Sweating your stress away: How Glow’s hot yoga classes promote wellness
How Glow Yoga promotes wellness
It’s more than just a workout – discover how hot yoga provides a range of mental and physical health benefits.
You don’t have to be a hippie, a vegan, or “good” at yoga to enjoy the practice. What you do need is a body, and that’s the only requirement. Yoga is also good for you, both physically and mentally.
Particularly, hot yoga (performed in 90-degree heat) offers an array of wellness benefits. And you can do it right here in Syracuse.
Glow Yoga & Juice Bar, just a short drive from Syracuse University, offers this wellness practice seven days a week. Glow offers a variety of yoga classes designed to improve physical and mental strength while promoting a fulfilling lifestyle.
So, how can hot yoga aid our minds and bodies?
Reducing Stress
A 2017 study found that people who did Bikram (hot) yoga for 16 weeks showed a reduction in perceived stress.
Think of the times you’ve been under high stress. Sometimes it feels like we can’t catch our breath. Other times, stress manifests itself in our guts or with a hard-to-shake migraine. But the key is something we often overlook: our breathing.
Kasia Kinsella, a yoga instructor at Glow, connects hot yoga’s impact on stress to its emphasis on breathing.
“A lot of the time you’re breathing all day long and you don’t notice, but when you’re in a yoga class you’re forced to connect that breath with what you’re doing,” Kinsella said.
Breathing patterns impact stress levels, and vice versa. So, consciously breathing through the nose and using the diaphragm can decrease a stress response. Hot yoga instructors like Kinsella ensure their students practice conscious breathing during classes.
SU senior Meagan Wittenberg tried hot yoga at Glow as a stress reliever for the first time this semester and has found that it to be an escape from everyday anxiety and stress.
“In everyday life there is so much noise, I am constantly thinking about one million things at once,” Wittenberg said. “But when I go to hot yoga it’s like everything quiets and all I’m thinking about is the concentrated movement of my body and connecting that to my breath.”
So, if you’re stressed, going to Glow for a student-inclusive 60-minute hot yoga class will reduce your stress levels. All you have to do is breathe!
Increasing Flexibility
A 2013 study showed that people who did Bikram yoga gained deadlift strength and notable flexibility in their back, hamstring, and shoulders.
Kinsella says a heated yoga class quickly warms up muscles. A class at Glow begins at around 94 degrees and can reach 100 degrees if the class is full. She calls the increased flexibility during a hot yoga class “more wiggle room for your muscles.”
You may not think about it, but flexibility is helpful in our everyday lives. It ensures we can easily perform our daily tasks while preventing injury. Signing up for a weekly hot yoga class will keep your muscles and ligaments flexible, and who knows, maybe you’ll eventually be able to hit the splits.
Mindfulness, life satisfaction, and well-being
A 2022 study analyzed how hot yoga, over the course of six weeks, impacted people’s well-being. Compared with the control group, the hot yoga group saw improved well-being post-treatment.
Talking more broadly about all types of yoga, Kinsella attributes yoga’s ability to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression — which then improves well-being — to specific positions done during class.
“During certain movements, like hip opening poses, you are going to feel more emotional,” she said. “There’s just something about that somatic release in your body.”
Wittenberg started her membership at Glow seven weeks ago. Since then, she feels like her overall attitude has improved.
“I am always dealing with ways to ground myself in my anxiety, especially since coming to college, and out of everything I have tried, hot yoga has been the best thing for me,” Wittenberg said.
Kinsella urges people to try hot yoga, not only for its mental and physical benefits but also for the tight-knit community Glow Yoga & Juice Bar provides.
“It’s such a special place,” Kinsella said. “I’ve been to studios all over, and you don’t get the same community feel anywhere else. We know all of our members, and making everyone feel welcome is important to us here.”
Kinsella says there’s no feeling like completing a hot yoga class. She notes that the practice builds resilience and ensures that every person walks out of the room knowing they have accomplished something.
“I just feel like I’m wrung out in the best way possible,” Kinsella said. “It’s a detoxicating feeling.”
Glow Yoga and Juice Bar is located at 6823 East Genesee Street in Fayetteville. Membership information, schedule of classes, contact information, and staff can be found here.