Aha, so relaxation IS productive!

Once again, modern science catches up with ancient yoga. The latest good news: working more doesn't make you more productive... relaxing more does.

Yup - "easy does it" is not just a hot yoga instruction; it's a scientific fact.

As athletes understand especially well, the greater the performance demand, the greater the need for renewal. When we’re under pressure, however, most of us experience the opposite impulse: to push harder rather than rest. - Tony Schwartz, author

We love telling you this as you tell us that you missed hot yoga because you had to work overtime and it's tax season and you couldn't leave work til that project was completed and you just had too much to do and not enough time. You blame your busy schedule, and who could blame you? Here's what your life looks like:

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Vinyasa and Moksha and Bikram, Oh My! Or: How to stop worrying and enjoy hot yoga.

Is Riverflow Yoga the same path as Vinyasa Flow, Moksha or Bikram Yoga?

Nope, nope, and not quite.

What to do about the many forms of hot yoga? Dig in. Do you limit yourself to just one spice? If you enjoy garlic, are you forever banned from allspice?  Maybe not in the same recipe, but there's a delicious place for both, whenever you want. 

Do you have to swear loyalty to one hot yoga style or teacher?

Each hot yoga class, I say, "This was the best." Next class, I say it again. That's because I use hot yoga as my object of appreciation in that moment; my reason to feel good right now and my momentum for feeling better. I don't sweat it, and that's my wish for you: to savor your hot yoga and let it warm you from inside.

So - what can you expect to love about Riverflow hot yoga? CLICK HERE

Will the real Hot Yoga please stand up?

Hot yoga is challenging old ideas about yoga.

And you can't spell Challenge without Change.

Back in 1971 when I started doing yoga, people thought I was weird. Few people had heard of yoga and even fewer had ever practiced it. I got turned onto yoga when I heard a Zen Buddhist monk speak at a NY college. He spoke no English; his wife was translating his words. I don't recall what yoga he spoke about, but it was his demeanor that impressed me; he was at once shy and retiring, but exuded a strength and inner power that reached me in the back row of a huge college auditorium.

From there I found my own yoga access on an obscure cable TV station, mornings at 6AM, evenings at 11.

Fast forward 40 years, and yoga is a lot more flexible.

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Up Against the Wall, Hot Yogi

Have you hit a wall in hot yoga?

How will you get to the other side?

There is a particular volatile variety of hot yoga practitioners who prepare for the Yoga Asana Championships by joining what is unofficially called, The Backbending Club.

These backbenders not only do 2 or more hot yoga classes daily, they engage in the practice of Wall Walking: bending over backwards walking their hands down the wall until their faces hit the ground between their feet. The pain is intense, for hours on end, as much as 60 times a day.

What's the agonizing point?

For the wall walkers, pain is the point; to push themselves through the spasms and seizures that result from extreme backbending, and arrive at a singularly focused moment when all else disappears and are witness to a moment of their own limitlessness.

Is pushing against an obstacle the only way to break through?

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Hot Yoga Hits the Road

A guest blog post from our hot yoga teacher Carly Miller who, as an avid adventure traveler, cannot hit the road without knowing where her next hot yoga fix is coming from....here's why.

I’m the type of person who needs physical activity.

Sanity, balance, happiness, clarity, tolerance for rush hour - it all goes out the window if I’m not moving my body. It’s more than just the endorphin rush I crave. It’s an existential desire to exceed my limitations. I find my high in hot yoga and adventure travel.

SPIRITUAL MEETS PHYSICAL...

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