Hot yoga is an awesome form of isometric fitness training. It has been around for about 50 years now with its origins in Japan as developed and first practiced by the now infamous Bikram Choudhury. Many excellent forms of hot yoga have since been created and are now practiced throughout the world.
I remember my very first hot yoga session at a small studio in South Beach Miami while on a New Years vacation. I was drawn to hot yoga because the sound of it resonated “challenge” and “results” to me. I figured, like most new years “resolutioners”, that I would begin a new year with a new me and launch a personal hot yoga practice for myself. Man, was it ever so NEW to me, though. I lasted about 20 minutes into that first 90 minute class. I had to exit the session shortly after my first eagle pose and the first few postures that followed. It was incredibly “different” to me.
As an ex athlete and a fitness trainer who takes pride in maintaining a certain level of fitness, this was a humbling experience for sure. At that time, my workout methods were siloed into a routine of traditional weight training, stretching and running.
It was time for me to broaden my fitness horizons.
I made that commitment to hot yoga for the New Year, and that resolution for that New Year changed my life physically, and mentally! I began to incorporate hot yoga into my weekly routine and I soon emerged from my rookie yoga status. What also happened to me was that, as a business professional, I began to think about the hot yoga industry. A couple of years later, on vacation to Jamaica with my business partners Nancy and Jerome, through a conversation about fitness and infrared saunas, Jerome suggested that yoga should be done in a sauna and that was when I decided to design a sauna for that very thing.
Originally, the fitness sauna that I designed was offered with only one workout and the first name of that sauna was Hot Box Detox. As we gained experience and feedback from customers who used the new sauna, I soon determined that more workouts would be required, as well as a new and better name, LOL.
Our first tag line was Beyond Hot Yoga, which was meant to evoke the spirit of our departure from mainstream hot yoga. We still rely on that tag line to convey the same message.
In the beginning stages of development of the HOTWORX workout method the first and only workout was Hot ISO. Hot ISO was, and still is today, a hybrid form of yoga developed with a more simplistic and athletic posture flow in mind. The idea was to provide a fast and efficient way for customers to practice isometrics for strength gains, toning, flexibility, balance and detox. Hot ISO was a departure from traditional hot yoga in that it requires 125º F of infrared heat and that it only last for 30 minutes. As a result, that fitness innovation provides customers with more workout in less time!
HOTWORX has evolved since then to offer many new and different hot exercise options “Beyond Hot Yoga”, if you will. These workouts are now divided into two categories, hot isometrics and hot HIIT training. For isometrics, HOTWORX offers: Hot ISO, Hot Yoga, Hot Pilates, Hot Buns (lower body focused on the glutes with the use of bands), Hot Warrior, Hot Flex (athletic stretching), Hot Bands (total body isometric and slow dynamic reps),
…and be on the lookout in 2019 for Hot Barre!
As for Hot HIIT, there are two workouts including Hot Cycle and Hot Row with a new, 3rd Hot HIIT total body workout for 2019 called Hot Blast!
HOTWORX has now afforded incredible convenience and variety of hot exercise workouts and cross-training options for my current fitness program.
Go Beyond Hot Yoga in 2019!!!