Boost Your Brain With Sol
At Sol Hot Yoga, we often say the practice is not about perfection. It is about taking steps into stillness — sometimes dipping our toes in that bliss, again and again. That type stillness is not just poetic. Science is catching up and continues to prove the physiological realities. When we move, breathe, sweat, focus, and rest, our bodies begin to shift away from the constant noise and into a peaceful state. As our muscles work, our hearts adapt, our breath steadies, and our nervous system listens. We discover something beneath the surface, and open new pathways — creating new connections between brain health, stress resilience, cellular repair, and neuroplasticity.
The science will continue to play catch up to what we get to experience, first-hand. While we’re careful not to overstate it because individual results can vary widely. “Rewire your brain” in one class would be a bold claim. But, growing research does show how movement, meditation, breath, and heat may influence several brain-supportive proteins and stress-regulation pathways — including BDNF, heat shock proteins, and other functions connected to repair, adaptation, and resilience.
BDNF: Movement That Supports Brain Adaptability
One of the most studied exercise-related brain proteins is BDNF, short for brain-derived neurotrophic factor.
BDNF is involved in learning, memory, and the brain’s ability to adapt. Human studies show that exercise can increase circulating BDNF, especially when movement becomes consistent over time.
This does not mean one yoga class instantly makes you smarter. That might be a real stretch. (love the yoga puns!)
What we can say is this:
Consistent movement may help support biological pathways associated with brain health.
That matters because yoga is a practice. If you come to one class, and then give up — well, then the results will be the results. It’s a conscious choice. Each class becomes another opportunity to move with awareness, focus the mind, regulate the breath, and give the nervous system a different kind of input than the daily rush of life.
Heat Shock Proteins: The Body Learns to Adapt
Heat adds another layer to the practice.
One of the most interesting heat-related proteins is HSP70, a heat shock protein. Heat shock proteins help cells respond to stress and support cellular repair. They are sometimes described as “molecular chaperones” because they help protect and stabilize proteins inside the body during stress.
This is one reason hot yoga can feel different than regular movement. The room is not just making you sweat. It is asking the body to adapt.
But adaptation requires respect.
The goal is not to overpower the body. The goal is to meet the heat with breath, awareness, hydration, pacing, and presence.
At Sol, this is why we teach practice over performance.
IGF-1: Strength, Repair, and Healthy Aging
Another important protein is IGF-1, or insulin-like growth factor 1. IGF-1 is involved in growth, repair, and healthy aging pathways.
For yoga, this matters because strong, mindful movement is not separate from brain health. When you build stability, balance, and strength, you are not just training muscle. You are training the brain-body system.
That is one of the quiet gifts of Hatha and Vinyasa practice.
The body becomes a laboratory for attention.
Irisin and Cathepsin B: The Muscle-Brain Conversation
The muscles also send messages to the brain.
Two emerging molecules in the research are irisin and cathepsin B. These are part of what scientists are beginning to call the muscle-brain conversation — the idea that movement does not just shape the body, it also sends signals that may support brain health.
This science is still emerging, and it is not specific to hot yoga. But it supports a larger point:
The brain is not separate from the body.
Movement speaks to the brain.
The breath speaks to the brain.
Heat speaks to the body.
Stillness speaks to the nervous system.
Yoga brings these conversations together.
Resilience, Cortisol, and the Nervous System
Meditation and mindfulness also influence the brain-body system, but often through a different pathway than exercise. The clearest signal is stress regulation.
Cortisol is one of the body’s primary stress hormones. When stress stays high for too long, the body can remain stuck in a state of vigilance, tension, and reactivity.
This is where yoga becomes more than exercise. When you have so many other alternatives, the simple choice to practice can make all the difference.
Here’s how your brain processes that choice.
Neuroscience also points to the anterior midcingulate cortex, a brain region associated with effort, persistence, discomfort tolerance, and goal-directed behavior. In everyday language, it helps explain why staying present through challenge — heat, stillness, balance, breath, or resistance — may train more than the body. It may also train our capacity to be resilient when life becomes uncomfortable.
A yoga class gives you a place to practice noticing stress without becoming stress. You feel effort. You feel heat. You feel resistance. You feel the mind wanting to escape, judge, compare, or quit.
Then you breathe.
