The heat hits me like a punch in the face the minute I walk in the door at Amazing Yoga's new Shadyside studio, but I am wearing a woolen coat.

Pam Panchak/Post-Gazette
Instructor Karen Conley works through a routine during a session at Amazing Yoga in Shadyside.

After I remove it and change my business suit for yoga duds, I am surprised to find the 85 to 90 degrees of the room far less oppressive than I expected.

Amazing Yoga, co-founded by Karen and Sean Conley, specializes in Power Vinyasa Yoga, which was developed by Baron Baptiste, a Californian now living in Boston. It is a kind of physical, flowing mix of fairly athletic poses performed in warm temperatures.

What it is not is Hot, or Bikram, Yoga, which has 26 poses that are performed twice in each class in temperatures as high as 105 degrees while working in front of a mirror. Think of Power Vinyasa as "balmy yoga" without mirrors and with more freedom of movement.

		More information Amazing Yoga •Monroeville 4280 Northern Pike 412-856-9856 •Shadyside 5823 Ellsworth Ave. 412-661-1525 www.amazingyoga.net Yoga H'om 7053 Steubenville Pike, Suite 22 Oakdale (North Fayette) 412-788-1660 www.yogahom.com Baron Baptiste www.baronbaptiste.com

Baptiste, a former student of Bikram Choudhury and B.K.S. Iyengar, has been a private yoga teacher to the Kennedys and the peak performance specialist for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League but now concentrates on reaching the public. He tours internationally to give classes and train teachers. On his Web site, he describes his practice as a "dynamic combination of strength, sweat and spirituality." Yoga students will find bits and pieces of other yogas like Ashtanga and Iyengar in it.

But strength is primary, for on our way to other poses we are constantly moving in and out of downward facing dog, in which you support your weight on your arms and legs while you are bent into sort of a hill position. Upward facing dog, which resembles Iyengar's cobra pose, and the standard push up position of phys ed classes are used a lot too. A sedentary beginner will have to rest a lot, but the poses are easy to pick up, and Karen Conley helps anyone having trouble.

This class is much more physical than the Iyengar classes I have taken. In Iyengar you move most in the salutation to the sun; otherwise you hold poses that work on strength more isometrically. My muscles begin wobbling very early in this class, though I manage to only stop dead a few seconds to wipe my sweaty face, drink water or rest in child's pose a few times. Because of spinal instability, I have to skip a couple of poses in which the abdominal and back muscles are used to support your legs and arms in the air.

Eventually the warmth becomes a non-issue as Karen Conley, a student and former employee of Baptiste (as is Sean, a former NFL player) talks us through the movements -- from pushup position to upward dog to downward dog to warrior pose, for example. I am into the demands on my body and the struggle to free my mind of anything but the moment. Later, the warmth becomes a friend that enables me to stretch more fully muscles that have been locked in pretzels since my back injury.

"It's something you need to get used to," said Laura Wiesemann, 43, of Monroeville, who has been practicing at the Conley's Monroeville facility since it opened 2 ¹*₂ years ago.

"I like [the heat] because I'm always cold," said Karen Friedman, 45, of Squirrel Hill.

The enhanced flexibility is one of the big selling points of both Power Vinyasa and Bikram Yoga, an altered version of which is taught in the region at Yoga H'om in North Fayette. But some medical experts have warned that if you stretch a muscle beyond 20 percent to 25 percent of its resting length, you risk damage. Others warn that exercising at temperatures higher than our body temperature of 98.6 degrees creates a risk of heat exhaustion or the more dangerous heat stroke. You're not supposed to wipe off all the sweat, either, since its evaporation cools your body.

I'm happy with the flexion I'm getting from Power Vinyasa. It's not the flexibility of my 20s, but it's the best it's been since my back injury.

The class lasts an hour and 15 minutes, and there are moments when I'm not sure I can keep my trembling muscles going. But then suddenly Conley begins putting us through resting poses and we slowly cool down with our eyes closed. When we open them, I feel a surge of fulfillment and accomplishment.

"I feel energized," Wiesemann said. "I feel a shot of energy in the afternoon."

Friedman also does Iyengar and Ashtanga. She picked up Vinyasa because she wanted something more athletic. But, she added, "I like the flow and breathing."

Caution is to be used in both Power Vinyasa and Bikram Yoga. You should make sure to drink copiously -- no caffeine or alcohol -- before, during and after.

Donna Dyer, who teaches the hot yoga at her Yoga H'om is trained in Hatha and Ashtanga yoga, but has not studied with Bikram Choudhury or at his schools. She has taken Bikram classes at a studio in Coraopolis and in New York and has studied his book.

She does not use 105 degree temperatures. "That's oppressive," she said. Rather her studio is warmed to between 95 and 100 degrees.