An Exciting Change at Hometown Sweat

Today we made an announcement about an additional class that we will begin offering to our community next week. To me personally, this addition is overwhelming and exciting all in one, probably because making the decision to offer this class is something I never would have thought I would have done, even as recently as 18 months ago.

Let me give you a little back-story...

I've been a die-hard Bikram Yogi since 2006. I started practicing the 90-minute, regimented, massively transformational, totally intense yet therapeutic yoga style during my senior year of college.

At the time, my responsibilities consisted of: going to my college classes for 2-3 hours per day, working at a college town bar 3-4 nights per week, spending as much time with my friends as possible, and going to yoga.

In others words, I had a lot of time on my hands.

Then when I became a teacher and later opened my studio, I dove in so deep to everything "Bikram Yoga" that any other offering, any other modality, heck, even any other variation on Bikram Yoga would be deemed by me as "not worth it".

While the healing benefits and transformational aspects of Bikram Yoga cannot be denied, I look back on this approach of mine, and I wonder if I missed opportunities for growth - personally as well as professionally - by being so narrowly focused. I'm sure I did, and while I'm not going to sit around regretting a mindset I once had, I am going to do something about it now.

Over the past two years, we've added more depth and more levels to what we do at my studio, Hometown Sweat. Everything from Inferno Hot Pilates (you can read about my journey with this epic class here) to our incredible re-brand, to even changing the name of our main yoga class offering to Original Hot Yoga (formerly Bikram Yoga, and you can read about that intense decision here).

This openness and willingness to try new things has allowed my studio to help so many more people than I ever could have dreamed of. The new mindset has grown our studio community to a vibrant, positive, and supportive hometown "family" full of people all working toward a happy and healthy life.

I've felt my own personal life change as well. Approaching new things with curiosity and intrigue rather than skepticism and a know-it-all attitude has given me more strength (thank you hot Pilates), more patience (that's the Yin), and has allowed me to have way more fun (Hometown Hot Yoga for the win!) in whatever I set out to do.

Now, this new offering that we're rolling out Saturday February 29th at Hometown Sweat may not seem like a big deal at all. In fact, to many it may seem like a no-brainer and something I should have done years ago.

Perhaps that's true, or perhaps right now is actually the perfect time.

Either way, our new class - Hot Hour - is a carefully-curated one hour option of the Original Hot Yoga that we currently offer.

Yep, there you have it. A one-hour hot yoga class. And we're starting out by offering this class once a week.

To many of you reading, that may not seem so ground-breaking.

But to me, Hot Hour is symbolic of so much.

This one hour yoga class is the response to me listening (not just hearing) the folks who say they can't be away from their kids for a 90 minute stretch. It's for the people who tell me their days are too jam-packed with work and family responsibilities to spend more than an hour working out. It's how we're going to help the many incredible members of our community who want to do yoga but are overwhelmed at the thought of being in a hot room for more than an hour.

I see you. I hear you. And I want to serve you.

What this ultimately came down to for me as the owner of Hometown Sweat and for my staff was one simple question: is SOME yoga better than NO yoga?

And quite obviously, we all landed on a definite yes.

When I was a new Bikram Yoga practitioner, teacher, and then a young studio owner, I never would have considered the thought of offering or practicing a 60-minute version of this class. But remember, there were quite a few years there where I had nothing to focus on other than yoga, yoga, and more yoga. (No kids, no mortgage, no drop-offs, no pick ups, really no juggling).

I find great relief in my busy and hectic life, for while on one hand there never seem to be enough hours in the day, it's the juggle that gives me tremendous empathy and patience for the people whose live we're helping in my studio.

The nuts and bolts of Hot Hour are simple: we follow the same sequence of the Original Hot Yoga class from beginning to end, and some postures are practiced only once rather than twice. I've worked closely with my team to develop a therapeutic yet challenging and intense yet healing sequence, and we can't for you to try it!

So what about the 90-minute Original Hot Yoga class? Do I still love it? Do we still value it? Is it still an important part of Hometown Sweat?

HECK YES IT IS!!!

I like to think of the Original Hot Yoga class much like my first-born child. When you have your first baby, you wonder how in the world you'll love anything as much as that sweet cherub, until of course you have your second. Then, not only do you love both children, but seeing their love for one another grows your own love even more. Being a mom of three, I can tell you with absolute certainty that the same thing happens when the third baby is born as well.

Now, I could just keep having babies (although Ben and I have talked about that, and it's actually a hard no) or we could just add more yoga classes to keep the love, the healing, and of course the sweat going!

I still strongly believe that the transformational benefits of spending 90-minutes in an Original Hot Yoga class, doing two sets of each posture, focusing precisely, practicing incredible patience, and realizing just how much water you need to drink ahead of time to keep you feeling good all class long, will lead to an intense and unique kind of self-realization.

The 90 minutes is hard. No doubt about it. But to quote Jimmy Dugan from my favorite movie A League of their Own, "It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great."

With all that being said, I'm so excited about this new addition to what we offer, and I hope to see you for some awesome yoga at Hometown Sweat, no matter what class it may be!