I’d been searching for a yoga class that felt like home since I moved to Sheffield - the day before the first national lockdown in March 2020. Two and a half years later, I set foot in Soul Fire Studios and found it.
I’ve done ‘hot yoga’ before in a studio down South, and let me tell you, I hated it. The teacher was so rigid that you were not allowed to drink water mid-practice, and don’t even think about having a rest. I was told that you needed to follow the arduous sequence at least five times a week to reap any benefit. The people on the mats around me looked nothing like me, but glistening half-naked athletes. No one was smiling. I did my class, and left, feeling dizzy and quite sure I would never try hot yoga again.
Why did I want to try hot yoga at Soul Fire Studios?
So, what brought me back? Well, a recommendation from a friend who I trust. Curiously, she said (I checked the message thread):
“I also can’t explain why, but I feel good there. Often in yoga studios, I feel out of place. I don’t there. You can’t recommend that because it is subjective”
I knew instantly I had to try it. If she felt like she belonged at Soul Fire Studios, then I wanted to find out why. I admit I had often walked past the door on Edgedale Road but dismissed the studio outright because I thought it was just hot yoga. A peek at the timetable revealed they do all sorts including Hatha, Vinyasa, Aerial, and Yin. Hot yoga, not-hot, as well as a range of meditation-based classes and alternative healing workshops.
I signed up for the £33 introductory offer to try as many classes as I could in three weeks. Initially, I had no intention of doing any hot yoga. Yet, my friend kept going on about just how good it felt. I broke my resistance and found myself pitching up to a Saturday morning at 9am, a little bleary-eyed after an ill-advised glass of wine the night before.
The exhausted and inflexible yogi
Before I move on, I want to explain what brought me back to yoga at all. In September I was prompted to search for yoga classes as my body and whole being seemed to ache from caring for my fifteen-month-old toddler. We have been sleeping in the same bed since… well, since I was pregnant and we cohabited my body! I still spend most nights in her bed, and my back aches from being contorted around an animated sleeping starfish.
Many people claim they are ‘too inflexible to do yoga’. I am going to tell you a big secret - yoga is actually for people like us! I have always struggled to touch my toes. Perhaps a combination of being an inactive teen and then a long-distance runner that never stretched. Compounding this history has been stomach surgery, ankle injuries, hip pain, chronic hamstring tightness and now a caesarean section! My yoga poses have never looked like the pictures on the internet, I have never successfully managed a headstand, and to make things worse, I can’t tell my right from my left and always end up in a jumble!
A further prompt came from my muddled head. After 15 months of caring for a child, antenatal anxiety, postnatal depression, a global pandemic, moving to a new city, and having just started my third new job in three years, my head was full of more racing than a Formula 1 motorsport weekend. I needed my piece of inner peace. I needed to take action to quiet my mind and do something for myself.
What is so special about hot yoga at Soul Fire Studios?
For the first time postpartum, I miraculously found I had the energy to do something. That is how I found myself in class. After my first class, I was hooked! Well, I’m as hooked as I can be in the limited free time I have. Why do I keep coming back? Here are my top 5 reasons:
1.Soul Fire Studios is so friendly and welcoming
My first impression arriving at Soul Fire Studios was the friendly teacher sat in reception behind the desk, and the amazing murals and plant life on the walls. It felt like such a warm, welcoming, and open space, and I immediately felt at ease. You are greeted with big smiles, and there is free water, and drinks available to buy. There are places to sit. It felt more than just a studio, it felt, homely.
2. Soul Fire Studios offers more than just yoga poses – it is connected to the spiritual side of yoga
The class began with some group chants of ‘Om’ and I knew from this that I had found a happy place. I have been a yoga tourist in the various cities I have lived in and have at some point tried every type of yoga and dozens of different studios. My absolute best experience before Soul Fire Studios was an Ashtanga Yoga Shala in Bristol, where before class, the whole class repeated a mantra together. At first, I found it deeply uncomfortable, but before long, I found it extremely calming. It reminds you of what yoga is about. Yoga is about so much more than just the poses, and I love that Soul Fire Studios reminds everyone of this.
3. Caters for all bodies and helps everyone to feel comfortable
One of my issues with hot yoga before was the disconnection between the spiritual aspect of yoga and the obsession with physical fitness or body sculpting. Having an eating disorder history, I avoid any exercise environment that foregrounds appearance or calories over the joys of moving your body. I am sure it doesn’t apply everywhere, but the rigidity of the hot yoga image and the high-calorie burn claims did seem to attract a certain kind of yogi in the hot studio I attended before. Perhaps the ones who were there mostly for ‘the burn’. That environment makes me feel uncomfortable. The hot yoga on offer here couldn’t be more different.
I also love how Soul Fire Studios has mirrored sections and non-mirrored which caters to people who want to use the mirrors to check their alignment, and those who want to avoid all mirrors to stay sane and focused.
4. Encourages you to look after yourself
At each class, before the yoga poses part of yoga begins, the teachers tend to share some beautiful reflections with us. I can’t remember what the reflections were during my first class, but the general message is usually similar. We are reminded to respect our body, rest if we need to, take care of ourselves, drink water, don’t push ourselves beyond your limit. This seemed the opposite of the classes I had done before, and it felt like a giant cuddle. I always appreciate the lovely reflections from a kind teacher giving us all permission to look after ourselves.
I absolutely love how personalised the class was for different people, different poses offered in a really caring way. Maybe it is motherhood, maybe it is maturity, but I really believe it is also the atmosphere of the Studio. I felt no impulsion to push myself in the ways that I might have in other classes. That is the sign of a good teacher, one that encourages you to be soft with yourself and honest about where you are in your body.
5. The heat!
The heat from the hot yoga was absolutely overwhelming at first, but it also felt like a warm bath. My body no longer needed to use up any energy to stay warm. I lay on my mat like my starfish toddler and let a warm holiday feeling rush over me.
It was a bit alarming when water started dripping off every part of my body like an unwelcome roof leak, and I looked around to see if others were experiencing the same problems. I started sliding around on my mat and used the towels I had been reminded to bring to mop myself, the mat and the floor, before placing the towel over the mat for the rest of the class! Problem solved! There is a reason people bring towels.
To conclude - give hot yoga at Soul Fire Studios Sheffield a go!
I won’t hide anything, when I left class afterwards, I was absolutely knackered. So much so, that I couldn’t work out how to exit the studio, and left my towels and mat behind. I didn’t even notice for a few days (thankfully, they were washed and kept safe for me to pick up another time).
Yet, I walked home down Abbeydale Road on a cold Saturday morning in a t-shirt and shorts, red-faced, looking like I had just been to a HIIT class, and people stared from the bus stop. There was a bounce in my step and my heart felt happy.
Since this first outing, I have tried to go to class once or twice a week, as often as my toddler and busy work schedule allow. That is something else I love about the studio - I feel comfortable dropping in and out with no pressure to sign up for a weekly class and no one telling you that you must practice five times a week. I simply go when I can. I have a five-class pass that allows me to book any class that week, and also, helpful if you have a toddler, cancel up to three hours before!
Go and give it a go! You might get hooked like me!
