Don't try this at home: Thoughts on home-alone hot yoga
People always ask me, which hot yoga poses can I do at home?
My answer: the ones you want to injure yourself in.
There's a reason hot yoga is best practiced in community.
First, of course, there is the heat and humidity. Your yoga studio has the edge here, knowing just how to mix the two to provide your body with the best possible conditions for mastering the 26 poses. You can steam up your bathroom, get a space heater, put on layers of clothing....it's just not enough.
Because I'm not just talking room temperature; many other things make hot yoga better at the studio.
Take for instance the watchful eye of your teacher. Think you can't get hurt in yoga? Think again...
Let's face it: you can get hurt walking across the street. Hot yoga is no more dangerous than walking. But even walking takes coordination, especially in unusual conditions (tried walking on icy sidewalks lately? Did you know there is a right way and a dangerous way? Don't you wish someone showed you before you fell?)
Hot yoga can be slippery. Consider that many poses need a delicate alignment of the spine (every pose) a reminder to lock the leg (no, you are not locked yet), and encouragement to breathe (every moment). It's true that slipped move can mean a slipped disc (thank goodness we don't do Headstand or Shoulderstand, two poses that require perfect weight distribution to avoid a perfect storm)
You need to hear those careful cues and have your loving hot yoga teacher scold, "Take the pressure off your head in Rabbit!"
And then there is the intangible element: the energy of yoga. You know what I mean.
The feeling that you are lifted up and carried along on energy that is more than just your own:that moment when you realize class is over and you don't remember how it happened. The moment when struggle gives way to either exhaustion or relaxation - either way, you are soaring. It's one part you - and many parts all the others in the room with you. They give exactly the support you need.
And you thought they were there to practice hot yoga.
Here's what one of our students - a teacher trainee who is required to practice three times weekly and slipped in a few self-taught home-hot-classes - noted about her recent "practice alone" with only her own script-recorded voice:
It was an interesting practice: I realized how much harder it was for me to focus onto my mat while listening to my own voice (versus letting someone else's voice monologue in my head for 90 minutes).
I actually mid-practice stopped the recording and put on Gabrielle's hot yoga audio class instead... for some reason, I just couldn't continue with my own voice.
(To be honest, switching the recording only helped a little bit, but it was worth the try..)
The back strengthening series was -eh. I was trying to TRY yet knowing my legs felt like timber because my mind wasn't with my body.
I've been doing using my own recordings as a way of reinforcing my scripting, trying to be effective with both my practice and my training, and it's worked quite well for that these past few months.
However it is true that today, this specific day, it was an endless battle for me to return my attention to my recording versus letting it wonder off into its day dreaming thoughts. ...
Be happy to lose this battle - get yourself to hot yoga class.
Be like the old-time postal workers: neither snow nor rain nor locusts nor family responsibilities and ornery bosses (especially if you're self-employed) can keep you from the practice of feeling alive and renewed that only your hot yoga classes can offer.
Don't go it alone - there is great support here for you and all you need do is show up. Because we've always got a warm spot for you.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Reader Comments (10)
I have always been jealous of anyone who can practice any exercise routine at home. I would love to be able to do that however feel that I can never get a good workout when not pushed in a room with everyone else. Yes you may be following an instructor on TV however they are not there with you, pushing you and helping you to get the pose right and minimize the possibility of injuries. When at home you do not get the physical or emotional energy of everyone else in the room and you sure as heck are not going to give up when in a class with 20 other people. There is that sense of competition and if you can do it I can do it. You always feel 500% better after working out with a group than working out on your own.
Completely agree, Gabby. From the yoga viewpoint, the teacher is your guide to enlightenment which makes him or her your all-important friend in the present moment. Direct transmission from teacher to student is absolutely necessary. These days that transmission can be live on SKYPE or in person, but live is the key: things only happen in the present moment, they cannot take place in the past and the future is not here. When your teacher is present, and you are full present with im or her, you experience the fullness of the lesson.
I agree with both of you. I cant imagine trying to do a 90 minute class alone in my living room with a recording. Whether it was my voice or someone else! I know that my heart would not be in it. The energy that is so present in a hot yoga room full of people would not be in it. I understand what that teacher trainee meant about trying to try, and how can you get any kind of mind/body/meditation/connection if you are having to try to try? You cant. I'll stick with the studio. Where the phone cant ring, the family cant walk in, no interruptions, like it should be :)
I have always been the kind of person that enjoys being around people when doing any form of exercise. I can't imagine doing it alone. I love the energy that comes from other people. It's not just having the instruction but when I see someone doing a pose really well, it pushes me want to do be better and achieve that! And like Kim, being somewhere away from the phone and no interruptions is also very key for me to be present in the room!!!
Yes, there is the studio, the teacher, the learning something new about each pose, the cool environment and the warm encouragement of a caring community of lovely hot yoga students....all wonderful! Yet most people agree Heather and Kim, that the hidden gift of practicing hot yoga at the studio is the mandatory shut-off of phones, other people's intrusions, and your own mind as you close off all the little distractions of your everyday life.
One hot yoga class/$20.
90 minutes to feel your limitless possibilities and capabilities: priceless.
Re-reading this blog today the paragraph about the mailman jumped out at me. I celebrate the fact that I perservered and attended my regular hot yoga classes throughout this past entire freezing cold winter! I got there pretty much no matter what the weather. I cant say that I've done that for other things in my life, including work!! lol
Always wonderful to find another reason to celebrate yourself, Kim....perhaps our practice of stating our Three Victories on our TT Coaching Calls is indeed beginning to infuse your life with appreciation of yourself.
Gah! Take out that miserable endnote though - the part about "cant say I've done that for other things in my life." - unless this is truly the note you want to be left with. Remember our little Alan Watts video from the PrePaving assignment: the END NOTE is not the point so dont be so quick to summarize especially with your "faults" ...life is a musical thing and you're supposed to dance.
..."life is a music thing and you're supposed to dance…" :)
I tried to do hot yoga at home in the beginning of Teacher Training. I set up my heaters, dimmed the lights, laid out my mat, tuned into a recording of Bikram teaching his hot-26 to TT's in LA…and let's just say my practice dive-bombed a few minutes after Pranayama. I just wasn't into it. The energy was missing, completely. The commanding voice of a watchful teacher was missing. The intense heat and humidity, completely missing. It wasn't hot yoga, and I wasn't into it.
There's a reason we coalesce to practice this yoga together - and it is a many-layered, beautiful reason. I'll keep my studio and all the peace associated with it, thank you for very much :)
We'll keep you, too, Grace!
Many yogis have an at-home practice. They all say takes discipline... which always sounds to me like a lot less fun than being in community.
Especially with a hot yoga practice, being in a group and under the watchful eye of the teacher as well as the regulated heat and humidity...it all adds to the magic. Each ingredient counts....including you.
I also completely agree everyone should try different yoga poses with the help of instructors specially the beginners.