Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, I'm more in vogue. Bomb in today's episode
Speaker 1: is another classic from our archives. One of the things
Speaker 1: that a lot of us are missing these days are
Speaker 1: gyms and fitness classes unfettered by the social distancing rules
Speaker 1: and masks that are keeping us all safer until we
Speaker 1: can get vaccinated. But when it is safe to be
Speaker 1: indoors again, is hot yoga one of the things that
Speaker 1: we should get back to, or is regular temperature yoga
Speaker 1: just as good. Hey there, brain Stuff, Lauren boga bomb here.
Speaker 1: Some like their yoga hot a hundred and five degrees
Speaker 1: fahrenheit or forty degrees celsius to be exact, but according
Speaker 1: to a study published in the journal Experimental Physiology, heat
Speaker 1: might have nothing to do with the style's health benefits.
Speaker 1: Yoga is an ancient Indian practice. It dates back thousands
Speaker 1: of years. As William J. Brad describes in the Science
Speaker 1: of Yoga The Risks of Rewards, Its roots lay in
Speaker 1: quote an obscure cult steeped in magic and eroticism, but
Speaker 1: the practice has evolved over time, reaching the West in
Speaker 1: the mid nineteenth century and exploding in America during the
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties. Today, you'll find everything from spiritual yoga practices
Speaker 1: that invoke Hindu traditions to secularized models that target everyone
Speaker 1: from pro wrestling fans to death metal heads. And then
Speaker 1: there's hot yoga, most notably Bickram Yoga, founded by Calcutta
Speaker 1: born Bickram Chottery in the nineteen seventies. Bickram Yoga centers
Speaker 1: around twenty six poses or asanas performed in a precisely
Speaker 1: heated forty to six humidity studio for around ninety minutes
Speaker 1: of sweaty action. The official Bickram Yoga website claims that
Speaker 1: the heat helps you practice your postures optimally. But while
Speaker 1: critics have previously raised concerns over elevated body temperatures, no
Speaker 1: study has actually isolated the effects of heat in the practice.
Speaker 1: That's according to the authors of the aforementioned study, carried
Speaker 1: out at Texas State University and the University of Texas
Speaker 1: at Austin. They brought in eighty study participants, ages forty
Speaker 1: to sixty, all of whom had lived sedentary lifestyles for
Speaker 1: at least six months following health screenings. They randomized the
Speaker 1: participants into three groups. A thermonutral group, a heated group,
Speaker 1: and a control group for twelve weeks. The heated group
Speaker 1: attended three Bikram yoga classes a week in a traditional
Speaker 1: hot room, while the thermonutral group attended the same number
Speaker 1: of classes only under you guessed at room temperature conditions
Speaker 1: that's seventy three degrees farenheit or about twenty three degrees celsius.
Speaker 1: The control group did nothing. In the end, a fifty
Speaker 1: of the eighty two subjects completed the interventions and returned
Speaker 1: for follow up testing nineteen hot, fourteen thermo neutral, and
Speaker 1: nineteen control. The researchers compared their findings and determined the
Speaker 1: Bickram yoga can reduce changes in blood vessel lining linked
Speaker 1: to heart disease, and that it can possibly delay the
Speaker 1: buildup of arterial plaque, which can lead to heart attack
Speaker 1: or stroke. But here's the kicker. The benefits were present
Speaker 1: in both the heat and room temperature groups, indicating that
Speaker 1: heated rooms that Bickram calls torture chambers don't actually make
Speaker 1: a difference. That be said, many yoga practitioners do like
Speaker 1: it hot and sweaty, even amid legal scandals surrounding its founder,
Speaker 1: Big Room Yoga boasts studios around the world, and that's
Speaker 1: in addition to various other non affiliated hot yoga styles.
Speaker 1: If these latest findings hold true, however, that hot room
Speaker 1: might be no more essential to the practice than an
Speaker 1: iPod shuffle full of the traditional Kurton music or cannibal corpse,
Speaker 1: take your pick. Today's episode was written by Robert Lamb
Speaker 1: and produced by Tristan McNeil and Tyler Klang. For more
Speaker 1: on this and lots of other hot topics, visit how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Rain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio.
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