The craze is everywhere.
May be it is a fashion for the modern day fitness fanatics.
Or may be, it is for real; after all, it is not that easy to sell snake oil now-a-days. You cannot fool so many people all over the places.

I did not know much about Hot Yoga till last week. So, I thought I should poke around to see what the whole craze is about. Well, first the boring part. It is also called Bikram Yoga – a type of yoga that Bikram Choudhury introduced many decades ago. The actual yoga techniques are based on traditional yoga that we are all familiar with.

Even though Hot Yoga has been around from the early 1970s, its popularity has grown all around the globe lately. More and more yogis are enjoying Hot Yoga over the traditional yoga. By the way, it feels good to call myself ‘yogi’ after exploring the yoga just for a few days. Perhaps I don’t qualify yet, but it is the state of mind, I am told; and in my mind I am yogi now. :)

One of my problems with Hot Yoga is that each session is supposed to last 90 minutes. Now, that is like sacrificing almost two hours of sleep. I already am starting to dislike the idea. And, on top of that, it should incorporate a series of 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises. Oh, and that’s not all, the Yoga session requires a room heated to 105°F with a humidity of 40%.

The whole thing is too complicated for me. I was hoping that going out in the hot summer sun and sitting on my butt in the humid weather for a while would be enough.  However, that’s not what it is.
Why do everything that I want to try looks so simple, but turns out so complicated in the end??

As I was feeling discouraged by my whole arrangement, I thought that reading the benefits of the Hot Yoga might motivate me. The concept looks good on paper: it seems like cure-for-all problems. The Hot Yoga advantages include:

  • Better stretching,
  • Bbetter injury prevention,
  • Stress and tension relief.
  • Maximize lung capacity, and hence better blood circulation
  • Stimulates and restore health to every muscle, joint, and organ of the body.
  • Improvement of cardiovascular and digestive system

All impressed, I continued the half-hearted trial for the sake of the yogi inside me.

I tried Hot Yoga for a few days outside on my patio, in the hot sun. I am already feeling better. To incorporate more heat, I turned on the barbecue grill and decided to sit closer to it. The nice smell of chicken cooking inside the grill adds an additional dimension to my outlook! Who knew that ‘mouth watering’ could be a nice side-effect of my experiment! :)

Talking about the Hot Yoga side-effects, I have not felt the common side-effects of dizziness and nausea that many beginners feel, except for one day. But looking back, the dizziness that day  may have been the smoke inhalation from the grill!

It feels good to be ..ummm… a yogi!!

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