STEP 4: ACCESSORIZE

If you've been moving through these pages in order (hot yogis are fantastic at following instructions!) you've got a room and it's all sealed up. Now it's time for the fun part! This page will help you choose the right equipment for controlling heat and humidity in your new yoga room.

Heaters:

If you're looking for a lot of heat and minimal frills, these Multifun heaters do a great job. Use 1 for a small room or 2 for a larger room to get it a popping in about an hour. A small drawback; though they are ETL & UL certified and have built in overheating protection, they DO NOT have a tip-over kill switch (that's the safety function which automatically shuts off the heater in case it gets knocked over). So if you have kids or animals running around, exercise caution and always unplug and store these heaters after use.

An alternative with tip-over protection is the Air Choice heater.
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If you've got a very large room, poor electrical connections, or just REALLY REALLY want to get your hot room cooking, these  Bad Boys will do it for you. They use kerosene, but are designed for indoor use and have a safety shut-off mechanism if they get knocked over.

Where a standard electric heater will kick out 5200 BTUs, the  Bad Boy puts out a whopping 23,800 BTUs! A few years ago the heater went out in the lobby side of our studio during the coldest days of winter. We bought one of these and it heated nearly 2000 SF from frigid up to toasty in just a couple of hours.

​The drawback of the Bad Boy is that, though it has tip-over protection, the heater itself does get quite hot, so you won't want to leave it unattended if you have kids around. There's also the small added expense of the kerosene, and there is a faint kerosene smell (smells like you're camping with lanterns around) when refilling and/or lighting it up.  

TO SUM UP:

• Bang for buck electric heater, no kids/dogs:  Multifun heaters (orange one below)
• Safer electric heater: Air Choice heater (in the middle)
• No kids/ poor electrical options/ want it HAWT: Bad Boys (Kerosene heater on the right)

Humidifiers:

​The Vicks Warm Mist humidifier is a work horse.  With a little cleaning every now and again they'll run for years. We've used 6 of these to get our 1350 SF yoga room at the studio drippy in a few hours. One of these will probably do for your room, 2 for a larger room. They're simple to use, easy to maintain and durable.

When we opened our hot yoga studio, we tested about 10 different temperature and humidity gauges before deciding on this old-school Zoo Med reptile thermometer and humidity gauge. It's nothing fancy, but it is durable and consistent. This gauge will not respond immediately to rapid changes in conditions (like when someone opens the door and there is a cool breeze) but if you put it in the room while you're heating it up, it will display a fairly accurate reading for you by the time you're ready to get on your mat.

If you'd prefer a faster response time for your sensors and don't mind replacing batteries every now and again this 4 pack of mini digital thermometer/hygrometers will do the trick and help you to find any hot/cold spots in your space.

Electrical:

If you don't have outlets on 2 breakers but the lights are on a separate breaker, you can use a socket adapter and plug right into your light socket.

If you want to pull in power from another room (on a separate breaker) use these Maxxim flat cables. They're easy to attach to walls and discretely move electricity from one room to the next without making your home look like a rats nest of wires.

Fans:

You'll need a way to push the funk out of your space after your practice. If you chose your bathroom for a yoga room, you may just need to turn on the exhaust fan and be done with it. Most kitchens also have an exhaust fan over the stove top as well. 

Otherwise, you'll need a fan.  

We recommend this Lasko Fan. It's safe, powerful, has 3 speeds and is well built if a little bulky. Set it up in a doorway (an exterior one if possible) pointing OUT of the room after you're done, and it will blow all the hot humid air outside.

The drawback of an in-window fan is that, unless you're taking them in and out of the window every time you practice you will lose a lot of heat. However, this in-window fan has a cover you can place over the holes to keep at least some of that heat in while you get your sweat on!

If there are no options to push the moisture out, you'll need to collect it with a dehumidifier. You may want to do this anyway even if you can air your room, just to take care of any residual moisture in your home. This Pro Breeze dehumidifier will pull all of that wet out of the air in spaces up to 1200 SF. For even more oomph or for big spaces, try this Vremi dehumidifier with options up to 4500 SF.

Mirrors:

Now you'll need a way to look at your happy smiling face (and how locked your knee is 😉.)  Learning to look at yourself in the mirror (without judgement, only love!) is often one of the hardest things for beginning Bikram Yogis- and it's also one of the most impactful! Looking in the mirror helps you develop compassion for yourself, which helps you be more compassionate toward others. It also helps a TON with balancing on one leg!

We recommend having at least 1 full length mirror directly in front of you to help with balance and alignment during your practice. If you need to turn on your mat due to space or slippery floors, you may want a mirror to one side of you as well.

If you have walls on 1-2 sides of your practice space, we recommend these Mirror Tiles for simplicity and versatility. They come in 11.5"x11.5" and 14"x14" and 16"x16" (According to our math, the 14" mirrors are your best bang for buck. Note that the 16" mirrors only come in packs of 3.) 

Mirror tiles are awesome because you can arrange them to create a larger mirror that suits your room the best. Don't skimp here. You'll want enough mirror to be able to see your whole body during your practice. Though these do come with some adhesive strips to hang them, as you'll be hanging these in a hot humid environment it's a good idea to invest in a few extra adhesive strips for good measure.

If you hate mirror lines, don't wanna clutter up your walls, OR don't have walls, these 5'4"x 21" mirrors can be freestanding with a built-in stand, or mounted on a wall vertically or horizontally. We'd suggest getting at least 2 (one for the front and one for the side.) 

Mindset: your best accessory!

It takes patience to get your setup just right. (Good thing you do yoga!) If you really want to dial in your room conditions, keep a log of what you've done, including the time you turned everything on, and record the heat and humidity a few times during each process until you have it. 

Then once you've got it, replicate and tweak it depending on time or season. Changes in weather or the hour of the day can create vast changes in your space. If you nailed the heat and humidity at 5 PM, the same recipe will likely not work if you plan on taking a class at 5 AM the next morning.

"Perfect" is the enemy of good, and done is better than "perfect!" Do your yoga. Even without any added heat you will get tons of benefit from your practice. Heat and humidity are the icing on the cake, so enjoy the journey and don't get too bogged down in the particulars!

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