So I have been roped into doing yoga for the first time.  Do you know much about yoga?
Sure it is a group of mental, physical, and spiritual practices originating in India.
Does it really have any health benefits or is that just a bunch of hippie talk?
Many people use yoga as a supplementary exercise practice. I don't think it can hurt to try.
I have heard of hot yoga, but do not really know what that is.  Is it a specialized version of regular yoga?
It is yoga that is practiced in hot and humid conditions.
I see.  Sounds like even less fun than the normal yoga.  But I guess if it works for Monks, it can work for me
to pre-Vedic Indian traditions; it is mentioned in the Rigveda, but most likely developed around the sixth and fifth centuries BCE, in ancient India's ascetic and śramaṇa movements. The chronology of earliest texts describing yoga-practices is unclear, varyingly credited to Upanishads. The "Yoga Sutras of Patanjali" date from the first half of the 1st millennium CE, but only gained prominence in the West in the 20th century. Hatha yoga texts emerged sometimes between the 9th and 11th century with origins in tantra.
Yoga
, with vocals by Andy Bey, Salome Bey, Gail Nelson and Jackie Verdell. 
In a 1974 radio interview published in 2009, Silver stated "I got interested in writing lyrics about that time and, well, became interested in Metaphysics and Indian philosophies, and Yoga philosophies. I have always been interested in health foods, vitamins; you know, the health thing. So, I was trying to get the physical thing, the mental thing, and the spiritual thing altogether. I was doing a lot of reading