A Hot New Yoga’s in Town

Bored of your yoga routine? There’s a new style of yoga in town. Prepare to wave goodbye to Bikram and say hello to Fierce Grace Yoga, an evolutionary new system. Developed by Michele Pernetta, one of the UK’s leading yoga teachers, Fierce Grace can be considered a cousin of your traditional hot power yoga. It’s suitable for everyone, whether you’re a yoga guru or a baby beginner (guilty) and offers those who try it the chance to achieve the ultimate blend of strength and flexibility for the body and the mind. Don’t you love an exercise regimen that doesn’t aim to kill you but soothes the soul? Us too.

According to the Fierce Grace brand themselves, this new style of yoga is “based on?classical hatha yoga,?Bikram and Ashtanga yoga, and sequenced in ways that adhere to ancient yogic principles?as well as the latest cutting-edge research on attaining optimum results in the minimum amount of time, Fierce Grace?is a unique series of?five different classes based on the same core poses and principles, each with a different emphasis, duration and intensity.”

The five classes are as follows: Deep Core, Classic, Fierce Grace, Fierce (aka The Beast, *runsandhides*) and The Fix.

Each class takes place in a room heated to approximately 35 degrees celsius, which is – thankfully – a little cooler than what you’d get with Bikram. The classes range in time from 50 minutes to 1 hour and 45 minutes. So if the thoughts of a class longer than an hour makes you feel ill, fear not; you’re catered for here. Each class carries through a focus on breath awareness, mental focus and meditation, as well as working every inch of your body, from your toes right up to that beautiful brain of yours.

Linda Condron and Sean McNamee of Boss Hot Yoga Studios are the first to introduce this yoga style to Ireland.

Linda says: “My love of hot yoga has been restored, thanks to Fierce Grace. The choice of yin and yang classes, upper body strengthening, core work, and injury posture modifications that I did not find in Bikram practise, enables me to get much more from my yoga work out. Even though I had a steady Bikram practise for 13 years, I now see many changes for the better both physically and mentally after just 6 months of Fierce Grace.”

If that’s not enough of a ringing endorsement for even devout Bikram fans to consider a change, we don’t know what is.

So, a less hot, more synergistic alternative to your sometimes faint-inducing Bikram? Certainly worth a shot. What’s more, it was these guys who brought Bikram yoga to London in 1994, so they’re certainly worth their salt.

Currently, you can only attend Fierce Grace Yoga classes at Boss Hot Yoga Studios, located in Dublin City and Maynooth. Open 7 days a week with morning, afternoon and evening classes.

Boss Hot Yoga

@CarolineForan