Hot
Yoga or Yoga in Heated Environment can be Dangerous !
--
Yogacharya
Vishwas Mandlik (Vice Chancellor) Yoga University
India
& Dr.Sujit Chandratreya (MD, DNB, DM, Endocrinologist
& Diabetologist)
|
Print
This Page
|
|
|
|
Send
This Page To Friend
|
|
|
Patanjali,
the founder of yoga had designed the science of yoga about 2500
years ago. Since then this science is being taught in India and
around the world. Patanjali has explained yoga in eight steps
and Asana or Postures is one of those steps.
Patanjali
defines the Asana as “Steady and comfortable posture or position”.
So Asana is a position of body and mind which is steady and comfortable.
Any body posture is comfortable when it is attained in natural
environmental conditions.
This
is achieved through relaxation; the word relaxation is a key to
ideal Asana position. The perfect relaxation on physical and mental
level is essentially responsible to attain the steadiness and
comfort. This retains and increases the Pranic or bio energy in
the body.
This
relaxed position of body results in lowering of respiration rate,
blood pressure, heart rate which in turn lowers the metabolic
rate. This is also verified by various scientific experiments
carried out in various research organizations all over the world
and these great benefits of yoga are scientifically accepted.
So
yoga is relaxation and not like stressful exercises. If the Asana
is practiced in HOT ENVIRONMENT (temperatures about 105 degrees
Fahrenheit) as it is done in some styles of Yoga, the heart rate,
respiration rate and blood pressure increases, though muscles
expand and one can stretch the body more, this may harm the muscles.
Ideally the Yoga should be practiced in normal environmental conditions.
This
Hot Yoga, Bikram yoga or similar type is inappropriate and difficult
to justify version of Indian ancient Science of Yoga. In fact
it can not be called as Yoga as per Indian Science.
Many
medical experts all over the world have raised concern over the
excess strain exerted on muscles in Hot environment (temperatures
about 105 deg. F). In this environment there is always a danger
of muscle or ligament stretched beyond biological limit and may
get Damaged.
Consider
the Fever, it is a natural protective phenomenon as many bodily
reactions are accelerated by heat. Thus in any infection, we get
fever and it helps to clear that infection. It also dilates our
blood vessels and makes the heart beat faster & stronger,
it also causes excessive water loss from our body.
But
there is another side of it! Our body has very little redundant
energy to waste away. The energy demand in heated environment
catalyzes certain bodily processes and slows down other processes.
Our present medical science does not have a complete knowledge
about it, but it is very logical that heated environment is not
natural or normal condition for the body. Our body is meant to
function at normal temperatures; Yoga should be practiced in optimum
& comfortable conditions.
Imagine
doing Yoga when you are suffering from Fever where your body temperature
is 105 deg. Fahrenheit!
Life
is very difficult in regions where temperatures are as high as
48 degrees celcius, so why create such difficult condition around
and practice yoga there? Isn’t it a common sense not to create
worse situations for body?
It
is an individual choice to select the style of Yoga but one must
ensure that the style is in line with the basic definition of
Yoga.
***********
|
