Business Profile: Waukee's Breathe Studio a Trailblazer in Yoga Teachings

As you open the door to Kris Larrison’s Waukee yoga studio, waves of hot, humid air roll out.

Larrison keeps the temperature set between a tropical 100 and 102 degrees in , 724 S.E Alice’s Road in Waukee.

Inside, a group of about 10 students practices their technique, beads of sweat glistening on their bodies as music plays softly in the darkened room. For clients like Chuck Sinnard, who comes in three times a week, it’s hard to imagine practicing yoga any other way.

“You feel so cleansed and relieved when you get done,” Sinnard said.

Sinnard signed up for his first class in hopes that the workout would help him strengthen his core and enhance his flexibility, but he’s found more than that. Sinnard raves about the staff at Breathe Yoga, as well his fellow clients.

“There are no yoga snobs here,” Sinnard said. “I’ve meet a lot of people in class, and we’ve ended up doing things outside of class.”

Creating a sense of community in her studio is something that’s always been important to Larrison. The former collegiate runner said she first became interested in yoga when she wanted to find something that wasn’t beating up her body as much as running did.

“When I took my first yoga class I loved it,” Larrison said.

It wasn’t long before she heard about hot yoga, whose devotees work out in rooms where the temperature hovers over 100 degrees. After attending a hot yoga workshop in Iowa City, Larrison knew hot yoga was what she wanted to do.

“I had heard people talking about it, but it wasn’t anything that Des Moines offered,” Larrison said. “I’ve always loved that feeling of having really gotten a workout.”

After the gym that Larrison was working at started to complain about her cranking up the heat, she knew she needed to find her own studio space. Larrison spent several years in West Des Moines before moving to Waukee on Nov. 1, 2010.

The popularity of the hot yoga classes is only going to continue to grow as more people find out about the benefits, Larrison said.

“It just really gets into your joints and your muscles and makes them so much pliable,” she said.

While Larrison said that she has considered expanding the business, she’s hesitant to do so because it would mean she’d be able to do less teaching, and have to spend more time running the business.

You can find Kris Larrison and Breathe Studio online at www.breathestudiodm.com and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/krishotyoga. Larrison is offering a special this week; a one-month membership is only $45, instead of $89.