Hot Yoga: Risks and Benefits
“Hot yoga” is a term that can be used to describe just about any style of yoga practice performed in a warm or humid room. When a class is called “hot yoga” you could be holding poses for a minute or moving quickly from pose to pose, but two things are nearly always constant: heat and sweat. “Hot yoga, in the simplest terms, is yoga performed in a heated room,” says Samantha Scupp , the founder and a teacher at Heatwise, a New York City hot yoga studio, who is certified by Yoga Alliance, the world’s largest nonprofit yoga association that certifies teachers and schools. Hot yoga classes vary in length but typically last 60 to 120 minutes. Participants can sweat out up to three or four pounds of water in just one class, most of which will be replaced once the person is fully hydrated, according to a 2017 study . ( 1 ) Hot yoga classes often include postures and breathing techniques from other traditional yoga , but the practice of intentionally heating the room higher than normal ju