I always thought yoga and swimming were bullshit forms of exercise. To me, if you’re not breaking a sweat, you can’t call it a workout. But then I discovered hot yoga in Calgary and I haven’t looked back. To amp up your work out, yoga sculpt is a must try.
Yoga sculpt
Now I like yoga as much as the next person, which is to say, not very much indeed, but like kale, it’s one of those things that’s supposedly worth the effort getting in.
I recently stumbled upon Yoga Sculpt at Calgary’s Hot Shop. This hot yoga class adds weights to the “workout” making it an ideal class for skeptics like me.
What I love most about yoga sculpt classes (besides burning anywhere from 300 to 600 calories in 50 minutes), is that there’s none of that annoying yogi speak. You know: talk about your intentions or releasing your inner goddess.
I’m too uptight for that, and if I wanted to talk about my pelvic floor all day, I would’ve had a second kid. I digress… Oh, but on that topic, if you’re pregnant or just had a baby, yoga sculpt in a hot yoga studio may not be for you. Instead, look to these types of prenatal classes.
Yoga sculpt is a hot yoga class that incorporates light hand weights into a power vinyasa flow. You get right into it with series of ab exercises that mixes up eagle crunches with Pilates hundreds.
Maintaining proper form while hammering out the repetitions is challenging, but in a good, feel the burn kind of way. You don’t need to be great at yoga to do the class (I’m there, after all), but it helps to know the names of the poses.
If you don’t know how to cycle through chaturanga, best stand in the back row. The 50-minute class whizzes by and you’re left deliciously drenched in sweat with quivering arms and legs.
The only downside to this class is how much I sweat and how disgusting I look afterwards. Fortunately, most hot yoga studios sport showers, hairdryers and free product to spruce yourself up with after class.
In Calgary, both Hot Shop and Hot Yoga on 17 also offers hot yoga sculpt classes in Calgary.
Do you like hot yoga? Do you think it counts as a work out?
