How to Prepare for Hot Yoga, There are Thing You Need to Know First

Be sure to plan ahead for health reasons

Hot yoga is a great way to improve your physical and mental health. It’s an intense workout so if you have any kind of heart problems or mobility issues, this is not for you. In this article, we’ll be teaching you how to prepare for hot yoga class, there are some things you need to know first.

The heat is just too much for people with heart conditions such as cardiovascular conditions or if you’ve had a prior stroke or history of heart disease. You should talk to your doctor first before putting yourself at risk.

There is a Benefit to Yoga if You Suffer From Joint pain or immobility

After you’ve received the go ahead from your doctor to participate in hot yoga even though you have mobility issues, make sure you don’t overdo and injure yourself. You can always work your way up to hot yoga and start with Hatha

When you exercise, your body releases endorphins that energize your mood, relieve stress, boost your self-esteem and trigger overall sense of well-being.

If you normally exercise regularly and are currently sidelined with an injury, you’ve probably noticed how inactivity has caused your mood and energy levels to drop.

Totally understandable, exercise has a powerful effect on mood that cam treat mild to moderate depression as effectively as antidepressants. The best thing to is try as much exercise as you can to get your levels back up and start toning your muscles.

It’s Important to prepare beforehand making sure you don’t get Dehydrated

Here are some tips on how to prepare for hot yoga, there are things you need to know first, so let’s dive in

1) Hydrate: Before entering the “Hot Room”, make sure you drink plenty of water so that you stay hydrated during the session. It is recommended that you drink half your body weight in ounces, every day.

For a hot yoga practice in particular, you should drink 1-1.5 liters of water BEFORE your practice. This amount of water will provide you with enough fluids to carry you through an hours worth of sweating.

2) Wear appropriate clothing: Wearing lightweight clothes made from breathable fabrics like polyester and nylon will wick away sweat,and avoid cotton, it will absorb sweat and become heavy and uncomfortable.

Choose light or bright colors over dark, consider short sleeves over long or full-length sleeves. Choose clothing that allows air circulation in order to feel comfortable while practicing in heated environments.

3) Don’t eat within 3-4 hours– Prior to beginning your hot yoga class, leave a gap of about 3-4 hours without food before class starts. About an hour before your practice, you can have a light meal such as a bowl of cereal before starting yoga.

Don’t eat within 30 minutes of starting your hot yoga class, however, you can drink water to keep hydrated but don’t overdo. The results you will get doing hot yoga will be more beneficial on an empty stomach.

sb4) Warming Up Before Hot Yoga Practice

Warming up before yoga class helps get your body prepared

Stretching and warming up beforehand, stretching before entering the “Hot Room” prepares your body for more advanced postures by increasing range of motion which reduces risk of injury later in class.

Try doing pelvic tilts, leg stretches, eye of the needle pose, easy pose, eagle pose, eagle arms, easy twist and cat-cow stretch. You may already that stretching after you warm up your muscles is safer than stretching cold muscles.

sb4) How to Set an Intention for yoga

Setting an intention for each practice helps our focus

Setting an intention or dedication for your yoga practice acts like a metaphor to translate your practice off your mat and into your life. When an intention is set, it’s also a way of carrying a yoga practice off the mat and out into the world, where the intention can translate to other aspects of our lives.

We become aware of what changes we want to make within ourselves over the course or session. This awareness empowers us toward greater well-being and emotional spirituality, physically and mentally.

sb4) Have Patience with Yourself During Class

Hot Yoga is not easy, but we all have to start somewhere

Don’t compare yourself to others, instead take deep breaths and try to relax and enjoy the ride. Remember, there’s no rush with this process, it takes time, dedication and patience so preserve your energy within and the end result will be worth the effort you put forth.

sb4) End Your Yoga Class with Restorative Yoga Poses

Just as you warmed up before yoga class, you must cool down

Try laying straight on your back, some people use blocks between their shoulders and behind their neck for better comfort. You want to lay with the corpse pose and close your eyes taking your self to awareness all around you.

This usually takes about 10 minutes for you to cool down and rest your body until your heart rate returns to its normal pace. Rehydrate as soon as you’re done.

sb4) Drink Water, Water, Water

Drink, Drink, Drink Water

Hot yoga classes can be 35 degrees or more, with up to 80% humidity. Some people claim you can detox through hot yoga, but truth is, your body has extremely sophisticated ways of dealing with toxins. They are processed mainly by the liver or kidneys rather than sweating them out.

You sweat a lot in a hot yoga session, you’ll need to rehydrate as quickly as possible. Some rehydrate with coconut water which is a natural source of electrolytes with a neutral pH.

Some are very high in sugar so they taste good but you’re going to have calories with that, and you just had a vigorous work out to get rid of all those calories. Read the back of labels to be sure you’re not adding to the issues.

sb4) Hot Yoga Isn’t for Everyone

I personally like to stay a beginner, it’s just enough for a senior citizen and not too hard. If you have knee problems it’s difficult to bend your knees, but you can always us a chair and still get the benefits of yoga.

Hot yoga is a form of yoga as exercise performed under hot and humid conditions, resulting in a considerable amount of sweating. The idea behind it is practicers are trying to replicate the heat and humidity in India, where yoga originally started.

The first style of hot yoga is that of Bikram Choudhury, who claimed to have devised it from traditional hatha yoga techniques but then increased the temperature. You can read more on this at Wikipedia.