South Bay Hot Yoga, or SoHo Yoga, is the only studio in the Los Angeles area to offer both heated and traditional yoga classes. This offering is driven by their “belief that yoga truly is for everyone at every level of physical fitness.” Located in Los Angeles’ trendy oceanfront community, Hermosa Beach, SoHo Yoga is focused on physical, mental, and spiritual self discovery. SoHo Yoga challenges its practitioners by pushing the limits of physical fitness, clearing the mind of the chaos of day-to-day life, and creating centeredness through a deeper and more meaningful spiritual exercise.
Why hot yoga?
SoHo Yoga’s “hot yoga” classes are a major focus of their practice. The concept is fairly straightforward: classes take place in a humidified, super-heated studio. Generally, the temperature in the studio is raised to somewhere above 110°F, and the humidity in the room is raised to between 50 and 60%. “(This level of) humidity is the optimum level for the human body’s VO2 uptake; the rate at which you process oxygen,” says founder and General Manager, Pete Niva. “Heavy sweating flushes toxins from the skin. Static and dynamic yoga postures ‘ring out’ the internal organs. The heat and yoga stimulate your lymphatic system which flushes out the toxins in your digestive system,” says the SoHo Yoga website. Heat also increases both circulation and muscle flexibility. It causes the body to work harder to cool itself. During hot yoga, the heart rate is increased more than it would be during a traditional class. Elevating the heart rate is the essential objective of exercise, particularly any exercise aimed at weight-loss.
The dilemma: “green” humidification for hot yoga studios
“It’s typical to see recommendations from our competitors to use steam humidification,” says Niva. “While steam is a good choice, as there isn’t any cooling effect, it’s more expensive to boil water with electricity than to use high pressure water fog. Most steam humidifiers have a canister that regularly needs to be replaced. These canisters are filled with minerals that can’t be properly recycled.” With an emphasis on “green” practices being at the core of SoHo Yoga’s business model, the steam option was off the table for Niva. Looking instead at the fogging solution when building out his new studio, Niva’s initial problem was the price he was quoted from competing vendors. The sheer cost began to seem prohibitive – until Niva found MicroCool.
The MicroCool solution
To meet SoHo Yoga’s studio humidification needs, MicroCool proposed and installed a reverse osmosis water treatment system with our Focus pump module and Pod nozzle humidifiers. The installation was handled by senior MicroCool Technicians and we perform regular maintenance on SoHo’s equipment annually. SoHo Yoga is located at 1242 Hermosa Ave, Hermosa Beach, CA, and offers a wide variety of hot and traditional yoga classes, as well as a highly-acclaimed “Power Teacher Training” program for yoga instructors. MicroCool is based in Thousand Palms, CA, and has installed its cutting-edge humidification systems in facilities all over North America and beyond. To find out more, keep exploring our website or call (800) 322-4364 to speak to one of our knowledgeable professionals today.