Hot yoga: what lies beyond the sweat

Hot yoga is not Hollywood style yoga; it is simply yoga practiced in the typically hot geographic conditions where yoga originated.

Purists ascribe the set of continuous asanas that flow from the energy of the previous asana (Vinyasa), in temperatures of 95 degrees to 100 degrees Fahrenheit as hot yoga. Typically the asanas are performed with the instructor who first demonstrates the asansas.

The purity of form of these ansanas, performed in one of the hottest temperatures, generates great heat in the body, making it supple, malleable, and able to move flawlessly from one yogic posture to the next.

The benefits of hot yoga appear to be best captured by self-styled, innovative yoga master Bikram Choudhry. This Indian-born yoga guru has successfully captured the entire series of these hot yogic postures into 26 poses and has copyrighted the same.

He uses two pranayama exercises in the set of 26 postures. In the Bikram style of hot yoga, the set of 26 asanas are repeated in twice, within a session of one hour and thirty minutes. The vigorous and continuous, but mellow movements heighten the sense of self, mind, energy and body. It highlights the unification of mind and the body, with deep understanding of the limits of the body.

Not all hot yoga is Bikram Yoga

The novices in the world of peaceful asanas need to note that not all you can use Bikram Yoga commercially without permission. While Bikram Yoga’s 26 postures are the most popular forms in the Western world, traditional practitioners believe that the possibilities for hot yoga are endless. With years of dedicated yoga practice, the number of postures that some of these practitioners achieve are impossible for most part-time practitioners.

For the purists, it goes beyond achieving perfect postures. To many, hot yoga goes beyond the sweat and grind of the slow, but excruciating yogic postures that breaks rivulets of sweat down one’s back. To most traditional hot yoga practitioners, beyond the sweat lies the control that the mind is able to bring over one’s body resulting in inner peace.

Hot yoga relaxes and invigorates your inner self every time and this is perhaps why it is popular all across the world.