Too hot to handle?
Yoga purists aren't big fans of Choudhury. "The purpose of yoga is to relax the sympathetic nervous system to disengage the fight-or-flight instinct and that's difficult when you're working out and sweating," says Patricia Lamb Feuerstein, research director for the International Association of Yoga Therapists. The high heat concerns her, as well. "We've had one confirmed report of a hot-yoga student suffering a stroke," Feuerstein says. "People in those classes may get nauseated and be told it's 'purification.' It's not-it's usually heat prostration."
Baloney, says Lawrence E. Armstrong, PhD, author of Performing in Extreme Environments and a professor of exercise physiology at the University of Connecticut. He's spent thousands of hours observing survival training and superheated treadmill tests, and all the scare stories about hot yoga, he says, are just, well, a lot of hot air. "Temperatures of 95, 96, 100 degrees are manageable," says Armstrong, who practices yoga himself and has observed hot-yoga classes. The key, he says, is to make sure you're medically cleared for normal athletic activity and aren't a high cardiac risk. "Your normal core body temperature is already 98.6," he explains, "so as long as the exercise intensity is not high, it's not dangerous to function in an environment that hot or a little hotter."
Yeah, but how about that 126 class Pier was boasting about? "Okay, that's extreme," Armstrong concedes. "You could be getting close to your body's max for cooling itself, so you have to monitor yourself." Watch out for nausea, dizziness, headache, or weakness, he says. And above all, stay calm. "The tenser you get, the more you contract your muscles," Armstrong says, "and that increases muscle heat production."
It's for precisely that reason, says Pier, that Bikram repeats the same 26 postures every class. "Repetition is calming," he says. "It helps ease the tension of the unknown and allows your body to get usedto the heat." That's why, in the middle of our class, he keeps calling for everyone to show him a "happy, smiling face." To drive his point home, he starts distracting us by kicking big, yellow smiley-face balls all over the room.
Being one of the people on the receiving end of a ball, I'm starting to see his point. Once I start to relax a little, the heat isn't making me feel so heavy-limbed and claustrophobic. I also notice that even the more experienced students aren't hesitating to cool down for a few seconds in the lounge. Once back in the room, your muscles retain their heat, but now your head is clear enough for you to hold balance and mimic the postures.
"Tough today, isn't it?" says John Fries, a 48-year-old carpenter who's lean and ripped enough to pass for a 20-year-old soccer player. He rolls a bottle of cold water over his forehead as he tells me he's a real lumber-hauling, belt-wearing carpenter, not some contractor who parks his ass in an office all day. But that's why he loves hot yoga: It gives him more energy after a hard day's work, not less. "I've got guys working with me who are 23, 24 years old, and I'm running circles around them. Because of yoga, I can work down on my knees all day, get up and down ladders, no problem."
With the end of the class approaching, it's time for the "cobra series": Lie on your stomach with palms down as if to do a pushup, then raise your chest off the floor so your back is arched. I'm tired and dying to call it quits, but once we begin, I feel a thrill fighting through the fatigue. I've got a chronically crappy back that generally lands me at the chiropractor's office after an especially tough marathon season. Now, I can almost hear my vertebrae loosening, cracking, like they're being broken out of concrete.
It feels exactly the way you always think you're going to feel when you get out of a hot tub, but never do. In a word, great. I've been to dozens of other yoga classes, but this time, I feel as if my well-warmed muscles are accepting the stretch, enjoying it, instead of straining like a frayed fan belt. Suddenly I don't care if the class goes on another hour. "Push until it hurts like hell," Pier is saying. "With a happy, smiling face."
» Fitness archive
Men's Health Philippines - July 2005 Issue
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"Okay, now hold that position while we bring out the jump ropes." |
