The hot yoga studio Yoga Heat at 1140 Monroe Avenue NW has reopened as Seva Yoga Monroe North, serving as a second location for new owners Melissa and Tobi Tungl, who have owned and operated the original
Seva Yoga studio at 2237 Wealthy Street SE since 2012.
They're purchasing the new location from longtime friend and fellow yoga instructor Elizabeth Sanders, who made the decision to sell her studio in order to focus more on yoga practice and teaching.
Interest in Seva Yoga’s hot yoga classes has grown steadily since 2012, and Melissa Tungl says the approximately 1,700 square feet at the Monroe North location is built in a way more suited to hot yoga, which is typically conducted in a 90-degree environment to help increase flexibility using heat and humidity.
“The studio’s practice room ceilings are not really high,” Tungl says, adding that she estimates the ceilings at the Gaslight Village Seva Yoga studio are over 15 feet high. “At Monroe, they actually dropped the ceiling down, so there’s less space to heat.”
Tungl and her husband have also recently installed a specific floor designed for hot yoga classes. “It is made of material that is antimicrobial, anti-smell, anti-slip,” she says.
With 12 employees at its new Monroe North studio and nine in Gaslight Village, Seva Yoga offers around 60 classes per week between the two locations, with difficulty levels ranging from introductory to advanced. Tungl says current Seva Yoga customers can use their membership packages at either location.
“We have a lot of variety now,” she says. “There’s something for everyone.”
Written by Anya Zentmeyer
Images courtesy of Seva Yoga
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