Confession: I don’t do well in the heat.
If the temperature’s cold, I’m usually fine with a blanket and a hot cup of tea, but what I don’t like is being hot and sticky. This may be in part the reason that I’m living in SoCal, since I love being outdoors and the mild weather is so conducive to that. When I go back to Jersey in the summertime, where I was born and raised, I practically melt with the high humidity. It’s not even that I’ve turned into a spoiled Californian. My body just has never done well in weather over 85 degrees.
My house doesn’t have air conditioning (which I recently found out is common in this area), and I actually have a heat paranoia. All windows and doors are opened and my ceiling fans are turned on first thing in the morning, for fear of getting hot and not being able to cool off….Typing that out made me realize what a first world problem that is! But it’s totally true.
Anywho, now knowing of my dislike for extreme heat, you can imagine that I’m not big on high temp studio workouts. I feel like I sweat enough on my own during exercise and don’t feel the need to be in a room that’s 100 degrees.
Bikram yoga is probably the most common heated workout. As much as I love yoga, Bikram is not my idea of a good time because you practice in what they refer to as “torture chambers.” On an unrelated note, the founder of Bikram also seems like a complete egomaniac that I don’t care to support.
Though I usually steer clear of heated studios, the gym where a friend of mine and I have been using a Groupon for classes offers a variety of warm or hot temperature classes. We decided to give their heated barre class a try last week.
I won’t lie, I was fully prepared to hate every minute of the heat. But since I had low expectations for my level of enjoyment, it actually wasn’t too bad because the class went by really quickly. I was dripping sweat within 5 minutes of walking into the class. I was sure that I would receive the award for sweatiest person in the room, but then I looked over and a girl near me wearing just a sports bra and bike shorts had produced a puddle on the wood floor below the barre. So I certainly wasn’t the only one who was dying!
A couple of weeks ago, I took a warm temperature boxing class at this gym, and it was even more gross because we had gloves and hand wraps on. In these classes I found myself really distracted by beads of sweat flying off of my body during workouts, especially when I had gloves on and couldn’t wipe it out of my eyes.
Heated workout enthusiasts claim that the high temps flush toxins from your body. My barre instructor said that she really only works out in heated rooms, so when she does barre in normal temperatures, she feels like she isn’t as flexible. I suppose I could see her point, but personally I didn’t notice a change in my flexibility level.
I may find myself at a heated studio again at some point, but I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t really feel the need to be completely dripping sweat to feel like I had a good workout. Plus, working out in heated studios makes me feel dehydrated and depleted. I’m not a professional boxer, so I don’t think I need to lose 2 pounds of water weight by the morning!
Tell me, what are your thoughts on heated studios?
Great post! Also, your comment about the Bikram guy made me laugh. So true though!
I have heard of heated barre but never tried it. I actually really like heated vinyasa yoga. I think that helps with flexibility a lot more than a barre class (I find that stretching in barre is too minimal to really make a difference). I really only go in the winter though when it’s freezing outside the heated room feels nice. Now that I’m preggers I can’t do anything heated but it doesn’t really bother me that much.
I have a pretty high tolerance for heat but the humidity here is kind of crazy. Actually you would never survive in my apartment. The temps reach well into the 90s during the day unless we turn on the AC. It’s hot even in the winter and we had to turn out heater off. I think it’s overinsulated!
HAHA right!! He gives me the creeps.
You’ve got a point – hot yoga during the freezing Northeast winter? Now THAT I could see me trying.
Too funny, I’d probably pass out in your apartment! I stayed at a girlfriend’s apartment in NYC the end of last year and she had no control over the heat they pumped into the building and it was SO hot… I was melting! Could.not.deal.
I’ve never been to a heated gym before but I don’t think it would be my thing. I don’t like sweating buckets either!
Yup it’s not all that fun!
Great post topic – I honestly don’t think heated workouts are “miraculous” like many people do. Good point about the flexibility thing though – I can definitely see why that would be true. I’ve only worked out in a heated room once and I spent the whole time slipping on my mat and worrying about that so maybe that wasn’t the best introduction for me to this type of workout haha. All in all, it seems like just another fad that will fade out soon when we come up with the next “incredible” way to “flush out toxins.”
Wow!! look at you girl! And yeah… i hear ya, I usz. drink tea to warm me up and smoothies tend to cool me down! 🙂 Your smoothie looks delicious!