my studio is SMELLY!

I’m very curious to see what answers come up here.

Ours is occasionally on the stinky side, especially near the carpet ;~). It’s definitely not normally obnoxious but people all have different sniffers. I generally don’t find the normal sweat smell (which to me is slightly oniony) particularly offensive, but foot type odours sends me up the wall.

Hello Everyone

You won’t believe this! I was in the middle of a very long answer to the first 2 posts the other night and then my computer absolutely died! Really!

I have some comments, food for thought, great suggestions and ideas for you all. But… I am leaving right now for a 3 day course so… stay tuned and I will get back to you.

Have a wonderful weekend
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello everyone

Now back from my weekend away I can now devote some time to re-formulating my answer. For me this issue of sweat really comes down to some very important HYGIENE factors. In my opinion, it is firstly the responsibility of the studio owners and teachers to create the right conditions for health and hygiene. Further on you will see what I do in my own studios to create optimal conditions. But first let’s look at the issues.

PROBLEM NUMBER 1:
When you practice at a studio there is always going to be the smell of sweat. If you started out with a completely pristine space and no one had ever practiced Hot Yoga in there, you would smell the sweat in the air from the very first class.

PROBLEM NUMBER 2:
If, at your studio, sweat that drips off the body falls directly onto the carpet then you have the potential for sweat to lie around for hours, days or even months. This is a breeding ground for all sorts of microorganisms.

PROBLEM NUMBER 3:
Hygiene can become a problem dependent on 2 factors; the ability to air the room and the material that gets sweated on.

Now a couple of stories.
Where we first practiced:
When Robert and I first started this yoga years ago we have some very unpleasant experiences about smell and sweat. Both of us recall, just like you Jacquie, lying face down in someone else’s PUDDLE of sweat. It was extremely off putting. And yes, old sweat smells much worse.

Besides being a turn off it is a hazardous condition for people to exercise in. The heat creates a breeding ground for the microbes in the room. Yikes.

Our first home studio:
My first studio was my converted double car garage at home. We set it up with a full wall of mirrors, carpeted and properly insulated. When practicing at a studio there is almost an expectation that you are going to smell some sweat in the studio before, during and after every single class. BUT when you are at home, somehow smelling any sweat outside of class is NOT an option. By default you MUST find a way to handle it.

After my very first public class at home (which was only tiny) we already had wet patches on the carpet and the smell was traveling through the house. We lifted the carpet to air it but it never completely dried or was cleansed as the stain would remain. We HAD to come up with another option.

Placing the towel across your mat (BEWARE: contentious idea – that really works 😉 )
We started to position the towel across the mat in a ‘T’ or a ‘t’ formation. When students arrive they place their towel across the mat and just before they get to the 2 min Savasana the towel is picked up and placed lengthwise on the mat.

What this means is that any sweat that drips from you is collected by the towel. All Warrior poses where you straddle the mat still have you positioned over your towel. Now 99% of your sweat drips onto your own towel. YOU get to take it home and take responsibility for your sweat. The studio stays cleaner and smells more fresh.

The studio owners and teachers still have to work to keep the studio smelling clean and fresh. The biggest determinant I have found in keeping a fresh hygienic studio (once dripping sweat onto carpet is no longer happening) is to have the studio well ventilated and aired after every single class. Every night when we left the space, the doors would be left wide open. And yes, you can use incense and essential oils, but not to mask the smells and hoodwink people into believing the space is clean.

Some people get really turned off by the smells in the studio. While we can ask people not to wear strong fragrances, we can’t ask them not to eat garlicky food before class – but that happens and it is not very pleasant standing next to someone who enjoys these things. Foot odor, the smell of garlic sausage, strong perfume or even oils and incense can be equally offensive to some. My aim is to provide a neutral environment where anyone can be comfortable.

I know the towel position thing is going to get some of you a bit perturbed. Yes, I have had my fair share of visiting students or other Bikram teachers who are dogmatic about the fact that Bikram doesn’t do it this way. My answer to them is simple: the position of your towel has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the practice of the yoga. It is simply a way to provide the best possible conditions for you and everyone around you.

I also tell them that the results speak for themselves. No one EVER complains of a stink in my studios. And even better than that: our carpet cleaning bill is not 80% of what a regular studio spends. It is not even 50%. Not even 10% of what a regular studio spends on cleaning. We needed to professionally steam clean our carpet 2 times a year. HONESTLY.

