For East Coast Post.

Setting the record straight about getting your sweat on

Rumours about hot yoga being bad for your health have been circulating ever since a few years ago when it became a trendy way to stay fit.

For those who have never tried hot yoga, it is practicing a series of yoga exercises, or postures, in a heated room. The practice originated in ancient India and the general hot yoga style is credited to Bikram Choudhury.

Katie Whitlock, a 23-year-old from Fall River, N.S., is training to become a hot yoga instructor. She says that outside of India, contemporary hot yoga studios add that element of external heat to mimic “what it would be like to practice there,” in the climate the practice originated in.

“I like the heat,” says Whitlock. “With the added heat and the added sweat, you feel it so much more.”

If you’ve never been to a class, it can be hard to understand what motivates devoted yogis like Whitlock to exercise daily in rooms with climbing temperatures and humidity that averages around 40 degrees Celsius.

Many strangers to the practice are skeptical of it, expressing concern that exercising in such extreme heat is bad for your health.

Dr. Kenneth Melvin, a cardiologist at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, sets the record straight. He says that the yoga poses themselves present no health risks to the average person.

Rather, it is the heat that can be dangerous for certain individuals who, because of their health conditions, need to avoid activity that causes a rise in blood pressure or heart rate.

“I personally caution my patients with active or recent cardiovascular disease to avoid saunas, so I would expand that to include hot yoga,” he says.

In addition to those with pre-existing heart conditions, people over 50 years old and women who are pregnant should check with their doctors before trying hot yoga.

Andrew Murray, an instructor at Shanti Hot Yoga Bedford, says the heat helps newcomers “ease into the postures” by heating up their muscles and increasing their range of motion.It is important to remember that in any hot environment there is always the danger of becoming dehydrated or coming down with heat-stroke, which can be identified in the early stages with symptoms of dizziness, nausea or light-headedness. The remedy would be to take a break from the practice and drink plenty of fluids, advises Melvin.

“If you’re working with rheumatoid arthritis or any chronic pain, you can actually learn the postures and explore the depths of them without having to compromise that.”

Kelly Donald, a registered massage therapist and hot yoga instructor in Halifax, advises those who are interested to become informed before trying the practice.

For Donald, the only thing a newcomer in average shape needs to worry about is getting enough water, especially beforehand. She advises newcomers to start drinking extra water as early as two days before trying a class.

Murray agrees and says that hydrating before practicing hot yoga is even more important than re-hydrating during and after.

Both Donald and Murray warn that since the heat warms up one’s muscles quickly and one may experience an increase in flexibility, beginners can get ahead of themselves and push their bodies too far. In order to avoid injury, they both advise being mindful and going at a slow pace. They also encourage consulting with the instructor for guidance when wanting to go deeper into a pose.

One rumour that many hot yoga enthusiasts are guilty of believing to be true is the claim that sweating releases toxins from the body. However, Melvin says that most medical scientists “do not believe in the concept at all as a scientific possibility or as a health benefit recommendation.”

“Basically,” he says of hot yoga, “it’s just a good sweat.”

Specific kinds of postures, such as twists, stimulate the internal organs and helps to speed up inner processes like metabolism, says Murray. He says he does not believe in the concept of detoxification through sweat.

“A lot of our detoxification comes from the postures keeping our body clean, so that we can excrete things through our breath. Actually … breathing is the biggest form of detoxification.”

Murray points out that evolutionarily speaking, there is something that sweat does for us after all.

“Once you start sweating, the sweat evaporates and it also stays on the surface of your skin to help keep cool.”