Beginner's Guide to Bikram Yoga (Or Hot Yoga) - What to Expect During Your 1st Class

Hot Yoga, formally known as Bikram Yoga, has become increasingly popular in the recent years. It's a great way to improve your health and can provide a new and exciting way to get fit (or even lose weight) in the fall, as it starts to get cold outside. Being in a room that is heated to 95-100 degrees can be a unique experience to those of us accustomed to working out in an air-conditioned gym.

Preparation for your first Bikram Yoga class might make you excited and anxious, for sure. Will I be able to hold the poses? What if my breathing technique is not correct? What if I get light headed? What if the temperature of the room makes my heart race?

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There are some steps you can take in advance to help you overcome this anxiety & set yourself up for success with yoga, regardless of what your fitness goals are. You can make these changes as soon as you decide to try hot yoga & continue following this guide as you become advanced.

Beginner's Guide to Bikram Yoga (Or Hot Yoga) - What to Expect During Your 1st Class

1. Get Used to Drinking a Lot of Water Prior to Working Out. Imagine doing your normal workout routine in the sauna room. Now, imagine doing yoga in the sauna room (literally), where you are having to hold a pose and look past the sweat, discomfort, and breathing. If yoga is your thing, you will eventually learn to love this, but if you are a beginner than make sure you don't add dehydration to the list. Drink plenty of water before you try hot yoga for the first time and you will be rewarded with a fabulous feeling afterwards.

2. Eat a Snack Before Class. Having a piece of wheat toast, a granola or energy bar, a banana, or some other healthy carb before your workout will give your body more energy & keep the water from swooshing around in your stomach as you change poses. Some instructors will tell you not to eat at all, but Fit Girl disagrees. For the sake of your own comfort, a piece of toast is not going to ruin your first yoga experience. Besides, you will burn a LOT more calories in one yoga class than that toast would contain. Keep your light snack under 150 calories. Any more than that and the heat will make you nauseous.

3. Bring a Towel. You will sweat a lot, as you expected. Your body will also burn calories like crazy because it will use energy to cool you down and bring your temperature back to normal. This is where fat burning comes in - if you eat a light breakfast and do hot yoga after that in the morning, chances are you burned most of your calories sleeping and you have a low supply available from your light morning snack. So, as soon as your body burns off that snack, it will go straight for the fat reserves you have been wanting to trim. Voila! If you do yoga at night, than try to eat your carb heavy meal in the morning, eat light for lunch, and have a snack 30 minutes before your hot yoga class.

4. Wear Tight Clothes. Put on a comfortable set of shorts that hug your thighs (not running shorts) and a sports bra or fitted tank top. As you sweat, you want your clothing to absorb it quickly, so you don't have puddles all around you. You also don't want to worry about giving anyone a peek at your undergarments and as you take new poses, tighter clothing with the right coverage will allow you to focus on your workout instead of your garments.

5. Share Your Experience. Yoga for beginners can be more enjoyable if you are not trying it alone. Since the popularity of Bikram yoga has grown so much in the recent years, there are many beginners in classes all over the country. Chances are good that you are not the only beginner in your class. After your yoga class ends, you will have shared an amazing hot yoga experience with people whom you never met and if you don't bring a friend, you might just make one at the class. Be positive and outgoing - yoga is all about encouragement & motivation!

Side Blurb: Is Yoga a sport? Some would argue that yoga is not a "sport" but a lifestyle change, a fitness regimen, or else. We believe it is what you make of it. You decide what role yoga will play in your life. Whether you are using it in place of meditation, or if you are seeking inner body zen and peace of mind, or if you're simply mixing it up at the gym with a new workout, it is YOUR decision how you approach your experience with yoga.

Beginner's Guide to Bikram Yoga (Or Hot Yoga) - What to Expect During Your 1st Class

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Yoga Stretching Exercises Made Easy

Stretching exercises help attain a peaceful life with physical and mental well-being. In our daily life we need to do regular stretching exercise in order to keep ourselves fit and keeping away from muscle injuries and muscle stiffness. The stretching exercise should be simple, i.e. neither much more nor too little. Excess stretching exercise increases the level of blood consumption in our body. Too little stretching exercise makes our body stiff and reduces blood production and also affects the circulation of the blood.

