OUR STORY
Tereza Bonnet Šenková
owner of Bikram Yoga Prague
Our story began in Paris, the city where I moved with my French husband and spent 6 years of an active career as a professional dancer. This city cannot leave a mark on anyone, and so it is in my case. It gave me my first experience on the professional stage of the world cabaret Moulin Rouge, where I danced for 3 years. It offered me an enormous amount of information from the world of contemporary dance and gave me an incredible experience on the human side. It offered me to meet performers and choreographers from all over the world, revealed to me the possibilities and limits of my own body, and when it was almost too late, it led me to Bikram yoga.
At the time it was just a great side load supplement for me to perform on stage, a few months later it wasBikram yoga has become the perfect method of post-operative rehabilitation (broken hip cartilage), and it was thanks to her that I didn't have to stop dancing. On the contrary, I got in shape and three months after surgery on both hips I was back on stage.
It was at this moment that I was convinced that if one day dancing stopped giving me meaning and fulfillment, it would be Bikram yoga that would replace it. And this is thanks to its precision, intensity and integrity, which in the first phase has an impact on the physical body. But if we learn to control our mind, calm our breath, decide to change the everyday stereotypes with which we feel so safe, but on the other hand burden, we observe a positive impact on our psyche and emotions, we become more mentally resilient and our physical body relaxes.
These were my initial feelings when I started practicing regularly in Paris after the operations. It was then that the idea of returning to the Czech Republic, which had been completely rejected until then, arose in my head. I was starting to get to know the product in detail, which I believed in based on my own health progress. Suddenly I had something I could bring home with me.
This was followed by an intensive course under the guidance of Bikram Choudhury and his doctors and specialists in Los Angeles, where I have been returning regularly 2 times a year since then as a source of information. And immediately after that, an inherent pedagogical experience in the Paris studio. There I worked as an instructor under professional guidance. Then the Moulin Rouge boards were replaced by a sweaty carpet and a subsequent move to Bohemia.
The doors of the Prague studio opened in September 2006 and they have been going through them ever sincehundreds of satisfied clients who transform before our eyes. Today, the entire studio relies on my cooperation with a perfect team of passionate and very experienced, but also novice instructors, a team of receptionists and the studio manager, who are always available and welcome new clients at the reception with enthusiasm and a good mood. I myself teach almost every day, and the studio has become a second home for my daughters, right from their birth. Currently, it is my big task in addition to my work as an instructorto maintain the authenticity and quality of the product, which isby choosing the positions of classic hatha yoga set in the heatand in this formit has been working on beginners and advanced users all over the world since 1971 and has demonstrable results. It is very easy to offer paying clients something pleasant, painless, easy, just customize the product to sell better, as is happening in most hot yoga studios around the world. But my goal is to keep him in hisoriginal form and do not deviate from the essence. It was perfectly designed, so why change it?
The whole series of 26 positions and two breathing exercises is based onregularity (you press, stretch or strengthen the same muscles, tendons, joints, organs and glands daily or several times a week),accuracy of form, order of positions (you do not change here, because this is the only way the given position has a health impact on your body and also prepares you for the next position) andintensity (the series of positions is still the same, but following the understanding of the form, the depth must be re-evaluated and increased, otherwise I stagnate). One does not work without the other, and if someone pretends that feeling pain, which is the best indicator of your limits, or feeling anything at all, is bad or dangerous, look at their life. Does it work?
This whole scientifically constructed method of strengthening, stretching, balancing and detoxification was given to us by Bikram Choudhury, and based on my own experience and working with people with various acute or chronic problems, I already had the opportunity to see,that it is precisely in this form and intensity that it has its results.
Although at the beginning you may feel that it is challenging and perhaps there will be some other easier or more pleasant way of physical enjoyment for you,try to hold on for a while. The entire 90-minute lesson is only a reflection of your own approach to life. When things get tough outside, what do you do? Will you run away or confront the situation?
Come to us to relax, push your life beyond its temporary limits or simply get back in shape. We look forward to seeing you in the lesson!
Tereza Bonnet Šenková