Life of the Studio
We opened Bikram Yoga Charlottesville on January 27, 2004, Downtown. 10 years later, we relocated just up the street and re-opened as Hot Yoga Charlottesville and began offering hot vinyasa, power yoga, yin yoga and HIIT in addition to our original Bikram method/26&2.
ADDRESS
HYC Downtown
216 West Water St.
HOURS
HYC Downtown is open 365 days a year
6am – 9pm
Cutting-Edge Facility
We took the experiences of our first location, the expertise of hot yoga studio owners across the globe, and local engineers and technicians to create our state of the art studio.
Our heating system pumps in fresh air from outside (not recycled from inside like many studios), filters it, heats it, humidifies it, and then pours it into our 1700 square foot hot room (we want you to have room to move!). The heat performs within 2 degrees of set point throughout the practice and a whole-room humidifier hidden behind the walls keeps the humidity between 35%-41% humidity.
While it looks and feels like bamboo, our floor is 100% waterproof with a sustainable cork underlayment. This solid surface floor is beautiful to see and perfect for practice.
In our smaller hot room, designed for private lessons, we have a solid surface floor that looks like wood but provides more slip resistance than natural wood.
| FRESH AIR (NOT RECYCLED) PUMPED IN FROM OUTSIDE |
| 1700 SQFT HOT ROOM |
| 35-41% HUMIDITY VIA WHOLE-ROOM HUMIDIFIER |
| ANTIMICROBIAL, SLIP-RESISTANT FLOORING |
Amenities
We have changing rooms, showers, and cubbies for personal belongings and filtered water for your water bottle. We also offer bottled water and coconut water for purchase as well as a selection of sustainable yoga clothes from Teeki and Shakti.
| CHANGING ROOMS |
| SHOWERS |
| CUBBIES |
| MAT STORAGE AVAILABLE |
| GOOD VIBES |
| BOUTIQUE YOGA STORE |
Benefits of Hot Yoga
Our members have been reaping the benefits of hot yoga for years. Check out some of these testimonials. Learn more on our Yoga Classes page.
“There is always time for balance and for hard work. There is always room to improve your physical and mental health. Bikram yoga is one of the best investments I have ever made in myself.”
Parking for HYC Downtown
We validate for two hours of free parking at the downtown parking structures, which offer hundreds of parking spaces for the vibrant downtown Charlottesville walking mall. We are one block from the metered city parking lot and there is parking available at the nearby Omni Hotel. A bus and trolley stop are located right across the street.
Instructors
Our experienced instructors will make you feel welcomed and energized, no matter your experience level, age, or body type. Get to know our instructors below.
Julia Gilchrist
Julia took her first Yoga class at Bikram Yoga Charlottesville in 2008 while attending UVA. It was a struggle and she sat out half the postures, but after class she felt like she had been reborn. It took her about a year to really commit to the practice, but after that she never looked back. Julia attended Bikram Teacher Training in 2010 and taught in New York City and Austin before moving back to Charlottesville. In 2015 she completed Vinyasa Teacher Training at Mosaic Yoga.
Like many people, Julia got into yoga for the physical exercise and stayed for the spiritual and emotional benefits. Yoga has taught her so much about speaking her truth and practicing compassion towards herself and others. Julia’s goal in class is to inspire confidence and show people that yoga is so much more fun when you stop struggling; let go and let your practice flow.
Amy Kidd
Amy used to think she wanted to be a corporate lawyer, but life had another plan. She had been a pack-a-day smoker for 15 years when a waitress she worked with took her to her first hot yoga class in Soho, NYC. The class was a wake up call, one that convinced her to quit smoking and attend teacher training just six months later, in the fall of 2001.
Amy loves camel posture, but loves final savasana even more. Her favorite phrase to use on the podium, “take deep breath in, let it out slow” acts as a reminder, both on and off the mat, to stop and get centered in the present moment. She adores the students, teachers and humidity at Hot Yoga Charlottesville.
Diane
Diane began practicing yoga twenty years ago as a way to alleviate tightness and avoid injuries incurred through running. When she decided to try hot yoga seven years ago, she quickly fell in love. The heat, the sweat and the challenge of the 26/2 practice were definite hooks–but the amazing sense of community at HYC was the sinker. She has completed over 1000 classes since 2009.
