Before You Step Into the Heat:
- Hot yoga is more than sweat. It’s a mental, physical, and spiritual challenge you work through all at once.
- The heat gets your blood moving which gives tight, bound-up, muscles additional support in release.
- The 26 and 2 sequence was built, on purpose, for Western lifestyles and bodies that essentially sit hunched over all day.
- Breath is what ties the heat and the healing together.
- Done consistently and intelligently, the heat can be one of the best things you do for a stiff or stressed body. Done carelessly, it can be too much. The difference is how you use, and relate, to it.
It Starts the Moment You Walk In
Walking into a hot yoga room challenges your body and mind the second the door closes, but that heat is exactly what melts away the tension you carry every day.
From the second you walk in to the second you walk out, you’re in an environment that’s different from anything your body is used to. You’re putting yourself into challenge, into adversity, into a spot where you must adapt. Once you adapt, the room becomes a kind of kiln; a crucible. It burns away all the things you are not.
So, it’s a LOT more than sweat and exercise. You have to prepare yourself to stay, because at some point it’s going to feel like, Geez, I can’t do anymore, it’s too hot, I can’t breathe. In that moment, you’ve got decisions to make. Somebody who’s been at it a while knows it isn’t forever. If you’re brand new, that can feel like an eternity.
I get a phone call about this at least once a week here in Greensboro, somebody genuinely worried their body can’t handle the heat. Here’s what I tell them. Hot yoga is a mental challenge, a spiritual challenge, and a physical challenge, and you’re working through all of them at once. It’s great for a lot of people; however, it’s not for everybody, and the only way to find out is to come see how you react and or acclimate.
Why the Heat Gets Everything Moving
The heat gets your blood moving, and that’s where the good stuff starts. When the room gets hot, your body works to push that heat back out, so everything opens up and your circulation picks up. Through the movements, especially the 26 and 2 postures, you start getting flow into the tissues and joints; over time, event the spots that have been bound up. If you’ve got a tight, adhered muscle, the heat brings warmth, movement, and circulation to those stuck places, eventually letting them release.
The way I describe it is simple. You’re melting all the sticky spots in your body so the blood can move. Think about a clogged pipe, and how the water has trouble getting through or not at all. These things are relatively easy to remove, but while they’re occluded there are a lot of things that can go wrong; I’ll leave that visual up to your imagination. One specific method we utilize to increase circulation is the tourniquet effect. Imagine a garden hose that’s kinked; the pressure builds up behind it. Unkink it, and it flows easy again, and with an added burst at the beginning. This increases circulation to the distal points of your limbs, and to other areas where bound tissues is restricting flows That’s what the heat is doing inside you.
This is also why I say the heat doesn’t really make you flexible. It restores your ability to open. Think about taffy. Cold taffy is hard and stiff. The more heat it gets, the softer and more workable it becomes, and that’s your body in the room. Every body has its own stuck points, so everybody opens a little differently. But the practice will slowly open most anybody up, as long as there’s nothing medically contraindicated for your attendance in the first place.
What the Heat Builds Over Time
Here’s what I’ve come to understand over years in the room: the heat is doing more for you than you can feel in any single class. From what I’ve seen, putting your body under that kind of heat, in the right amount, seems to help it run and recover better over time. What you need to know is that the body adapts to the heat, and that’s a big part of why people keep feeling better the longer they stick with it. I’m not going to give you a science lecture, because you don’t need the technicals of it.
That said, more is not always better. You can overdo it with heat. It has to be used in the right amount for you, not pushed to where it becomes too much, and that’s an individual thing. I had an 81-year-old woman come in once. After talking with her, I realized she was actually very well conditioned, so I told her to come for a few classes and we’d go from there. She did great.
No good practitioner just looks at you and says yeah, do this. You ask questions, you learn the person. Used the right way, for the right person, the heat can be really good for you. I know it was for me, and it still is.
Nothing About This Sequence Is Random
The 26 and 2 sequence wasn’t thrown together. It was built for the Western body, for the way we live hunched over and restricted all day. I often say 26 and 2 is really five spine movements done five different ways, with one twist and two breathing exercises. The whole class is built around moving the spine, over and over, with different parts of your body touching the ground. You’re basically resetting what modern life does to the body.
The practice was always meant to happen in a hot room, so the heat isn’t an add-on, it’s part of the design. The heat, the breath, the postures, and the order all work together, and you get more out of the combination than any one piece. That’s different from a lot of classes out there that are creative and cute just to be creative and cute.
I’m not saying this is the only thing that works. Other styles of yoga, even in a cool room, can do beautiful things if the person teaching really understands the body. I teach 26 and 2 because it’s what I connect with and what I’ve built my restorative work around, not because everything else is wrong. The best compliment I get is when two people with completely different bodies, one seasoned and one brand new, walk out of the same class both saying they got exactly what they needed.
Your Breath Is the Bridge
The breathing is what connects the heat to the healing. There are two breathing exercises and they bookend the class, and they’re opposites. The first one, at the beginning, opens up your lungs, warms you from the inside, and gets you into the practice sooner. We do it together, and there’s something about everybody breathing as one that carries its own kind of healing.
My favorite moment is breath number 17. It’s like I can feel a pin drop. The whole room settles into the same rhythm, and you can feel the group come together. That opening breath is also the first thing that starts lengthening the spine for everything after it.
