Hot Yoga Is Hot!

Yoga is hot.  Hot yoga is even hotter. 

As people look for ways to become healthier, happier, more relaxed, and fit, yoga studios are popping up and packing them in.

A regular yoga practice has been shown to have many physical benefits, including improved flexibility, strength, muscle tone, balance, joint health and pain prevention, in addition to mental advantages including increased clarity and reduced stress and anxiety.

Hot yoga is practiced in a heated room allowing for even greater flexibility, healing, and reduced risk of injury. Think of the analogy of a sword. Cold, it’s rigid and inflexible, but heated, it becomes pliable, something with which you can work.

While having all the benefits of regular yoga, hot yoga can be a calorie-burning, challenging workout which complements other forms of fitness.  For this reason, it has gained popularity with Olympic, professional, and college athletes and mere mortals (like me.)  But hot yoga can also be a relaxing hour of delicious stretching.  You determine the intensity.  A class can be whatever your body needs it to be that day.

At Revolution Hot Yoga, our studio, warmed for class, features cutting-edge radiant, infrared heaters which can be controlled independently allowing for heat zones.  Infrared doesn’t heat the air, but warms bodies allowing participants to choose their temperature comfort level depending on their distance from the heater.  Infrared also decreases the risk of mold and mildew, a persistent problem for hot yoga studios, and the facility is equipped with a state-of-the-art air filtration system.  So, no funky smell.

The studio offers 35 classes weekly; including lunch time hour and weekend morning Restorative classes.  All classes are open to everyone and can be customized to meet the level of the individual, whether beginner or advanced.  With over twenty years of combined teaching experience, our instructors have earned their sweat and know their stuff.

Revolution Hot Yoga is the joint effort of five individuals passionate about hot yoga whose lives have all been transformed individually in one way or the other by yoga.  Personally, a hot yoga practice helped me recover from a brain injury, pull out of depression, get in the best shape of my life, fortify my immune system, and become part of a supportive yoga family.  I haven’t even had a cold in the six years I’ve been practicing. 

We invite you to discover the healthy, invigorating, fun, and easy practice of hot yoga in a clean, safe, and encouraging environment.  All fitness levels welcome.  Be part of the revolution!

Go to Revolution Hot Yoga website

There's Always More

My yoga practice is three years old which makes me a newbie compared to some, I guess.  But I feel like yoga has been trying to come into my life for a long time.  Decades ago, a friend told me she was going to open a hot yoga studio.  I remember saying to myself,  "I didn't think she was one of THOSE hippies."

About five years ago, a friend tried to get me to go to yoga with them saying that it would help me "de-stress."  I told them, "I don't have time to take an hour to sit still and meditate!"  It amazes me that now I find the time regularly to fit in an open eyed meditation of more than an hour regularly, and my day doesn't seem complete without it!

I finally found my way to a "gentle introduction to yoga" class and liked it.  After a couple of months, I started thinking that there had to be something more.  So, I tried a Bikram hot yoga class.  And boy, was there more!  It took a while to adjust to the heat and the intensity of the ninety minutes, but I thought I had found what I was looking for.

About a year ago, after practicing Bikram for two years, I went to a local hot yoga studio while visiting friends.  I didn't really expect it to be anything different than what I was used to.  Same story - different book.  But, after pranayama breathing, my brain heard something new, "Swan dive forward..."  It was one of those aha moments you hear about.  Ninety minutes later, I felt liberated and invigorated.  I'd ventured into a whole new world of yoga and didn't even know I was looking for one.  I'd once again, discovered more.

I started doing yoga because I wanted to lose weight and to help a chronic lower back problem. While both of these were accomplished early on, yoga became about so much more than that.  The focus on my breath, an awareness of my body, and the meditation of the practice became my favorite parts.  I love the feeling of accomplishment I have at the end of class.  I'm exhausted, trying to manage my breathing and bring my heart rate back to normal knowing that I held my Warrior II a little bit longer with my thigh a little closer to parallel and my left hip a little lower than in my last practice.