Last point of carpet. If your studio is using regular indoor use carpet then it is probably a breeding ground for germs – especially if there is underlay. My advice is to use a commercial quality indoor/outdoor carpet that is designed for moist conditions.

Thanks Regan for bringing up this problem. My suggestion is for anyone who is concerned to approach your studio owners and teachers with ideas for improvement. It is your practice and you can place your towel any way you like. If you are the only one who does that then it doesn’t address the rest of the environment but you could feel a little more comfortable in your own space.

Hey, I have to sign off, I have run out of room :cheese:

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Placing the towel across your mat (BEWARE: contentious idea – that really works 😉 )
We started to position the towel across the mat in a ‘T’ or a ‘t’ formation. When students arrive they place their towel across the mat and just before they get to the 2 min Savasana the towel is picked up and placed lengthwise on the mat.

What this means is that any sweat that drips from you is collected by the towel. All Warrior poses where you straddle the mat still have you positioned over your towel. Now 99% of your sweat drips onto your own towel. YOU get to take it home and take responsibility for your sweat. The studio stays cleaner and smells more fresh.

The studio owners and teachers still have to work to keep the studio smelling clean and fresh. The biggest determinant I have found in keeping a fresh hygienic studio (once dripping sweat onto carpet is no longer happening) is to have the studio well ventilated and aired after every single class. Every night when we left the space, the doors would be left wide open. And yes, you can use incense and essential oils, but not to mask the smells and hoodwink people into believing the space is clean.

Some people get really turned off by the smells in the studio.

Very interesting. I practiced once in an ‘unofficial’ Bikram class where they had hardwood floors. Their solution was to turn sideways for the separate leg postures so that you were stepping the length of the mat. Stepping off the mat was a sure way to end up somewhere else.

I agree completely about fresh air. For me incense and oils are just additional smells with which to contend.

Take Care,
Lee

yucky yucky yucky! our carpet stinks really bad too. we are hoping to get new stuff soon! what is the normal time frame to replace carpet at a bikram yoga studio? is there a recommended time frame? i’m curious because i think it should be every year! even getting them cleaned regularly doesn’t see like enough. i expect a “locker room” smell, after all we are all sweating, but if you can smell it even after the carpets were cleaned??? ew.

-heidi jo
heidi-jo.blogspot.com

Placing the towel across your mat (BEWARE: contentious idea – that really works 😉 )
We started to position the towel across the mat in a ‘T’ or a ‘t’ formation. When students arrive they place their towel across the mat and just before they get to the 2 min Savasana the towel is picked up and placed lengthwise on the mat.

What this means is that any sweat that drips from you is collected by the towel. All Warrior poses where you straddle the mat still have you positioned over your towel. Now 99% of your sweat drips onto your own towel. YOU get to take it home and take responsibility for your sweat. The studio stays cleaner and smells more fresh.

The studio owners and teachers still have to work to keep the studio smelling clean and fresh. The biggest determinant I have found in keeping a fresh hygienic studio (once dripping sweat onto carpet is no longer happening) is to have the studio well ventilated and aired after every single class. Every night when we left the space, the doors would be left wide open. And yes, you can use incense and essential oils, but not to mask the smells and hoodwink people into believing the space is clean.

Some people get really turned off by the smells in the studio.

Very interesting. I practiced once in an ‘unofficial’ Bikram class where they had hardwood floors. Their solution was to turn sideways for the separate leg postures so that you were stepping the length of the mat. Stepping off the mat was a sure way to end up somewhere else.

I agree completely about fresh air. For me incense and oils are just additional smells with which to contend.

Take Care,
Lee

My studio is also hardwood floors (bamboo) and this eliminates the stink until people start sweating and stinking. The only draw back is that the hardwood floor does not cushion my feet as well as carpet but the idea of someone sweating on the carpet is kinda gross.

Also I have to say that most classes that I go to that have all vegetarians stink less and this is a proven fact for my wife and I. So for the sake of your yogi neighbors go Vegetarian!

My studio is hardwood (old dance studio) and my friend that I referred this yoga to tried a different studio while she was away and that studio was carpeted. I’ve only read about it, but never actually thought that carpet was used considering all the sweat that happens and it would be less maintenance and troublesome to have hardwood floors. As for the cushion factor, there are thicker yoga mats and for the floor series, many students at my studio use the super-thick mats or something to place underneath their yoga mat. I’ve never heard of foot discomfort, but people (esp. newbies) do complain about back/shoulder discomfort during the savasnas.

