Record Breaking Heat? Bring It On!

It's early July and all over the Northeast, temperatures outside are 106-degrees, including right here at home in Bucks County.

Funny thing is, here at Riverflow Yoga, our students look forward to this climate everyday, all year round, a climate we create in the studio in order to get down to the business of practicing hot yoga.

Hot weather is perfect for hot yoga.  Hot yoga practioners are glowing in this heat wave, while everyone else is baking...and complaining.

We know a hot secret we'd like to share with you: hot yoga trains not just the body but also the mind, to withstand anything including extreme heat, by applying a healthy dose of focus and humility.  After hot yoga practice comes the realization that you can transcend anything.

Inside Riverflow Yoga, a dozen or more women and men stretch and strain, sweat and smile, 5 days a week (soon 7 days a week, twice daily and more, come September when our schedule expands), and emerge feeling cool as cucumbers, inside and out. Forget about air conditioning; your body has learned to create its own cooling system.

Doctors agree that everyone from athletes to couch potatoes can improve their ability to function in with extreme heat by exercising in extreme heat. Exposure to heat trains the body to develop better and larger sweat glands, to reduce body fat content which also helps dissipation of heat, and improve aerobic capacity.

So come on in and turn up the heat...there's always a warm spot for beginners here at Riverflow, and of course, the heat is always on. 

Hot Weather Hot Yoga

When the weather turns warm, the hotties come out to play. Spring and summer and lovely times of the year to take your hot yoga up a notch. There's nothing as sweet as driving - or biking - along River Road following the flow of the Delaware all the way to Riverflow. Yes, that's why the name. The hot yoga room feels comfortingly warm and the sweat really flows when the weather outside cooperates. And of course, everyone wants to get ready for beach wear season.  Hot yoga can do that for your - working all those muscles and core body areas, you'll sculpt shapely arms, legs, upper back and stomach muscles in no time. But honestly, the real secret at Riverflow Hot Yoga is that, after awhile, you will be so enthralled with the way you feel, you'll forget to care about the way you look. Wouldnt that be a lovely new season in your life...to appreciate your body for its ability to carry you along effortlessly. A hot yoga body can do just that - become a place of peace and respite and comfort so you can live your life in it, not for it.

Hot Yoga Saves the Day

A first-time hot yoga student here in Point Pleasant related an amazing story about her hot yoga experience.

She tried hot yoga for the first time one Sunday morning, explaning that she was very tight and hadn't ever done any yoga at all. After class, she went to visit her grandchildren and, walking up the hill to their front door, she slipped on the icy driveway and fell so hard, she "broke my glasses which were in a hard case buried inside my pocketbook." Having been a postal delivery person for many years, she said she had taken many falls and knew this was a bad one; "I heard things crunch," she said.

She lay on the pavement for awhile then got up gingerly, expecting the worst. And indeed, she was bruised on her side and leg. But, miraculously, nothing was broken, sprained, even twisted. In fact, she felt fine. Even the next day - no muscle soreness.

"It was the hot yoga," she told me. "Just one hot yoga made me so loose and flexible, I didn't hurt myself in that hard a fall."

All the more miraculous, considering she already had a pinched nerve in her neck from a previous accident, and a hip replacement.

My new hot yoga student became an instant hot yoga advocate and wanted to share the wealth. She bought a Hot Yoga Gift Certificate for her daughter and promised to be back for class on a regular basis. 

Hot yoga is full of surprises....all good.

Hot Yoga...Hotly Debated

There are more than one hundred degrees of separation between hot yoga and other hatha yoga: specifically, 105 degrees of heat in the hot yoga room.

And that makes hot yoga a hot topic of debate.

Hot yoga enthusiasts swear by it.  As a hot yoga teacher for the past 10 years, I have seen students of all ages (oldest student I ever taught was 74; youngest was 10) change the feel of their bodies and their energy, with a consistent hot yoga practice. Others say that any exertion in high heat can be detrimental.

Ultimately, it's your choice. As your hot yoga teacher, I won't push you beyond your comfort zone. Yes, go to your edge; but I won't shove you over. I am your guide into the world of hot yoga...but how far you go exploring is up to you, each class.

More than any other yoga I have practiced these past 35 years, hot yoga has helped me get in touch with my physical, emotional and astral bodies (didn't know you had three bodies? I'll talk more about that in class).  In the hot yoga room, I have developed an ability to support my body and my life. Hot stuff.

Will you feel something in a hot yoga class? It's almost guaranteed. Will you enjoy it? Will it benefit you? Will you stick with it?  Like everything else, you decide. Some experience an immediate high after their first hot yoga class; for others, a breathrough takes time. There's instant karma, and the kind that needs to cook.

To me, the hot yoga room is simply the best place to cook up a new life.

Hot Yoga Opens in Point Pleasant PA with Free Hot Yoga Classes!

Saturday and Sunday, December 5th and 6th, 2009, we had our Grand Opening free hot yoga Weekend, and it was hot! Our maximum capacity in the room is 20 people, and each of our 4 Free Classes averaged 13 sweaty yogis and yoginis. Afterwards, people felt everything from energized to exhausted...the kind of exhaustion that comes from a good workout. No wonder...every muscle and ligament, every joint and bone, every organ and cell in the room got the message: it's time to heal!

Thanks to everyone who opened Riverflow Yoga with a bang. Now talk to me...post your comments and questions about hot yoga here.