My involvement with Revolution Hot Yoga (RHY) was an evolution in and of itself.  You know sometimes in life, you just are where you're supposed to be at the right time to find what you need to find.  Rebecca (Jordan Turner) was like a sun pulling all of her planets into orbit with her.  I'm happy to be in the RHY solar system!  We have an awesome team at RHY with the common objective of creating a supportive community in which we can grow and share anchored by our common love of yoga.

My decision to become a yoga instructor was a natural next step for me.  I've always enjoyed sharing my favorite things with others: first as a craft teacher, then as a business owner, where I was continually educating and mentoring a sales staff, and then as a cooking instructor.  I love to learn and share what I learn with others.

Completing Barkan Teacher training just as the studio opened in September of this past year was THE MOST demanding accomplishment of my adult life.  While becoming a yoga teacher has been both satisfying and fulfilling, it has also been terrifying.  I'm still finding my voice, but I'm past the "OMG!  I can't do this. What am I going to say next?" phase, thank goodness.

Just this past week, I was at my other job assisting a woman, and she gave me the "don't I know you?" look and said "Aren't you my yoga teacher?"  I smiled and replied, "Why yes, I am!"  That was the first time I'd heard that.  It felt great.  It felt like more.

A picture of me just wasn’t saying a whole lot.  And it had to say, “there's always more.” Then it came to me: I have never felt so accomplished and sure that there IS so much more than at this moment. These are my fellow Barkan Yoga teacher trainees, and our two mentors Claudine and Renee (who picked us up, pushed us, nurtured us ... and seemed to give us exactly what we needed at the exact moment that we were about to run or collapse.  Thank you both so much.) We have just finished our final yoga practice and are a couple of hours from our official graduation…exhaustion, exhilaration, accomplishment, hope, the bonds of friendship .  You can see it all on our faces.  ...oh, by the way , that’s me in the middle, in the back peeking over. 

Robert Bonham,  yoga teacher

Namaste.

My Road To Yoga

Who are you and why are you writing this?

My name is Rebecca Jordan-Turner, and I am the president of Revolution Hot Yoga, Inc., and the Studio Director, Lead Teacher and Manager of Teachers and Programs.  This is the (very abridged!) story of my yoga life, history, career and future and a glimpse of why Revolution Hot Yoga came to be.

How did you get introduced to yoga?

I was very lucky to be introduced to yoga at the time I was.  I was living in New York City, where I had gone to become a “rich and famous fashion designer.”  When that didn’t pan out so well, I found myself as a broke and struggling waitress, office temp, and freelance seamstress with a burgeoning drinking problem.  I was directionless in my life and about to hit a very ugly rock bottom when I received what I can only describe as Divine Guidance directing me to leave New York City, urgently.  It was the summer of 2001, and I left the city right before the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center.  I moved from New York back to Raleigh, where my parents lived, and I had no idea what I would do when I got there.  I asked for further guidance from the Source that had told me to leave, and the wisdom I was given was to simply, “find a yoga studio, become a work study, go to teacher training.”  I had never really done yoga before, although I had heard about it and attended a few classes sporadically with friends, so this was a completely out-of-the-blue concept, and a total one eighty for my life.  So on September 19, 2001, I took my first hot yoga class in Raleigh, was hooked, and my life has never been the same since.

How did you decide to become a yoga teacher, and what was your path to teaching?

As soon as I completed my first class, on the mat in final savasana, I knew that I had finally found my calling.  I had already been given the idea to go to teacher training, so as soon as class was over, I went home, got on the computer and started to research training.  I went back to the studio the next day and offered my services as a work-study and told them I wanted to be a teacher.  (Over twelve years later, I can honestly say that I’m the only person I’ve ever met who said that after their first class!)  I spent the next 6 months living and breathing yoga, practicing almost every day, but with no idea how I would actually get to teacher training; it was one of my first experiences with living purely in faith.  On March 24, 2002, the studio owner called out of the blue and said, “Babe – you still want to go to training?  It starts in a week.  We’ll send you.”  So I packed my bags and went to California for a nine week teacher training program.  I graduated on June 1, 2002, and I’ve been teaching ever since.

