Hot yoga

Hot yoga describes the room, not the sequence. The postures in a hot class can be a flow, a fixed series, or a slow held practice; what defines it is the thermostat. Temperatures usually sit between 32 and 40 °C, sometimes with humidifiers running, and classes last 60 to 90 minutes.

What the heat does is real but narrower than the marketing suggests. Warm tissue is temporarily more compliant, so you will reach further than in a cold room — that extra range comes from the warmth and is gone by evening, which is exactly why it is easy to go past what your joints are ready for. Heat also raises heart rate for the same work, so the class feels harder and you sweat a great deal. Claims about detoxifying through sweat do not hold up; your liver and kidneys do that work.

In a KEO session, hot yoga is taught in Bangkok, in a properly ventilated room, and Ben is direct about who should not start there. If you are new to yoga, new to the tropics, pregnant, managing blood pressure or recovering from illness, an unheated early-morning class will serve you better. Bangkok's own climate already supplies most of the heat anyone needs — see the article on practising in Bangkok heat for what that changes.