At age 65, most people might start thinking about retirement. In Vreni Zeller’s case, it was a chance to try something new: Hot Yoga.
“It’s changed my life,” says Zeller, who is now 75 and has been a regular student at Hot Yoga Olympia for the past ten years. “I’m more in touch with myself. It’s amazing how even at my age, just by keeping moving and working at it, I’m getting more flexible. I’ve changed my whole way of thinking and my lifestyle.”
Hot Yoga Olympia has been a fixture in Olympia for twelve years, attracting diverse individuals and groups from throughout the community. “We have workers from the state and from Group Health who may only see each other at yoga,” says co-owner Margot Losa. “They run into each other at Arts Walk and say, ‘I’ve never seen you in your nice clothes before, only hot and sweaty. You clean up well!’”
In January, the studio made several changes, adding new PEM yoga flooring and revising the schedule to accommodate their students’ busy lifestyles. “We became aware in the last few years that more and more, it’s difficult for people to fit 90-minute classes into their schedule,” says Anatole Losa, co-owner. While all classes have traditionally been 90 minutes, they’ve now added 75, 60 and 45-minute options.
“The idea is to make this form of yoga more accessible to more people,” says Anatole. “It is still intense, satisfying and powerful, but a little shorter. Hopefully people can commit and have a greater regular practice because there are more times to choose from.”
Making hot yoga accessible has been important to the Losas from the beginning. “What made me fall in love with this particular style is that everyone can do it,” says Anatole, a former mountain guide in his native Switzerland. “An older person, someone who is not in shape, someone who is recovering from an injury, anyone can come into that hot room and do every single posture at their own level.”
Listening to your body is important, says Margot. “When people come, we always tell them, ‘Pace yourself and do your individual best.’ The beauty about our yoga is that we don’t just flow from one posture to the next. You do the posture, you come out of it, you hold still a moment and then you repeat the posture or go to the next one. If you can only do five or ten seconds, you come out and you wait. You’re not going to lose the rhythm of the class.”
Margot, a former model who grew up in Holland, first discovered hot yoga in her 20s. “When it becomes a regular practice, its power is undeniable,” she says. “It’s life-changing, and not just physically. It changes you emotionally and mentally. To do the postures correctly, you have to have a certain calm, a certain focus. You can take that to the rest of your life.”
Kurt Sandine is an emergency room doctor who has been with the studio since it opened. “I can’t imagine my life without it,” he says. “It’s my main form of exercise. After 90 minutes, I feel like I’ve run five miles, gotten a massage, meditated, and had a sweat lodge. It’s an all-in-one package.”
Prior to joining Hot Yoga Olympia, Sandine was a competitive runner who would hike and bike regularly, but by his mid-30s he needed to do something different. The same applied to Zeller, who ran between 25 and 30 miles a week for 32 years before discovering hot yoga.
“In the beginning, I came twice a week but starting on my 70th birthday I started doing four or five times a week,” she says. “I had never done yoga of any kind before. It’s carried over into my life and given me a sense of sense of calmness and concentration.” Zeller was on high blood pressure medication when she began classes, but as she increased her attendance, she was able to give it up. “I no longer needed it,” she says.
Formerly a professional dancer, Alison Bailey says that hot yoga has helped her be pain free from injuries she had picked up in the course of her career, plus a skeletal deformity that she’s had since birth. “I find that it’s really vital to both my mental and physical health,” she says. “It helps me combat seasonal mood swings and keeps my hips pain free.”
For students, the studio environment is supportive rather than competitive. “When I look around the room, I really don’t know most of the people outside of that class,” says Sandine. “But even when we don’t say anything to each other, it feels like we’re family. It’s small and intimate.”
With the new class schedule, that family may be about to expand. “We introduced it last week and we’ve already had two mothers come to class and say, ‘We heard about the new schedule. How wonderful. One hour is all we can take out of our day and then we need to get back to our kids,’” says Margot.
The studio continues to offer some 90 minute classes, but Anatole says you can get the same benefits with a shorter class. “You still have to go through a relatively intense routine,” he says. “It’s like doing a nice run or being pushed on a hike. At the end, you feel like, ‘I did it.’ It’s a satisfaction that is very personal but undeniable.”
Hot Yoga Olympia is located on 1963 4th Ave. East, Olympia. For more information visit www.hotyogaolympia.com or call 360-956-9642. A complete schedule of classes can be found here.
