Reasons for the Heat

• Enhances vasodilatation so that more blood and oxygen is delivered to the muscles and helps in the removal of waste products such as carbon dioxide and lactic acid.
• Speeds up the breakdown of glucose and fatty acids
• Burns fat more easily
• Makes muscles more elastic, less susceptible to injury
• Greater range of motion
• Improves coordination
• Can reduce heart irregularities
• Higher temperatures improve the function of your nervous system, carrying messages to and from the brain or spinal cord more rapidly.
*cold muscles don’t absorb shock and impact as well and so not stretch as easily, therefore cold muscles get injured more frequently

Why is the room so hot?

• Protects muscles to allow for deeper stretching
• Detoxifies the body and opens pores to let toxins out
• Thins blood to clear circulatory system
• Melts fat by reorganizing lipids in muscular structure
• Increases heart rate for better cardiovascular workout than non-hot yoga
• Improves strength
• Prohibits cholesterol from sticking to protein
• Improves focus and concentration

Yoga works by a tourniquet effect:

• By stretching, balancing, using gravity and creating pressure all at the same time.
• The blood supply in arteries and veins gets cut off during a pose, creating pressure.
• When released the blood then rushes through the veins and arteries, flushing them out. 

What happens within the body during the yoga practice?

• Contracts and stretches muscles to a cellular, biochemical level.
• Lipids and proteins reorganize optimally in stretching, allowing for better circulation.
• Nerves are stimulated by compression and extension, supplying fresh blood, oxygen and nutrients to the budy.
• Waste products pumped out
• Blood and calcium brought to bones
• Strengthens bones
• Brain stimulated by improved circulation and by varying blood pressure
• Improves communication to the nervous system
• Lymph nodes are massaged. Lymph is pumped into the body, helping the lymphatic system work more efficiently
• Sends out white blood cells
• Organs of the immune system boosted (red marrow in bones)
• Compression and extension of thymus, spleen, appendix and intestines
• Lungs stretched and flushed out by increased circulation
• Toxins flushed out and waste excreted
• Endocrine glands encouraged to secrete appropriate hormones
• Communication of hormones among various glands and systems of the body perfected
• Eliminates fat and reorganizes tissue into the most efficient state
• Lubricates joints and increases range of motion
• Strength built by calisthenics and use of gravity
• Balances muscles, joints and energies in the body 

Ultimate Goals of Yoga

• Deep breathing, the key to a longer life
• Total union and peace within the body, mind and spirit
• Quieting of the constant thinking process and learning to meditate
• Freedom from suffering of all kinds, physical, mental and emotional.