
Hot Yoga in the Comfort of Your Home
The practice of yoga dates back well over 5,000 years… Many people use it as a form of meditation. Others, however, use yoga to unleash their body’s healing ability. It builds physical strength, harmony, and awareness in the mind and body. It’s also a very good way to relax and de-stress. Hot yoga is one of the most popular styles of yoga that has recently come to the forefront of fitness.
What exactly is hot yoga?
In the simplest of terms, hot yoga is performed in hot, humid conditions.
You might be thinking, “Wait… How can I do this at home if it needs hot and humid conditions? I can’t create an indoor climate.”
You can’t? We’ll see about that. Keep reading …
Yoga Basics
Before learning hot yoga, it’s important to understand its foundation. Yoga is an ancient form of exercise and meditation. It is known to incorporate a series of movements (called poses) that increase difficulty throughout a session.
Yoga also incorporates some of the main principles of fitness, those being:
•Balance: Utilizing differing positions to activate stabilizer muscles, you will learn to maintain balance for an extended period.
•Breathing: You will discover proper breathing techniques to relax the mind and hone physical skills.
•Flexibility: Throughout changing and maintaining poses during a session, you will stretch most muscle groups and increase flexibility.
•Strength: By using different muscle groups to lift, balance, stretch, and maintain poses, yoga offers a slow and controlled way of using your own body as a form of resistance training.
It is also important to get rid of muscle soreness after a yoga session. You can easily do that with a portable light therapy device.
Hot Yoga 101
As previously mentioned, hot yoga is yoga with heat. But how hot? Hot yoga features a specific set of 26 poses, and it is performed in temperatures that are usually kept at around 105 degrees Fahrenheit.
Bikram Choudhury, the founder of hot yoga, has said that he designed this style in order to mimic the hot climate of yoga’s place of origin in India.
The benefits of hot yoga differ from traditional versions of yoga because of the element of increased temperatures. These benefits include:
- Cardio: The cardio aspect can be comparable to running for an extended period of time. Due to the increased temperature and constant pace, you can burn more than 1,000 calories in 90 minutes.
- Improved Posture: The stretches you do during your hot yoga workout enable you to correct your posture. This is beneficial, especially for those who spend long hours in a sedentary position.
- Deeper Breathing: While breathing is essential to all yoga styles, hot yoga makes deep, slow breathing absolutely vital due to the increased humidity.
- Spine Protection: The spinal disks of the body need movement, as this is the only way to absorb nutrients. Hot yoga gives you a good stretch, protecting your spine from nutrient deficiency.
- Detox: By causing the body to sweat more profusely, hot yoga is known to be an excellent way to rid the body of unhealthy toxins.
- Increased Blood Flow: Yoga is a very good way to get the blood flowing through your whole body. The exercises that you do with your hands and feet can improve overall circulation. More importantly, this improves the flow and distribution of oxygen throughout the body.
- Increased Flexibility: Higher temperatures allow the body to naturally and safely become more limber by slowly stretching muscles and tendons during poses.
- Muscle Strength: Strong muscles are needed for the body to protect it from physical conditions like arthritis and back pain.
Hot yoga is typically performed in a licensed studio with the necessary features in a safe and spacious setting. Fear not if you do not have the time or money to seek out or travel to a studio.
Instead, you can use our guided approach to creating a hot yoga space in the comfort of your own home.
Put Your Own Sizzling Space Together
It isn’t easy to find a room in a normal home that suits being upwards of 100 degrees Fahrenheit for an extended period, but setting up your DIY hot yoga studio is quite doable.
Start by picking a room that best suits high temperatures. A bathroom is ideal if there is enough space to perform a session.
First, turn the shower nozzle to “hot” and run the steaming hot water with the door closed to increase the room’s temperature. If that doesn’t completely do the trick, you can use certain bathroom-friendly space heaters. Together, the combination should safely get the room to the right temperature and humidity.
Please note: A space heater should never be left unattended, and you should never mix water with electricity. Be sure to keep the space heater in a dry room area. Also, use extra precaution when shutting off the hot water in the shower so as not to burn yourself.
Here’s a bonus tip: If you also intend to do hot yoga to de-stress, relax, or meditate, it helps to surround your hot yoga space at home with healing stones and crystals. One of the best that you can use is rose quartz. Why so? Check out this article on rose quartz meaning.
Introducing Yourself to the Workout
Now that you have the space, you need the know-how.
During an at-home hot yoga session, a few resources can be utilized to learn the practice’s 26-pose routine. The easiest resource would be books, such as Bikram’s Beginning Yoga Class. You can also get movies for beginners or watch online tutorials on sites like YouTube.
Remember that excessive sweating and dehydration can occur during the workout without proper precautions. It is crucial to maintain hydration throughout the process. Slow and patient movements will also help curb excessive sweating.
Tips and Tricks for Hot Yoga
To optimize your workout at home, utilize these tips:
- Do not eat two to three hours before beginning the session. However, ensure you’ve had a good meal so your body can withstand the hot yoga session.
- Drink water before, during, and after the session to give your body time to absorb the hydration.
- Use a mirror during the session to ensure proper form.
- Wear loose or flexible clothing like harem pants that do not limit movement.
- Have two towels beside you, as you’ll be sweating excessively; even your mat won’t be enough.
- Supplement your water with electrolytes, such as potassium and sodium, as you lose so much of these when you sweat.
Wrap-Up
Of course, the most important tip is knowing your own body. While millions of people worldwide enjoy the many benefits of hot yoga, it is not for everyone.
Be sure to understand your body’s limits and not push yourself too much to ensure a beneficial experience.
However, it’s worth giving it a try first for you to really determine whether or not it’s the right one for you. If you’ve long been looking for that exercise routine that can help you de-stress and relax both your mind and body, yoga is a great option.
Moreover, you can recreate a space for it right in the comfort of your home.
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