Category: Wellness Tips

Hot yoga is a popular practice for both physical and mental health. As the name implies, hot yoga is the practice of yoga in a heated setting. Hot yoga sessions are typically more vigorous and intense than the average yoga practice, as the heated environment helps the body go deeper into stretches while detoxifying in the process.

Many use hot yoga as a way to connect with their bodies physically, mentally, or spiritually. If you are new to the practice, it can seem a bit intense with the increased heat and new poses. Find tips for how to get started and how to do hot yoga at home effectively!

 

 

How to Do Hot Yoga at Home

 

Outside of a class, you can easily practice hot yoga on your own. Whether in a heated room or in a home sauna, solo hot yoga is a wonderful way to connect with your body and learn its limits without pushing it too far. From the clothes you wear and the yoga mat you use to the space you’re practicing in, make sure you use the proper equipment and high-quality materials to ensure your safety and comfort during any hot yoga session.

Boost the benefits of hot yoga by practicing in an infrared sauna. Both infrared saunas and hot yoga offer the health benefits of detoxification, weight loss, flexibility, and reduced stress. Doing hot yoga in a home sauna is the perfect scenario to boost your health benefits even further!

 

Tips for Hot Yoga for Beginners

 

Bring Extra Towels

Chances are, you’ll sweat a lot during your hot yoga session. Be prepared for extra moisture by bringing towels to keep yourself and your equipment dry. Working on a slippery yoga mat can be uncomfortable and a safety hazard.

 

Eat Light

Because hot yoga poses are more involved and vigorous than your average yoga class, it’s important to fuel your body before a session. Eat a healthy meal about 2-4 hours before your session to avoid cramps, nausea, or fatigue.

 

Practice Breathing

Honing in on your breath is important in hot yoga. Breathing exercises help bring you to a state of mindfulness and concentration, which can help you push through the heat of your hot yoga session and get comfortable.

 

Stay Hydrated

Sweating is great for detoxing, but can be dangerous if you don’t hydrate before and after practicing hot yoga. Drink water, replenish your electrolytes, and put moisturizer on your skin to ensure your body doesn’t lose any hydration.

 

 

Common Hot Yoga Poses

 

Hot yoga can be done with any poses you prefer. If you’re looking for a more guided yoga session, Bikram Yoga is the most common way to practice, where rooms are heated to 105°F (40°C) with 40% humidity. In this practice, 2 breathing exercises and 26 hot yoga poses are performed over the course of 90 minutes to activate muscles and increase blood circulation throughout the body.

 

1. Pranayama Deep Breathing

Pranayama increases focus and expands the lungs for respiratory health. It enables maximum oxygen to reach the muscles and organs and improves blood circulation. Breathing also helps calm the mind before a hot yoga session.

 

2. Half Moon Pose

The half moon pose focuses on strengthening the body’s core muscles. It also increases the spine’s flexibility and improves kidney function. This pose helps firm the body and tones the hips, buttocks, thighs, and abdomen.

 

3. Awkward Pose

This helps tone and shape the legs and torso while relieving joint and back pain. The awkward pose can also help improve slipped discs or other spine-related problems. It stretches your hips, spine, and chest muscles as well.

 

4. Eagle Pose

Eagle pose opens up the largest joints in the skeletal system. It improves the flexibility of the hips, knees, and ankles while improving blood flow to the kidneys. This hot yoga pose also helps increase your focus and improve balance.

 

5. Standing Head-to-Knee Pose

Theis pose strengthens the hamstrings and leg muscles and can improve the flexibility of sciatic nerves. It also tones the muscles of your abs, back, biceps, and triceps. This pose can also help with concentration and mental strength.

 

6. Standing Bow Pose

Standing bow pose develops balance, firms the upper thighs, and improves lower spine strength and flexibility. It is also great for cardiovascular health as it stimulates blood vessels and supplies fresh blood to the entire body.

