Flow-style yoga exercises sessions include shifting from one pose to another through a sequence known as vinyasa, in which you shift to cedar present, down through high-to-low push-up, and up to cobra present and downward-facing dog. Vinyasa allows your muscle tissue remain heated and versatile, but some people the series exhausting and would rather just do personal presents, one after another, without the conversion.

Maitland Health Expert

While I like the flow of a vinyasa sequence. Nothing for me has ever beat the way I feel after/during a hot yoga class. I don't know if its the heat or the intensity or just my brain ceasing to jibber jabber for a bit. I'm a sweaty hot yoga fiend.

Hot Yoga has been my best experience so far. The heat and humidity create an environment that allows your muscles to open safely and practice concentration amid all of the distractions of mind and environment (sweat, heat & humidity).

I have had the opportunity to take flow-style yoga where I felt like I got an all-over work-out but it was never consistent and the style seems to be open to a lot of interpretation. One class would be a great experience and in the next class the teacher would spend 20 minutes on inversions and I would leave feeling more frustrated then when I walked into class. I have always gotten to most out of Hot Yoga- physically and mentally.

I love flow classes, but more for the "fun" they provide. Hatha yoga allows you to completely focus all physical, mental, emotional elements on a single pose while you hold it and go deeper (rather than focusing on a flow in vinyasa or power). I’ve found exhaustion in hot yoga classes the hardest to conquer of all types of yoga I’ve tried. Hot yoga classes leave me feeling on top of the world and non-heated, challenging hatha classes leave me so blissed out…much more so than in a power/vinyasa class.

I love all kinds of yoga, but when I leave vinyasa flow classes, sometimes I feel like I need more, or have to go for a run...
After hot yoga I feel content head to toe.

I have to admit that when I've been concentrating on hot yoga exclusively for long periods of time, I start to get antsy for Jivamukti and other "vinyasa flow"-type classes... There's something about the graceful acrobatics of these styles--arm balances! headstands!--that gratifies the pudgy little girl in me who could never do gymnastics and was actually advised by her instructors to quit as a hopeless cause...

But I'm with Amy (yet again! we seem to have similar perspectives!)--only hot yoga makes me feel content head-to-toe--nothing else needs stretching, everything is in balance, and all is right in the world.