Yoga originated millennia ago as a source of spiritual growth. But today, we tend to use it more as a form of exercise, and is known for helping build lean muscles. A popular form of fitness-oriented yoga is hot yoga, which involves increasing the temperature (and humidity) in a gym. So what is hot yoga and is it good for health? Read the article below to learn more about this issue!
WHAT IS HOT YOGA?
As the name suggests, Hot Yoga means practicing yoga exercises in a high temperature environment. More specifically, the hot yoga rooms will have a beach-like feel with temperatures ranging from 27 to 42°C.
Traditional yoga originating from India, this discipline not only helps to train the body but also helps to train and open the mind. In the West, exercise has been adapted to focus more on physical development than its original philosophical origin.
Bikram Choudhury is credited as the creator of the concept of “Hot Yoga”. He left India in 1970 to start teaching yoga in Japan but quickly realized that climate differences were affecting how people settled into each pose. So Choudhury turned up the temperature in the gym to recreate the heat of his hometown.
When Choudhury arrived in Los Angeles in 1971, his sequence of 26 poses in a 40°C sauna became the template for what he named Bikram Yoga. The physical transformation of this full-body workout quickly caught the attention of Hollywood royalty, popularizing it as a strength-training method for decades to come.
NOTES WHEN TRAINING HOT YOGA
When practicing Yoga in a high-temperature environment, beginners will quickly become dizzy and light-headed. One tip to avoid getting overwhelmed and nauseous is that you should gradually increase your exercise regimen and drink only sips of water for the first 20 minutes of the session.
This also means that when doing hot yoga you lose water faster, so always make sure you drink plenty of water in the hours before each session. Once your heart rate starts to pick up during class, continue to take small sips of water throughout the workout. When using the Polar Ignite 3 in class, you can see your heart rate start to pick up pretty quickly as you warm up to the workouts. Heat exhaustion and heatstroke are also a concern, for those of you with unstable health conditions or underlying diseases, you should seek advice from your doctor before practicing any sport. what sport!
BENEFITS OF HOT YOGA practice?
In fact, the benefits of Hot Yoga have been proven by some interesting studies. Researchers at the University of Colorado, USA found that hot yoga exercises burn more calories and help blood circulation much better than regular yoga exercises.
The hot environment will help your muscles to be more flexible and ready to perform the poses after the warm-up. Regarding mobility, a separate study from the same university found that after 8 weeks of hot yoga, your lower back will become more flexible, your shoulders and hamstrings will improve. significantly improved.
Bone density is another important benefit of hot yoga practice, especially for premenopausal women. A 5-year study by the University of Southern California, USA, found that women aged 30 to 60 years reduced their risk of osteoporosis by doing three weekly hot yoga classes. Light-weight, highly disciplined exercise with increased circulation, respiration and perspiration helps protect joints and maintain bone density.
Heart health is also boosted with hot yoga, as all your organs and muscles have to work a little harder in warmer conditions. A 2019 study from Universidad Pontificia Católica de Chile found that hot yoga raises your heart rate to the same extent as when walking briskly.
HEART PERFORMANCE, HOT YOGA AND RECOVERY
Remember, exercise must also go hand in hand with rest and muscle recovery. Hot yoga is a high-intensity sport that makes our hearts work harder. Pay attention to your heart rate during training sessions and note that we should only exercise in heart rate zone 4 for a short period of time, Polar Ignite 3 will help you control that.
In addition, our bodies are not "programmed" to perform intense and intense exercises every day. So, combine and balance high-intensity and moderate-intensity exercises to achieve the best results. An effective training regimen combined with a reasonable nutritional menu will help you improve your training performance significantly!
At the end of each Hot Yoga class, you'll do Shavasana (relaxed supine) restorative pose to help blood flow to all parts of the body. Then, don't forget to rest for at least another minute before stepping out of the gym to avoid heatstroke!