 

 

7. Balancing Stick Pose

Balancing stick pose stretches the heart muscles, rejuvenates the brain, and boosts concentration. It strengthens your core and back muscles while gently stretching the entire spinal column. It’s also great to help burn calories.

 

8. Standing Separate Leg Stretching Pose

This pose strengthens and stretches the sciatic nerves, increases the ankle and hip joint flexibility, and releases tension in lower back muscles. It’s believed to improve the functioning of the abdominal organs and their functions.

 

9. Triangle Pose

The triangle pose helps revitalize the veins, tissues, and nerves. This hot yoga pose helps reduce lower back pain and strengthens your knees, ankles, legs, chest, and arms. It can also reduce anxiety and improve digestion.

 

10. Standing Separate Head To Knee Pose

This pose aims to tone the abdomen, waist, hips, thighs, and buttocks while also improving mood. It has been said to stimulate the thyroid gland and to regulate both the metabolism and the immune system.

 

11. Tree Pose

Tree pose is a great stretch to help improve posture and balance. It increases the flexibility of hip joints, knees, and ankles, which improves overall joint health. This hot yoga pose also strengthens internal oblique muscles.

 

12. Toe Stand Pose

The pose strengthens and opens up your knees, joints, abdominal muscles, hips, ankles, and toes. It can also help increase focus and improve posture. The toe stand stretch can help keep you calm and balanced, as well.

 

13. Savasana

Savasana relaxes the body halfway through the hot yoga poses. It helps release stress, depression, tension, and fatigue while relaxing muscles. It also improves mental health and concentration and stimulates blood circulation.

 

 

14. Wind-Removing Pose

This hot yoga pose massages the digestive system to aid digestion. It also helps strengthen the arms, improves hip flexibility, tones the abdomen and thighs, eases tension in the lower back, and enhances blood circulation.

 

15. Sit Up Pose

The sit up pose increases your flexibility and stretches the spine, legs, and shoulders. It can also help firm the lower body and improves blood circulation in the legs. This pose also stimulates the kidneys and pancreas.

 

16. Cobra Pose

Cobra pose improves appetite, digestion, and metabolism. This hot yoga pose helps regulate blood pressure, enhances liver and spleen function, and helps make the spine both stronger and more flexible.

 

17. Locust Pose

This pose is ideal if you are prone to slipped discs and sciatica. The Locust pose strengthens the upper spine and relieves tennis elbow. It can also help reduce varicose veins on the legs and help firm the buttocks and hips.

 

18. Full Locust Pose

Similar to locust pose, full locust pose is great for slipped discs. It increases the elasticity of your rib cage and tones your arms, thighs, abdominal muscles, and hips. This pose also helps fix bad posture and reduce backache.

 

19. Bow Pose

The bow pose expands the lungs by opening the chest and shoulders and strengthens and revitalizes the spinal nerves. It can also help improve digestion and improve the function of the liver, kidneys, and spleen.

 

20. Fixed Firm Pose

The fixed firm pose stretches and expands your rib cage while stretching the leg muscles, knee joints, ankles, lower back, and hips. This hot yoga pose is also said to help regulate the thyroid and adrenal glands.

 

 

21. Half Tortoise

This hot yoga pose releases tension in the neck and shoulders. Additionally, it helps tone the thighs and abdomen and gives a relaxing stretch to the spine. The half tortoise pose also assists in increasing the flexibility of the hips.

 

22. Camel Pose

Camel pose stimulates the nervous system by compressing the spine. It improves the flexibility, strength, and posture of the neck and spine while stretching the abdominal organs, thus aiding in digestion.

 

23. Rabbit Pose

This hot yoga pose increases the mobility and elasticity of the back muscles and spine, thus reducing neck and back pain. The rabbit pose also helps circulate fresh blood and oxygen to the nerves for optimal performance.

 

24. Sitting Head-to-Knee Stretching Pose

The pose increases blood circulation to the liver, pancreas, thyroid, and intestines. It can help reduce allergies and is helpful for digestion. This hot yoga position can also help boost the immune and lymphatic systems.

