Hot Yoga

While hot yoga can be a difficult, intense experience, that doesn’t mean beginners shouldn’t try hot yoga. If you’re new to practicing hot yoga, just remember to drink lots of water, be sure to eat lightly before taking a class, and bring a towel with you. Taking a hot yoga class for the first time can be overwhelming. Just remember that your body will adjust to the hot temperature, and if you’re feeling lightheaded it’s okay to lie down and take a break.

While there are a wide variety of types of hot yoga, many hot yoga classes will feature shared common poses, including warrior I and II, eagle, standing forward fold, dancer’s pose, camel pose, downward dog, lunge, triangle pose, cobra, and bow pose.

There are many benefits to practicing hot yoga. The heat and humidity of the room allows you to deepen each stretch, and excess sweating can also be good for your body. Hot yoga benefits you by improving your circulation and flexibility, increasing your metabolism, relieving stress and anxiety, and it detoxifies your body.

Hot power yoga is similar to hot yoga in that it is practiced in a room heated to temperatures between 85 and 105 degrees Fahrenheit. Hot power yoga classes may differ between instructors, since poses are up to the teacher’s discretion. However, most hot power yoga classes will focus on building strength along with improving flexibility.

Bikram hot yoga is a style of practiced developed by Bikram Choudhury. The practice involves a specific hot yoga sequence of 26 poses, performed exactly the same way every time. Bikram hot yoga is very similar to other types of hot yoga, but differs in that it must be taught by a Bikram-certified instructor.

How many calories you burn while practicing hot yoga depends on your effort and your body type, but you can expect to potentially burn up to 500 calories in a single hot yoga class.