The winter darkness is finally lifting, yet it is still so darn cold! Our bodies feel old and we long for warmth. Our brains crave something new and different, but responsibilities keep us plugging away at the long haul. A vacation might be in order, but even if you can find the time, will it be enough? Consider the possibility that you may not need to go very far to find the change you crave. Your destination – “The Hot Spot,” a yoga studio tucked in the northwest corner of the Kingston Plaza that offers a variety of “Hot Yoga” classes.

The studio’s featured yoga style is “Bikram Yoga.” Bikram Choudhury studied Hatha yoga as a young child in Kolkata, India. As a young man, Bikram pulled 26 of the 84 traditional Hatha yoga postures together into a sequence that could be marketed worldwide. He traveled the world, teaching others this sequence with the intent that they, too, would open studios featuring Bikram Yoga. To date, there are over 600 Bikram Yoga studios worldwide, and many others that teach the sequence under the name of “Hot 26.” The sequence targets every joint in the body, builds core strength, improves metabolic health, and enhances one’s ability to tolerate stress. A key part of the practice is that it is done in a studio set at 105 degrees Fahrenheit and 40 percent humidity, presumably to mimic the environmental conditions in which Bikram practiced yoga in India. But also because warm muscles move more efficiently than cold ones.

The Hot Spot’s owner and principal Bikram Yoga instructor, Stephanie Nystrom, began her own Bikram practice while living in Washington D.C., close to 20 years ago. She was attracted to the Bikram style because of the heat but quickly found that the physical and mental benefits from the practice kept her coming back to class. Not long into her Bikram journey, a graduate program took her to Albuquerque, N.M., where she had to wait a few months until a Bikram studio opened in the area. When it did, she committed to a regular practice by exchanging her time cleaning the studio for free classes. She loved it so much that she began dreaming of becoming a Bikram Yoga instructor. Eventually, she came to the reality that this dream was so much stronger than the dream of earning a Ph.D. She mustered the courage to leave graduate school and went straight to Bikram’s Studio in Los Angeles to earn her Bikram Yoga Teacher Certificate.

When Stephanie moved to Kingston with her husband in 2006, she was focused on settling in a new home and building a family, but she did practice and teach regularly (including through two pregnancies). To do so, however, she had to travel because there was no Bikram studio near Kingston. In 2011, an opportunity to open a small studio in the basement of Signature Fitness in Uptown Kingston came her way. Despite never thinking of herself as a business women, she went for it, and her students kept coming back.

A few years later it was clear her business needed more space. In 2017, she, once again, mustered her courage. She gathered her resources and renovated an empty storefront in Kingston Plaza. She put a lot into opening “The Hot Spot,” including investing in a state-of-the-art heating and ventilation system. It took about a year and a half to build her clientele to match her financial needs. Just as she was beginning to exhale … Covid hit.

Despite having to close the studio to in-person gatherings, Stephanie kept her clients committed to the practice by offering home practice tips, videos and outdoor classes when the weather was right. She kept her community going and persevered through the financial bumps. When it was safe to gather again, her students eagerly returned. Now a few years after the pandemic, her business is thriving and she has been able to recruit several excellent instructors to share the teaching load. Some of these instructors also teach yoga styles other than Bikram, which has nicely increased the variety of yoga classes offered at “the Hot Spot.”

Why do students keep coming back to “the Hot Spot?” Well, “yes” to the heat and the awesome instructors but, predominantly, they come back because they have found their physical and mental health to be much stronger. They don’t feel so old anymore. They have learned that change, begins within. In addition, sweating together builds community and the Kingston Bikram community is full of some pretty cool people! Occasionally, there are studio parties or yoga workshops that also foster friendship.

If you do set out to try your first Bikram class, do recognize that the most challenging aspects for a beginner student is physically and mentally tolerating the heat. The key is to hang in there, even if you spend the entire first class just lying on the floor. It takes at least three times a week exercising in the heat, to acclimate. It is important to follow key heat acclimation principles when beginning Bikram. These principles include wearing appropriate clothing — less is better, as is wearing moisture wicking materials. Proper hydration is also important — it begins before class and should remain a priority between practices. Replacing electrolytes (salts) may be useful, particularly for beginners. Yet, as you acclimate to the heat, you get better at preserving interstitial electrolytes and probably won’t need to reach for those electrolyte tablets. The more you practice, the more efficient your body becomes at meeting the physical and mental stress of the class. Over time, you find the 90 minutes you practice, to be the part of your day that you crave the most. When the body moves, so does the mind … the heaviness lifts and life can feel a bit more tolerable. The weather, your boss or the news is just not that important, because your body is happy — and you are home!

About the author: Elizabeth Harper, Ph.D. moved to the Hudson Valley in 2015 to work for Mount St. Mary College in Newburgh, where she is currently an associate professor in biology and director of exercise science. She came to the field of exercise science as a way to combine her passion for dance/movement and science. She has since brought this passion to her work in several disciplines, including research for the U.S. Navy, educating undergraduate and graduate clinical students in human biology and physiology and developing yoga- based community programs for physically vulnerable individuals in her hometown in New Jersey. Most recently she has published a textbook for her Introductory Exercise Science class at MSMC and looks forward to sharing with the Kingston Wire community some of the amazing people, places and practices that work hard at keeping Ulster County residents physically, mentally and spiritually well.