Hot Yoga

This morning i went to my second hot yoga class!

Preface: hot yoga is not a kind of sexy yoga! it's yoga practice in a 40º heated room... the reasons behind "should be" mainly sweating a lot thus eliminating a lot of toxins from your body. Furthermore being so hot your muscles will stretch more so you will deepen your poses... potentially attracting isn't it?

A lot of people are fanatic about this and a lot are really condemning this style that became famous because of mr. Bikram... well, don't talk about this, this wasn't a Bikram class but an hot ashtanga class in a studio in Old Street.

What to say?

Being the second time, i enjoyed it more than my first, for 3 reasons!

1- i knew the obstacles! the story of stretching more "CAN" be true... but for sure you need a special mat or a special towel or special gripping feet ahahha... example: imagine prasarita padottanasana, in the image the B variation

Maybe you start with your legs nearer together but then you start sliding because of your sweat, sliding more you arrive to the situation in the image... then you slide more and little more... you will easily reach the point of no return... now your only choice will be to go for a full leg split... or call the breakdown truck to put you back on the road ahhah!

At my second hot class i knew this so i decided to take it easy!!

2- I took it easy, so the class was much less than my usual personal practice (i tend to be an ashtangi but not only!)... for me is was an "easy" class in a very hot environment (anyway India, where yoga has its origins,  is a hot environment!)... in an ocean of sweat ehheh! i've to say that not everybody in the room was taking it easy...!

3- I'll say more on this, now i suppose you know something about Ayurveda. I'm a Vata person, my dosha is cold and dry, air and ether elements mixed -> my understanding is that some hot can balance my nature and make it more smooth... i always prefer hot than cold... so why not, probably even recommended sometimes? obviously if you are Pitta (this dosha is about fire!)... man, probably hot yoga is not the best for you! Kapha (earth/water elements) should enjoy it as well... fire in our body is a crucial element, our digestion is all about fire, the fire is the element that will transform the food that we ingest from its gross physical form to the more subtle form of nutrients and chemicals ready to be assimilated, most of the possible diseases come from un-perfect digestion... the fire in our body is fundamental (well, what is not fundamental in our body???!!), to keep it on and working is vital!

Another point for hot yoga is that sometimes is good to stress the body, give it an hard situation to stimulate its capacities!

On the other side we have:

1- being possible to stretch more you could go beyond your sustainable possibilities!

2- "the sweat a lot to eliminate your  toxins" is a common paradigm... but it's not completely true!

3- being so extreme, in the case of a daily hot practice, can happen that your body will modify itself to be very efficient in the hot environment (it's a case of the body's tendency to homeostasis, we'll talk on it!) losing its efficiency in other situations... your body is trained for the extreme, what about the normality!?!

4- cover yourself when you go out of the studio eheheh!!!

What about a hot class with a relaxed style? Shouldn't it be interesting?!

After 3 hours my body feels "normal" again, i have a 10 class groupon voucher... 8 more to go!!!