Why We Practice
Each class is an opportunity to choose — a retreat from the daily noise, speed, and activity of our busy lives. We practice not to chase a false perception of perfection, but to return to the deeper stillness where our personal truth emerges.
The science gives us helpful language: stress regulation, neuro-plasticity, cellular resilience, brain-body adaptation.
Sol Hot Yoga classes provide the lived experience.
By the end of class (sometimes sooner), we realize… The body is softer.
The mind is quieter.
The breath is steadier.
There is peace in the space between stimulus and response.
That space is where the real fruits of our practice abide. Sure, there will be noticeable improvements you can see in the mirror. But, the real beauty is operating beyond the surface reflection. What is real is reflected in the change we see, when we change the way we look at things.
At Sol, you do not have to perform. You do not have to perfect. You do not have to prove anything. Sol isn’t the place for “struggle, struggle, struggle.”
You simply practice returning.
Returning to breath.
Returning to body.
Returning to awareness.
Returning to the present moment.
Ready to experience the practice for yourself?
Join us at Sol Hot Yoga in Carmel or Zionsville and discover how mindful movement, breath, heat, and stillness can help you feel stronger, steadier, and more at home in your body.
Sources & Further Reading
- Jia R, Liang J, Xu Y, Wang Y.
The effect of physical exercise on circulating brain-derived neurotrophic factor in healthy subjects: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Brain and Behavior. 2022;12(4):e2544. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9014996/
This source supports the article’s claim that acute and long-term exercise can increase circulating BDNF in healthy adults. - Ogawa T, Hoekstra SP, Kamijo Y-I, Goosey-Tolfrey VL, Walsh JJ, Tajima F, et al.
Serum and plasma brain-derived neurotrophic factor concentration are elevated by systemic but not local passive heating.
PLOS ONE. 2021;16(12):e0260775. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0260775
This source supports the idea that whole-body heating can acutely increase circulating BDNF, while also showing that local heating did not have the same effect. - Nava R, Zuhl MN.
Heat acclimation-induced intracellular HSP70 in humans: a meta-analysis.
Cell Stress and Chaperones. 2020;25(1):35–45. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31823288/
This source supports the discussion of HSP70 and heat acclimation as part of the body’s cellular stress-response system. - Hunter SD, et al.
Improvements in fitness and heat tolerance after hot yoga are not dependent on heat.
International Journal of Exercise Science. 2021. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8191229/
This source supports the discussion of hot yoga, BDNF, HSP70, and the need to avoid overclaiming that heat alone explains all benefits. - Rodríguez-Gutiérrez E, Torres-Costoso A, Pascual-Morena C, et al.
Effects of Resistance Exercise on Neuroprotective Factors in Middle and Late Life: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Aging and Disease. 2023;14(4):1264–1275. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10389831/
This source supports the discussion of IGF-1, BDNF, VEGF, resistance exercise, and healthy aging. - Moon HY, Becke A, Berron D, et al.
Running-induced systemic Cathepsin B secretion is associated with memory function.
Cell Metabolism. 2016;24(2):332–340. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6029441/
This source supports the section on cathepsin B and the muscle-brain conversation. - Gomutbutra P, Yingchankul N, Chattipakorn N, Chattipakorn S, Srisurapanont M.
The Effect of Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Controlled Trials.
Frontiers in Psychology. 2020;11:2209. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33041891/
This source supports the discussion of mindfulness, meditation, and peripheral BDNF. - Cahn BR, Goodman MS, Peterson CT, Maturi R, Mills PJ.
Yoga, Meditation and Mind-Body Health: Increased BDNF, Cortisol Awakening Response, and Altered Inflammatory Marker Expression after a 3-Month Yoga and Meditation Retreat.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 2017;11:315. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5483482/
This source supports the connection between yoga, meditation, BDNF, cortisol, and inflammatory markers. - Juan CG, Matchett KB, Davison GW.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of the SIRT1 response to exercise.
Scientific Reports. 2023;13:14752. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-38843-x
This source supports the broader discussion of exercise, cellular resilience, and SIRT1. - National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.
Meditation and Mindfulness: Effectiveness and Safety. https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/meditation-and-mindfulness-effectiveness-and-safety
This source provides a cautious, balanced overview of meditation and mindfulness research.
