Benefits of a Hot Yoga and Pilates Practice

The cooler, darker months of winter are swiftly approaching, which means any kind of outdoor exercise is starting to feel just that little bit harder. When you practice at Yoga High, you can feel safe in the knowledge that you’re not only warm and comfortable while you chase those exercise endorphins, but you’re also safe inside among a supportive, encouraging community.

Winter is the perfect time to ease your way into a hot yoga or hot pilates practice. Here are just some of the benefits to get you inspired:

Weight Loss

Many people come to hot yoga and pilates for the weight loss potential – because it turns out you don’t have to run a marathon to work up a decent sweat!

The heated room elevates your heart rate, helping to improve your overall fitness and stamina, while burning calories and toning the body. You’ll feel utterly exhilarated from the cardio, while also moving in a way that promotes strength and balance.

Stretch and Heal

A warm environment makes it so much easier for your muscles to lengthen and stretch. In hot yoga, you can safely move deeper into postures, supported by the heat. After a hot pilates class, you’ll find that your muscles won’t feel as sore or fatigued. This is because the heat is really useful for people with injuries – it helps with circulation and promotes healing. There are so many beautiful beneficial poses that can put the body back into balance, and the heat aids this recovery.

If you’re an elite boxer, a long-distance runner or you play competitive sports, you’ll walk out of a hot class with new hips and shoulders and back. And if you’re just beginning your yoga or pilates journey, the extra flexibility will make you feel like a pro.

Detoxification

When you practice in a hot room, you need to hydrate before and after class. Drinking water is one of the easiest ways to detox the body, but you when you add on a sweaty class, it’s like the ultimate cleanse!

The heat encourages a detox process that keeps our internal organs happy. But it’s also amazing for our skin, flushing out all the toxins and impurities that build up from daily environmental stressors. It’s like a natural anti-ageing serum, leaving you glowing and feeling revived.

We’ve also noticed a hot practice helps cleanse or change tastebuds, which makes it effective for people trying to give up smoking or another substance.

Stress Less

Because the heat elevates our heart rate, we have to be more focused on our breathing. And we know from all that meditation we have (or haven’t) been doing, that focusing on the breath is a major stress buster. Hot yoga and pilates sharpens our concentration. And even though hot pilates is all yang in its energy, you come out feeling so much more calm and zen, because of that need to focus.  

We also like to think about how the temperature we practise in is the same temperature as in the womb. So the heat really does give the feeling of being safe, warm and supported by our mums.  

It might be our HOT room or it might just be our love of spreading high vibrations – but we love the heat because it’s a total mood booster, which is a great vice to have during the grey months of winter. 

Are you ready to sweat, stretch and strengthen together? 

We offer HOT BIKRAM (40 degrees), HOT POWER (39 degrees), HOT FLOW (37 degrees) for yoga. And HOT HIIT Pilates (38 degrees), which is a seriously fun class with the same hot room benefits while just totally shredding fat and sculpting the body through an immense workout that will leave you smiling.