Yoga.... or Hot Yoga?

emmymcq

I'm relatively new to fitness; I just joined my local gym and they offer regular yoga and hot yoga. I've never done any yoga before so I'm not sure which I should choose. The girl at the gym says they are both good for all fitness levels.

Saramelie

Can't stand regular yoga myself, in find it boring. Love hot yoga!! Try both, then you will know!

geebusuk

What do you want to achieve from the Yoga?

I had actually wanted to do some more yoga, but after a discussion on here and doing some research for decent facts I decided it really didn't offer me enough towards any of my goals to justify it - bar the perving on cute ladies behinds, anyway :P.

WalkingAlong

Try both, see which you like better! I used to be a hot yoga addict but it messed up my back. If you're doing a Bikram-like class, be careful with the forward bends.

AZKristi

I sweat plenty during regular yoga, so I can't imagine hot yoga. I think it would be a lot like trying to do yoga on a slip and slide, for me at least. I always do cardio before yoga, so my muscles are plenty warm and ready to be stretched.

silbean

Since your new to fitness, I would recommend trying the regular yoga first. Get used to that then venture into the hot yoga. I LOVE hot yoga but it can be really intense and I would hate for you to get discouraged early on. I do hot yoga 3-5 times a week now but my first few weeks of hot were pretty hard. I felt amazing afterwards but…. Also, remember that yoga is a practice. Every time you come to class and step up to your mat, this is your practice. Don't expect to be perfect at it, just know that every time you show up you will get a little better and it will get a little easier. Everyone there knows that it isn't easy.

speckled_raven

Not a fan of hot yoga... regular yoga is enough of a challenge to me right now. And I hate being hot!

fhunter91

I agree with @silbean on this one. I tried getting into yoga by doing bikram and now I'm planning to do regular yoga instead.

I was really excited to try hot yoga because I have a friend who does it. But the first thing I was hit by after walking into that room (other than the wave of heat) was the smell of human sweat. But you do get used to that haha! What I couldn't get used to was the gallons of sweat dripping off the guy next to me in my first class... he sounded like a leaky tap!

Some of the poses are harder than you'd think... for me I found the poses that involved tipping my head backward/upside down made me feel very dizzy. I had to sit down a lot during my first session. My favourites were Awkward Pose, Eagle Pose, Triangle Pose, Fixed Firm Pose, and (obviously) Dead Body Pose.

You definitely have to drink lots of water beforehand. I was drinking 2 litres a day and my instructor said I should double that if I was going to keep up with hot yoga. I had only bought a trial run so I'm afraid I haven't kept up with it. And now I plan on starting regular yoga.

You should try both (if possible) to make up your mind but I think all the heat and sweat and dizziness I experienced with hot yoga distracted me from the positive, healing aspects of the exercise.

GillianMcK

I've recently started yoga to help with flexibility and hopefully help with an achilles niggle I get from running on tarmac, I contacted a yoga studio near work that does Hot Yoga as had been reading up on it, and it's meant to be really beneficial for runners.
The owner of the studio recommended normal yoga first as a lot of the poses are held for a bit of time and if I couldn't hold the pose or wasn't flexibile enough to get into the pose, I would probably get distracted and lose interest (now he gets more money per class for hot yoga so it would have been better for him to say just do the hot yoga and get more money from me), I'm now on my 4th class and feel a difference already with my flexibility.
The studio I go to is one that specialises in sports yoga (golf, tennis, running etc), got several poses now to open up my hip flexors etc, which in time will give me a longer stride and (hopefully) improve my times, I've substituted my short 2 mile easy run for the hour of yoga!

GibbsGirl13072

I would try the regular yoga to start off with, and maybe later on try a hot class. I've never taken a hot yoga class, but a good power or flow class makes me sweat buckets already!