Hot Yoga

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julesss4u
julesss4u Posts: 10 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Anyone participate in hot yoga? Benefits? How many calories does a 60 minute session burn?

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  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,070 Member
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    No, but just as a caution, it's likely to burn fewer calories than a heart rate monitor (HRM) will claim.

    High ambient temperature will make our hearts beat faster, mainly to cool the body, not because of higher oxygen demand. But it's primarily oxygen consumption that correlates with calorie burn. Exercise in a hot room can mislead the heart rate monitor about how hard we're working, make it exaggerate calorie burn.

    It would be reasonable just to use a calorie estimate for the type of yoga you're doing (body movement wise), and ignore the "hot" part of it, IMO. Most yoga isn't a huge calorie burner, though some of the "power yoga" kinds of things can be more so.

  • pridesabtch
    pridesabtch Posts: 2,317 Member
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    As Ann said, the burns won't be big unless you are doing a power type yoga. I used to take Bikram which involved progressive holds of set poses in a 105F room. I sweat like a pig, but my breathing was steady. It was definitely not cardio even though my heart rate was elevated. The main benefit of the heat for me was that in the second hold of a pose I could usually go deeper into the hold without strain.

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