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harihari
Feb 3, 2008, 8:49 PM
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A friend and I are debating the virtues of Bikram (hot) yoga. She says it is a good cardio workout, because your heart rate goes way up due to you sweating like a pig for an hour.
I am wondering about this. Do you think that there is a difference in quality of workout between, say, hot yoga and cycling? Say you spent an hour doing each and your heart rate was the same for each activity. Now obviously cycling will work your legs, but other than that, is there a difference? Is one a "better" cardio workout than another?
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microbarn
Feb 3, 2008, 10:27 PM
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harihari wrote: A friend and I are debating the virtues of Bikram (hot) yoga. She says it is a good cardio workout, because your heart rate goes way up due to you sweating like a pig for an hour. I am wondering about this. Do you think that there is a difference in quality of workout between, say, hot yoga and cycling? Say you spent an hour doing each and your heart rate was the same for each activity. Now obviously cycling will work your legs, but other than that, is there a difference? Is one a "better" cardio workout than another?
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static_endurance
Feb 3, 2008, 10:42 PM
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harihari wrote: A friend and I are debating the virtues of Bikram (hot) yoga. She says it is a good cardio workout, because your heart rate goes way up due to you sweating like a pig for an hour. I am wondering about this. Do you think that there is a difference in quality of workout between, say, hot yoga and cycling? Say you spent an hour doing each and your heart rate was the same for each activity. Now obviously cycling will work your legs, but other than that, is there a difference? Is one a "better" cardio workout than another?
I'm going to have to argue that it's not. The point of hot yoga, from what I understand, is that the heat helps you loosen up your muscles, thereby allowing you to go deeper into stretches.
Sweating doesn't mean you're putting on a massive cardio load. You can stand still in a hot envoronment, be sweating like a dog, and your cardio could barely elevate, if at all. With cycling, your cardio is way up because your muscles are demanding more oxygen, thereby making your heart beat faster and breathing get heavier and faster.
I've also heard of people claiming weight loss in hot yoga, IE weight measurement before and after. But that weight loss comes mainty from the fact that you sweat so much. Some fighters and boxers will use heat to sweat a tonne so they can lose that extra 2 pounds to make a lower weight class for a fight. It's that sort of idea.
I'm not denying the benefits of yoga, or hot yoga for that matter, but in terms of cardio, cycling is far more effective.
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lena_chita
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Feb 4, 2008, 2:09 AM
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If you are looking for cardio workout, than cycling is definitely better at getting your heart rate up than hot yoga.
Now, if you were to do power/vinyasa yoga, then the heart rate does go up quite a bit. But I am not sure if it is more intense than cycling, or not, it terms of cardio.
If you are talking the workout overall though-- I know I would much rather do yoga than spinning.
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miavzero
Feb 4, 2008, 3:57 AM
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Your friend is full of crap.
(not that I oppose yoga)
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sidepull
Feb 4, 2008, 5:04 PM
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sitting in a hot room does not equal cardio - your friend has failed a basic intelligence test. get new friends or you will fail them by association
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playouts1de
Feb 5, 2008, 8:18 AM
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While I was training for an ultra marathon one of my coaches mentioned the positive effects of Bikram yoga on V02 Max. I told him that I was crazy enough to run 50 miles, but that hot yoga stuff was really uncomfortable. He laughed, he practices Bikram 3 times a week.  Ive tried to find some information on the subject, but can only find mention of it in a few places. None of which are peer reviewed except this one:
http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/acm.1997.3.291
Here is a less credible article(still good enough info for me):
http://outside.away.com/outside/bodywork/200207/200207_shape_of_your_life_month3_2.html
My coach happened to be Dean Karnazes running partner, if that lends any credibility. He has to be doing something right, right?
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aerili
Feb 5, 2008, 7:23 PM
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harihari wrote: A friend and I are debating the virtues of Bikram (hot) yoga.
People on here have already answered the whole cardiovascular question, but I just wanted to point out that Bikram yoga has some very serious risks associated with it, especially with regard to cardiovascular functioning, among other things.
Heat actually puts stress on your cardiovascular system, so people with any cardiovascular disease or impaired function (like valve problems, arrhythmia, high blood pressure, etc.) should NOT do this kind of yoga.
Older adults, pregnant women, and children should NOT do this kind of yoga.
People taking prescription medications for COPD and some cardiac drugs should NOT do this kind of yoga, as they can interfere with the way your body loses heat.
Hot yoga temperatures create a setting wherein people may actually overstretch and cause injury in their aggressive pursuit of fitness.
Not to mention that dehydration is a commonly recurring health risk, apparently, since students often ignore water intake recommendations stated by Bikram yoga organizations.
I am not a yoga person myself, but I would say if you want to do this stuff, a non-hot version is probably the healthier choice.
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texasclimber
Feb 5, 2008, 8:09 PM
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My wife did the Bikram yoga for a while and liked it. I made her stop b/c it was 5 times more money than "cold" yoga. Anyway, the heat helps with deeper stretches and that is about it. You also smell bad after if that is what you are looking for.
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EPiCJAMES
Feb 6, 2008, 1:18 AM
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it depends on what your goal is. i would prefer yoga, power yoga. really works your core. but, why not do both??
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jackalak
Feb 19, 2008, 4:19 AM
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I've never done Bikram yoga (aka yoga in a heated room). However, I've been practicing Ashtanga yoga (the classical power or vinyasa yoga) for about a year now. This form of yoga is very physical. I would say a cross between aerobic and anaerobic at times. It also incorporates warm ups and cool downs in the series. I do it at home so I have control of the temperature of my apartment when I practice. I've noticed that I get the best workout if 1) my room is warm enough to get me very loose, but not so warm that I cannot keep up the semi-aerobic pace of the workout and 2) I additionally warm up by doing real aerobic exercise before doing yoga. I used to run cross country but now do more yoga instead. So a 20-30 minute run before doing yoga for 45 minutes to an hour and a half has worked wonderfully for me. Depending on how hot it is outside when I run, I may or may not need to turn up the heat in my apartment when I do yoga. It very subjective to how hot you think you need to feel. I'd still like to try bikram sometime to see if I like it and how effective it is to making me more flexible, stronger in full ranges of movement, and most importantly to improving my climbing :)
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