Why Infrared?

Your body warms up faster

• Collagen and connective tissue get more pliable with heat. Heated stretch produces more range of motion than stretch alone.
• Far-infrared reaches several centimetres into soft tissue. Fan-blown hot air mostly warms the skin.
• You find your hips, hamstrings and thoracic spine in five minutes instead of fifteen.

Joints feel better

• Heat triggers vasodilation, so more blood reaches the joint, inflammatory metabolites clear faster, and protective muscle guarding relaxes.
• Clinical Rheumatology, 2009: a four-week course of infrared sessions cut pain and stiffness in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis. No flare-ups.
• Useful if you're over 40, carry training wear, or manage chronic stiffness.

A cardio bonus on top of the practice

• Heart rate and peripheral circulation rise even before you start moving.
• Same family of effects as moderate aerobic exercise, which is why Japanese cardiologists prescribe far-infrared (Waon therapy) to heart-failure patients.
• Doesn't replace cardio. Stacks measurable cardiovascular load onto a practice that, in a cold room, has very little.

Faster recovery

• Heat exposure raises HSP70, a heat-shock protein that helps cells repair after physical stress.
• 2022 study on elite footballers: far-infrared cut peak DOMS by roughly 60% and brought athletes back to baseline 1-3 days faster.
• Two sessions a week works as active recovery for harder training outside the studio: surf, gym, running, BJJ, climbing.

The nervous system shifts

• Heat exposure influences serotonin, BDNF and cortisol. Those are the same systems SSRIs target, plus the stress hormone.
• A 2016 JAMA Psychiatry trial showed a single hyperthermia session produced measurable mood improvements lasting up to six weeks.
• You don't need to be clinically anything to feel it. Stress, sleep and low-grade anxiety all respond.

Why infrared, not regular hot yoga

• Cleaner, drier air. Easier to breathe through pranayama and pilates.
• Deeper warming. Heat reaches tissue, not just skin.
• Silent. No fans, no hum. Meditative work actually feels meditative.
• 30-32°C, not 40-42°C. You get the deep warming, sweat, cardio and recovery without thermoregulation fighting you for resources mid-class.

And about the ocean across the street

Heat then cold is one of the better-evidenced recovery protocols out there. The beach sits right outside our door. Finish class warm and mobile, step across the road, spend two or three minutes in the Atlantic, and your nervous system is properly reset before the rest of the day.

In short

Five real things: more range of motion, happier joints, a measurable cardio load, faster recovery, a calmer nervous system. Movement and controlled heat, delivered deeper and cleaner than a fan-forced room.