Residents turn to hot yoga as means of escaping from brutal cold

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    SIMSBURY, Connecticut (WFSB) — It’s no surprise these frigid temperatures have more people staying indoors.

At Bikram Yoga Simsbury, depending on the class you take, temperatures inside the studio could reach up to 107 degrees.

Whether you’re coming in for Bikram yoga or hot yoga, the warm studio is a refuge from the cold outdoors.

“It’s just a great workout. You get a great sweat, your muscles get stronger, and you get a lot more flexible,” Simsbury resident Mike Schulitz tells us.

There are the regulars, like Mike and Linda, who come in a few times each week and love it.

“The hot studio takes your practice up a whole notch, because it rings everything out, the stress, the toxins, and it just brings me back to that center place of peace, and yes, I can take on the world and it’s the heat that does that, because I’m sweating buckets,” Avon resident Linda Albright explained.

Richard Mercer opened the studio twelve years ago.

Each Winter, as the temperatures turn colder, Richard says more people attend classes.

“On cold days, we get more people than we would say in the Summer time. The Winter still draws more, but it’s far less, because, one, we can take far less people, but with all the things going on, it makes it hard for them to go out and come in,” Mercer stated.

Precautions are in place, because of the pandemic.

The studio used to be able to fit seventy people.

Capacity is now reduced and the floor has markers so that yoga mats can be socially distant.

“It’s just nice to be warm. It is,” Simsbury resident Heather Tomlinson says.

“I’ not even thinking about the outside when I’m in here,” New Jersey resident Michelle Marra said.

When the pandemic first struck, the studio closed down for three months.

Yogis attending classes say they’re happy the studio is back open and they don’t have to worry about working out in the cold.

“It’s really been helpful, especially when I work from home full time. Have been since March 16 of last year, so it really helps,” Suffield resident Idalia Carvalho added.

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