Heated Yoga Benefits: From Flexibility to Mental Clarity

Written by: Elise Rehberg

Yoga asks you to stretch, balance, push, pull, and immerse your thoughts into the moment

Deepen the Experience by Increasing the Heat

In hot yoga, studios set temperatures at 90-105 degrees to intensify the practice and the benefits. Hot yoga benefits include improved health, enhanced movement, mind alignment, and a sense of renewal.

Move With Meaning

Build your strength through yoga sequences:

• Holding a pose builds muscle endurance and stronger tendons and ligaments, promoting joint stability
• Deep breathing strengthens respiratory muscles, transporting more oxygen into your bloodstream, giving you more energy
• Fluid transitions and flows challenge your tension, balance, and body awareness 

Increase your flexibility with yoga poses:

• Practicing in a hot room warms up your muscles for access to a full range of motion—freely explore and open into twists, bends, and extensions
• Yoga calms the autonomic nervous system (the unconscious physiological processes), letting your muscles release for a deeper stretch 
• Yoga improves and repairs muscle fascia, making your whole body more elastic

Focus Your Flow, Align Your Mind

Hot yoga connects movement and breath, clearing your mind and reducing stress:

• Settle into serenity: breathing exercises slow your heart rate, signalling your body to calm down and find relaxation
• Step away from the commotion of daily life and concentrate on the present. Yoga pulls your attention to the motion on the mat and breath in your body

Sweat It Out: A Ritual of Release

Sweating in a hot yoga class is not only expected, but is welcomed. There are unique physiological benefits to getting sweaty in hot yoga that you’ll feel long after you roll up the mat.

Boost your circulation: 

• • Hot yoga increases your heart rate, intensifying the practice and improving cardiovascular health

• Blood vessels dilate to even further increase blood flow. Paired with deep breathing, your bloodstream delivers more oxygen to muscles and organs

• Hot yoga stimulates lymphatic drainage, supporting your immune system and reducing inflammation

Build heat resistance:

• Hot yoga introduces beneficial hormetic stressors to your body, stimulating the body’s defense mechanisms
• Your body responds by developing physiological adaptations, increasing your body and brain resiliency

Keep your cool: 

• Use heat, movement, and breath to activate your body’s parasympathetic response. This helps your body relax and remain calm, even outside of the studio
• Hot yoga trains your body’s nervous system under stress, for better emotional regulation, reduced anxiety and depression, and sharpened brain function 

Come Move With Us

Balancing energy with serenity, your yoga practice evolves with you. Whether you’re a long-time yoga practitioner or joining your first yoga class at Bouldering Project, we’ve got you covered:

• Chat with the instructor! They can provide modifications and recommendations to adapt the practice to your needs, and answer any questions you have  
• You’ve got the movement, we’ll give you the tools: grab a yoga mat and props at our studio
• Find the class for you: every yoga instructor, class, and studio is uniquely special. From calm restorative yoga to challenging hot power flow, join the class that serves you

You’ll feel yoga from head to toes:

• Yoga challenges the whole body, making it a great stand-alone workout as well as additional exercise for strength and sport performance
  • Try pairing a yoga class with your training session for a complete warm up or a restful cool down
• Stay hydrated: Hot yoga gets sweaty – replenish fluids and electrolytes by drinking water!
• Whether it leads to a dynamic day or restful sleep, one of the most appreciated aspects of yoga is the feelings of peace and accomplishment following a yoga practice

An Interconnected Community

We move together, breathe together, and find purpose together. Being with others makes the practice of yoga more meaningful, and the shared experience builds a sense of understanding and belonging with the people around you.