How To Protect Your Skin During Hot Yoga

The moment I stepped inside a heated yoga studio, I knew I could never go back to the days of humidity-free classes. There’s something so gratifying about taking a hot yoga class. Maybe it’s the way my muscles open with ease or the way my breath deepens almost automatically. Whatever the case, I’ve been hooked on hot yoga since day one.

The benefits of hot yoga are plentiful: From increased circulation throughout the body to cardiovascular intensity, heated yoga has made a name for itself as a preferred practice across the nation.

After practicing and teaching heated yoga for over two years, I started to wonder what in the world was going on with my skin. I couldn’t kick breakouts, I had a combination of dry and oily spots on my face, and even worse, busted blood vessels around my nose. As a 20-something who was hopeful breakouts were reserved for my younger years, I knew something had to change.

I met with an acne specialist and owner of Spa Kingston in San Diego, Renee Maloney, who confirmed my suspicion that heated yoga was the culprit in my unwanted blast-from-the-past breakouts and skin issues.

"Hot yoga can be absolutely amazing for the body and skin. It’s detoxifying, increases blood flow, encourages circulation and elimination, and creates a healthy flexible body without harm to the joints due to the heat," says Maloney, however, "hot yoga causes the body to heat up, which then can increase already inflamed skin. This heat and excess elimination can cause areas of inflammation to go on overload and cause adverse or more intense inflamed acne."

Essentially: Heated yoga can cause increased inflammation in the body. Because acne is inflammation, this causes even more unwanted breakouts and unappealing marks. Add in the humidity, and the increased oil production that comes with it, and you're in breakouts.

A natural cleanser was key for helping me neutralize and clean the skin. The ingredients in most facial products are packed with harsh surfactants, so finding a gentle, yet thorough, natural wash can make all the difference. This is key, as often people will opt for a wash that makes their face feel squeaky clean post workout—but in the long run may actually contribute to inflammation by weakening the skin barrier function.

Out of all the changes I made to my skin-care regimen, this one made the biggest difference. After cleansing, take one to two minutes to rub an ice cube across your face. Similar to icing a swollen ankle, applying ice to the face reduces inflammation that is built up during your practice. For acne-prone skin, Maloney recommends adding this into your skin-care routine every morning and night.

The trick with icing your face is to make sure that the water you are using is clean (read: If you don't normally drink your tap water without putting it through a filter, don't use ice made from tap water either). After filling an ice-cube tray with filtered water, use a drop of tea tree oil from your favorite essential oil brand to help unclog the pores from oil buildup.

As someone with oily skin, when I was a teen I avoided moisturizer like the plague. It wasn’t until I met with my aesthetician that I realized how crucial moisturizer is to balancing the skin. Many times when you have problematic skin, you skip moisturizer altogether, but by skipping this step, your skin will dry out and respond with more oil production. This vicious cycle actually causes more breakouts.