What has your teaching career been like?

Teaching hot yoga has been the greatest blessing I’ve ever been given.  I’ve met some of the most amazing people, seen the most incredible transformations and learned so much.  Teacher training gave me the tools to get started, but the process of learning to teach and learning about yoga has only continued and gotten richer and more rewarding every year.  I’ve been able to teach in many different studios around the country and even got to go to Singapore for six months to teach there.  My life as a yoga teacher hasn’t always been easy, and it certainly hasn’t been a straight and narrow path, but every time I get to go into the hot room and witness and guide practice, I know I’m in the right place doing the right thing.

How did your career lead you to open RHY?

My explorations in practicing and teaching guided me to develop a new hot yoga series based on the classic 26+2 series I had been teaching.  It was what I needed for my own body, and in response to challenges, injuries and weaknesses I was seeing repeatedly in my students.  I knew I needed a place to teach and practice this, and then my friend (and now partner) Jane Cable came to me with the idea to open a studio like this in Greensboro, and thus Revolution Hot Yoga was born! 

What is your vision for RHY in the future?

We want RHY to be a place that is warm and welcoming, clean and beautiful, and to offer practices that suit all ages and abilities.  That’s why we have classes ranging from Restorative to our “advanced” Practice Club.  We want to meet our students where they are in their body, mind, and spirit, and love, nurture, and support them with good information and instruction so they can grow.

What is your life like now?

Thanks to hot yoga, my life is completely different than it was 12 years ago.  I’m a happy, budding entrepreneur with a beautiful new yoga studio and the best business partners imaginable.  I love my new hometown of Greensboro and all of the great friends I’ve made here.  After years of searching, I’m finally home here.  I was blessed to finally meet and marry the love of my life and we have a beautiful home and the 2 cutest dogs on the planet.  Every day is a gift and I’m so grateful to have gone through this journey to get here!

Rebecca Jordan-Turner

Go to Revolution Hot Yoga website

Fuel For My Fire

Ten years ago, I used to be an avid runner.  I was in the gym cross training and saw that they were offering yoga classes and took one soon after. I don't remember it being any particular style, just your generic beginner yoga, but I really enjoyed it and found it so relaxing.

A fellow runner told me about Bikram yoga. The first time I went to a class, I was so intimidated by the fogged up windows and packed lobby that I never even got out of the car.  The next time I went, I was able to talk myself into actually going inside and taking the class.  Little did I know then that it would change my life.  During my first class, I thought, "Oh my gosh. It's hot in here, and this is hard!"  But, I loved how relaxed and stretched out my body felt when I was finished.  I remember wishing that I had tried it WAY earlier.

In the beginning, my practice was all about just surviving in the hot room for ninety minutes, and I counted the time until the class was over.  My practice has grown over the years to become focused, fun, and adventurous.  At Revolution Hot Yoga, I'm enjoying learning new ways of approaching the same yoga I've been doing for a decade and new ways of sharing it as a teacher. It's like fresh air has been breathed into my practice.

I've come to feel that my practice IS my body, if you know what I mean.  Yoga allows me to stay in tune with my body and use it to it's full potential.  It's my connection to it.  In addition to increasing my strength and flexibility, yoga keeps me feeling healthy and balanced.  I carry the lessons I learn in the yoga room out into the world with me into every aspect of my life.  Yoga isn't JUST a practice to me, it's a way of life.  My biggest challenge is to not let all of life's "other stuff" get in the way of my practice.

Yoga has helped me find balance in my life.  My friends and family could tell a big difference when I started doing yoga in my lowered stress rate and overall well being.  There were times when I was asked, "Don't you want to go to yoga tonight?" I NEED yoga in my life.

Rebecca (Jordan-Turner, lead teacher at Revolution Hot Yoga) was one of my first teachers, and I went to teacher training two years after my first class.  I love being an instructor and enjoy seeing the way yoga changes other's lives for the better.  I don't teach yoga because I think I'm good at it.  I teach because I want to help people live happy, healthy, and balanced lives.  Teaching hot yoga is the fuel for my fire, my passion!

