A member pulled me aside after class last week and asked if we’d ever thought about heating the studios. She’d seen a few places offering “hot Pilates” and wanted to know if it was something we’d consider.
It’s a fair question. I’ve been seeing it everywhere too. Hot Pilates, hot yoga, infrared studios. The marketing is convincing. Deeper stretches. More calories. Detoxification. Better cardiovascular health. It sounds like taking something that already works and making it work harder.
I didn’t want to just say “no, that’s not our thing” without actually knowing whether the science backed it up. So I went looking.
A systematic review published last year in Sports Medicine – Open pulled together 43 studies on hot yoga, covering 942 participants. Seventy-six percent of them were women, mostly aged 30 to 50. In other words, people a lot like our members.
The conclusion wasn’t subtle: “Claims that hot yoga provides greater health benefits than other forms of yoga or traditional exercise are at present unsubstantiated.”
Heat did not meaningfully increase calorie burn compared to the same practice at normal temperature. It did not improve flexibility more. It did not produce better cardiovascular outcomes. One finding that stood out: non-heated yoga actually improved blood vessel function in older adults, while hot yoga did not. The postures and the breathing were the active ingredients. The heat was just… heat.
The benefits people associate with hot classes – the flexibility, the balance improvements, the strength – were all present in the research. They just had nothing to do with the temperature. They came from the practice itself.
This is the claim I see most often. You sweat more, so you must be flushing toxins out of your body.
Sweat is roughly 99% water, with small amounts of salt and urea. That’s it. Your liver and kidneys handle actual detoxification. That’s their entire job, and they’re very good at it. Only about 1% of toxins leave your body through sweat, and that happens any time you exercise hard enough to perspire. You don’t need a 40-degree room for it.
The “cleansed” feeling people describe after a hot class? That’s endorphins. The same ones you’d get from a regular class. Plus, probably, relief from being out of an uncomfortably hot room. That’s not detoxification. That’s your body saying thank god that’s over.
The same systematic review documented the adverse effects. In surveys of hot yoga participants, 60% reported dizziness. 61% reported light-headedness. 35% reported nausea. 34% reported dehydration.
And then there were the case reports. A 35-year-old woman who went into cardiac arrest during a hot yoga class. A 34-year-old woman who had a seizure from drinking too much water trying to stay hydrated in the heat. These are rare outcomes. I’m not trying to scare anyone. But they’re documented, published, peer-reviewed incidents, and they happened to women our age.
The review also found that the cardiovascular risks of exercising in extreme heat are specifically elevated for people over 40. The demographic most aggressively marketed hot yoga and hot Pilates is the demographic least likely to benefit from it and most likely to be harmed.
That’s the part I can’t get past.
The word “Pilates” is not trademarked. There is no nationally or internationally recognised certification standard. Anyone can teach anything and call it Pilates. That’s not an exaggeration. It’s a legal fact that was tested in court and confirmed.
Which means the fitness industry can take a method that was designed with enormous precision and specificity, add heat, add speed, add a pumping playlist, call it “Hot Power Pilates Burn” and charge a premium for it. The method becomes a brand, the brand becomes a trend, and the original intent gets buried under marketing.
Hot yoga. Wall Pilates. TikTok “Pilates body” challenges. These aren’t innovations in movement. They’re innovations in packaging.
Joseph Pilates spent decades refining 34 exercises. He called his method “Contrology” because he believed every movement should be controlled by the mind. He wrote: “A few well-designed movements, properly performed in a balanced sequence, are worth hours of doing sloppy calisthenics or forced contortion.”
That was 1945. It’s still right.
If you’ve been curious about hot Pilates, I get it. The marketing is good and the experience probably feels intense. But intensity and effectiveness are not the same thing. Your heart rate going up because your body is struggling to cool itself is not the same as your heart rate going up because your muscles are working hard.
The research is clear. The method works. The heat doesn’t add to it. And for women in their 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond, it adds risk that doesn’t need to be there.
You don’t need a hotter room. You need the right method, done properly, with an instructor who can actually see what your body is doing and correct it in real time. That’s what changes how you move. That’s what builds the strength and stability that matters as you age.
That’s what we do here. No gimmicks required.
See you in class,
Mel
P.S. If you have a friend who’s been thinking about trying hot Pilates, maybe forward this to them first. Or just bring them along to a free Foundations class and let them see what proper Pilates feels like.
Sources:
Sheridan et al. (2025) “Hot Yoga: A Systematic Review of the Physiological, Functional and Psychological Responses and Adaptations.” Sports Medicine – Open.
Mace & Eggleston (2016) “Self-Reported Benefits and Adverse Outcomes of Hot Yoga Participation.” International Journal of Yoga Therapy.
Empowering movement to enhance strength, flexibility and posture for a healthier, more balanced life.
