Style / Beauty & Wellness

Luxury Bikram yoga studio opens in New York

The new Bikram Yoga in Herald Square is now the largest Bikram Yoga School in New York City.

Jan 22, 2013 | By AFPRelaxnews

Bikram Yoga Herald Square

Gorgeous design, abundant locker room amenities, open space and fresh air aren’t things you’d expect in a Bikram yoga studio, but a New York City-based studio hopes to change that.

The city’s newest fitness locale, Bikram Yoga Herald Square, is also quite possibly the world’s first luxury Bikram studio.

Co-owner Gregory Weglarski told us that he hopes his studio will offer some convenience to busy, overworked New Yorkers. The space, which offers yoga mats and towels included in the price opened last month in the city’s midtown.

Classes draw a range of working professionals for $30 a pop, with about 40 to 60 people stretched out in the studio’s sprawling 5,000 square feet.

The hot yoga practice is famed for getting you toned and flexible, but it comes with blistering temperatures, cramped classes, and Bikram-mandated carpeted flooring that is famed for being less-than-squeaky clean.

Bikram Yoga Herald Square instead relies on a type of vinyl called Flotex, which is commonly used in hospitals because it doesn’t absorb liquid. “It feels like carpet, but won’t absorb sweat, so it’s more hygienic,” Weglarski says.

To remove the air’s funk factor, the studio employs a fresh air system that maintains the yoga room at a consistent 105 degrees F/40.5 degrees C with 40 percent humidity, no matter what the temperature is outside. Since the system pumps fresh air from outside into the studio, the yoga room stays “oxygenated,” says Weglarski.

Other perks include locker rooms stocked with clean towels and shampoos and body washes from the apothecary brand Malin + Goetz, based in Manhattan.

Plus the studio wins points for design, with bright, white-washed open spaces, dark wood accents, and faux-grass carpeting in the reception area to welcome your bare feet after you shed your shoes.

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