 

25. Spine Twisting Pose

The spine twisting pose improves the elasticity of the spine and helps prevent slipped discs and arthritis. It calms the nervous system and relieves tension while increasing the supply of oxygen to your lungs.

 

26. Blowing in Firm Pose

Lastly, this hot yoga breathing technique helps boost detoxification during a yoga session. It uplifts and rejuvenates your brain at the end of a hot yoga session due to increased blood circulation and oxygen to the brain.

 

Tying hot yoga is an invigorating experience. It is a great place to connect with your body and mind as the heat requires you to take your movements slowly and with intention. The next time you are in your infrared sauna, try these hot yoga poses and tips to get one of the best physical and mental exercises!

With practices found centuries ago utilizing the health benefits of salt, salt therapy continues to grow as a popular treatment and is becoming more available to those who want to try it. Halotherapy is one of the most beneficial therapies with benefits including respiratory and skin health, and it can be easily accessible thanks to the many different types of application. From dry halotherapy to wet halotherapy, read on to see how you can try halotherapy and reap all the health benefits at home!

 

 

What is Halotherapy?

 

The practice of salt therapy, or halotherapy, uses pharmaceutical-grade microsalt to promote a range of health benefits once inhaled. Many believe that when people inhale this salty air, it can help stimulate their respiratory system, reduce inflammation, fight infection, clear blockages, and reduce discomfort. The treatment is intended to recreate the atmosphere of salt caves with a high concentration of micronized salt in the air. Halotherapy can also be applied as a saline solution, in which users soak in the solution to reap the benefits.

There are two main types of salt therapy: dry salt therapy and wet salt therapy. Dry therapy involves small salt particles dispersed in a dry room while wet salt therapy requires a saline solution that is either soaked in or applied as an aerosol spray. Both methods of halotherapy can be improved with the addition of thermotherapy, or heat therapy, in the form of an infrared sauna or bath to enhance the number of health benefits with every session. In addition to the respiratory, skin, muscular, and mineral benefits of salt therapy, heat therapy can offer improved blood circulation, detoxification, and more for a comprehensive experience.

 

 

Types of Halotherapy

 

Wet Salt Therapy

Wet halotherapy treatment comes from the principle of mixing water with salt to gain therapeutic benefit. You may notice that breathing ocean air opens up your sinuses, which in turn temporarily improves your health. The Centers for Respiratory Health, formerly known as the Lung Institute, maintains that salty ocean air can improve conditions like lung disease and cystic fibrosis. This is done, in part, by thinning the mucus in the body and decreasing sinus pressure. Wet salt therapy also mimics the climate in the salt caves of Europe where the air was quite moist. 

Wet halotherapy has been used for many years in natural settings:

• In Twelfth Century Poland, bathers used naturally occurring salt water for better health and wellness. 
• The Dead Sea’s most notable characteristic is its water with extremely high salt concentration. Bathers from around the world visit the Dead Sea for its therapeutic effects.
• Over the years, wet salt therapy users have breathed in moist salty air from salt caves or natural water falls. 

Wet salt therapy delivered through a halotherapy generator, also known as a microsalt generator, is one of the most effective ways to achieve better respiratory health. Breathing in air that has a high concentration of wet salt will deliver the salt deep into the lungs for maximum benefit. The halotherapy generator can be placed anywhere, but it is most effective in a confined space like an infrared sauna or small room to help keep the salt microparticles concentrated in one spot. Wet salt therapy allows for a greater range of salt particle sizes ranging from 1-10 microns. This allows the salt to enter more of the lungs for maximum benefit.

 

 

Though not as comprehensive as using a halotherapy machine that helps provide both internal and external salt therapy benefits, you can also do external wet salt therapy at home through a salt bath and recreate those settings enjoyed in 12th Century Poland and in the Dead Sea. Epsom salt, pink Himalayan salt, and sea salt are all popular options that can help your body absorb trace minerals, improve skin conditions, and provide temporary muscle relief with the help of a hot bath.

