Exercising yoga in heat will be good for you
Posted on August 21, 2008, in Others, with 0 Comments
————————————————————————————————————————–Start
————————————————————————————————————————–End
Heat draws blood to the area that hurts, Dr. Rahl says. “The more blood flow, the more oxygen gets to the area and continues to provide nutrients if it needs to heal. Blood contains all the electrolytes, oxygen, everything needed to feed the muscle.”
How? In a word, exposure, Mr. Hartsell says.
Everyone has a different tolerance for heat, he says. In hot-yoga classes, “If you get too uncomfortable, you take a break from the posture, kneel down, lie down, move on. I’ve never had anyone have trouble being there for 90 minutes with a yoga mat.”
The key to acclimating outdoors or indoors is through baby steps. You may have heard these 1,000 times, but here goes: Hydrate. Exercise early in the morning or after the sun sets. Avoid caffeinated or alcoholic beverages, which can dehydrate you. Avoid cotton because it will keep sweat close to your skin.
“Nothing changes from a physiological perspective. Your body won’t learn to dissipate heat better,” says Dr. Scott Quinby, co-director of Baylor Sports Care. “But you’re in better shape. You’re not taxing your body as much. You’re not requiring as much of your body; you’re not generating as much heat,” he says.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time, your body is effective at maintaining what it needs to do,” Dr. Rahl says. “But if you overwhelm it with a stimulus so strong as heat, heat, heat, it can’t keep up with that.”
Muscles need electrolytes and fluids to contract and thus to work.
“If you become dehydrated, your muscles are significantly less effective,” she says. “One percent loss of body weight has a tremendous impact and decreases the ability to exercise.”
Plus, proteins that help your body function become ineffective, she says. The part of your brain that keeps you awake and alert may not be able to work because blood flow is being diverted to other areas of your body.
If you start feeling disoriented or just not right, stop exercising to let your body catch up,” Dr. Quinby says. “Otherwise, you’re adding insult to injury. Get inside; get in the shade. Put a lot of wet towels around your neck or head. Rest. You have to be able to sit down and not generate heat.”
It keeps your muscles pliable and your heart doing what it’s supposed to do.
“When we think of being safe in an activity, we think of getting the body warm,” says Brandon Hartsell, co-founder of Sunstone Yoga. The Dallas-area studios offer classes such as hot yoga, which is conducted in a room that’s approximately the same temperature as the human body.
“Injuries happen when the body is not warm, when it is not ready to go.”
But when muscles are warm and loose, “you can stretch them farther,” he says. “They feel warm and protected.”
When you exercise, your muscles use energy to contract, explains Dr. Riva Rahl, medical director for Cooper Wellness Program. One byproduct is the generation of heat.
“The heart speeds up, the blood pressure goes up,” she says. “You’re bringing oxygen and other nutrients via blood to your muscles to allow them to contract.”
In general, your resting heart rate goes up with the temperature, Dr. Rahl says.
“You may not be able to work as hard because your heart is maxed out. The reason your heart rate is higher is because you’re taking some of your energy and some of your blood flow to the body to cool it, as opposed to using that oxygen to get the muscles to contract.”
“You won’t be quite as efficient in hot weather for that reason,” says Dr. Rahl, an avid runner: “I can’t tell you how many races I run when I’m in better shape, but I can’t run as fast because of the heat.”
It cools the body and helps you dissipate heat, Dr. Rahl says. When you’re working out and your body temperature gets above its core 98.6 F, it begins opening sweat glands to bring the temperature down to where it should be, she says.
Sweat glands expel – not toxins, as is sometimes believed – but water and electrolytes: potassium, magnesium, chloride and sodium.
“You’re losing a lot more water than you are salt,” she says.
That means you need to keep yourself hydrated before, during and after a workout. But if you are exercising more than an hour at high intensity in the heat, you need to start drinking electrolyte replacements found in sports products such as Gatorade.
When you exercise outside on a humid day, you need to be especially careful, she says. “You’re trying to sweat into something already moist.”
Mr. Hartsell of Sunstone Yoga likens sweating to wringing out a sponge, squeezing from your body that which needs to be released.Advertisements
————————————————————————————————————————–Start
—–Start
————————————————————————————————————————–End
