As a Yoga teacher, people often ask me what I think about hot Yoga. I am going to give the very short answer and the long answer if you want to keep reading.
Short answer: I think that hot Yoga appeals to a lot of people, and if it is the thing that works for you, you should definitely do it. Try it, see if you like it. If you go, be sure to drink plenty of water before--I mean starting with the night before the class. Stay well hydrated. Take sips of water during the class (but don't chug). After class, continue to hydrate well. How much water? You want so make sure that your pee is plentiful and clear, but be careful not to drink so much water that you throw your electrolytes out of balance in the other direction.
Long answer: I have taken many hot Yoga classes with many different instructors over the years. Sometimes I have loved it, and sometimes I could not wait for the class to be over. The two factors that most greatly influenced my experience in the class were:
1) My hydration level.
2) The instructor.
My hydration level is 100% my responsibility. It is my job before a hot Yoga class, or any kind of exercise in which I know I will be doing a lot of sweating, to put a lot of liquid in my body. If I fall down on that job, I will suffer the consequences, which for me, include abdominal cramping, stomach upset, and migraine headaches. These symptoms are likely to last 12 hours or more.
As for the instructors, Yoga teachers are usually really nice people, so it's not like they are coming in and being jerks. The way the teacher influences my experience in the class is through pose sequencing, and how well he or she cues, adapts, assists and gauges the class. I find these things important in any class, but especially important in a hot class, where everyone is sweaty, and the sweat layer on the skin is going to affect the student's ability to execute certain poses. For example, arm balances are harder with a layer of water on you. I mean, trying to get your leg to balance on top of your tricep is hard enough with a dry arm and leg, but if they are both wet and slippery, it's a whole different ballgame.
Also, a heated class is harder on your heart. Let's say you cloned yourself and had you at your exact same fitness level in two different rooms, doing the exact same Yoga flow at the exact same time, all other factors being the same except the temperature. One room is 76 degrees F, the other is 105. You probably already know from your life experience of doing things outside that your heart is going to work harder doing the same stuff at the higher temperature. This does not mean that you are necessarily getting a better workout, it just means that your heart has to work more to accomplish the same thing.
Some people really like the fact that they sweat buckets during a hot Yoga class. This, together with the higher heart rates reported on their fitness trackers, really makes them feel like they have Accomplished Something. If this is a desirable outcome for you, that is great! I don't discourage it. In fact, the sweat output is one of the touted benefits of a hot Yoga class: its supporters argue that the sweat flush encourages toxins to leave the body, effectively cleansing the body from the inside.
Do be aware that that higher heart rate and the vast amounts of sweat are telling you that your body is working harder to do basic things. And things that would typically be a challenge to begin with, like a handstand, are an extra layer of difficult.
Again, I am not saying hot Yoga is bad by any means. When I have been in classes with experienced, savvy, and compassionate teachers, I have seen them sequence and pace the classes so that we were able to build up to peak poses like handstand safely, without being heat-exhausted by the time we got there. However, I have also seen the opposite happen, where instructors to pushed a class at a high-challenge level for the first 35 minutes, and then tried to have us turn into an inversion with very little guidance or alternatives. And this in a small room, with no usable walls. This resulted in a class with 15 or so exhausted folks in the middle of the room, trying to kick up into a sweaty, unbalanced handstand or headstand, with no wall to fall into, and no real idea of how to safely get there, because the sole cue the instructor gave them was, "And now, try a handstand."
It's moments like that when I fight the urge to just walk out of the class. Instead, I usually choose to just take an early Savasana and watch everyone else, while hoping that no one's handstand goes awry, sending them crashing into my head. If that ever happens, at least I know I have my CPR training to fall back on.
Oh, one other thing to mention about hot Yoga is that it's not for people who are smell-sensitive. When I'm taking a hot class, I run my body through the shower beforehand, just as a courtesy to others, kind of like how you are supposed to shower before entering the pool. But just like the pool, not everyone does that. So if you are in a small, hot room with 15-20 people and there is a lot of sweating and no kind of air circulation going on, it's going to smell like a stuffy locker room and sweaty humans. If that's the kind of thing that bothers you a lot, you might want to bring your own scented towel. Here's how you do that: You get some cheap washcloths or hand towels at Wal-Mart or a similar inexpensive store. Soak the towel in a bowl, add a few drops of an essential oil you like (I'm a fan of citrus or lavender). Swish the towel around to incorporate the essential oil. Wring out the towel and dump the water. Put the thoroughly wrung-out towel in the freezer overnight. Before Yoga, put your frozen smell-good towel in a Zip-Loc bag and take it with you. Keep your wet towel off the studio's wood floors, it stays on the Zip-Loc or your mat. It will come to room temperature all too soon, but it will continue to smell nice for you when you need to wipe the buckets of sweat off your face.
In conclusion, my long story short for hot Yoga is this: Some people swear by hot Yoga and totally love it. I have taken some hot classes with instructors who I absolutely loved. However, for me, the hot room magnifies the little things that would bother me in any class. I can forgive it when I'm in a cool room, but apparently the heat makes me too cranky to get over it. So my advice is this: Find a Yoga studio you really like. Try some cool classes. Find a teacher you really like and whose style you respect. If that teacher also teaches in the hot room, try his/her class there. If that studio offers a beginner hot class, try that one too. Hydrate very well for 12-24 hours before a hot class. Make sure your pee flows free and clear before you step on the mat. Sip water during class. Drink up after. Bring a change of clothes with you for after class if you don't like to feel sticky and clammy. Lastly, keep an open mind. If you go once and don't like it, try another class, another instructor, another studio. Give it at least five tries before you decide it's not for you.
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