Many students wonder about the benefit of adding heat to a yoga practice.
Well, there are plenty benefits. Here are a few, which come with an 80-minute Hot Lotus yoga class.
Flexibility. The heat allows students to safely reach a greater degree of depth within many yoga postures, aiding in enhancing flexibility and mobility.
Strength. Yoga requires balance, coordination, core stabilization and mental focus. Muscles often ignored in other disciplines are trained in this environment. The heat allows the muscles to relax and work more effectively throughout a class.
Cardio. The heart works the same way moving through yoga postures in a heated room as it does biking, running, kickboxing or hiking. A major benefit of yoga is the fact this is accomplished while never leaving a mat. On something as small as a mat, due to the effort required throughout an 80-minute class, a student can burn hundreds of calories, while also stimulating the metabolism. This means the body continues to burn calories at an increased rate for hours following a yoga class, as compared to prior to the yoga class.
Detox. The heated room makes students sweat. The added heat and humidity creates the perfect environment, which allows the body to sweat out a number of toxins. Yoga poses alone are detoxifying for muscles, organs and glands, with the constriction and release of blood flow throughout the body, and sweating intensifies this process for maximum benefit.
Breath. Additional heat makes breathing deeply a necessity. Shallow breathing won’t cut it. If there is no breathing, there is no yoga. Hot yoga will teach the skill of breath control in order to properly oxygenate the blood. When breathing deeply, you can let go of your day, your stresses or whatever is on your mind. Students focus on their breath, and leave feeling better than when they came to class.
Healing. Having a regular yoga practice can heal old injuries, as well as prevent new ones. Hot yoga can assist in healing back, neck, knee or shoulder injuries, and also is known to reduce symptoms of diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure, depression, arthritis and obesity. Besides the body, yoga will heal the mind. It will allow you to let go. In return, you will find more clarity after you have calmed the mind and body.
Focus. The Hot Lotus sequence is always the same. The routine helps to improve practice through repetition, which turns into more of a moving meditation. The student can focus intensely on what is required in the moment. The more often one attends, the more focus and presence of mind one has. When able to focus on the task at hand, or as yogis say, “Live in the moment,” every aspect of life becomes a little easier and quite a bit more enjoyable.
Yoga is like music. The rhythm of the body, the melody of the mind, and the harmony of the soul, create the symphony of life.
~ B.K.S. Iyengar
For more information about Hot Lotus Yoga Studio, call (480) 654-9642.