Hot Yoga: Hot or Not?

I love trying new things, especially when given the opportunity to do so with friends, and this how I got acquainted with hot yoga. Most times, I do a little research before I try something new and unknown, but in this case, I just went for it. To tell you the truth, I loved my first experience! I love the heat and so if you put me in a room at 38 C, I'll be happy as a clam!

Even though I thought I found my new home, dreamt of living in a hot yoga room forever, I had the opposite experience in my second visit. I felt sick, weak, dizzy, and overheated (I couldn't believe it either!). As disappointed as I was, I decided to find out what hot yoga was all about, and went to my trusted source, the Google. I have found lots of interesting things, which I have summarized for you (although I do encourage you to research on your own and make your own judgment):

1. Yoga is originated from India, where it is practiced anywhere, anytime. Because of the climate, yoga is almost always practiced in hot conditions and this is how hot yoga became popular (although, interestingly, many people in India do yoga in the early hours of the morning to avoid the heat).

2. A guy named Bikram Choudhury set up three hot yoga studios in the U.S in 1972. Since then, hot yoga (or bikram yoga) has become widely popular in North America. According to him, yoga should be practiced in a room of 105 degrees F, posing 26 different postures. Did you know that Choudhury gave the name of "torture chamber" to his studio? I found that quite interesting...

3. For those who are interested in becoming Bikram yoga instructors, Choudhury's yoga college of India offers certificates teaching you the techniques. The college claims that the 26 poses practiced in the class "give all the internal organs, all the veins, all the ligaments, and all the muscles everything they need to maintain optimum health and maximum function." The high temperature softens up the body and provides flexibility. They also claim that by sweating, the body clears itself of all toxins (Read here).

4. The main claimed benefits of hot yoga are: losing weight by sweating; detoxification by sweating out toxins; improving cardiovascular health; enhance concentration, clarity, and mental focus; de-stressing; and much more (Read more here). 

5. Drawbacks: you are probably thinking: "drawbacks? what drawback? did you see the benefits?!" Well, let's further explore those so called benefits. First of all, hot yoga helps to lose weight-this is technically true, however you are losing precious water weight (through perspiration and your body's working hard to maintain homeostasis) which is not the way you want to go about shedding pounds. Second, sweating allows the removal of toxins-while this may be true, most toxins are filtered by the liver and kidneys and removed from the body by bodily excretions, and only about 1% of toxins are actually removed by sweating. Thus, as a professor of environmental toxicology put it: "you'll do far more detoxifying in the bathroom than you ever could in a sauna" (read more here).

Third, yoga improves heart health; since hot yoga is quite a new trend, there are not many studies done on its effects on the body so we are lacking information on which conclusions can be made. I couldn't find much information about cardiovascular health and hot yoga, except that people suffering from heart problems, low or high blood pressure, and pregnant women should not practice hot yoga. Lastly, yoga will help with concentration, mood, etc.  A few months ago I read a book called "Spark" by John J. Ratey, which is about the benefits of exercising, outlining how exercising can affect our learning abilities and mood; So hot yoga, as any other form of exercise can also do wonders in that department.

I hope I didn't come across as a hot-yoga-hater, I will definitely try it again, with a huge bottle of water and a towel!

Just to conclude, I found that as with pretty much everything in life, there are those who claim that hot yoga is godsend, and there are those who say that it can be quite dangerous. I would suggest try it out (if I didn't scare you) and see for yourself whether it's for you. Otherwise, find another form of exercise that will get you excited. There is no point of forcing yourself to play tennis if you are scared of green bouncing balls. Try different things until you find what's right for you!