Hot Yoga

Contents

• What is Hot Yoga?
• Benefits of Hot Yoga
• How much water should you drink?

What is Hot Yoga?
Hot yoga often tends to be a flowing vinyasa style of practice in which the teacher instructs students in a series of linked poses. During class, the room is usually maintained at a temperature of 95 to 105 F. As you can imagine, a vigorous yoga session at high temperatures makes the body very warm and induces profuse sweating. The intent is that the heat loosens your muscles2 and the sweat helps cleanse your body. The purpose of hot yoga is to encourage sweating, which is believed to detoxify the body, as well as improve flexibility, boost stamina, improve overall fitness, burn calories, relieve stress and increase circulation.

Benefits of Hot Yoga
Cardiovascular health: Exercising in the heat increases your heart rate and makes the body work harder, so a hot yoga class will be a more strenuous for the body than a similar class done in a lower temperature.
Flexibility: The heat in the room means you will have to create less heat yourself to feel your muscles loosen up. You’ll be able to move deeper into stretches and won’t have to warm up as much to build the heat. 바카라사이트
Detoxing: A lot of people will claim that because you sweat a lot in a yoga class, you’re detoxing. This isn’t exactly right. Your body doesn’t detox through your skin, but rather through the kidney and liver, so a hot yoga class won’t directly have you releasing toxins. However the cardiovascular exercise and the fact that you drink lots of water can help boost your metabolism, and essentially help you flush toxins.
Breathing: Although the heat might mean that you feel like you are working hard to catch your breath in a yoga class, the breathing exercises that are often done in class can over time help increase your lung capacity and help you breathe better and deeper.

How much water should you drink?
Wondering how much water you should drink before hot yoga- is it as much as you'd chug during an intense cycling class, for example? If you come to Bikram well-hydrated, you won't need to drink much during the session, says McBride. Aim to drink up to two liters (8 to 9 cups) of water throughout the day. But if you can't hit those numbers, don't try to make up for it by chugging right outside the studio. Too much water too quickly might upset your stomach and leave you feeling nauseated in class. Same holds true during practice, so sip when you need to, but don't overdo it. "Water sloshing around in your stomach doesn't feel so good," says McBride. "If you find yourself dehydrated at the start of class, take it easy on the posture." The goal isn't to master every pose but rather to listen to your body and take care of yourself.