Enthusiasts tout the physical and mental benefits of hot yoga
When real estate investor Willie Coleman started exercising seriously late last year, he tried all kinds of workouts, from high-intensity interval training to spinning. “Those classes were great, but I needed more than just a workout. I needed a reset,” he says.
Coleman found both once he entered a hot yoga studio. “It is a big mental challenge, as well as a physical one. I realized if I keep pushing, there’s stillness at the end. To me, that’s where it all comes together—it’s the heat, the movement, the focus.”
Just as its name implies, hot yoga is a style of yoga—the mind-body exercise combining physical poses, centered breathing, and directed focal gaze—practiced in a studio with varying humidity and heated to between 85 and 105 degrees using radiant or infrared panels.
But doing hot yoga is about more than sweating through downward-facing dog and other poses. “It’s life-changing—it makes everything feel better, look better. It’s very meditative, and I don’t need to go to the gym or go for a long run,” says Pace Beattie, founder of the hot yoga studio Southern Om.
A Greenville native, Beattie first tried yoga in the 1980s to de-stress from his job in Chicago’s financial markets. He discovered hot yoga in 2007, became hooked, and dreamed of owning a hot yoga studio in retirement. An economic downturn-induced job loss and his mother’s sudden passing accelerated that timeline.
In 2010, Beattie opened Southern Om on Woodruff Road after spending a year intensely studying yoga and visiting studios, taking copious notes on flooring, lighting, studio temperatures, and other preferences. At the time, it was one of just a few yoga studios in the area, and only two offered hot yoga.
“We’ve had great teachers, and I think there’s a place for hot yoga in Greenville,” Beattie says of the studio’s 15 years of success, which includes the 2018 opening of its West End location and 11 consecutive years as The Community’s Choice Awards’ Best of the Upstate Yoga/Pilates Studio.
Hot Yoga Boom
Still relatively new in the United States, hot yoga’s boom lies in its physical and mental benefits. “There are some tangible things people who start practicing notice right away,” says Akasha Searcey, Southern Om’s media manager. Among them are detoxification, better sleep, less pain, more flexibility, and greater strength and stamina.
Hot yoga can also improve performance in other fitness routines like running and weight training. “It’s a great balancer because it relaxes and lengthens the body. Most of the activities we do shorten muscles,” Beattie adds, noting that people should first check with their doctor about any health conditions that hot yoga could affect before trying it.
Southern Om’s tagline, “An Oasis in a Busy Day,” speaks to hot yoga’s ability to reduce stress and create a happier, more stable, and resilient mindset. That’s because focusing on breathing and moving through poses in a heated space requires focus.
“Hot yoga gets you out of your head and into your body,” Beattie says. “We tend to have a lot going on in our lives, but if someone can just get here for an hour, they can drop all that. They can get on their mat and move, breathe, and sweat. It has a huge impact.”
Learn more at southernom.com or follow @southernomyoga on Instagram.
Hot for Yoga
Want to try hot yoga? Grab a water bottle, yoga mat, and yoga towel, and book a class.
While it offers several types of yoga, Southern Om is known for its Southern Flow and Southern 26 classes. Southern Flow is a vinyasa sequence where “you’re moving and breathing at the same time,” Beattie says. In Southern 26, you hold poses “in stillness” for extended periods.
Students can choose from more than 80 classes per week at Southern Om’s two locations, which are open 365 days per year: 1140 Woodruff Rd. (adjacent to Whole Foods) and 1116 S. Main St. (in the West End near Flour Field).
Other local hot yoga studios include 90 Degrees Yoga at 115 Pelham Rd., Suite #11, Greenville; Soul Yoga with locations at 25 Delano Dr., Greenville, and 2615 Woodruff Rd., Simpsonville; and Studio Fire at 2103 Old Spartanburg Rd., Greer.
