The heat is on
yoga, heat yoga
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When I previously blogged about yoga back in March, Fitster slizzard suggested that I try heat yoga. I had heard good things about it and wanted to try it sometime.
As it turned out, World Gym Paramus is now offering a heat yoga class on Saturday mornings, and today I finally had a chance to try it.
The class runs for an hour and a half with the room heated to 85 degrees. One of the regular participants in my Friday morning class was also in this class, and before the class I asked him how they compared. He said he liked them both, for different reasons. He said that while he found our Friday morning instructor, Karen, to be "more athletic," he considered this instructor "more sensual," and that he found the heat yoga class cleared his head more.
Well, I found this class to be plenty athletic, with lots of planks and other core exercises. And with the extra half hour, it was a pretty intense workout.
A couple of cautions: If you try it, be sure to bring water, because you're going to sweat like a pig. Also, make a pit stop immediately before the class begins, because your bladder will be screaming in no time!
My verdict? I enjoyed the class. It was a nice change of pace from my regular routine, but I don't think I'll be doing it on a regular basis.
In my previous blog, I described yoga as "the perfect warmup." I said I found that the regular hatha class energized me for the rest of the day.
The heat yoga, on the other hand, completely sapped my energy. I didn't feel like doing any more exercise afterwards. It was like exercising in the sauna.
I'm glad I tried the heat yoga, but with a limited amount of time available to work out, I think my time is better spent on weight training and cardio.
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on 6/14/2008
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