Bikram, or Hot, Yoga is yoga practiced in a heated room and usually with high humidity maintained. There are a great many physical and mental health benefits to be gained from hot yoga, but there is also a downside. Yoga-related injuries are on the rise, however most can be prevented.
Who wouldn’t want to take all the healthy benefits of yoga and light a fire under it? That is exactly what you do when you join millions of Americans in dusting off that earthy attire and joining a Bikram yoga, or “hot” yoga, class to experience the fastest growing health trend in America. Bikram yoga is yoga designed to be practiced in a heated room so you sweat through your pain and the stresses of everyday life.
What is Bikram, or Hot, Yoga?
Hot Yoga is done in a room heated between 100 and 115 degrees and usually kept at 60 percent humidity, depending on each studios individual policy. Although, as should be expected, you have to be in good physical health to participate in hot yoga. Hot yoga is not for everyone. Even the founder of hot yoga, Choudhury Bikram affectionately refers to his studio as his “torture chamber,” and for good reason.
The Mental and Physical Health Benefits
Despite the sweat and sometimes light-headedness that comes from this extreme workout, the benefits to your physical and mental health are just too plentiful to ignore. First, the issue on everyone’s mind these days. Birkram yoga can help with weight loss! Your body burns fat more effectively when it is warm. Body fat may be redistributed and burned as energy during the class. Also, your metabolism speeds up the breakdown of glucose and fatty acids. It is common to lose inches from those problem areas in a very short time while taking a hot yoga class.
The heat produces a much easier stretch because warm muscles are suppler and more malleable, therefore allowing for greater range of movement in joints, muscles, ligaments and other structures in the body. The cardiovascular system gets a very thorough workout. Capillaries dilate more in the heat bringing oxygen more efficiently into the tissues, muscles, glands and organs and helping in the expelling of waste. The long term effects of hot yoga are also too good to pass up. For instance, muscles and connective tissue become more elastic and allow for greater flexibility with less chance of injury and improved resolution of injury. Sweating leads to detoxification through the skin - which is the body's largest eliminating organ. Just as when your body raises its temperature to fight infection, the raised temperature in the room will assist in improving T-cell function and the proper functioning of your immune system.
Quite possibly the most important plus are the mental health benefits. You can enjoy greater willpower through discipline, self control, concentration and determination. Also, the effects on the stress in your life and how you manage it are incredible. You will learn techniques to control reaction to the stressful stimulants that are encountered throughout the day.
Birkram, or Hot, Yoga is one of the most popular practices for physical and mental well-being in our society today, and for good reason. For a great total body workout that can be performed on all levels, give Birkram Yoga a shot. It’s yoga-just kicked up a notch!