I went to hot yoga recently, and it completely wrecked me—in the best possible way.
I was sweating more than I ever have in my life, stretching muscles I didn’t even know I had, and breathing deeper than I have in a long time. It was intense. The kind of intense that leaves you lying on your mat afterward wondering, What just happened to me?
And then it hit me: because of the heat and the intensity of the workout, my body was working harder to take in those deep breaths. The instructor kept encouraging us to “fill up our lungs,” and just when I thought I had, she’d say, “Take one more sip of air.”
And somehow, I could.
That’s when I immediately thought about singing.
Because when you sing—especially with intention and power—your body is working just as hard. It might not look like sprinting or lifting weights, but internally, your muscles, breath support, and energy output are firing on all cylinders. And just like in hot yoga, you won’t know what your full capacity feels like until you push your body to its limit.
Here’s the truth:
You can talk about “taking a deep breath” all day long.
But until you put your body in a situation where it has no choice but to breathe deeply, you won’t actually feel what that means.
And once you do—it changes everything.
If I hadn’t pushed my body in that hot yoga class, I would’ve never experienced that level of breath capacity. That level of presence. And now that I’ve felt it, I can recognize when I’m bringing that same intensity to my singing—and when I’m not.
So here’s my challenge to you:
Go move your body.
Push yourself. Sweat. Get uncomfortable.
Feel what it’s like to breathe deep—not just because you’re told to, but because your body has to.
Then, go sing.
And notice—does your breath feel just as grounded? Just as full? Just as alive?
If it doesn’t, that’s not a bad thing—it just means there’s a connection we can build.
Because once you find that breath, that real breath, the kind that fills you from your toes to your skull—it becomes easier to find again.
This is what it means to be a singer: to live in your body, to breathe deeply, and to meet your voice with the same strength and presence you’d bring to a hot yoga mat.
You’ve got more air in you than you think.
And you’ve got more voice in you, too.
Now go breathe like a yogi—and sing like you mean it.
Want to explore this mind-body connection further? Come visit us at The Song Spot for a voice lesson in Nashville or online, where we help singers build real strength, breath control, and confidence—one deep breath at a time. 🧘♀️🎶