High Heat Yoga

[Steve Dougson]

I remember a long time ago my bro mentioned an SI article about some NFL linemen doing yoga classes in saunas to improve their flexibility. My university has a sauna and today I finally decided to give it a try.

Flexibility is something I've never really had. I always hated that burn feeling you get and so I never really pushed myself to get more flexible. Now I'm into jits and it's something I want to improve.

I saw that one of Eddie Bravo's "chillin' stretches" is one where he places his leg behind his head. I could never do that but after stretching for a little bit I started to get somewhat close. It felt like it would be a major jump to go from almost being able to do it to having my leg stuck behind my neck.

Anyway, I mention all this because after a leg workout today I went into the sauna and tried that stretch again. I was able to slip my leg behind my head with relative ease. I imagine the leg workout had no effect but what do I know?

I tried googling some more info just now and all I seemed to get was a link to a book of some sort. One link's preview text said that high heat yoga is "controversial".

It seemed to work for me, but usually when I'm stretching I'm doing it cold to warm up and not while I'm already really warmed up.

So I was wondering if you guys had any info about stretching in a sauna after a workout.

[Zerocrew1984]

nope no info. just that the body is really warmed up so its easier to stretch.

[Revok]

It's called Bikram yoga. It seems to make sense, provided you're careful and stay very well hydrated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikram_Yoga

[Carlson]

Any body walk in on you while you had your leg behind your head.

I can imagine that might be awkward.

[UrbanSavage]

I do ashtanga yoga from a DVD in my garage with the doors closed. I started this summer and it gets pretty hot in there, helps you sweat more and stretch the muscles more than in a colder area.

[Steve Dougson]

Originally Posted by Carlson

Any body walk in on you while you had your leg behind your head.

I can imagine that might be awkward.

Haha, yea I know.

When I went in today there were two naked old men, and then some other young dude with a towel on. I decided to skip that stretch today.

[Brandon Couden]

why is it that locker rooms/saunas/ and hot tubs are always full old naked guys. I never seem to see them working out, just rocking their old balls all over the locker room, showering and chilling in front of the mirrior naked. Its a strange phenomenon.

[Roosterman]

I am glad my gym doesnt have showers etc.

[4872]

I actually just tried bikram yoga for the first time this last two weeks and i did 5 90minute sessions over a ten day period in a class setting. At first i had a huge smile on my face based on the fact that your in a class thats all female and feel out of place. The good part- out of 40 people in the class there was only me and another guy. I looked over at him and smiled and cause out of the 38 women in there- 28 of them were chicks under 25 wearing sports bra's and booty shorts (cause its sooo hot) I myself did the class shirtless.

My conclusions- i have really bad shoulder problems which for the most part have settled down. My back pain (due to imbalance from shoulder) has gotten better too. My flexabilty and just what i learned in those 5 classes was more than worth it. On top of that... the female instructor has a thing for me- and even if im wrong about that... there's 27 more that might!

bikram yoga is amazing- crazy expensive though... for as many classes as you want its like 200 a month

[MikeMartial]

Originally Posted by 4872

bikram yoga is amazing

I'd be in a class like that in 2.5 seconds if it was offered near me, for the same reasons 4872 posted.

And if I saw some clown stretching in the godamn gym sauna I'd be OUT of there in 2.5 seconds.