With the temperature dropping each day, it’s hard to imagine that any location in Madison would be hot, let alone being warm.
Well, think again.
Kaivalya Yoga has hot yoga classes each week to help you detox from your daily lives. Unlike other yoga styles, Hot Detox Yoga focuses on compressions, which help your body’s lymph system remove toxins its system.
Hot Detox Yoga consists of 26 different poses in the Bikram sequence, which are:
- Pranayama Series (Standing Deep Breathing Pose)
- Ardha-Chandrasana and Pada-Hastasana (Half Moon Pose and hands to Feet)
- Utkatasana (Awkward Pose)
- Garurasana (Eagle Pose)
- Dandayamana-Janushirasana (Standing Head to Knee Pose)
- Dandayamana-Dhanurasana (Standing Bow Pulling Pose)
- Tuladandasana (Balancing Stick Pose)
- Dandayamana-Bibhaktapada-Paschimotthanasana (Standing Separate Leg Stretching Pose)
- Trikanasana (Triangle Pose)
- Dandayamana-Bibhaktapada-Janushirasana (Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee Pose )
- Tadasana (Tree Pose)
- Padangustasana (Toe Stand Pose)
- Savasana (Dead Body Pose)
- Pavanamuktasana (Wind Removing Pose)
- Sit-up
- Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose)
- Salabhasana (Locust Pose)
- Poorna-Salabhasana (Full Locust Pose)
- Dhanurasana (Bow Pose)
- Supta-Vajrasana (Fixed Firm Pose)
- Ardha-Kurmasana (Half Tortoise Pose)
- Ustrasana (Camel Pose)
- Sasangasana (Rabbit Pose)
- Janushirasana with Paschimotthanasana (Head to Knee Pose with Two Leg Stretching Pose)
- Ardha-Matsyendrasana (Spine Twisting Pose)
- Khapalbhati (Blowing in Firm Pose)
According to our instructor Alex, there are two different purposes of compression.
“One [reason] is to move lymph and the other is to stimulate the nerve endings in a particular organ or gland,” Alex said. “You can think of these techniques as a combination of self-acupressure, self organ massage, and self lymph massage.”
European and Asian medicine place heavy emphasis on cleansing the lymphatic system. Marcelle Pick, an OBG/YN, explained why cleansing is important.
“Lymphatic function supports every other system in the body, including the immune, digestive, detoxification and nervous systems. In fact, many believe that poor lymph health underlies a host of conditions, from cellulite to cancer.”
The lymph system, Pick explans, plans a strong roll in keeping the human body healthy.“”The lymph system’s primary function is to isolate infection and cellular detritus from the rest of the body and deal with it. Imagine you are looking at a handful of living cells through a microscope. A capillary (the smallest blood vessel) delivers blood with its oxygen and nutrients. The local cells use these nutrients and excrete waste. There may be pathogens or antigens present that create an immune response, leaving dead cells and perhaps live infection. Some of the blood and waste products are picked up by tiny veins. But much of the vascular fluid and waste — and hopefully all of the live infection — is picked up by tiny lymph vessels. This process is happening all over the body all the time.
If you have an eyebrow raised and are somewhat confused, you’re not alone. Alex provided an example of how compression translates to better health while going to college.
“In the first floor pose, you pull your knee to your shoulder. Inside your body, your ascending colon is getting compressed from the outside,” Alex said. “At the same time, your psoas muscle tones right underneath your ascending colon as a result of lifting your leg and acts like a rising shelf from underneath. Your intestine is squeezed from both sides and therefore stimulates the nerve endings that send the ‘we’re full down here, get my digestion moving’ impulse to your brain which then starts peristalsis, the process of moving your ‘food’.”
Just like your afterschool football practice during sophomore year of high school, hot yoga requires that you stay hydrated before, during and after your workout session. If you are prone to sweating a lot, drinking coconut water or a sports drink, as well as eating a banana, will help you gain the electrolytes needed to stay healthy.
For more information about hot yoga at Kaivalya Yoga, please visit http://www.kaivalya-yoga.com
We hope to see you sweat!
Namaste!
