1. Enhances Vasodilatation so that more blood is delivered to the muscles. This means that the capillaries that weave around the muscles respond to the heat by dilating. This brings more oxygen to the muscles and helps in the removal of waste products such as carbon dioxide and lactic acid.
2. Allows oxygen in the blood to detach from the hemoglobin more easily. When blood passes through warm muscles, oxygen releases more easily from the hemoglobin. Blood passing through cold muscles release less oxygen.
3. Speeds up the breakdown of glucose and fatty acids.
4. Makes muscles more elastic, less susceptible to injury.
5. Improves coordination, as movements are more fluid, concise and controlled.
6. Reduces heart irregularities associated with sudden exercise.
7. Burns fat more easily. Warmed muscles burn fat more easily than cold ones. Fat is released during stress. The stress of intense exercise causes a deluge of fatty acids into the blood stream. If you exercise with cold muscles, your muscles can’t use the fatty acids, and they end up in unwanted places, such as the linings of your arteries.
8. Higher temperatures improve the function of the nervous system, meaning that messages are carried more rapidly to and from the brain and spinal cord.
9. The heat helps you to naturally sweat and release toxins, through your largest organ of elimination – your skin.
Avoid common Chaturanga pitfalls: One tendency is to either sink at the center of the torso (creating a backbend), another is to leave the butt up in the air as the shoulders dip toward the floor (creating a pike). The more you can activate the front of your body so that it supports the back of your body, the more success you will have at avoiding these polarities. Engage the belly and quadriceps by lifting the tops of the thighs to the ceiling and drawing your tailbone toward your heels.
