Hot Yoga - the benefits
Many professional athletes incorporate hot yoga into their training regimes – Tennis Pro’s including Andy Murray, Fulham and Chelsea Football Clubs, the New Zealand All Blacks, numerous NBA and American Football teams to name but a few –and all with good reason.
Benefits of hot yoga include:
- Reduced risk of injury
- Faster recovery
- Improved balance and agility
- Improved focus and concentration for competition
- Increased strength and flexibility
- Prevention of sports related injuries
- Greater range of motion
- Improved circulation
Yoga is a balanced practice allowing you to achieve a wide range of athletic goals such as mobility, strength and flexibility all at the same time. So whether you’re a runner, a footballer, a rugby player, boxer or ballet dancer, hot yoga could be just the thing to add to your regime.
Aligning the body with the mind
There is often a negative stigma attached to yoga as been overly spiritual to those who feel 'that’s so not my bag’. Yoga is a very individualistic practice and it is up to you what level you wish to take it, but regardless of ‘how in tune’ you are with your spirituality, as an athlete, working your mind as well as your body is highly beneficial.
Yoga offers the opportunity to develop strength, balance, coordination, body awareness, flexibility and focus – all of which improve your cognitive and emotional skills leading to improved performance. As Dr Christina, chair of the Department of Human Physiology at Gonzaga University states, yoga provides:
....emotional benefits include calming and stress reduction; reduced anxiety, depression and pain; improved self-esteem and self-efficacy; elevated mood and enhanced sense of personal control and well being.”
Using your body
For those who’ve never tried yoga before, they are often surprised at how you can build strength without using weights. Yoga asks you to support your body weight in a variety of positions which assists with strength development and all over body toning – you’ll be amazed at how many muscles you use during a yoga practice (one’s you perhaps weren’t even aware of!)
Injury healing and prevention
Hot yoga is great for aiding the healing of existing injuries and preventing new ones. For example, runners often suffer from tight hamstrings and hips and hot yoga helps to stretch and lengthen over-exerted muscles whilst strengthening and toning under-used ones.
The heat aspect
Performing yoga in a heated room allows the body to stretch and compress more deeply, easing muscles and joints. Not only does hot yoga stretch, strengthen and tone the muscles in your body, it also massages the internal organs too. In addition to this the heart, lungs and circulatory system are required to work harder, giving you a cardio vascular workout.
The warmth also promotes detoxification through sweating so during class your body burns fat more effectively with your metabolism speeding up the breakdown of glucose and fatty acids.
So, if even if you thought hot yoga wasn’t for you; why not come along and give it a try?
New customers to Ella & Fleur Hot Yoga can take advantage of our fabulous introductory offer!
30 days unlimited yoga for only £39