Doing hot yoga? Make sure you drink plenty of water to keep a cool head

If you are doing a hot yoga - a style of yoga that takes place in a room heated between 26°C - 40.5°C - make sure you are drinking plenty of water before, during and after the class as it makes people more susceptible to dehydration and muscle injuries.

According to researchers from Washington University in St. Louis of United States, people doing hot yoga should take a break, cool down and get themselves hydrated as proper hydration is the key, reports The Mirror.

The findings indicated that more than half of the people doing hot yoga experience dizziness, lightheadedness, nausea or dehydration, despite benefits such as greater flexibility and improvements in mood, fitness and stamina and if people are feeling dizzy - have headaches or feel weak or fatigued - then it may be related to fluid loss.

"People may assume the warnings, benefits and possible risks are the same for all types of yoga and that's simply not true," said assistant professor Casey Mace.

"There may be a misconception that these feelings are normal, but they're not," she says.

Doctors in Chicago reported last summer on a case, involving a healthy 35-year-old woman, who went into cardiac arrest induced by heatstroke during a hot yoga class. The woman survived.

Muscle and joint injuries may be common with hot yoga because the heat makes people feel more supple than they actually are.

"You have to be a bit cautious when you look at studies, because they are conducted with high-quality, well-trained yoga teachers under the best of circumstances," said another researcher Carol Ewing Garber.

"The reality is that out in the real world, there's a lot of variability across instructors in terms of their training," Garber added.

If you have low blood pressure or any health condition, consult your doctor before trying hot yoga and if you are prone to heatstroke or dehydration, then you should stick with regular yoga, the authors concluded.