City yoga getting hot

Some like it hot. Very hot. While the rising temperature sends many Ottawa residents (myself included) running for air conditioning, ‘hot yoga’ practitioners thrive on heat, even during the height of summer.

Heat seekers are to me, a different breed. When I’m hot, I get, well, bothered. I’m impatient, angry and unable to concentrate. So it made me curious when I learned about the hot yoga phenomenon and the people who do it.

At the hot room classes at Ottawa’s Rama Lotus Yoga Centre, the scantily clad participants are already starting to glisten just two minutes into the Bikram class. I sweat enough doing regular yoga without trying it in a “hot room” set at 40 degrees Celsius.

The instructor, Martina Elliott, leads us through a series of 26 poses that make up Bikram yoga. In one of the poses, you’re supposed to bend your legs and grab your ankles. But my slippery hand keeps sliding off.

On our backs, we lace our fingers together and pull our knees toward our chests. I’m so slimy from sweat, it’s like trying to grab a baby seal.

I’m not alone. The woman in front of me has beads of sweat oozing out from each one of the pores on her legs.

We bend forwards to the ground. “One day, the goal is to touch your forehead to your toes,” said Elliott.
Of course, I can’t do it. But thanks to the heat, I’m a lot closer than I would be if it were cold.

“We use the heat for a few reasons,” said Elliott, noting that the body stretches more easily when heated, making people less injury prone.

Some find the heat helps them burn fat and there’s also a cardiovascular effect, she said.

It’s so hot, my heart is pounding like a jackhammer, probably to keep me from losing consciousness.
Yoga of all types is growing in the city, said Laurie Howe, another instructor. In the past five years, it’s become almost trendy, she said.

But Elliott likes to think it’s because people are more aware of what yoga can do for practitioners. You sleep better, have more energy, fewer aches and pains, more patience, better mental clarity and fewer health problems overall, she says.

With five minutes left in the class, I can’t wait for it to end. I’ve swallowed an enormous Nalgene bottle full of tepid water (the room’s so hot, it’d melt an iceberg), but I’m still parched.

I’m drenched, and ditto for the towel I’m sitting on. My clothes are plastered to my body. I look like I fell into the Ottawa River and probably smell like it too. I long for an icy shower.

As if reading my mind, Elliott encourages us. “At this point in the class, your mind is starting to wander,” she said. “It’s the heat. It’s hard to stay in the heat for 90 minutes. Keep focused and stay strong.”
Elliott offers one last benefit that seriously makes me consider coming back.

Over time, your tolerance for heat rises, she said. “It just doesn’t seem as bad outside in the summer.”