When the weather chills and your cold nights make you long for a warm beach, think about arming yourself with some tips for hot yoga success – then find your closest hot yoga studio to practice your new bikram's yoga skills.
Hot yoga, officially known as Bikram Yoga, continues to heat up the yoga training market and there’s good reason that people are flocking to yoga centers. Hot yoga takes the zen of a downward dog pose to demand new heights of both mental and physical challenge.
Yoga Instruction Happens in 105 Degrees
The concept of taking yoga instruction in a room that is heated to 105 degrees or more sounds simple enough. Yogists enter a usually darkened room with a yoga mat, towel and full litre of water. In 90 minutes, you practice 26 different poses together, twice. The sequence of these poses does not change no matter how many times you take a hot yoga class.
Why would people do this to themselves? Many enthusiasts are hooked on the athleticism of the experience; the endurance of the heat, the stamina of the challenging poses and the focus that is essential to either not passing out or falling down. No matter what the reasons, those who are avid participants in hot yoga, and often their hot yoga masters, suggest a few handy hints for hot success.
Keys to hot yoga training success:
- Position yourself near people your same size or smaller. Having a really tall person right in front of you means you will get either kicked during a change or adjustment of posture. Worse yet, his sweat may drip on you or roll from his mat to yours (yes, it does happen).
- Despite what the instructor tells you, eat before participating in hot yoga. Ninety minutes with only water, extreme heat and your body moving means you burn calories like crazy. Your stomach will do less back flips with at least a peanut butter sandwich or a few rice cakes rolling around in there.
- Bring a friend or your partner. It’s good for a laugh as you try to deepen your postures and either almost, or completely, fall on the sweaty person beside you. You just cannot pay for that type of entertainment. Ignore the odd sounds and smells in the room; participate if possible. Hey, this kind of workout means everyone’s inhibitions let loose and the lower bowel is certainly no different. And don’t worry; the heat absorbs that kind of wind quickly anyway.
- Wear as little yoga clothing as possible. A t-shirt is too much clothes. For guys, just wear the smallest of light nylon shorts possible. For women, tight is truly best because the sweat will cling more to your body. Just a sports bra and tight-fitting short, shorts. How you look becomes clearly less important about 30 minutes into the workout (you cannot see each other at that point anyway because of the sweat dripping over your eyes).
- Above all, have fun at hot yoga. Even if you only go to experience this unique sport once, telling the tale will always spark incredulity and awe.
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