I do yoga about once a week for an injury and with my instructor going on maternity soon, I need to find a new studio. There's a place not far from my house that offers hot yoga, three different levels of heat. I want to try, because it is suppose to help with weight loss and help a bit more with posture and muscle strain and such than regular yoga so I think it might help me a lot with my injury and just health in general...but I'm worried about my bloodsugar levels.
Whenever we get a heat wave (up to 30-32 C) I ALWAYS go high...actually any extreme change in temperature makes my level go high really. For a class that's only 60 or 90mins I don't expect it to have quite the same effect as a full day of 32C on my level..but I'm not really sure what to expect.
Before I go for a class this weekend to try it out, I thought I'd check and see if anyone here has done Hot Yoga and what is recommended to make sure I don't go high, or drop, or any general recommendations on the topic. =)
I've been a yoga practioner for years, including hot yoga. I haven't found that the heat raises my blood sugars substantially, but definitely found that I can get hypoglycemic around the end of the standing series, about halfway through the class. The heat makes it a little difficult to feel the onset of hypoglycemia too, so I would just say be vigilant about checking the first couple of times until you know how you respond. The only other thing I'd ask is: where is your injury? If if is any of your joints, particularly your knees or elbows, then I would probably advise against hot yoga. It is definitely harder on the joints than other forms of yoga, and there is a sort of air of competitiveness in many classes (often encouraged by the instructors) that detracts from your ability to go slowly and baby your body if you have to.
I have problems with my knees sometimes but it's mostly when I run but my main injury is a soft tissue in my back/shoulders/neck. I'm pretty good at going at my own pace and listening to my body, so I'm not too considered about competition. And I'm more than happy to tell the instructor to f-off if they try to make me feel bad about going slow =P