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1. Michele Pernetta, a known yoga teacher, says Hot Yoga means exercising in a hot room. ‘It originally was Bikram Yoga (started by Bikram Choudhury). Then other people started teaching different styles in a hot room, everything from Bikram Yoga, Power Yoga, to Ashtanga or a personal mix from a teacher who may or may not be qualified to teach in hot conditions. So the term really just means you are doing yoga in a hot room,’ said Pernetta.
2. Like with “regular” yoga, hot yoga comes in all kinds of different styles. Bikram yoga, which is practiced at certified studios right across the country and the world, is still considered the original incarnation of the form. Those classes follow a set sequence of 26 postures and focus on endurance. Moksha Yoga was founded by two yogis from Toronto who wanted to integrate an environmental component to their hot yoga practice. All Moksha studios, found across Canada and the United States, adhere to “green” principles—incorporating things like energy-efficient heating and sustainable flooring. Others, like Lambert, teach their own versions of hot yoga, in classes like “hot power flow.”
3. Hot yoga would probably be helpful with the mental aspect of training for a marathon training.
4. You detoxify through sweating. The skin is the largest organ of the body and research has shown that toxins such as unwanted metals and salts are eliminated through sweating.
5. People find the heat cathartic. It has the effect of relaxing you on a deep level, allowing you to go into places you couldn’t normally reach, releasing mental and emotional stresses you don’t normally get the opportunity to look at in normal daily life.
6. You’ll never want to eat fruit so badly. You might consider a single slice of orange after class a miracle fruit.
7. There are less chances of injuries in such yoga as the heat allows you to press further into the poses as your muscles and joints are at their optimum temperature. Deeper stretching brings more blood and oxygen to your body.
8. It’s good for your skin. Going to hot yoga is like getting a free exfoliation treatment. Any dry or dead skin you have will rub right off.
9. Despite its benefits, Hot Yoga has come under severe criticism from some fitness experts since the exercises are performed under extreme temperature. There have been cases of people fainting due to the dizziness caused due to the heat. What makes it even more dangerous is that instructors tell people that feeling nauseous and dizzy is normal and that they will get over it.
Fitness experts argue that sweating to release toxins may not be scientifically a good idea. ‘If you’re in a hot and humid environment, your ability to lose heat from sweating is hugely decreased because the air is already saturated.’, Dr Stephen Cheung, an expert in the area of heat stress told The Globe and Mail. Some experts even suggest that extreme temperatures could damage proteins in the body.
10. Taking necessary precautions like hydrating yourself well, not eating just before the class and consuming foods rich in sodium and potassium will certainly help.
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