Hot Yoga/Hot Hatha?

laurenwarwick

does anyone know the difference between hot yoga, hatha yoga, hot hatha, and bikram yoga? i have been doing hot hatha pretty regularly, and i don't know how many calories to enter for it. i thought about wearing my hrm, but thought it would slip around due to sweat and be distracting. mfp calculates 184 calories for a 75 minute class, but there are sites that say that bikram van burn closer to 1000 calories. how similar are hot hatha and bikram?

HELP! no clue how many calories to input.

phjorg1

Burns as much as regular yoga.. Which is not very much. Also, hrms do not work for yoga in general and especially do not work for hot yoga.

laurenwarwick

so are hot hatha and bikram not at all similar?

Joreanasaurous

HRM are for cardio last I checked, so even if you wore one to a yoga class, it wouldn't be accurate in the least.


I have done Birkram and am curious how anyone could claim to burn 1000 in a class.

yoginimary

Short answer: as far as calorie burn, they are probably the same. You're not going to burn significantly more calories because the room is heated - just like you wouldn't burn that many more calories if you went for a walk when it was 95 degrees outside. It would feel difficult, sure, but the calorie burn isn't that different.

Long answer: physical practices of yoga are Hatha Yoga. Bikram yoga is named after a guy Bikram Choudhury who came up with a series of 26 postures in a heated room. Bikram is famous (infamous) for suing people who call their yoga Bikram, who do not pay him and have his seal of approval, so to speak. So Bikram yoga is a copyrighted form of Hatha yoga. Calling something "hot yoga" or "hot hatha" is a way to get around the Bikram name. Most of these styles do not stick to the 26 postures. Other heated styles of yoga include: Baptiste (named after a guy named Baron Baptiste) and Ashtanga (lineage of Pattabhi Jois). These styles aren't quite as warm as Bikram, but are also types of Hatha yoga. Vinyasa yoga came about from a mix of Ashtanga yoga and other styles, and can be heated or not, depending on the teacher. Confused yet? Just the tip of the iceberg as far as yoga styles go.
Ok, now most gyms and a few yoga studios call any type of less strenuous yoga "Hatha yoga" to separate it from "flow" or "vinyasa" or whatever. Or teachers that do not have a specific lineage call their yoga "Hatha Yoga".

Does that answer your question?

Niagarasailor

SO is there an estimate on calories burned for an hour of hot vinyasa yoga? I've been estimating about 200 max, and that feels about right, but I could be wrong.