 

Dry Salt Therapy

The dry method of halotherapy is where microscopic particles of salt are distributed into the air in a room free of humidity. Users spend 20-30 minutes inhaling the salt particles that help remedy ailments and create a calming effect. With dry salt therapy, the particle size ranges from 1-3 microns. The smaller range of salt particle size means the salt will not enter as much of the lungs as compared to wet salt therapy. 

To do dry salt therapy at home, the most effective method is with a halotherapy generator. Try to wear minimal clothing to allow for maximum skin exposure to the salt particles, and take deep breaths in through your nose to inhale the salt into your respiratory system.

 

 

Benefits of Salt Therapy

 

Salt is antibacterial and anti-inflammatory, and can help with excessive mucus, pathogen agents, digestive issues, depression, skin conditions, and immune system oversensitivity. Microsalt is especially effective when used for respiratory and skin conditions. Halotherapy also helps improve mental health and boosts mood. Salt contains negatively charged ions that help balance serotonin and leave you feeling invigorated, positive, and stress-free.

In the respiratory system, the main halotherapy benefits (antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, hydrophilic, and mucokinetic) help stimulate the body’s process of cleansing the system to eliminate foreign particles such as pollutants and allergens to restore proper respiratory functions. For the skin, salt therapy helps regulate pH levels and enhances the reparative and regenerative properties, and some salts provide the body with trace minerals. It can also boost the production of collagen fibers for rejuvenation and lymph cells for an immune system boost.

 

If you are considering starting halotherapy, take all the different options in mind from dry salt therapy to wet salt therapy. Every halotherapy method has different health benefits that can help enhance your life. Salt therapy is relatively safe to use but can cause irritation depending on sensitivity to salt, so speak with your doctor if you notice any adverse effects. Otherwise, this all-natural treatment is a great way to help improve your health and wellness, whether soaking in the Dead Sea or using a HALOONE® halotherapy generator in your infrared sauna!

Muscle pain can be, well, a pain to deal with! If you’ve done an intense workout or have simply woken up with a sore back, you’ve probably been on the search for how to relieve sore muscles quickly. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to help get back to a pain-free life fairly quickly when you take the proper precautions and find the treatments that work best for you. Read on to find the best ways to help relieve sore muscle pain and how to speed up the recovery process. And since prevention is also important, you’ll even find some tips on how to prevent feeling intense muscle pain in the future!

 

 

Sore Muscle Recovery

 

Infrared Sauna Use

Using an infrared sauna helps promote a temporary increase in blood flow to muscles and can aid in sore muscle recovery. This increased blood circulation from infrared heat carries off metabolic waste products and delivers oxygen-rich blood to oxygen-depleted muscles so they can recover faster. The deep heat helps bring relief and healing to muscle and soft tissue injuries as pain is reduced and range of motion is improved.

 

Thermotherapy

Thermotherapy can be a huge help in sore muscle recovery. Applying heat immediately after exercising can reduce delayed onset muscle soreness, and it can help relieve sore muscles after the pain has set in. A study from 2013 found that while both dry and moist heat helped with pain, moist heat may offer even more pain reduction. After applying heat therapy, cold therapy helps relieve pain in muscles and joints by reducing swelling and nerve activity.

 

Epsom Salt Soak

Soaking in Epsom salts has been shown to reduce muscle pain and inflammation. This is because of the high levels of magnesium in Epsom salts that help relax sore muscles. The moist heat you get from sitting in a hot bath is an added bonus. If you do not have access to a tub for soaking, you can soak a washcloth or towel in hot water mixed with Epsom salt and apply it where you feel sore muscle pain for 20 minutes.

 

Massage

Not only are massages relaxing, but massage has also been found to alleviate delayed-onset muscle soreness and improve muscle performance. A study from 2017 suggests that massage is most effective when performed 48 hours after exercise. If you really want to get at your sore muscle pain, you can opt for a deep tissue massage or a sports massage. These massages might not be as relaxing, but they provide some great specialized muscle work.

