I used to do hot yoga on a regular basis. I stopped practicing back in 2013. Since then, my workouts have consisted of weightlifting and steel mace exercises. I’ve also spent a lot of time in the dry sauna before and after workouts.
But I don’t do exercises while I’m in the sauna. I focus on breathing deep and slow. The sauna helps improve my blood flow and warm up my muscles. It’s helped improve my workouts a lot. But I’ve been focusing a little too much on strengthening, not enough on stretching. I’ve been looking to add movement and stretches to my exercise practice, while focusing on my breathing in a heated room. So naturally, I’ve started practicing hot yoga again.
After getting back into hot yoga recently, the first 2 months were very surprising. Sometimes a pose will come up in class, I’ll immediately remember how painful that pose used to be. But surprisingly, I’ll usually get into that pose and feel better than I did back in 2013. I can attribute this to a lot of variables of my computer ergonomic practice. One, I’ve been practicing healthy posture habits at a computer since 2011. And two, I’ve been practicing low-toxin living since January of 2024.
Can Hot Yoga Improve Computer Posture?
This article will talk about my experience with hot yoga. I’ll cover how I’ve used yoga for ergonomic health at work. I’ll also talk about the posture benefits of a regular hot yoga practice. Most importantly, I’ll talk about how hot yoga combats computer-related pain.
This article is not professional medical advice. It’s based off my personal experience and opinions. For years, my poor computer posture caused muscle tension, inflammation, and chronic pain. Bad posture also decreased my mental clarity, energy level, and work productivity.
All the desk worker health tips I write about are directly related to improving posture at a computer. We are our own primary caretakers. Do your research. Make good decisions. And be the best advocate possible for your own healthcare.
In my experience, the answer to this question is definitely “yes.” Continue reading to see how I’ve used hot yoga to get better computer posture.
Why hot yoga is trending for desk workers
Hot yoga is the best method I’ve found for decompressing tight muscles. Especially those suffering from repetitive strain and overuse due to sitting at a computer for long periods of time. As an athlete who sits at a computer for a career, there is a fine line between stretching and strengthening. They are both equally important.
Hot yoga is the best way for me to combine stretching, strengthening, and workplace wellness. I can also focus on the movement in between poses. Different classes have different focuses for me. Sometimes I focus more on the stretch. I tend to do this during classes that are at a slow-pace with longer poses. In other classes with a quicker pace, I’ll briefly focus on the strength of the pose, followed quickly by a focus on the movement in between poses.
I haven’t replaced weightlifting with hot yoga. The strength training I get in the gym is much different from hot yoga. But one of the most important variables for my posture correction, as a desk worker, is hot yoga.
How hot yoga combats computer-related pain
It is the perfect combination of strengthening and stretching. So, it requires movement, which is the exact opposite of what we do while sitting at a computer all day.
It increases the amount of air going into my lungs. Also, it increases the amount of time that air spends in my lungs. When I’m sitting at my computer during a stressful workday, my breathing tends to be shallow. The physical stress from working in a compromised sitting posture is stressful enough. But when you add stress from work and life, my breathing tends to be even more shallow. Hot yoga helps me disconnect from work-related stress, and the computer-related pain that comes with it.
When we put our hands on a keyboard and mouse, we basically leave them there for 8 hours a day. We naturally slouch forward with our torso more and more as the day goes on. This compresses and shortens our chest and abdomen muscles. At the same time, slouching forward overextends and lengthens our back muscles. It has helped me reduce back pain from computer use.
In addition to relieving slouching, hot yoga exercises have helped me relieve tech neck and computer-related shoulder pain.
Benefits of hot yoga for improved computer posture
There are numerous benefits of hot yoga when it comes to improving computer posture. In my experience, these benefits have included:
- improved posture
- decreased computer-related pain
- improved breathing
- improved mental clarity
- improved body awareness
- improved flexibility
- increased range of motion
- decreased stress
- improved blood flow
- quicker recovery times
Combining hot yoga and ergonomics for better posture
Hot yoga combines breathing, movement, and heat to loosen up muscles. I’d much rather spend my time in a hot yoga class (compared to cold, static stretching). I get much better results improving my flexibility in a hot yoga class. The temperature of the classes I take is 98 degrees Fahrenheit and above.
Surprisingly, one of my favorite parts of class is getting there 10 minutes early. I just lay flat on my back on my yoga towel. For those 10 minutes, I focus on breathing slowly and deeply. It gives me time to disconnect from the stress of my workday. It also helps me disconnect from my phone.
When class begins, I’m already used to the hot temperature. And my muscles are warmed up and loose before I even do my first pose.
The instructor takes all the guess work out of it for me. I don’t have to think about what poses to do. This saves me mental energy. I just have to follow the instructions that are given. I can focus more energy on the movements.
THANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST IN COMPUTER POSTURE.
If you’ve read this far, congratulations! You’re taking valuable steps to reduce computer-related injuries by improving your posture. That’s something to be very proud of!
If you liked this article on how hot yoga has helped improve my computer posture, check out my book titled 45 Ways to Improve Computer Posture.
This book is a great supplement to the article you just read. It covers healthy ergonomic habits like posture, sleep, hydration, and breathing.
I wrote this book to be the resource I wish I had back in 2002, when I first started sitting at a computer for long periods of time.
Go to SittingPosture.com/book to learn more.
Take care,
Todd Bowen