In 2016, Diane completed yoga teacher training through HYC and she has been having a blast ever since! She loves the sense of joy, vitality and presence that teaching brings to her life. She is also grateful for the opportunity to share this amazing practice with others.
Brooke
Brooke first stepped through the doors of Bikram Yoga Charlottesville on March 1, 2011. She started with a 30-day challenge and has practiced almost every day since. Brooke found the healing and transformative power of hot yoga satiated her fitness fanatic lifestyle, but also refreshed her body image and self-confidence. As a teen, she struggled with eating disorders and dysmorphophobia.
Today, with the help of thousands of yoga classes and a 200-hour yoga teacher training course at HYC, Brooke sees herself in the mirror as a strong and confident woman, mother, and teacher. She is grateful to be able to lead others through a practice that empowers her life.
Sara Zia
Sara fell in love with hot yoga and HYC in 2007 while pursuing graduate work in philosophy at UVa. She completed bikram yoga training in 2009 and has been blissfully teaching at HYC ever since. She completed vinyasa training with Baron Baptiste in 2015. Her training includes Ashtanga, prenatal, restorative, Body Positive and yin yoga.
Sara believes that the practice of yoga is not just a physical workout, though it certainly does heal and strengthen the body. Yoga practice is a call to presence and an invitation to our highest self. Sara’s classes are often heavily infused with mindfulness-based traditions of philosophy and transcendental poetry.
She’s honored to witness the many transformations that take place in the beautiful people that she’s come to love and connect with in our HYC community. Sara’s also a licensed midwife and certified doula. Her experience teaching yoga at a local max security women’s prison paved the path for her career as Founder/Executive Director of Virginia Prison Birth Project, a non-profit organization serving justice-impacted pregnant and postpartum people.
Deb
Deborah relocated to Charlotteville from upstate New York with her two little yogis and started practicing yoga at HYC in 2013. Through her regular yoga practice, she found that she became a more balanced teacher, mom, and friend.
Deborah quickly fell in love with the community and completed HYC’s 200-hour yoga teacher training in 2016. She is thrilled to now be teaching yoga, and since she is also an assistant professor at the UVA School of Medicine, she brings an advanced knowledge of anatomy to her vinyasa classes. Deborah can’t wait to see you on your mat!
Kim Popovsky
Kim is a New England girl at heart. She came to Virginia as a travel nurse in 1995 and was only supposed to be here for 12 weeks. But she fell in love with Charlottesville and never left. She is a nurse at UVA and is the mom of two teenagers and a fluffy dog.
A Groupon brought Kim to HYC in 2013, and she quickly found that yoga helped her in ways that other exercise didn’t. When it comes to the hot room – the sweatier, the better. While the physical aspects brought her to yoga, she stayed for the mental and spiritual benefits. Kim credits yoga for helping her get sober in 2014 and continues to find it a source of inspiration and strength. After over 1,000 classes as a student, she decided it was time to give back, and completed HYC’s teacher training in 2019. She is grateful to share this practice as a teacher and hopes that she can help others to find their inner peace, as well.
Sarah Baugher
Sarah started her daily yoga practice in 2014 at Hot Yoga Charlottesville. She fell in love with the sweat, movement, and the impact of this practice and community on her life.
Sarah believes in the ability of yoga to transform anyone’s mental health and physical well-being; she believes yoga is for everyone, regardless of flexibility, size, experience, age, or injury.
When she is not at a studio or the gym, you can find Sarah at UVA Heath where she works as the Chief Operating Officer for the Department of Family Medicine.
Sarah loves to spend her free time outside, in the mountains or at the beach with Henry, her 75lb puppy.
In 2016, Sarah completed her 200-hour YTT and just finished her 500-hour teacher training in December 2022! Sarah is also a 300 hour trained pilates instructor.
An avid learner, Sarah has completed training in yoga kurunta, iyengar, core strength vinyasa, yoga anatomy, power yoga, budokon, anatomy trains, and myofascial release. She has studied with Ray Long, Mark Stephens, Leslie Kaminoff, Tom Myers, Max Strom, Sean Coen, Trina Altman, Cameron Shayne, Sadi Nardini, Raphan Kebe, and countless others.
Sarah is endlessly fascinated by this human vessel; she is excited to share her passion for this practice with each of you!
