The shopping center between Sherwood Diner and the old Bertucci’s/new-and-may-open-someday Ignazio’s Pizza — is hot and cold.
Literally.
On the ground floor is Restore Cryotherapy. Clients step into chambers chilled to minus 220 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s an adrenaline-surging, toxins-removing, endorphin-producing way to burn calories, reduce pain and enhance endurance.
Right above it is a new tenant: Westport Hot Yoga.
That’s exactly like it sounds. You do all your yoga stuff — stretching, breathing, concentrating, posturing, working out — in a room super-heated to between 95 and 105 degrees.
It’s as energizing and relaxing as cryotherapy.
A recent session in the new Westport Hot Yoga space.
The studio — which opened July 4 — is not new. For nearly a decade, it operated as Fairfield Hot Yoga.
Owners Abbey Chase and Richard Failla moved here from the Sportsplex for a few reasons.
Both have long local roots. Many of their clients came from Westport. And while the Fairfield location was a hot, windowless box, their new space has a view. Granted, it’s the Post Road, but if you’re going to sweat like that it’s still better than 4 walls.
Chase is a single mom, with 3 kids going through the local schools. Failla is a former Westport police officer now working part-time as a traffic agent.
Rich Failla and Abbey Chase, in Westport Hot Yoga.
Hot yoga attracts a wide range of people. Some are in middle school. Some are in their 70s. About 30% are male.
The sweet spot, Chase says, is women 35 to 60 years old. They add yoga to their routines, to balance their other activities.
Hot yoga also appeals to people who have had knee or hip replacements, shoulder surgery or back issues, Failla says.
Westport Hot Yoga offers a variety of classes, of different lengths (and heat levels). There’s bikram, power vinyasa, and low-impact, high-intensity interval training.
The studio gets hot, sure. But the heat can be sucked out, enabling Chase and Failla to offer something here they could not in Fairfield: unheated yoga.
With Chase’s kids involved in Staples sports, she knows several Staples coaches. She’s talked with the school’s trainers about offering stretching classes for Wrecker athletes.
She and Failla are excited about their move. Their many Westport connections will serve them well here.
Early feedback is positive. Several people said the new space has “great energy.”
Between yoga and cryotherapy, the strip mall by the Sherwood Island connector is definitely hot.
And cool.
(The official grand opening is tomorrow [Friday, July 12, 5 p.m.] There’s wine, cheese and raffle prizes — including from Westport Hot Yoga’s neighbors Restore Cryotherapy and Shearwater Coffee.)
It’s where Failla now spends much of his free time. He teaches many of the Bikram-style classes — that’s when the studio is the hottest, and the focus is on stretching — as well as 6 Vinyasa classes (the room is a mere 95 degrees; the focus is on strengthening the upper body and core).