When DeAnna Witham moved to the Tri-Cities a few years ago, she didn’t find what she was looking for in a yoga studio – one with a spa vibe – so with encouragement from her husband, who told her “it’s never too late to change your life,” she opened her own.

Trinity Hot Yoga is a new boutique site in West Richland offering a range of yoga styles and classes for novices to experienced yogis.

The studio opened in September in a new complex near Swigg Coffee Bar at 1646 Bombing Range Road where the road intersects with Paradise Way, across the street from Yoke’s Fresh Market.

Witham calls it a “sanctuary for holistic wellness and personal growth.” She designed the studio herself. It includes a room that can accommodate 30 students and uses infrared heat to reach 106 degrees for some classes and 95 degrees for most others.

Yoga instructor Morgan Fisher called this type of heat a “game changer,” especially if you’ve never done hot yoga.

“I thought I was going to die in my first hot yoga class,” she said. “But it is really nice; you come in and you’re warm immediately, especially when it’s gray outside. It doesn’t take an hour for your joints to heat up.”

Infrared heat mimics the sun using panels that also warm the floor with radiant heat.

“It’s more evenly distributed and it’s not as abrasive. It’s not as in your face like someone is breathing hot air at you, and it doesn’t disrupt your practice if you have a hot room and a cold floor,” said Fisher, who has been a yogi since 2010 and an instructor since 2016.

“Your body is warmer for stretching and I like how it’s like sitting in a sauna but exercising at the same time. You feel really amazing afterward,” said Melissa Rabideau, a yogi at Trinity Hot Yoga who has been practicing for a couple years. “I stopped wearing makeup because you sweat it off, but it just feels good.”

Witham said she outfitted the studio with intentional touches like lavender towels at the conclusion of class. The 2,500-square-foot studio includes showers in the restrooms for those headed out immediately after a session, and there’s a modest retail section in the lobby.

“On Saturdays, I’ll have a group of 10 people just standing around chatting and that’s exactly what I wanted,” Witham said.

Passion project

She opened the business and left her job as a digital marketer all within the same month. “I’m learning and loving my life. I’m 52 years old and have my first grandchild. I feel like I’m 25 because I’m just starting a career all over again. I am now a yoga studio owner. Wow,” she said.

Witham’s prior role came with a lot of anxiety, and she wanted a place to just walk in and relax. That was the motivation behind opening Trinity Hot Yoga.

“You can tell this is a passion project for her because everything has been done with such love and care,” Fisher said. “I’ve taught at a lot of studios, and you could feel the love in this.”

Twenty-five classes are offered weekly by seven teachers, with plans to add three more classes.

A detailed description of the offerings is available on the studio’s website. Among the offerings are traditional hatha, hatha fusion, sculpt, vinyasa and yin restorative.

Trinity’s classes are available as early as 5:30 a.m. and as late as 7:30 p.m. to accommodate a range of schedules, with classes available seven days a week and the ability to book a spot online.

The first class for new customers is free, and Trinity has memberships and monthly pricing. Its “Trinity Infinity” deal is $888 for unlimited yoga for a year, with the cost grandfathered in. “We had a goal to sell 100 of those before we opened and we just sold the 100th,” Witham said. A military family, Trinity gives a discount to military members and first responders.

The studio opened in early September, and this month it’s debuting a “warm” room that’s heated to 80 degrees and holds about 10 students.

“We can also do private lessons and one-on-one sessions if you want basic instructions or an entry-level class,” Witham said.

Inclusivity

The owner and teachers are passionate about having people share in the “transformative” benefits of yoga.

“My classes are really focused on mobility because yoga’s a lot of stretching to build joint strength so as we age, we don’t break ourselves,” Fisher said. “We’re doing a lot of moves you don’t always do where you’re not getting that motion. I think moving in different ways is a great complement to whatever activities you might be doing.”

The studio takes students as young as 12, and already has a family of four with adolescent boys as clients.

“It’s just very inclusive,” Fisher said. “Studios are not typically inclusive. They tend to attract the same type of student – that young, bendy kind of body. In every class I take or teach here, there’s people of all ages, shapes and sizes, including lots of men.”

Fisher said she appreciates the challenge of teaching men, as by and large, U.S. yoga studios tend to be well-attended by women.

“People are like, ‘I’m not very flexible,’ and a lot of times that’s men,” Rabideau said. “‘I’m strong, but I’m not flexible,’ but my edge of stretching (limit) and their edge of stretching has the same benefits with yoga. I think yoga is for everybody.”

It’s Witham’s goal to attract a variety of clients, with a range of experience and abilities and she’s put teachers in place to target that.

“It’s an experience. People can do yoga on YouTube. Why do they want to come to us?” Witham said.

Trinity also promotes yoga for older people, weekend golfers and those coming back from injuries to consider a class and simply do what you can.

“We encourage people to stay in the room to acclimate,” Witham said. “Just lie on your mat whenever you need to. It’s a very different kind of practice with yoga where there’s no judgment. It’s all about what your body is calling for. You’ll never have a teacher saying, ‘Keep it up,’ like with traditional exercise. You actually teach the opposite and listen to your body.”

Lifechanging benefits

Yoga has already changed Witham’s life as she’s lost 94 pounds since starting it and wanted to be able to easily pick up a grandchild and get up from the floor without using her hands by improving her core, deep muscle and shoulder strength.

“I’m telling you, it was life changing for me, and that’s what I want for so many other people. It’s never too late to start,” she said.

The project to buildout Trinity Hot Yoga was completed by Kaizen Construction in a building that was part of an overall $6 million development by JLW Asset Management LLC on two acres in West Richland.

Trinity Hot Yoga: 1464 Bombing Range Road, Suite C2, West Richland; trinityhotyoga.com; 509-940-7989; @trinity_hot_yoga.