I know it’s quite a strong statement, but I’m not going to do Hot Yoga Ever Again! Encouraged by my roommate this week I decided to try Hot Yoga. Finally! (I was planning on doing it for half a year now!) We signed up for one week unlimited pass ($15, great deal!) at West Coast Yoga. Great location, excellent facilities, superb services (really, my feelings has nothing to do with company itself). And so I did it.
I took Wednesday morning & Thursday evening class. For the first class I lasted 45min (1/2 of the class time) and I went through whole workout on Thursday. But before I start expressing my feelings, a couple points on…
…What is Hot Yoga?
Hot Yoga is a series of 26 yoga poses and two breathing exercises done in a heated room. The room is usually maintained at a temperature of 105°F (40.5°C) with a humidity of 40%. It claims to improve metabolism & flexibility, detoxify the body, and strengthen all of your muscles and joints from the bones to the skin.
Hot Yoga is good… (borrowed from WestCoastHotYoga.com)
- De-stress in specific situations and in life
- Lose weight and improve the functions of your entire body’s systems, from the inside out- not just the outer two layers people focus on at the gym
- Strengthen and tone every muscle in your body
- Improve your cardiovascular health and conditioning
- Improve flexibility & ability to do more in life
- Promote good posture & decrease incidence of back pain
- Enhance concentration, clarity and mental focus
- Improve balance, both on and off the mat
- Potentially reduce the risk of many diseases & conditions, including heart-disease, depression, anxiety, intestinal agitation, high-blood pressure, diabetes, obesity
- Add something fun and joyous to your day.
- Increase your confidence and creativity
- Help you sleep better and longer
- Provide a great community of friends
Does anyone knows if there’s any studies to prove any of the points above?
Why Aiste is not going for Hot Yoga ever again?
Firstly, I personally feel, that being in that hot and humid, as well as closed room for 90 minutes with a bunch of sweaty, heavy breathing yoga enthusiast is not for me. Remember I love outdoors?! I’m also not convinced that it is good for everyone. During my first session I felt dizzy and noxious from moving my head in to and from the poses. Even the floor routine seemed to be a bit dull, when between each set of stretch we had to lay back on our backs. Kinda drag of time. I believe “hot yoga” to be a bit of a marketing trick, sweat being the indicator of the intense workout.
Don’t get me wrong I sincerely admire people doing yoga. I think it’s no easier, than exercising at high intensity for sports or weight loss. However, in my humble opinion, hot yoga, is nothing more than a stretch, as positions are not held long enough and doesn’t challenge muscles well enough.
If you are a couch potato, and hot yoga got you exercising, sure go ahead and continue with that, hopefully that will encourage you to discover other sorts of great activities and move you far away from the TV screen. If you are an avid runner, heavy weight lifter, or any other sports athlete and want to have a good stretch routine once a week, hot yoga sounds as a good plan (though I personally would go for a regular yoga rather). It really warms up your muscles, and gives you chance to move stretch deeper. However don’t forget to hydrate yourself well. And I really mean it. Lack of water in your body will come to hunt you down!
For the rest of the crowd looking to improve their fitness, I have a question – do you really feel you are being challenged when doing hot yoga? What is the purpose of exposing yourself for that weather for 90 min or even longer (those who are doing hot yoga challenges, and trying to pack two sessions in a day…)? I’m very open minded person and I really would love to learn what is it that keeps you going there and what are the results? There must be some great outcomes, as it seems that this kinda yoga grows in popularity everyday.
Feel free to leave a comment and maybe convince me not to give up and keep trying hot yoga.