Hot Yoga: When The Heatwave Isn't Enough

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - While most North Texans are searching for ways to escape the triple digit temps, some brave souls are searching it out: and exercising in it, indoors! It's called 'hot yoga' and it has plenty of fans.

"Working out is what keeps me sane," says Joanna Yurich after wrapping up an hourlong workout at Pure Yoga Dallas. "I feel great. Yoga's the best thing for me. It provides like the best reset, so when I'm done, I feel like I have a new perspective and I feel fresh and ready to tackle the rest of my day: that's the best part."

Fans of hot yoga say the heated studio makes the scorching temps that await beyond the exterior doors just a little less shocking.

"We're doing what nature intended us to do," says Pure Yoga Dallas co-owner Audra Schimeck, " we're coming in here and exercising in it, rather than avoiding the heat."

It's called the 'hot 26 and 2': 26 yoga poses and two breathing exercises in a studio heated to a toasty 105 degrees, and 45 percent humidity. As instructor Elene Velasquez takes students through the paces, Schimeck shares that hot yoga has been so much more than a career--it's also how she stays fit.

"You're cleansing your system every time you come in, you're putting your body in these postures and it's just kind of increasing circulation all over the body, which in terms makes your systems run better, makes you healthier," says Schimeck.

Meanwhile Yurich, a mother of five, says she did yoga throughout her pregnancy and insists that even now the fitness routine restores her mind as much a it does her body.

"If you're looking for something to help strengthen your body, and stretch and provide flexibility and provide a mental reset, and you can handle the heat and stay in the room and keep coming back, you'll really reap the benefits," says Yurich, "it is so worth it."

"One thing I love about this yoga is that it's absolutely for everybody!" adds Schimeck. "Every age. Every body type-- wherever you're at you're going to get something out of this yoga. So just come in and try it! Do it. Don't be afraid."