The primary emphasis of Yoga is overall well-being. It teaches it’s yogi’s a lifestyle and way of thinking. Yoga relieves stress, fatigue, improves invigoration and vitality and has anti-aging properties. Part of my fitness plan and over-all well-being plan is to incorporate yoga into my life. I am currently doing one day a week of HOT YOGA at Earth Yoga in NYC. Earth hosts a bunch of hot yoga classes that last anywhere from 60 minutes to 90 minutes.
Hot Yoga or Bikram Yoga is Yoga done in a hot room usually around 100 degrees and 40% humidity. Any exercise program focuses on warming up our bodies before vigorous activity. The temperature of the yoga room is similar to our body's own temperature. This accelerates improvement in many of the benefits of your yoga practice. Regular exercisers recognize that peak performance occurs when fully warmed up and your body generates heat from the inside radiating out and into your muscles
The heat means we can get into postures more deeply and effectively - plus the benefits of the postures come quickly. Like thousands before you, you will find that practicing yoga in the warm room creates a satisfying and almost addictive feeling of achievement.
The benefits are many:
1. Your body burns fat more effectively, fat may be redistributed and burned as energy during the class. It is common to lose inches of shape in a very short time
2. The heat produces a fluid-like stretch allowing for greater range of movement in joints, muscles, ligaments and other supporting structures of the body
3. Capillaries dilate in the heat; more effectively oxygenating the tissues, muscles, glands and organs and helping in the removal of waste products
4. Your peripheral circulation improves due to enhanced perfusion of your extremities
5. Your metabolism speeds up the breakdown of glucose and fatty acids
6. You benefit from a strengthening of willpower, self control, concentration and determination in this challenging environment
7. Your cardiovascular system gets a thorough workout
8. Your muscles and connective tissue become more elastic and allow for greater flexibility with less chance of injury and improved resolution of injury
9. Sweating promotes detoxification and elimination through the skin - which is the body's largest eliminating organ
10. Just as when your body raises its temperature to fight infection, the raised temperature in the room will assist in improving T-cell function and the proper functioning of your immune system
11. Your nervous system function is greatly improved and messages are carried more efficiently to and from your brain
12. Metabolism improves in your digestive system and in the body's cells (that is food in the gut and nutrients in the cells)
Many of my friends do yoga one day a week and some do it every day of the week. Yoga is something I love having in my work-out routine both for the physical and mental benefits!
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