Liked Bikram yoga? Try hot Pilates, where you'll sweat away troubles and strengthen muscles in a 35C hotbox

  • Madonna, Jennifer Aniston and Miranda Kerr are devoted Pilates fans
  • Hot Pilates benefits include detox, weight loss and immune system boost
  • Centres around UK increasingly offering hot Pilates

For those of you who enjoy getting sweaty and steamy on the floor mat during strenuous hot Bikram yoga classes, there's a new kid in town.

Hot Pilates offers similarly bendy-bodied fun in a toasty chamber heated to 35 degrees Celsius, but this time classes are less focused on practicing calmly meditative Downward Dog poses, and more intent on developing core strength and muscle tone, and banishing chronic aches and pains.

Celebrities including Madonna, Jennifer Aniston, Miranda Kerr, Claire Danes and even David Beckham are devoted Pilates fans, and the hot version has even more health benefits than the classic chilled sort.

Feel the burn: Like Bikram yoga, hot Pilates is practiced in a room heated to 35 degrees Celsius

Feel the burn: Like Bikram yoga, hot Pilates is practiced in a room heated to 35 degrees Celsius

Jennifer Aniston is a staunch Pilates supporter
Madonna says she owes her bendy body to Pilates

Pilate practitioners: Actress Jennifer Aniston, left, and singer Madonna, right, both use Pilates to keep themselves in shape

Where yoga - which originated in India about 5,000 - focuses on strength, flexibility and breathing to boost physical and mental well-being, Pilates - created by German-born Joseph Pilates in the early 1900s - is an exercise system that focuses on stretching and strengthening the whole body to improve balance, muscle-strength, flexibility and posture.

The practice was initially adopted by professional dancers in the US as an effective form of recovery after injury, but is now practiced around the world.

And now more and more centres across the UK are introducing hot Pilates, an exercise class already proving to be the hottest trend of 2013.

Crank up the heat: Benefits of doing Pilates in a hot room include detoxification and boosting the immune system

Crank up the heat: Benefits of doing Pilates in a hot room include detoxification and boosting the immune system

The main health benefits of hot Pilates are:

•    Detoxification: sweating on a regular basis allows the body to release toxins and waste from within, providing room for vital nutrients and hydration. Be prepared to sweat in your hot Pilates class!

•    Healthy connective tissue: Pilates opens the body’s connective tissue. Hot Pilates enhances this process, allowing the body to stretch more fully, lubricate and renew, resulting in greater flexibility and energy

•    Boosts immunity: viruses cannot survive in high temperatures, so increasing the body’s core temperature fights infections, which are pushed out through the sweat.  Practicing hot Pilates also increases the body’s production of white blood cells, which fight infection.

•    Weight Loss: stretching deeper builds more muscle, which burns more fat. Hot Pilates can result in weight loss. Diet also improves as the body craves healthier food when practicing regularly

Scroll down for a few places in Britain where you can sample the sweaty delights of hot Pilates.....

Detoxify: Sweating on a regular basis allows the body to release toxins and waste from within, providing room for vital nutrients and hydration

Detoxify: Sweating on a regular basis allows the body to release toxins and waste from within, providing room for vital nutrients and hydration

WHERE TO HAVE A GO AT HOT PILATES:

'The teachers use styles of their own, and incorporate different sequences in the hot yoga and Pilates classes to ensure that no class is the same.  This ensures that the body, and the mind, are constantly challenged by fresh sequencing, and limits the tendency of the muscles to become lazy through too much repetition.'

'Sign up to Boutique Sport at www.boutiquesport.com for access to exclusive free fitness sessions such as hot Pilates every other month'


'Core strength is the foundation of Pilates exercise.  The core muscles are the deep, internal muscles of the abdomen and back. When the core muscles are strong and doing their job, as they are trained to do in Pilates, they work in tandem with the more superficial muscles of the trunk to support the spine and movement.'

'Help yourself tone up and firm up with Hot Pilates. This excercise creates a blend of Yoga, Pilates and heat. So if you are trying to get in shape, or just on a health kick, give it a go. We offer Hot Pilates classes for everyone begginers right through to experts. Check out our timetable or contact us on the details provided.'

'The top benefits doing of Pilates exercise that people report are that they become stronger, longer, leaner, and more able to do anything with grace and ease.'

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