Are many studios carpeted? I’m completely baffled that someone would want to have sweat merely getting near the stuff (even if there was a towel on top) just because of the smell.

As for diet purposes, although vegetarians might have a more tolerable smell, they still consume garlic and beer/other forms of alcohol.

-Marietta

teacher training carpet in L.A. was super stinky. with over 250 yogis sweating it out twice a day no wonder!! a few drops of peppermint oil on my mat near the front where my head would go for floor poses made a huge difference for me. hope this helps!

Hello friends!
We have a studio in Wisconsin that has a dense cork floor and it is absolutely amazing; gorgeous too! We’ve been open now for 17 months and the studio doesn’t smell at all except, of course, right after a class of 40 sweaty bodies… It is mopped nightly with a cleanser called Theives (a combination clove, lemon oil, cinnamon, eucalyptus radiata leaf, and rosemary oil.) We dilute it way down and it freshens as well as acting as an anti-microbial/fungal, and anti-viral agent. Our previous studio (Bikram Yoga Madison) had carpets, and quite frankly carpets are a breeding ground for bacteria and mold. They can never be clean – always moist with sweat and feet and all kinds of germs… IF you saw these huge puddles and swampy messes people leave when there is no carpet to disguise it, you would never want to walk on a carpeted studio again, let lone practice and breathe deeply in that environment. Everyone uses mats and towels and are required to mop up their sweat with their towels after practice. We use a germ-zapper machine of ultra violet light (I can find out the name for you if you want) to kill air born germs as well which is on all night.. The studio is enormously successful now, and attracts lots of people who previously couldn’t stand the smell. It is a “green space,” no more plastic bottles, non-toxic paints, and all natural cleansers are used. It is called Inner Fire Yoga and Wellness Center, Madison, Wisconsin. We average 140-160 students per day and have 2-3 Bikram classes per day. Our Bikram teachers are great, and we teach what I call Orthodox Bikram, intelligently and much like Gabrielle’s descriptions. I have been teaching Bikram for 30 years (on and off over that time) as well as have certifications in Vinyasa Flow and other forms of yoga, and a degree in Movement Therapy. I love this forum because it is truly honoring the Bikram postures, yet brings light and depth to their intricacies that I have always tried to bring to each and every one of my classes… Thank You Gabrielle for this wonderful wealth of information that so many of we teachers who have a well-rounded education in anatomy and physiology and yoga philosophy can bring to the sometimes too militaristic and two-dimensional approach to this practice. I never get bored with the postures or the teaching of this healing series. Namaste Dar

IF you re in the states..youngiving.com…google it.. thansks

Hi Gabrielle,

Our studio in South Melbourne, Australia, stinks too. For all triangle poses we are asked to step of off the mat and cross over. That means that every time you are in a relaxation pose, you are standing off the matt and sweat onto the carpet.
I found it difficult to do this poses as my feet would constantly slip and I couldn’t concentrate on what I was doing. When I tried to place my towel into T shape, I was asked to move the towel back. Apparently the reason for my feet slipping are my week inner thighs. I thought this a complete rubbish.
Now that I’ve pinched a nerve in my back and can’t lock my right knee I’ll just probably sweat out this positions lying down.
What do you think?

Hi Gabrielle,

I first noticed pain when perfoming Janushirasana (Head to toe). My right knee really hurt when I was straighten my knee. I can put head on my left knee with no problem, slowly getting to lifting heel up and lowering my elbows. But for the first time I had problems to place my head on the knee.
When I came home I put hot patches on the back of my leg and the pain disappeared. I went to joga practise following day, completely forgetting about the injury.
All went well until I attempted to do a sit-up after Supta Vajrasana. I couln’t keep my right knee straight at all. It went worse from there. Spoke to the teacher after the class and I might have pinched my nerve in lower back.
Two days of rest, left side of my lower back hurts with pain in my right leg and right butt cheek.
Going to joga tonight, will take it easy, but having physio tomorrow.
Back to the topic, I noticed that my feet don’t slip when I do triangle poses on towel or on joga mat.
Thank you for your reply Gabrielle.