8 Benefits of Hot Yoga
Yoga helps you unwind, teaches you to pay attention to your breathing, and synchronizes your movement with your breath through a variety of poses. To give you an even more intense workout, some yoga classes are held in heated studios.
A hot chamber generates a sauna-like atmosphere that helps you relax and de-stress while bringing your thoughts to the present. Similar to non-heated yoga, the heat makes your heart and lungs work harder while also helping you gain flexibility and strength.
Hot Yoga vs Bikram Yoga
Although hot yoga and Bikram yoga are frequently used interchangeably, this isn’t totally true. Bikram yoga is a style of yoga where 26 positions are repeated during the course of a session, which is often 90 minutes or fewer. The lecture hall is heated to a comfortable 40 degrees Celsius, and classes are often quieter with no music or chanting.
In order to do hot yoga, the room must be heated to a temperature between 26 and 38 degrees Celsius. Depending on the studio and instructor, different positions might also be included. Hot yoga, in contrast to Bikram, frequently involves music.
Hot yoga is challenging because of the heat, but it can also be beneficial for your mental and physical health.
Here are 8 Benefits of Hot Yoga
Benefits of Hot Yoga
Increased Flexibility
When you stretch when your muscles are warm, like you do in hot yoga, your muscles are more flexible and your joints have a wider range of motion. Based to a March 2013 study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, after 8 weeks of practicing Bikram yoga, individuals were more flexible than the control group in their shoulders, lower backs, and hamstrings.
Yoga positions that call for deep stretching are especially easier to enter into when one is flexible. Yoga also helps to build muscle: According to the same study, people could deadlift more weight.
Greater Lung Capacity
Yoga focuses on breathing exercises and maintaining awareness of your breaths, which helps you educate your lungs to hold onto more air. Regular, deep breathing enhances lung capacity, which tends to decline with aging. It also keeps your lungs healthy and allows more oxygen to reach your bloodstream.
Yoga breathing exercises called pranayama concentrate on teaching you how to control your breath for a set period of time. It teaches you to increase oxygen intake through the practice of abdominal, thoracic, and clavicular breathing.
Better Bone Mass
As people age, their bone density naturally declines. For instance, menopausal women can lose up to 50% of their bone mass, with around half of the reduction occurring in the first 10 years after menopause starts.
According to a May 2014 study published in Scientific Research, perimenopausal people who performed Bikram yoga over the course of five years had improved bone density in their hips, lower back, and neck. According to the study, a hot environment improved circulation, breathing, and perspiration in women, which lessened the consequences of osteoporosis.
Burns Calories
Depending on the length and intensity of the session as well as your weight, a typical yoga class can burn anywhere from 180 to 460 calories.
Hot yoga practitioners were at the top of that spectrum, according to data from Colorado State University: guys burned about 460 calories during a 90-minute class, compared to about 330 for women (perhaps because guys tend to be bigger)
In a hot studio, you sweat a lot more, which forces your body to work harder to keep a comfortable body temperature and forces your heart to pump more blood. As a result, you will expend more calories than you would in a regular yoga class without the use of heat.
Helps Improve Depression Symptoms
According to the American Psychological Association, both yoga and meditation can aid in easing the signs and symptoms of depression.
According to a May–June 2018 study in Military Medicine, depressed veterans who practiced yoga for six weeks reported overall improvements in their mood and depression. Every week for 60 minutes, they engaged in yoga, breathwork, and mindfulness.
An eight-week Bikram yoga course for middle-aged women was found to lessen their symptoms of depression, including self-judgment, pessimism, low quality of life, and decreased cognitive function, according to a study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine in August 2019.
Regulates Blood Glucose Levels
According to a research published in the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies in October 2013, people with type 2 diabetes may benefit from yoga since it lowers blood sugar levels. For older persons who tended to be obese, researchers discovered that even a brief (8-week) Bikram yoga program raised glucose tolerance.
Helps Manage Stress
Yoga enables you to focus on yourself and become aware of the outside factors that are stressful to you. You’ll begin to comprehend how the breathing exercises, the room’s silence, and the heat helps your body and mind relax as you perform regularly.
In a 90-minute session, a 16-week hot yoga program with physically inactive individuals increased mood and reduced stress levels, according to a study published in the Journal of Health Psychology in April 2017.
Improves Skin Health
Your skin cells receive more oxygen-rich blood and improved circulation as a result of increased sweating, giving you a post-yoga glow.
Exercise-induced sweating actually slows down the biological process of aging. Your skin can create more collagen as a result, and it will become more hydrated and less likely to sag.
How to Get Started With Hot Yoga
Consider taking a regular yoga session before trying hot yoga if you’re interested. And find out if your studio offers hot easy for beginners classes.
It’s not as hot as a typical heated yoga class because some classes use the leftover heat from the previous class, but the temperature is often between 26 and 29 degrees Celsius.
Try it out to see whether hot yoga is good for you or whether you’d prefer to remain with non-heated classes.
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