Hot yoga vs warm yoga: how much heat can you take?
Simona Stanton was sure of one thing when she opened her yoga studio in Dubai’s Alserkal Avenue: no one who entered a class would hit an overpowering wall of heat. The Prague-born athlete – skiing, tennis and golf are among her passions – first got into yoga three years ago while earning her degree in psychology, and went on to train with California yogi Erica Blitz.
There are two rooms in Stanton’s airy two-storey Shimis Yoga Centre: upstairs is the Greenhouse, which features a living plant wall where students can practise vinyasa, hatha and yin yoga. On the ground floor is the Box. The interior is dark, with strip lighting that glows through the seven chakra colours during class.
Warm yoga sessions at Shimis are conducted in a darkened room with strip lighting, with the temperature set at 32°C
And while students will leave sweating, it will be largely due to their workout rather than the temperature of the room.
The case for warm yoga
That’s because at Shimis, it’s called “warm” yoga, not hot. Infrared panels heat the room to a gentle 32°C, which is a big drop from the 42°C to 45°C associated with hot yoga classes. “For me, it was just too hot and overwhelming,” Stanton says. “I would have to go into child’s pose during my practice and rest for a while because my body couldn’t handle it.”
With the temperature lowered, Stanton says students can safely tackle more difficult poses that are off limits in hot yoga, such as inversions. “You can do all the poses,”[……]