Friday, November 25, 2011

Hot Yoga - the Latest Health and Fitness Craze

By Ian Ginnis


These days, "hot yoga" is the enormous craze, but what is it? What's the difference between hot and not? Is all hot yoga Bikram? Why should I practice in the heat? These are all questions that many folks have, and with so many varieties, we wonder how to make the right choice.

Hot yoga commenced with a style called Bikram Yoga. Bikram healed his severe knee injury through yoga, and assembled a 26-pose sequence, engineered to handle ailments of the body. Bikram Yoga uses a set 26-pose sequence in heated room, with a wall of mirrors and no music. Heated Yoga consists of all of the fashions of yoga practiced in a heated room. You will find other set flows; Vinyasa classes that change the flow each session, even heated classes that incorporate hand weights and cardio for extra strength and resilience.

The temperatures can vary from barely warm (80-90 degrees) to WOW hot (Over 100 degrees)! There also are different techniques used to heat the rooms. Some places use heat only , which tends to be much drier and really hot. Heat plus humidity is usually more OK. There are also rooms that use infrared or UV heat systems. Some places will occasionally open the door to let unpolluted air in, while others will encourage you to sweat thru it.

Many of us are not very comfortable being hot, so why would we subject ourselves to practicing in a room that is hot? The physical benefits range all the way from larger muscle effort to heart strengthening, as well as detox effects. The muscles and joints warm quicker in a heated room, which permits them to loosen up faster and move deeper into poses, promoting bigger flexibility.

With the problem of many of the poses, warm muscles also build strength and increase endurance. The intensity of the heat raises the heart beat rate and the yogic Ujjai breath increases lung capacity, which can create the same effect as a sixty-minute cardio machine workout. Your sweat glands not only help to cool you down and get your thoughts off the feeling you're softening, but they also help release poisons that may have been stored within. The heat also acts as a catalyst to increase blood flow and speed up the metabolic processes of your body's vital organs, and boosting the immune system.

There's an element of mental challenge that's added when practicing in the heat. One of the focuses of yoga is to take you "out of your head" and to let go of your fears and strains of life. Varied styles of yoga help you "let go" in different ways. In hot yoga, you are focusing on your pose, engaging certain areas of the body, sorting out your breath, and wow how hot it is!

Next thing you know your agenda, that client that you did not remember to call back, or whose carpool day it is tomorrow are gone because you are focused on yourself and your practice. When you make it to svasana, and you're enjoying lying flat, still and tranquil, you notice that all of your fears and stresses aren't as critical as they where before you walked into class.

The addition of heat to your practice buttress and de-toxes the body, while taking you out of your head and creating a feeling of well-being. Whether you like understanding what is coming with a set sequence, the variety of vinyasa, the heat adds another fun and challenging facet to your practice.




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