Hot yoga cardio benefits

Written by: Christopher Medvigy

An interesting benefit interpretation by my heart rate monitor on the hot yoga flow workout below:

The above hot yoga session was described by the sophisticated hrm program as, ”Tempo training that increased your anaerobic tolerance and improved your maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) and efficiency.  It also raised the speed you can maintain without building up lactic acid.  The training duration was long enough to increase fatigue resistance at the used speed.  Carbohydrates are the main energy source that your body uses at this training intensity.”  Calories chewed up were 652 and the training load was a very high 138.  For comparison on exercise load, I recently did a 10 kilometer run at full effort race speed in 48 mins, that load was 139 to 138 (hot yoga), calories at 552 to 652 (hot yoga).

For additional comparison I’ve added other exercise type hrm results.

Crossfit workout, typically 10 min warm up, 20 min workout and 10 min cool down.  In this chart 3 assisted handstands then kettlebell swings with a sprint, cool down at the end.

A weight workout that involved 8 sprints at the end:

Conclusion:  The yoga workout had huge and varied benefits that are measureable for the cardiovascular and circulatory system in only one session. Over time and continued training these results are solidified.  I can also attest to an increase in thyroid, hormone level improvements, and muscular endurance over a 3 month yoga only training period.  Those results were gathered through before/ after blood work and physical fitness testing, but that subject will have to be saved for a future “short” blog.  Suffice to say, I personally favor a variety of exercise protocols but have to respect the hot yoga session as a leader for fitness and overall wellness.