The only reason I can find for anyone to exercise in extreme heat is to become acclimatized to heat for an upcoming competition or sporting event that must happen in the heat.
As you train in the heat your body learns to sweat more, and start sweating much sooner to counteract the increase in body temperature. Sweating rate can more than double and your sweat also becomes more dilute. This means there is less salt in your sweat as your body needs to keep the salt in your blood to keep your blood volume up. With repeated hot training sessions your body can make these adaptations in about 14 days.
You should gradually increase the temperature and time spent in these sessions to allow your body to adapt properly. None of this however means you are any healthier, or working out harder, or releasing 'toxins' (as we have discussed previously, your body does not sweat out toxins, this is flatly false). These changes are just your body getting ready to deal with the next workout in the heat. That's it. You will be just as fit or unfit as you were before you started hanging around in hot rooms.
The only thing that can have a real effect on your fitness is doing real exercise. Forcing your heat to work harder by sweating too much actually makes you fatigue faster, it also decreases your ability to exercise and makes the workouts feel harder than they really are.
I think this is the whole marketing angle behind these 'hot' workouts. You sweat a lot, your heart rate goes up from excessive fluid loss, and you feel like the workout was harder. Sounds like a convenient way to make people feel like they are getting a tough workout without actually working out that hard at all. After all everyone is looking for a quick fix and an easy way out. Adding the element of heat to any workout can trick you into thinking you've had a much harder and productive workout than you actually have.
There do seem to be some benefits to yoga as it can get people to calm their minds and take time away from their busy days. The ritual itself may be the most important and effective tool for helping people de-stress. An environment that promotes calm relaxation, and focused attention on our mind and body can be good for all of us in our busy lives. And all the benefits of yoga can be achieved without forcing yourself to sweat like crazy in a hot room.
The ridiculous claims about the benefits of hot yoga that can be found on the internet are largely unproven by science and in some cases categorically wrong and misleading. The basic idea of exercising in a hot environment presents a considerable risk for dehydration and heat stroke and upon discussing with physiologists I found no good reason to do this unless you are trying to be acclimatized to exercising in hot environments for a specific competition.
Yoga is a great way to de-stress and get in touch with yourself. Exercising in extreme hot conditions presents a serious risk of dehydration and potential for heat illness if the proper precautions are not taken. These are just points to consider when choosing to exercise in excessive heat weather it be yoga or any other exercise.
John Barban is a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and a varsity strength and conditioning coach. His trademarked 6minuteCircuits.com 6minuteCircuits.com Circuit Training Workouts have helped thousands of women with weight loss and fat burning in less than 45 minutes three times per week. [grrlathlete.com] John's female sports training articles will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment. You can ask John a question on the grrlathlete.freeforums.org grrlathlete.freeforums.org a womens workout forum to help you lose fat and get in shape with circuit training and nutrition.
No comments:
Post a Comment