How do you want to feel?
Sweat yoga in Biarritz
Turn up the heat and let go.
Sweat is the top of the energy scale: classes that get you properly hot, from heat, from pace or from both. Hot yoga, infrared classes, power yoga, fast vinyasa and heated Pilates sit here. Expect a wet towel.
6 classes coming up at 1 studio.
What Sweat does for you
You get the satisfaction of working hard and feeling it everywhere. Heat makes the body feel warm and pliable, and the pace leaves no space for overthinking. Many people describe the end of a sweaty class as one big exhale: emptied out, clear and calm. Then the shower feels very good.
It suits you if
- you like to leave everything on the mat
- you feel stiff in the cold Berlin months
- music and pace help you switch off
- you want a practice that feels athletic
Read the full guide to SweatWhat a class is like, your first time, history and the words you will hear
What a class is like
Classes run 45 to 90 minutes. Hot classes are heated, often to somewhere between 30 and 40 °C, either by warming the air or with infrared panels that warm you more directly. A few follow a fixed sequence; most run as a fast vinyasa or power class, often with music. You will drip, so mats get covered with towels. Talking is minimal, and the facilitator keeps the energy up with clear, steady cues.
Your first time
- Bring a large towel for your mat, a small one for your face, and a full water bottle.
- Wear light, close-fitting clothes you do not mind soaking.
- Eat lightly, and not in the two hours before class.
- Set up near the door if you are unsure about the heat, so you can step out easily.
Good to know
- Heated classes are not for everyone: if you are pregnant, have a heart condition, high or low blood pressure, or are sensitive to heat, check with your doctor first.
- Heat can make you feel more flexible than you are, so stay a little inside your range.
- Drink water through the day before class, and step out to cool down if you feel dizzy or sick.
Where it comes from
Heated yoga became popular in the United States in the early 1970s through Bikram Choudhury, who said he raised the temperature to recreate the heat of India and taught a fixed sequence of 26 postures in a space heated to about 41 °C. Choudhury has faced several lawsuits alleging sexual assault and harassment, and in 2016 a Los Angeles jury awarded damages to his former legal adviser.
From the 1990s and 2000s, other studios and chains separated the heat from his sequence: hot power yoga, hot vinyasa, Moksha yoga (founded in Canada in 2004) and later hot Pilates and barre. Many run cooler than the original, often between 27 and 38 °C. Infrared heating panels, which warm bodies and surfaces rather than the air, spread through studios in the 2010s.
Sweat as an energy level also includes unheated classes that are simply fast, such as power yoga and dynamic vinyasa, which grew out of Ashtanga in the 1990s. In Berlin, hot and infrared studios are especially busy in winter, when a 38 °C studio is the warmest place in the Kiez.
Words you will hear
- Infrared
- Heating panels that warm your body and the floor directly instead of heating the air.
- Hot yoga
- Any yoga class in a heated space, usually somewhere between 30 and 40 °C.
- Power yoga
- A fast, strong, vinyasa-based style that grew out of Ashtanga.
- Mat towel
- A full-length towel laid over your mat so you do not slip when it gets wet.
- Drishti
- A fixed gaze point that helps you stay steady when the pace is high.