If you – like me – are a big fan of hot yoga, then you also love to sweat! Sweat is life. Sweat is cleansing. Sweat makes your skin soft and supple (don’t need that expensive moisturiser any more!) sweat even makes your hair healthier. You never feel so clean as you do when you step out of the shower after a super sweaty hot yoga class.
Can you get this same feeling at home? Probably not, but you can get pretty close. Here are a few things to try and consider.
HUMIDITY
Humidity in the air will make you sweat more, and will make the air FEEL hotter, even when it isn’t. When you heat up air, the air will become dryer, so if you add heat, you also need to add humidity. In the studio the temperature for our Original Hot Yoga classes is 40 degrees Celsius, and the humidity is around 40%. At home, try to get it higher, above 50% if you can, to get the “studio feeling”. Here are some ways to do it:
- Humidifier: You can get small humidifiers for home use. Most cost between £50 and £100 and they work pretty well for a small space. If you let it run for half an hour or more before your home practice, you can get up to 40-50%.
- Shower: If you have a bathroom that’s big enough, practice in there! Run the shower to get it hot and steamy.
- Kitchen: Practice in the kitchen. Put some big pans of water on the stove and keep them boiling throughout your practice.
HEAT
You can either heat your space, or heat your body, or both:
- Space heater: You can get these “builders fan” type heaters relatively cheap, for maybe £40-£60. They are a little noisy, but if you run them long enough they could get your temp up to around 30-35c.
- Gas fire: If you’re lucky enough to have one in your house, those are the best! In a small room, and combined with a space heater, you can totally get to studio temperatures.
- Wet laundry: Wet laundry is the best! Turn up your radiators, and put wet laundry on them and: Viola! You've got both heat AND humidity! Only do this if you have a water borne heating system, don't put wet laundry on electric radiators.
- Internal heat: Get yourself as warm as possible. Take a hot shower, put on some layers of warm clothing. Or go for a run, time it with your class so you finish just before the start of class.
Even though sweating is amazing, the postures we do in the Original Hot Yoga class are very powerful in themselves. You may not get exactly the same feeling as you would in the studio, of stepping out of the hot room as a brand new you. But with a few simple hacks, you can get pretty close!