Hot Yoga, Hot Sauna

Apr 1, 2021

Increasingly I hear from clients who want their sauna as a way to enhance their hot yoga  (Bikram) practice. It’s a perfect pairing: what better way to follow up (or warm up for) a yoga session than with an even hotter sauna! 

Recently a couple asked me to convert an old dingy freestanding cinder block garage into a sauna/ hot yoga studio. First I made sure the cinderblock wall was stable and did some minimal repairs. Then I isolated the block wall from the warm, humid space by adhering expanded polystyrene (XPS) foam board to the walls. This is critical as it prevents moist air from hitting the cold cinder blocks and condensing. Then I framed in the space, insulated the walls with mineral wool batts and finished the yoga space with drywall and the sauna with cedar (with the requisite radiant sauna foil layer and air gap). New windows replaced the old; the dramatic deep window recesses a result of the thick walls. Bamboo flooring over floating sleepers over foam board created just the right bounce for the  yoga space, while the sauna has traditional duck boards. LED lighting added just the right ambiance. The heart of the sauna is the Harvia Cilindro heater with it’s 200 pound rock capacity. Amazingly, the old building was plumb and square— the original masons did a good job. Fighting an out-of-square space is the bane of all renovators.

This project was a complete transformation for this building (see below), turning it from a creaky old, under-utilized garage into a revitalized space for self-transformation. Make an inventory of the neglected spaces on your property awaiting transformation and give me a call!