The closing breath is the opposite energy. Where the first breath is slow and steady, expansive, and heating; the last one is a strong, deliberate, stoccatoed exhale, all the while the inhale passively happens on its own. The first breath warms you up. The last one cools you down and clears you out, like you’re puffing out everything the practice stirred loose; admittedly, I only feel it as a little coolness on the back of my throat. If it doesn’t click in your first couple of classes, that’s normal. A good, and wise, teacher just keeps explaining it in different ways until it lands.
Is Hot Yoga Too Much If You’re Already in Pain?
This is the question I hear most from people dealing with stiffness, an old injury, or inflammation, and here’s the honest answer. Some of the people who got the most out of this practice came to me hurting in the first place. In the beginning, it is a dance, and sometimes trial and error, but over time people find their groove. I’ll be honest, though, my high achievers are often the same ones who overdo it and end up sore. Over the years I’ve watched people calm a lot of that down, or let it go, and feel real relief in their backs and joints by learning to use the room in the right ways.
So when is it actually good for a body in pain? When it’s used and built up intelligently, based on what’s going on with you. If you’re the type to overdo it, we don’t start you at the top. We start lower and work up, and that takes time, which is part of the practice anyway.
I think about it like training a tiger. When Roy got attacked all those years ago, he said it wasn’t the tiger’s fault, it was his. The heat is a powerful tool. It can do a lot of good, but it asks you to pay attention. Most of life we spend half-checked-out, and that’s part of how a lot of us got stiff and run-down in the first place, and that can also cause setbacks in practice. The Hot room asks you to show up fully and be present; that awareness is its own kind of healing.
Why I Call the Room a Sanctuary
At DIVO Wellness we call the hot yoga room, The Sanctuary. When I say sanctuary, I mean it. It will reveal the truth about yourself, to yourself, and can be one of the most useful things it does. If you didn’t sleep, didn’t hydrate, didn’t take care of yourself, you’ll feel it in there fast. That’s not punishment, it’s information. Here’s what the heat is good at showing you:
✦ Whether you’re hydrated, rested, and taking care of yourself well enough to function
✦ Where your real limits are, what you can handle and what you can’t yet
✦ How conditioned you actually are, not how conditioned you think you are
✦ How stress is hitting you, whether it’s draining you or building you up
You don’t learn any of that without showing up regularly and facing the challenges first. So you’re not really coming to hot yoga just so your body feels good for an hour. You’re coming to see what’s getting in the way of you feeling good for the rest of your day, your week, your month, even your life. The physical changes come, but it’s the mind, body, and spirit being worked upon, and you eventually have to work all three to achieve your highest levels of healing and performance.
A single class feels good for a little while. Keep showing up for months and it becomes something else. The 26&2 practice stays the same, but you come to it a little different every day, and that’s how you start to really know yourself. My heart sings when I walk into that room, good day or bad day. A sanctuary, in the truest sense, is just a place where healing happens. So much space has been held and healing happened that there is a wealth of support no matter where you are in the process. In class I frequently remind people that there is much healing to be had from this room, if only they open to it; but truly they are also adding to the healing energies through their practice: give a little, take a little, or as much as you need, really. What goes around comes around the Sanctuary, and we have some of the coolest humans you’ll ever meet.
Movement is the way. Heat is one of the tools we use to help the body remember how to open, recover, and heal. If you are in Greensboro, NC and you are curious about hot yoga but nervous about the heat, I would rather you start intelligently than stay away because you think it has to be brutal.
Come in. Take one class. Let us see how your body responds. Then we build from there.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I do hot yoga if I’m not good with heat?
In most cases yes, but the only way to know for sure is to come try one class and see how your body reacts. If you have a medically contraindicated condition, you must seek approval from your medical professional first. Hot yoga is wonderful for a lot of people and it isn’t right for everybody, and I’d much rather have you find out with me there to guide you than talk yourself out of it from your couch.
Is hot yoga safe if I’m dealing with pain, stiffness, or an old injury?
Hot yoga can be safe and even helpful for pain, stiffness, and old injuries, as long as it’s built up gradually. If you tend to overdo it, we don’t start you at full intensity, we start lower and build up over time based on what’s going on with your body. The room asks you to pay attention, and that awareness is a big part of why people in pain often feel better, not worse.
Will hot yoga make me more flexible?
Yes, most people do get more flexible with regular hot yoga. It’s less that the heat forces flexibility and more that it warms the body up so it can open the way it’s meant to, kind of like taffy softening. Everybody’s stuck points are different, so your opening will be your own, but with consistent practice almost anybody starts moving more freely.
How often should I do hot yoga?
That depends on a lot of factors and details unique to you right now, and part of our intake process to uncover these things, so we can guide you well. Ultimately, though, for real, lasting, change most people do best coming consistently over weeks and months rather than relying on a single class. A single class will leave you feeling good for a little while, but the deeper benefits show up when the body adapts and you start to know yourself in the room. I’d rather you build a steady, sustainable rhythm than burn yourself out trying to do too much too soon.
What should I expect in my first hot yoga class?
Expect heat that may feel intense at first, a sequence you can follow even as a beginner, and a teacher paying attention to how you’re doing, while also giving you feedback. I usually start newer folks at a milder level, but still based on their conditioning and familiarity. I check in with people after their first class to see how they felt after, as well as their recovery. Come in, tell us where you’re at, and we’ll meet you right there.