 

 

Foam Rolling

Foam rolling is essentially a form of self-massage. Research has found that foam rolling can relieve delayed onset muscle soreness. It may also help with muscle fatigue and flexibility. Foam rollers can be purchased wherever you buy exercise equipment. To foam roll, you place the roller on the floor underneath the sore muscle and slowly roll your body over it. You can search online for videos on how to foam roll for different muscle groups.

 

Hydration

Upping your fluid intake can help speed up the healing process and encourage your body to flush out toxins. Plain filtered water works great. Drink 10 or more eight-ounce glasses per day, and hydrate a bit extra if you’re feeling particularly sore. Try ultra-hydration options like low-sugar electrolyte drinks or coconut water, as the added electrolytes can be a boost for sore muscles as they replenish minerals and hydration lost while sweating.

 

Topical Products

Arnica has been used as a natural remedy for muscle soreness for years. Although more research is needed, one 2013 study found that topicals containing arnica effectively relieved pain and inflammation brought on by intense exercise. Topical CBD products can also alleviate muscle soreness via skin-based endocannabinoid receptors. Both arnica and CBD provide localized relief when applied to irritated areas.

 

Anti-Inflammatory Supplements

Adding supplements to your health routine can help reduce inflammation and aid in sore muscle recovery. For example, curcumin is a compound found in turmeric that has powerful anti-inflammatory effects and is high in antioxidants, thus helping reduce the pain of delayed onset muscle soreness and speed up sore muscle recovery after exercise. Fish oil and other omega-3 fatty acids offer similar benefits.

 

 

Sore Muscle Prevention

 

Exercising

If your muscles are sore from working out, don’t let muscle soreness stop you from exercising more. Muscle soreness is a natural process that helps your body get used to any new motions while working muscle groups. Once over this soreness, it won’t happen again unless you increase the intensity. If the pain is severe, exercise at a lower intensity or switch to another muscle group for a day or two, then gradually work your way up to higher intensities. While working out, it’s also important to practice proper form, stretching, and cooling down to help prevent muscle injury or soreness:

 

• Dynamic Stretching: A 2012 study found that static stretches may inhibit muscular performance. Static stretching involves stretching a muscle to the point of minimal discomfort and holding it for a period of time. Instead, opt for dynamic stretching where you repeatedly move your muscles and joints, such as walking lunges and arm circles. Dynamic stretching is great for your body as it increases your heart rate, improves blood flow, and improves your flexibility.

• Cooling Down: Dynamic stretching before working out is to prepare your muscles, and cooling down helps prepare your muscles for recovery. A cooldown after a workout helps your breathing and heart rate return to normal. It can also help keep blood flowing to the exercised muscles, which can aid the repair process and potentially improve delayed onset muscle soreness. Cool down by walking or riding a stationary bike for 5 or 10 minutes.

 

Mindful Movement

If your muscles are sore from wear, such as pulling a muscle, then being mindful of your movements can save you a lot of heartache (and muscle ache). Be wary of how you move, and definitely avoid movements that have caused injury in the past. Muscle strain and sleeping/sitting position are two main culprits for sore muscles. To avoid muscle strain, move slowly and learn the proper ranges of motion for your body. Doing yoga (or hot yoga) can help you loosen your muscles and strengthen them to avoid future injury. To avoid muscle soreness from sleeping or sitting, ensure your bed or seating area is set up properly with enough structure and cushion that give your muscles proper support.

 

Sore muscle pain can really put a strain on your everyday life, so finding relief quickly is key. Use these tips for sore muscle recovery (and sore muscle prevention) to help your body heal quickly and be ready for handling any activities coming your way! Taking care of your muscles is important, so be sure to drink those electrolytes, stretch with some dynamic yoga, and sit in a sauna to help take care of them.