I started Revolution Hot Yoga with the other owners because I wanted to offer a place for anyone to practice yoga in a healthy, healing, nurturing, nonjudgmental, clean, fun, safe, and knowledgeable environment. I feel blessed to do what I do for a living and share the joy with those who are open to it.

This is Jane Cable's, co-owner of RHY, yoga story.

Got to RHY website 

Sometimes You Just Have To Kiss The Giraffe

My yoga story begins about three years ago when I read an article in Oprah Magazine about someone’s experience completing a thirty day Bikram Yoga Challenge.  Being a person that hates sweating in the summer, I was fascinated yet also somewhat repulsed by the whole idea.  I'd driven past the Bikram studio several times, looked at the sign knowingly every time, but was reluctant to venture inside.

In September 2011, a friend and co-worker told me that he'd tried a new workout, Bikram Hot Yoga.  I was intrigued by his comments about the people and environment.  He said that it wasn't just for young, cute, skinny women and that there was people of all sizes, shapes, and ability levels.  I decided to try a class, but wanted to go by myself, almost undercover, to avoid embarrassment if it didn't go well. 

During my first class I had a mix of emotions, and, yes, I was the biggest person in the room, but no one seemed to notice or care, other than me.  I didn’t feel like anyone was paying any attention to what I could or couldn’t do.  In fact, everyone made me feel great for just coming to class.  When I called my husband on the way home, he asked if I enjoyed the class.  I said, “I don’t know.  I think, I was in too much shock about the heat to know whether I enjoyed it or not.  I'll have to go again to figure it out.”

And that was how it all started.  Before I knew it, I was hooked.  I knew the yoga was having a positive impact on me when, a few months later when I got stuck in an elevator at work by myself.  The elevator just stopped and, as I waited for help to arrive, it got quite hot and stuffy in there.  I began to sweat.  Rather than panicking, my immediate thought was, "If I’m sweating, I may as well do yoga."  I started with pranayama breathing and worked my way through the standing series.  No panic for me.  My co-workers that weren’t stuck were panicking while I was doing yoga!

I started looking forward to leaving work so that I could go to yoga and see my new yogi family.  A few months in, people started talking about a “30 Day Challenge.”  A new yogi friend, Carmen, was coming down the home stretch of her challenge and encouraged me to give it a try.  I wasn’t sure that I could do it, but with the support of my yoga friends, I decided to take the plunge. What a huge sense of accomplishment I felt as I made my way through each of the thirty classes.  

Not only did my practice improve tremendously, I really started to feel like a yogi.  When I finished my challenge, I was so proud.  Wow!  I was on top of the world.  I did it!  Before long, I could get all the way down in Fixed Firm, extend my leg in Standing Head to Knee, and see, not only my toes coming over my head in Standing Bow, but my ankle too!  Woohoo!!

As time and my practice progressed, I really enjoyed the specific feedback I would get from Rebecca.(Jordan-Turner, lead teacher at Revolution Hot Yoga)  Sometimes, I would hear a distinction she pointed out and think to myself, "I've never heard that before" and make an adjustment.  Of course, she probably said the same thing all the time, but I was just then ready to focus on the next step and hear it.

When Rebecca opened her home studio, I was excited to continue to grow my practice in a small, intimate environment.  I thought I was just going to continue the Bikram series, with more attention to detail.  But NO!  That wasn’t what Rebecca had in mind.  She exposed me to a whole new world of yoga with different opinions, approaches, and poses.  I must admit, my mind did a double take, at first, "What do you mean I don’t know what's coming next?  What do you mean we're going to try something different?  Oh heck no!  I'm comfortable right here." 

Well, a few classes later, I loved the new yoga series.  The variety, the experimenting, it was all good!  Then later, when I tried the standard 26 postures of Bikram, I found that my practice had improved!  Go figure?!

