When Michael Harris was just 27, doctors told him that they may need to amputate his right foot and left leg.

Today, at 45, the Bend resident thankfully has both legs and feet. And he’s pain free – which he says is saying a lot.

His secret? Yoga. Bikram yoga, to be exact.

Harris co-owns the Bikram’s Yoga College of India Bend studio with Kimberly Canino, 33. Harris also won the Oregon Regional Hatha Yoga Championship, held Oct. 30 in Portland. That win earned him a berth to Ghosh Cup 2005 World Championship in Los Angeles in February 2005.

But in 1986, Harris never would have thought he’d be where he is today, doing what he’s doing. Then living in Portland, he was suffering from critical circulation problems – his right leg was nearly 90 percent blocked, he recalls doctors informing him, while the left leg was 60 percent blocked.

He underwent bypass surgery on both legs.

In 1987, the left leg became reblocked and doctors recommended additional surgery and possible amputation. Harris opted against surgery, deciding instead to make significant life alterations. His family has a history of heart disease, so he knew surgery might correct his physical problems. But no operation would change the lifestyle that was contributing to his ailments.

Plus, he says, he had undergone enough major medical procedures to last a lifetime. A childhood water-skiing accident landed him on the operating table, where half of his liver and his gallbladder were removed. Then there was the bypass surgery.

It was while recovering from that surgery in a Southern California rehabilitation center that Harris took his first yoga class. He wasn’t hooked immediately. A lifelong skier – he raced in high school – and water-skier, he was used to active sports, not the calming physicality of yoga.

”I never really thought much about yoga,” Harris says, adding with a smile that yoga ”was always something my mom did.”

When Harris returned to Portland, he began taking traditional yoga classes and found that he actually liked the exercise, which involves movements, known as posters, and breathing techniques. In 1991, he discovered he was hooked.

”It just made my body feel better,” Harris says.

Harris took yoga classes daily for several years, trying various disciplines, including power, ashtanga and Bikram. He didn’t care much for the latter.

”It was hot, I was sweaty,” he remembers.

He said many people have the same feeling about bikram yoga the first few times they try it, typically because of the surroundings in which it is practiced.

”It’s done in a room heated to approximately 103 degrees,” Harris explains. ”The way that Bikram yoga is structured and the way that it is done, it is done to work through every part of the body every time you practice. The heat is a factor. You sweat it out.

”Each yoga does different things for the body and the mind,” Harris adds. ”Bikram yoga is a very therapeutic type of yoga.”

Harris knew of the reputed therapeutic wonders of Bikram yoga and opted to give it another try in 1997. He had been suffering from intense shoulder pain, he says, and traditional medicine was offering him no relief. Within a month of regular Bikram sessions, his shoulder felt good as new and he made a stunning realization.

”Up to that point, I had been carrying all of this pain in my body,” Harris says. ”I thought if my shoulder pain can go away, maybe my leg pain can go away.”

Harris began to study the discipline intently and then learned of an opportunity to become certified as a yoga teacher, or yogi.

He was intrigued. He figured the training might offer additional insights to how he could make Bikram yoga work for him.

”I was not interested in becoming a teacher, but I was interested in Bikram,” Harris says.

The training included sessions with the method’s founder, Bikram Choudhury, at Choudhury’s world headquarters in Los Angeles. During the training, Harris complained to Choudhury of his constant leg pain as he attempted the Bikram postures. Choudhury told him to forget about it. Harris thought Choudhury was simply dismissing his pain.

”In my head, I thought, Go back to India and give me my money back,’ ” Harris reflects with a laugh.

Harris then realized that Choudhury was urging him to work through the pain, knowing full well he would find eventual relief.

”I did what he said,” Harris says. ”Just two weeks later, 12 years of pain was gone. One day, all of a sudden, the pain I’d been carrying in my legs was gone.”

Harris finished the training, became a certified instructor and returned to Portland. He began teaching a few classes at the studio where he took lessons. A year later, he quit his finance career, opened a Portland studio and became a full-time instructor.

This year, Harris sold the Portland studio, moved to Bend and opened his new facility, located in the Old Mill District. He travels the globe as a guest instructor and often assists Choudhury when his former mentor conducts seminars.

Harris says he is a true believer in Bikram yoga’s healing powers. He says he has worked with a variety of afflicted people who have achieved relief from chronic pain and disease, including diabetes, back pain, arthritis and heart problems.

The Bikram method works wonders, Harris says, provided people can overcome their initial discomfort with the heated studio in which it is practiced.

”At first, people can become a little lightheaded,” Harris says. ”At first, I hated the heat, but you get acclimated to it very quickly. Because of the heat, it’s also safer to do. We heat (the body) up and then we begin to reshape it.”

Competitive yoga, which has been conducted for only the past two years in the United States, was a natural draw for an athlete like Harris. For years, yoga has been a competitive sport in India. There is a move afoot to expand yoga competitions in the U.S. and worldwide, and perhaps even promote it as an Olympic sport.

Competitive yogis perform the same movements and techniques performed in yoga classes around the world. Competitors must perform five compulsory and two optional postures (there are 89 from which to choose). Some postures have multiple parts, and each posture is worth up to 10 points.

Competitors also are awarded up to 15 points for body proportion. Harris explains that the biggest criteria on which competitors are judged is ”grace” – do they look comfortable and serene while performing and holding the sometimes grueling postures. He admits that appearing poised under physical and mental pressure can be difficult, but most yogis are able to distinguish between difficult and dangerous.

”There’s a difference between good pain and bad pain,” Harris says.

One difference between competitive yogis and other athletes, Harris notes, might be in the yogi’s lack of desire to surpass a competitor’s score. In fact, Harris says he doesn’t even know what his final score was at the regional competition. He just knows that he won it.

Scores are not as important, he says, as perfecting the art.

Harris explains that, contrary to what the public might think, yoga can be a competitive sport without losing its intrinsic relaxing, calming effect on the body.

”Competition is, first of all, part of the tradition of yoga in India,” Harris says. ”Yoga competition is not necessarily one person against the next, although it’s set up that way. It’s really competition against yourself. (Competitors) really have to focus internally and on their own practice and what they can do. It’s all about developing the individual.”

Dallas Finn can be reached at (541) 383-0393 or at dfinn@bendbulletin.com.