
2008. After training, Mani set off into what became a year of
intensive practice, teaching, and immersion in all things Bikram yoga
at studios from Massachusetts to Texas. As Ralph and Mani build the
studio, she continues to travel and train with some of the most
respected Bikram pr’ctitioners and teachers in the world.
Mani has a Bachelor’s degree in History from Robert Clark Honors
College, and a Master’s degree in Theology from Harvard University.
For six years before she surrendered to the restorative power of
Bikram yoga, Mani worked in New York City for the Ralph Lauren family,
and in creative development for the Estee Lauder Corporation. She is a
lifelong connoisseur and student of beauty, inside and out, and
believes that people are their most beautiful when practicing yoga.
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Carmen Diaz-Pollak, |
Carmen took her first Bikram yoga class in Santiago, Chile in 2007. It was love at first class. “I came out energized, asking myself how had I lived all this time without Bikram yoga?!” Carmen had tried dance classes, swimming, spinning, but none held her interest and changed her life like yoga. Since that first class, Carmen has practiced nearly every day, and well, we think she’s in the yoga room right now. . . . Carmen holds degrees in graphic design from Mayor Universidad Santiago de Chile. Inspired by her darling niece and nephew, she designed toys for four years at Casa & Ideas in Santiago. Even though she loved her work, she was drawn to Bikram yoga and the mind, body, and spirit balance it brought to her life. In the fall of 2008, she sold her car, left her job, and without speaking a word of English, packed up and went to Bikram’s 9-week, 500 hour teacher training in Acapulco, Mexico. Her family thought she was crazy. And she was. In fact, she’s still crazy for Bikram yoga. After receiving her Bikram Teacher Certification, Carmen spent a year in Toronto, Canada teaching her special “Spanglish” classes. Carmen placed in the 2008 Yoga Asana Championship in Santiago, and she took third in the 2009 Yoga Asana Regional Championship in Toronto. But for Carmen, it is in teaching that she best shares her love of yoga and helps others.
Watch Carmen’s competition video!