This transition in my yoga life came at a difficult time in my work life.  I found that my practice helped me cope with the stresses of changing jobs. When I was on the mat, I was only focused on my practice.  My “monkey mind” was forced to be quiet, and I just was.  I believe that yoga kept me sane during that difficult time.  

Unfortunately I've had a bit of a setback with a knee injury and surgery.  I had to stop my practice for a while and boy did I miss it!  I had no idea how addicted I was until my husband started giving me subtle hints and saying things like, “Honey, when can you go back to yoga?” or “I can tell how much you're missing your practice.” 

My recovery from knee surgery has been slow, but steady.  I've worked my way back up to practicing five days a week, and I know that with patience (something I am learning through yoga), some day I will be able to get all the way down in Fixed Firm with my arms over my head again.

The love, compassion, friendship, and family that I've found through yoga is a HUGE part of my life now.  A yoga class is my time to control my focus, BREATHE, and just be me.  The acceptance and openness of Revolution Hot Yoga makes the studio a very special place.  I feel honored to be a part of it.

Yoga has taught me that I have to get comfortable in my uncomfortableness, face my fears, be gentle with myself, and just keep going.  Sometimes, you just have to go ahead and kiss the giraffe!  ;) 

Namaste.

This is Tammi Thurm's yoga story.

Return to Revolution Hot Yoga website

Practice Growing Pains

I started practicing hot yoga over five years ago. At the time, I was recovering from a brain injury, and the practice helped me heal considerably, both mentally and physically. Because of the injury, I was socially isolated and in great need of kindness and encouragement. In the studio staff and regulars, I found both in abundance. The studio became one of the few places where I felt comfortable among people. I could exhale, relax, and just be me.

In the hot room on my mat, I wasn't brain injured. I wasn't socially awkward nor did I talk funny. Among the others dripping sweat and bending their bodies, I was a competent yogini, because, as the teachers said many times and I came to believe, "Whatever you can do today is perfect for you today."

Over time, my practice progressed from looking at the clock every five minutes, wondering how much longer I had, and wobbling while holding my foot for over a year to maybe looking at the clock once or twice and kicking out in standing head to knee pose. (I'm still working on getting my head to my knee. There's a reason why they say yoga is a life long practice!) I usually showed up for yoga class four times a week, sometimes more, but never less than three.

Hot yoga became one of the pillars upon which I built a new identity and life. But that doesn't even begin to adequately describe just how important yoga was to me. Yoga became part of my very essence. My breath. My being. If that makes any sense. I told people that I was addicted. Maybe I was. Yoga became so important, in my otherwise barren life, that, early on, I would experience anxiety and stress if I couldn't get to class as often as I wanted. I know. I know. Talk about attachment.  This is exactly the opposite of what yoga is supposed to be about.

In the last few years, while hot yoga was still a very important part of my life, I didn't go into withdrawal if I couldn't get to class. While, I continued practicing frequently, I lost my passion for the practice and found that doing the same 26 postures every time, over and over, just didn't excite or challenge me anymore.

About a year ago, one of the teachers, Rebecca Jordan-Turner, left the Bikram studio and began teaching her own sequence, The Revolution Series, of hot yoga drawing from other teachers and genres. Upon taking her class for the first time, I felt new life, a rush, a zing, breathed into my practice. Yoga became exhilarating again. I hadn't realized just how bored I was until I tried something different. However, even though I loved the new practice, my yoga life wasn't all rainbows and sunshine.

Because Bikram yoga had been crucial to helping me come back to normal after my brain injury, I found that I was hesitant to let go of it. I was sad that the same practice that had healed me and in which I had found so much peace was now stale and lacking to me. It was unsettling for it not to be good enough anymore. Others expressed similar sentiments after experiencing the new series and moving on. Like any other facet of life, I had to go through an uncomfortable transition period to grow my practice to the next level, but it was well worth it.  I love yoga again, and I love my yoga family at Revolution Hot Yoga (RHY).

I have nothing but the utmost respect for Bikram yoga and my original studio and will be forever grateful to them. Bikram yoga was a great starting point and welcomed me into the wonderful world of yoga. But it's just that - a starting point. My practice is growing up and has, at least, hit puberty. I'm excited see where I go on my yoga journey with RHY.

