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Bikram-style hot yoga isn’t actually any better for you than normal yoga, study finds

Yoga practice
Yoga practice

Hot yoga has swept the world since the 70s, with celebrity fans such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Andy Murray – but is it as healthy as people believe?

A new study suggests that the benefits of Bikram yoga, where devotees pull poses in rooms heated above 40 Celsius, are actually down to the moves, not the heat.

In fact, you can exactly get the same benefits by doing the moves without the sweltering temperature.

Researchers from the University of Texas compared three groups: one doing normal yoga, one doing Bikram yoga, and one doing Bikram yoga, but at room temperature.

The study showed that Bikram yoga can help reduce changes in the lining of blood vessels that are involved in the development and progression of heart disease.
The study showed that Bikram yoga can help reduce changes in the lining of blood vessels that are involved in the development and progression of heart disease.

The researchers found that Bikram yoga can reduce changes in blood vessels which are associated with heart disease – but that it works just as well at room temperature.

Stacy D Hunter, corresponding author said: ‘The new finding from this investigation was that the heated practice environment did not seem to play a role in eliciting improvements in vascular health with Bikram yoga.

‘This is the first publication to date to show a beneficial effect of the practice in the absence of the heat.’

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