Sarah Moseley
Sarah began a regular hot yoga practice after it became apparent to her that years of running were taking a toll on her body. Hot yoga became the perfect alternative for a lifelong ! Sarah moved to Charlottesville in 2015, and completed teacher training at HYC in May 2016. She teaches yoga at HYC, UVA, and the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women, a maximum security women’s prison.
Yoga has helped Sarah to slow down and let go of perfectionism to be more present. She tries to impart this to her students by bringing attention to breath and helping them building confidence in their bodies.
Melissa Healy
Melissa landed at HYC in the spring of 2010 after the encouragement of a neighbor who noticed her as a frazzled mother of twin boys who would benefit from some time in the hot room. After the first few classes, Melissa noticed a difference in herself and became fully committed to her practice. Through the years, the studio became a source of significant personal healing and growth. (And those rambunctious twin toddlers have become delightful teenagers!) Melissa completed HYC’s teaching training in 2019 and currently serves as the studio’s Work Study Program Coordinator. She lives in Crozet with her husband, John, their twin sons and two beloved dogs. She has a deep love for the HYC community and the healing and transformative power of yoga.
Allie
Molly Duncan
Molly found HYC through her friend Allie. Allie spoke with enthusiasm about her love for the yoga, and the happiness it brought her was clear. This led Molly to take her first class – and she was hooked. She was drawn to the practice of presence, awareness of being in the body, and the philosophy of yoga.
Molly completed HYC’s 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training in September of 2019, and she is excited to have begun her teaching journey. She hopes to uplift, support, and motivate students as they move through their individual practices. Molly is honored to share her enthusiasm for yoga, and meet so many beautiful souls along the way!
Gin Yates
Gin began her yoga journey in 2015 but didn’t truly find her love for it until she walked into HYC in 2017 shortly after receiving her certification in therapeutic massage. She knew her body needed something, but was surprised by how much relief she felt in her mind and soul. Gin is on her mat nearly everyday and plans to be for the rest of her life. On the days she cannot make it to her mat to practice the asanas, Gin will still find time other forms of yoga like meditation to ground and settle. Gin feels that the community at HYC is her family. She hold the studio close to her heart and believes the students and instructors are a blessing in her life. Seeing their faces and sharing energies and space is one of the best parts of Gin’s life.
Shannon Ellis
Shannon took her first yoga class in 2009, attending a beginner’s drop in class at her local gym. It wasn’t love at first sight, but over the following years, something drew her back to the mat again and again. Over time, yoga became a source of steadiness and growth for Shannon amid difficult times, a reliable place of stability and calm to return to for nourishment and support. What started as an occasional class slowly blossomed into a committed daily practice that profoundly changed her life, and eventually led her to complete teacher training at Hot Yoga Charlottesville in 2023.
Yoga has helped Shannon restore confidence and comfort in her body while also healing and supporting her mind. Her favorite aspect of yoga is its emphasis on balance: the equilibrium of discipline and freedom, effort and ease, sweat and surrender. Each day when she comes to her mat she knows the practice will provide something she needs. As a teacher, she is honored to give back to the practice and be witness to the growth of her fellow yogis.
Fenton Fadeley
This yogic journey found me exactly when I was ready. Finding my way along this 8 fold path has allowed me to arrive at a place in my life where I am able to create the space for others to explore their journey as well, see you in the hot room!
Lizzie Clark
Lizzie started practicing yoga in 1991 but fell in love with the practice 1999 when she took her first hot yoga class in Washington, D.C. That turned out to be a life-changing class. Yoga has provided stress relief and helped her heal old injuries from a collegiate soccer career and years of long distance running. In late 2001, an illness left her wondering why she was working in a high-pressure world that so poorly fit her dreams and aspirations. Lizzie decided to leave her job on Capitol Hill and pursue opening a yoga studio in beautiful Charlottesville, Virginia. After attending the bikram method yoga teacher training in the spring of 2003, Lizzie traveled teaching for other studios while she worked to open Hot Yoga Charlottesville (then Bikram Yoga Charlottesville) in January 2004. In addition to a regular practice of 20+ years, Lizzie has furthered her study by training in power vinyasa, rocket, prenatal, yin and other styles of yoga practice.
Yoga has not only helped her recover from injury, it has shown her how to be a more patient mother, loving wife and empathetic friend. Lizzie loves being able to lead others through the practice that inspired her to change her life for the better. She is so thankful for the Charlottesville community of practitioners and is looking forward to the journey ahead.