The yoga family before the Halloween class.  (Many are missing.  You know who you are!)

This is Debbie Hampton's yoga story.

Go to the Revolution Hot Yoga website

The Evolution of A Revolution

Hot yoga is HOT. 

It’s a growing trend within a growing trend. Nationally, yoga is growing explosively as people look for ways to be happy, healthy, calm, and relaxed and the benefits of the practice, for both mind and body, become scientifically validated. And hot yoga is the fastest growing segment of the yoga movement.

The name most identified with hot yoga is Bikram Choudary.  Bikram yoga is a precise sequence of postures and breathing exercises (26 postures/2 breathing exercises.)  To be an official Bikram class, the class has to be held at a Bikram studio, last for ninety minutes, mirrors on the wall, carpet on the floor, 105 degree temperature, 40% humidity, and use the specific script, known as “The Dialogue.”

The Bikram approach does have definite benefits. Worldwide, you can walk into any Bikram studio and get basically the same thing every time, with slight deviations here and there.  Bikram yoga is very popular, very effective, and generally very safe. It’s a solid introduction to and foundation for yoga which has changed the lives of millions of people for the better – including ours.

Lately, Bikram yoga has been in some hot water (pardon the pun). There have been legal battles because Bikram Choudary copyrighted his series and dialogue and sued countless hot yoga studios which weren’t official Bikram studios. In 2012, his copyright was revoked as it was decided that yoga postures are public domain and was ruled that any yoga studio can teach his series. That made it a bad enough year for Bikram, but things got worse with multiple claims of sexual misconduct, abuse, and even rape – against the guru himself.

But the Revolution began before the scandals. Our Studio Director, Rebecca Jordan-Turner, certified by Bikram in the summer of 2002, felt limited being locked in the series and dialogue, and began moving in and out of the Bikram world as early as 2003. She wanted more education for herself and to be able to incorporate additional postures and work directly with the people in the room.

For Rebecca, the yoga itself was never the problem. The heat was never the problem. The problem was always and only the restrictions placed on how it could be taught. For the rest of us, joining in the revolution, we were bored with the Bikram series and wanted more.  More challenge.  More growth.  More heart. 

On one hand, the thousands year old practice of yoga belongs to everyone. But, on the other hand, a specific yoga sequence is like a work of art, a combination of common elements put together in a way to create something new and beautiful. It never felt quite right to Rebecca to just go out and regurgitate Bikram’s sequence. It’s his. He made it, and it has changed lives. 

All the revolutionists at our studio have tremendous gratitude for Bikram because he taught us a great deal of what we know and fueled our love of yoga. Out of respect for Bikram, our studio will not teach the classic 26 posture series. What we do instead is use the series as a foundation for our own sequence, our own work of art, “The Revolution Series.”

The Revolution Series, developed by Rebecca over 10 years of teaching, is an extension and expansion of the classic 26 postures of Bikram yoga. Our series maintains the deep healing and slow pace of the Bikram series while incorporating additional postures, specifically twists, inversions, and some vinyasa (“flow”) elements. This allows for a well-rounded, invigorating practice which is still safe and simple enough for the beginner, yet can be made challenging enough for the most experienced and advanced practitioner.

We wanted a sequence of our own, that we could expand, contract, evolve, and develop with our own words and to move our bodies in the way that felt most powerful, beneficial, and natural to us. We wanted to fill in the missing colors where we felt the Bikram series fell short, take away redundancies, and add in new elements. Our teachers wanted to be able to respond to the people and happenings in the room without being confined to a script.

What was created was something that left us all kind of stunned. The Revolution Series isn’t just different than the old series, and it isn’t just moving things around for the sake of making something different. We feel that it is something truly better, more well-rounded, and more complete. Invigorating. Refreshing. Fun and easy, but able to be made challenging when you want it to be. In our studio, people are doing things with their bodies that they didn’t think was possible. The Revolution Series isn’t just different – it’s revolutionary.