Yoga Without the Sweat is Still Good

Exercising often entails sweating buckets, and sweating while exercising is the body's way of cooling down. They say if you’re not sweating enough it must mean you’re not doing it right. But experts are now debunking that myth and they say that getting the most out of your exercise routine doesn’t mean you have to be drenched in sweat, which is good news for people with sensitive skin.

A lot of us who suffer from eczema or any other skin related conditions find it hard to exercise because the heat and sweat we experience result in our skin developing hives and rashes. But experts say that yoga, which is one of the most effective forms of exercise, can be performed to great results without any person having to break a sweat or experiencing exercise induced hives.

In fact, some experts say that practicing yoga without sweating is just as effective as the other techniques of yoga that leave you soaking in your own bodily fluids. The Physiological Society released findings of an experiment conducted by the University of Texas at Austin and Texas State University.

The experiment was about the effects of Bikram Yoga on a person’s cardiovascular system under two varying conditions—one wherein the practitioners performed the poses in a heated environment, the other performed their poses in a much cooler environment.

Groups of individuals were assimilated into three groups: those that performed Bikram Yoga at 23 degrees Celsius, those that performed Bikram Yoga at 40.5 degrees Celsius and those that didn’t perform any yoga poses at all.

Bikram Yoga is often practiced in a heated environment with the belief that the extra heat helps in improving cardiovascular health and overall health. But when the results came in researchers saw that there was no difference between those who practiced the poses in a heated and cooled environment.

They added further that those who performed Bikram Yoga in a cooler environment improved their vasodilatation as well as those who performed it in a heated environment, which means that the former were also able to decrease their blood pressure effectively.

The Takeaway

So in effect, practicing yoga can be done in a cool environment wherein you don’t have to sweat as much (which really is good for people with sensitive skin) but still get the same health benefits as those who practice it in a heated environment.

Living with eczema or other extreme skin sensitivities can be difficult due to so many restrictions. People with eczema find it hard to exercise because a small increase in their body heat can already lead to irritating rashes and blisters. People who have aquagenic urticaria have it even worse because they’re allergic to water and even their sweat can result in hives on their skin.

But due to the findings of those researchers it is now possible for these people with skin sensitivities to exercise to their heart’s content without worrying about allergy symptoms occurring.