Hot Yoga Benefits: Why is Bikram Yoga performed in a heated room?

If you think about it, it makes sense.

Any exercise program focuses on warming up our bodies before vigorous activity. The temperature of the yoga room is similar to our body's own temperature. This accelerates improvement in many of the benefits of your yoga practice.

Regular exercisers recognise that peak performance occurs when fully warmed up and your body generates heat from the inside radiating out and into your muscles.

Why is sweating beneficial?

After experimenting with different levels of heat and moisture, we have found that the increased moisture in the air is more likely to make you sweat, rather than the absolute temperature! And the more people in the room, the more moisture from our breath, the more we sweat.

Our room is thermostatically controlled so the temperature never gets too high and in dry conditions we use a steam vaporiser to ensure correct humidity.

The heat has many benefits ...

The heat means we can get into postures more deeply and effectively - plus the benefits of the postures come quickly. Like thousands before you, you will find that practising yoga in the warm room creates a satisfying and almost addictive feeling of achievement.

The benefits are many:

• Your body burns fat more effectively, fat may be redistributed and burned as energy during the class. It is common to lose centimetres of shape in a very short time
• The heat produces a fluid-like stretch allowing for greater range of movement in joints, muscles, ligaments and other supporting structures of the body
• Capillaries dilate in the heat; more effectively oxygenating the tissues, muscles, glands and organs and helping in the removal of waste products
• Your peripheral circulation improves due to enhanced perfusion of your extremities
• Your metabolism speeds up the breakdown of glucose and fatty acids
• You benefit from a strengthening of willpower, self control, concentration and determination in this challenging environment
• Your cardiovascular system gets a thorough workout
• Your muscles and connective tissue become more elastic and allow for greater flexibility with less chance of injury and improved resolution of injury
• Sweating promotes detoxification and elimination 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
• Your nervous system function is greatly improved and messages are carried more efficiently to and from your brain
• Metabolism improves in your digestive system and in the body's cells (that is food in the gut and nutrients in the cells)

Concerned about exercising in the heat? Click here to read this excellent article by exercise professional Leslie Funk ...