In our modern lifestyle, we have become more sedentary and it has forced us to use the labour-saving machines. Thus we do not get much physical exercise as required for our sound living. It is due to our hectic lifestyle and increased stress levels and also lack of appropriate physical exercise.. To resolve this problem, there is an adequate method, which is said to be stretching exercise.

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To loosen up our muscles and increases the blood circulation in our body, you must become more flexible. It strengthens our muscles and also its ligaments, which ultimately results into strengthening our bones too. It also makes us physically and mentally more relaxed than as compared to other exercises.

Yoga Stretching Exercises Made Easy

Compared with other physical activities, flexibility is much easier and faster to achieve than, say, muscle building. It can be done at late afternoon or also in early evening and for the people who are not early raiser they can do it at first wake up. Warm-up of our body is an important factor for us to remember before we start stretching exercise.

During flexibility practices, we should always breathe normally and also relax at every stretch. We should not at once bounce on stretching exercise and also not stretch in excess and also too fast that our body can't bare it. However we must do it slowly and steadily according to our body stamina i.e. increase our stretch day by day. The most important stretches of our body are the back-stretches and to extend the flex and to turn around the spine also. We should also do the stretching of the backs of the legs, which tend to get tighten up.

Here are some simple flexibility exercises that make our mornings more relaxed and with fill the rest of our day with enthusiasm.

Calf Correct Foot Position

Soleus

Normal Stretch

Quadriceps Standing

Side Lunge

Leg Over

Fetal Position

Lower Back-Cat Stretch

Elbows Back

Shoulder Strangle

Bicep-Wall Stretch

Hand Down Spine

Chin to Chest Front

It is necessary to first warm-up before we start any flexibility exercises. If you avoid warm-up exercises, it could lead to be injurious to our muscles. Each of these above listed stretching exercise should be done by holding the stretch for about 20 to 30 seconds.

Lastly we can say that stretching made our life more simple and exciting as we become less lethargic and become more active in our daily routine work.

Yoga Stretching Exercises Made Easy

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Yoga - Best For Your Mind, Body, and Soul

Yoga increases flexibility, lowers stress, and increases your energy level. It is not about simply completing a stretch so that you can move on to the next one; yoga coordinates breathing with movement, allowing you to fully experience the stretch. Yoga is not only a physical exercise but a practice that creates a sense of well-being, relaxation and inner harmony. It will make your body more flexible, your mind more at ease, and will keep you looking and feeling youthful.

The word yoga means "union"; it is about the connection of body, mind, spirit, and planet. The combination of breathing and movement brings steadiness to the mind and can be used to awaken your energy chakras. The idea is to focus awareness on exactly what you are doing in the moment, to be mindful. You may find the link between the body, mind and spirit to offer a new area of inner growth and self-understanding.

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Some types of yoga involve meditation and chanting. Hatha yoga attempts to balance mind and body via physical exercises, or "asanas", controlled breathing, and the calming of the mind through relaxation and meditation. And traditionally, hatha yoga is used to cultivate the physical body in order to make it a healthy and fit vehicle for meditation and further energy work.

Yoga - Best For Your Mind, Body, and Soul

Hatha yoga primarily concerns itself with "asanas" or postures. The word Hatha comes from combining the two sanskrit terms "ha" meaning sun and "tha" meaning moon. As mentioned, Hatha Yoga is part of a system of yoga aimed at achieving total enlightenment. Ashtanga is a popular style of hatha yoga that incorporates a vigorous, and continuous flow of physical postures into its routine.

Yoga is a perfect workout program that's easy to learn, requires little or no equipment, and soothes your soul while toning your body. It both strengthens and stretches your entire body and requires you to balance the effort in your arms, torso, and legs so you don't overburden any one area.

Yoga is practiced barefoot, so you don't have to worry about special shoes and should be done on an empty stomach. Whatever the body can do in a yoga session is exactly what it should be doing. As you continue practicing yoga, you may find that yoga can lead to a journey within yourself, as well as a more toned and defined body.

Yoga - Best For Your Mind, Body, and Soul

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