NEW YORK: When it comes to yoga, some
like it hot but not too hot. So yoga studios and fitness centers are finessing
the tenets of hot yoga as set forth by the master, to find the middle way.
"Some people are turned off by the heat, some people are addicted
straight off the bat," said Brooke Eddey, a hot yoga instructor at Crunch, the
national chain of fitness centers. "Our room is around 32°C (If it gets too
hot, I turn it off." Such thermal flexibility would be anathema to the strict
followers of hot yoga guru Bikram Choudhury, who keeps a firm grip on both
thermostat and sequence at his nearly 500 studios franchised worldwide.
A Bikram yoga room is heated to a steamy 40.5°C, with a
humidity of 40%. Even the founder calls them torture chambers. "The heat helps
you to stretch safely and has its own detoxifying benefits," explained Ainslie
Faust, spokesperson for Bikram's Yoga College of India, in Los Angeles,
California. Faust said Bikram's series of 26 postures were selected because they
are the most healing poses for the common problems of people living in the
Western world.
Fabio Comana, an exercise physiologist with the
American Council on Exercise, believes exercising in extreme heat can be
dangerous.
"You may think it's purifying and cleansing but you have
to respect the physiology of the body," he said.
"The human body is
designed to tolerate temperatures between 36 and 37.7°C. It's not designed
to go outside those numbers," he said.
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