This new workout style is all the rage, and here it’s done in a room averaging around 104 degrees and 40 percent humidity. Classgoers describe it as uncomfortable and difficult — but also rewarding, beneficial and extremely powerful.
Hot sculpt workouts have taken the world by storm, according to ELLE and other sites.
Blue Moon Yoga and Wellness is a local Fresno studio that specializes in these heated workouts, through yoga practices like hatha and vinyasa flow, as well as HIIT workouts with pilates principles — what the studio calls Inferno Hot Pilates.
Blue Moon has three locations, one in Clovis, one in Fig Garden and one in north Fresno. Each studio offers amenities beyond heated workouts. One studio features contrast therapy through cold plunges and hot saunas, one has a float spa and one even has its own juice bar.
Claudio Silva is both a Fresno State nursing student and a pilates instructor at Blue Moon’s north Fresno studio. He has seen hot workout trends grow increasingly popular in recent months, especially among students like himself.
“That’s kind of like the new craze right now, and we have a lot of younger students that come into our studios, and they just absolutely are obsessed with the way that we kind of tailor our classes and the movement behind it with our pilates,” Silva said.
He explained that the studio focuses on many different factors that go into an effective workout in the hot room. For hot pilates specifically, they do a bridge series that targets lower body and core, a standing cardio series and then active recovery to bring down the heart rate — all to connect mind, body and breath through dynamic movement.
The rising popularity of hot workouts, especially through social media, has encouraged the younger generation to try it out. A heated workout like that, Silva says, brings mental clarity and relieves stress that burnt-out and overworked students crave.
As a student himself, Silva understands the benefits and joys of leaving it all out on the mat.
“We don’t really have time to focus on one thing,” Silva said. “It’s always the next four tasks. So being in the hot room really gives you the opportunity to focus on all of those small, minute details in your life, like breathing or listening to your nervous system.”
Ali Thurner, the vice president of marketing at Blue Moon, says the studio makes an effort to work around the busy schedules and financial strains that college students face.
“We prioritize accessibility by offering an affordable intro month for all new students, student discounts on drop-ins with valid ID and have between five to 10 community classes each week at a reduced rate,” Thurner said. “We try to remove as many barriers as possible so students can experience the physical and mental health benefits of yoga.”
However, the hot classes aren’t targeted towards just one age group. They’re beneficial to anyone and everyone, which is why the studio doesn’t offer any advanced classes. Silva says they have yogis in their teens as well as their sixties.
“Some have a great depth of knowledge on their practice, and some are just starting out,” Silva said. “What we teach is for everyone, designed to start and slowly gain their momentum and gain their practice through that.”
The studio’s mission, above all, is to create a welcoming and safe environment to experience the transformative benefits of not just a hot workout, but holistic wellness practices that ease the mind, body and soul.
For Silva, this practice has fundamentally changed him in many ways.
“When I first started my practice, I was kind of facing a period of rejection,” he said. “I was going through a lot in my personal life and my academic life, and I kind of was uneasy with the direction of my future.”
Silva was searching for something to ground him and clear his mind, to make him feel like he would get through that difficult time. It ended up being his practice that brought him peace and mindfulness, as well as motivation and a push to be the best version of himself. He believes anyone can find that through their own practice.
“We all have the capacity to change and create real change within ourselves,” Silva said. “We just need to actually do it and wake up every single day, and just continue to show up to class, doing it tired, stressed, happy, sad, but showing up.”
