Why Hot Yoga will outlast us all
Will hot yoga outlast Peak Fitness and other crazes from aerobics to step-class?
For years I experimented with different forms of physical conditioning - everything from swimming at the Y to weight training at home (an exercise physiologist friend prepared a personalized weight training regimen tailored for my size, shape and age.)
What they all had in common: I was bored.
I dreaded doing it. I played music, put on the TV, anything to distract me from the drudgery (now I see people riding stationary bikes or treadmilling-it at the gym while watching little personal-sized TV screens. I feel their pain).
I was tuning out while I was trying to tune up. Something about this just didn't fit my idea of whole-self health...
And so I returned again and again to yoga, the practice I started at age 14.
Yoga proved to be the one practice that engaged my mind and spirit while moving my body. For yoga, I didnt need to disengage in order to stay focused on the pure joy of it; I looked forward to yoga in a way that nothing else in the exercise world matched.
I hear from many Riverflow Yoga students that they, too, look forward to their 90 minutes of hot yoga, despite the heat and the sweat of Rhonda's Torture Chamber. It is the one time in the day they get to completely relax while also working the body at maximum effort.
Relaxing at 100% effort? Is that conundrum even even possible?
Hot yoga makes the impossible practical; in fact that's exactly what hot yoga is all about.
And not just in the hot yoga room, either.
The heat, the humidity, the teacher's detailed instructions - your mind lets go of all other thoughts which are usually exactly what's holding you back - all those limiting thoughts about your ability - and you learn that you are indeed capable of a lot more than you thought. In fact, in hot yoga, you live it here first; then outside in your life beyond the studio.
What a relief it is to see that you really are spectacular after all.
It's my opinion after 40+plus years of yoga that if you dread something, it won't serve you. That goes for diet, your job, your exercise routine and more.
If you push yourself to go to the gym or run that extra mile and you continue pushing "through" it, only enjoying the feeling when it's over, you are not getting any benefits at all. None. Zip. Nada. No matter if you measure your heart rate and it goes up. Your spirit sinks.
Spirit is stronger than body. When your spirit is empty, you are simply not allowing any benefits in.
Mind, body, and spirit really are completely intertwined - just as the yogis said.
So next time you're looking at yourself in the mirror in hot yoga, engage your spirit in the moment. It's easy - just smile. Find something to appreciate - hey, you're here! Look around the room - you're one of a special few (our room only accomodates 30 people). You felt good enough about yourself to bring yourself here to hot yoga. Look forward to how amazing you'll feel tomorrow morning. Especially when a pose is hard - a smile softens everything, body, mind and spirit.
And that makes a smile the very highest form of peak physical conditioning there is.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Reader Comments (9)
It is really interesting to be in the hot yoga room, kind of like time is suspended. I never regret gong to hot yoga--if anything, when I miss a class, I feel a sense of loss. There is something very eternal about yoga in general and hot yoga ramps up the "OMG I am here, it is now" realization. It is pretty hard to think about anything else, which for me, is a relief. Thank you, Rhonda and all of the teachers, for your generous and focused teaching.
Ain't that the truth: the less you "think" about things the better you feel. In hot yoga you can't think about anything - the heat, the sweat, the instructions - you just have to be fully present to do it at all. Isn't it odd that we put so much weight into "thinking things through" when hot yoga shows us that "being here now" is what it's all about...
One of the many things I love about hot yoga is getting lost in the moment and being totally present...two opposites at the same time...
I always come away from class in a totally different place from where I entered....a more centered, balanced space. Feeling absolutely accomplished. It truly is a 90 minute "awake" meditation. I am so grateful to have this in my life.
Yes, Kat, isn't it interesting? Getting "lost" in hot yoga is way different from tuning out watching TV - perhaps we should call it getting found...
One of the things I love most about teaching is watching my students in their element, totally focused, hitting their sweet spot in a pose---the look on their face while in the most un-understood sense of bliss (known only to us hot yogis). I feel their spirit and it lifts me. The number of victories that occur in one 90-min class are unending--it is one of the most powerful things I've ever encountered.
It's one of the best kept secrets about being a hot yoga teacher: you truly FEEL the victories your students have in the hot yoga room and that feeling is indescribably delicious. The other day, a longtime student came out glowing and exclaimed, "I grabbed under my foot and held my balance the full 60 seconds for the first time!" She looked like a kid who just rode her two-wheeler without her dad holding on for the first time. Both of us felt like that that child again. Priceless.
As a teacher in other fields, yes, you feel successful when you're students are successful! And everyone smiles!
I like thinking that smiling is the peak of physical fitness - it's so easy and when you do it, it's fun! I've always avoid the gym for that exact reason, all the scowling, frowning faces! I love coming to class with the goal to smile - and I always smile more when others are smiling. The smile indicates that we're present and we're going to our extremes, whatever they may be. Hot yoga is a community of smilers - that's why we're not a gym! And that's what I want to be part of.
Isn't it cool that there is a physical connection between smiling and what goes on in your body? How smiling physically relaxes you as it vibrationally lifts you and others around you....no training or getting in shape necessary. Everyone is born with this healing ability; maybe that's why everyone thrills at a baby's smiles.
Smiling instantly makes you feel better especially if you're at the breaking point of a pose. I was dying in triangle during the last class I took and opted to smile rather than let the breaking point overtake me. It worked, because in an instant, I heard the word CHANGE.