» What’s the BEST Kind of Yoga? (Funny Video)

Simply Serenity

Inspiration for inner peace and love by Lauralyn, a yoga and angel therapist.

What’s the BEST Kind of Yoga? (Funny Video)

January 24th, 2012

Hot yoga is a challenging workout of 26 poses completed in 90 minutes in a room cranked up to 105 degrees with a 40% humidity. It was taught in the Bikram style, and first became popular in the early ’70’s. Thirtysomething years later, hot yoga studios started a subtle takeover in suburbs and cities around the country.

Sweltering Hot and I Can’t Breathe: is this yoga right for me?

I first tried hot yoga about ten years ago at a small studio in New York. I remember feeling thankful I made it through the class without passing out. I’ve always been sensitive to heat, ever since I was a child. A warm yoga studio, I can tolerate. Heat can help loosen tight muscles, so a warm yoga room is better than a chilly one to support flexibility and prevent injuries. But 105 degree heat will send me into the unwell zone fast.

Love Your Body: just say no to yoga that doesn’t help you feel well

The next time I remember trying hot yoga was in my yoga teacher training. We were being exposed to different styles of yoga we could teach. The room got so hot, the air so thick, and there were so many people packed in, I started feeling like I couldn’t breathe. I felt very lightheaded. Then sick to my stomach. A layer of sweat made it challenging to maintain my balance on the mat as I slipped and slid. I began to feel shaky and weak. I was the only student who physically left the room, but my body left me no choice. I loved my body too much, and had been through too much with health challenges in the past, to allow myself to feel so unwell. Yoga, even when detoxing me, had never felt so sickening. I was all for a yoga challenge, I wanted to explore the different styles to validate which one was my calling. But hot yoga -- definitely wasn’t it. I can still feel the cool Spring breeze hitting my steaming body as I left the room. The teacher checked on me to make sure I was okay, and I told him my body couldn’t tolerate hot yoga. There are so many different styles of yoga, hot yoga is far from the only one that works effectively and productively for your personal goals.

Yoga for Healing

My goal has always been to learn how I could lower cortisol levels since chronic stress had affected my nervous and endocrine systems. I already knew I could use yoga for strength training and flexibility. I had been practicing Hatha for many years and was proven it could give you flat abs and a tighter butt and help you touch your head to your knees. I wanted to know yoga on deeper levels. I was curious about it’s healing ability. How could yoga help me decrease stress hormones? How could it help me manage stress better in practical ways for mind, body and spirit? Aerobic exercises like hot yoga and Ashtanga could actually raise cortisol levels and increase stress levels in an already stressed body. I found what I was looking for in the works of Desikachar. His father, Krishnamacharya, is my yogi hero. He was a healer, teacher and scholar who began teaching yoga in the 1920’s. His holistic yoga philosophy stressed restoring health and well-being. He emphasized the use of breath with movements. His teaching style was to “teach what is appropriate for the individual.” He viewed every student as “absolutely unique” who are best “taught according to his or her individual capacity at any given time.”

Developing Your Yoga Practice Through The Years

Krishnamacharya’s story demonstrates how different kinds of yoga can be used at different stages of our life. When he was a kid, he practiced Ashtanga, a very vigorous, athletic kind of yoga. As he grew older (he lived to 100), his interest in yoga shifted to it’s healing aspects. This is the beauty of yoga: it grows with us. Yoga will present a different challenge to us when we’re eighteen as it will when we’re eighty. A wise yogi listens to their body, mind and spirit and explores which yoga is best for them at any given time.

I created the satirical video below to bring some laughter to the yoga community when it comes to it’s differing opinions on which is the “best yoga.” Hot yoga missionaries have tried to convert me over the years, trying to convince me it’s the best kind of yoga for my body. But only I know what is truly best for my body. The beauty of life, as Krishnamacharya taught, is that we’re all different and so no one yoga will fit all.