A NEW hot yoga studio is opening in Rhyl.
Helen Brownley, 42, owns B-Yoga Studio which is located just off Vezey Street. Her second studio, called B-Hot Yoga, is opening on Saturday, January 6, and will be located below B-Yoga Studio.
Helen, who is originally from Rhyl, carried out her 200-hour yoga teacher training in Ubud, Bali, and started teaching in the town in January 2016.
She has been to India on multiple occasions and carried out her 300-hour advanced teacher training in Goa in 2017 as well as training in Meditation, Yin and Yoga Nidra.
She started teaching yoga full time in January 2019.
Helen said: "I opened B-Yoga Studio in October 2019. I wanted to bring a taste of Bali and India to Rhyl, with palm trees and Buddhas.
"I am so excited to be opening a hot yoga studio in Rhyl. That has been my ultimate dream because hot yoga is all I have practiced for years.
"There are no hot yoga in North Wales, the closest is Chester. I wanted to be the one who brought hot yoga to Rhyl because I had taught here for so long, it just felt like the next step and the right thing to do.
"To get the studio ready, we have installed infrared heaters, had mirrors put up along one wall, changed the ceiling and painted and decorated."
Helen, a former scientist who worked in pharmaceutical companies (Microbiologist), now lives in Chester but her family are based in Rhyl. Her father had the first 99p shop in the High Street.
She started practicing hot yoga in 2011 when she lived in Melbourne, Australia, in St Kilda.
"A friend got me into it," she said
"I found it amazing, not only for my physical body but for my mind and stress levels.
"I moved back to the UK in 2012 and picked it up again in 2013 in a hot yoga studio in Hoole, Chester. At this time, I was having a very stressful time at work and had bad anxiety. Yoga was the only thing that helped me and it stopped me needing to take pills.
"My mum Dolores Brownley died of Alzheimer's in 2018 and I decided it was time to teach yoga full time.
"I opened a small studio in October 2019, what will become the hot yoga studio. Despite the lockdowns, I managed to survive. We then put the main studio in the attic of the building in 2020 - it's absolutely stunning and huge. I then rented out the bottom studio to a beauty business but now I'm reopening it for hot yoga."
Non-hot yoga and hot yoga are different due to the heat used.
For B-Yoga, radiators produce a dry heat. Hot yoga studios use infrared heaters.
Participants will get warm and will sweat but the heat won't feel uncomfortable.
"One of the most common benefits is your ability to gain more flexibility in the heat," Helen said.
RELATED STORIES
"Your muscles warm up quicker and enable you to get deeper into poses and increase your flexibility. Another great benefit practicing in the heat is that you sweat, this cleanses and detoxifies the body and boosts your immune system.
"Hot yoga also burns more calories and helps to eliminate January blues. It can boost your mood and decrease stress."
Two types of yoga styles are being offered - hot flow and warm yin.
Helen said: "Warm yin will be accessible to all abilities. It is a relaxing style of yoga that is floor based. Hot flow will need a base level of fitness or some prior yoga experience to attend, however it is mainly up to the student and their ability to take it easy if need be.
MORE NEWS
"Its important to listen to your body and rest when needed. We also give alternate poses to scale it down or up so everyone is included."
B-Hot Yoga Studio will open on January 6 with free taster classes. The official new timetable will start on January 7. Visit www.byogastudiorhyl.co.uk for more and to book a space.
Helen is joined by expert teachers at the studio and does not teach all classes.
Spaces are limited in the hot yoga studio so booking is essential. The studio is located half way down Vezey Street on the left [walk through Propaint car park].
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here