Friday, August 31, 2007
L.A. landry works closely with yoga students in 90-degree heat, and they keep coming back for more.
It’s one of the hottest things to do in South Baton Rouge—and we mean that literally.
At the end of business at his Hot Locks hair salon in Southdowns Shopping Center, owner L.A. Landry pushes aside the chairs, cranks up the temperature to a sweltering 90 degrees, and for the next 75 minutes talks a dozen dedicated—if not borderline masochistic—hot yoga enthusiasts through a fast-moving routine. The combination of stretches, twists and power yoga hurts just to look at, but he urges them on in a soothing monotone.
And it’s a good hurt, which is what keeps them coming back. In fact, Landry’s thrice-weekly evening classes have become so popular clients are required to book appointments a month in advance. None of which seems to deter his devout following of 20-year-old co-eds, middle-aged athletes and 60-something businessmen, who pack the warm, dimly-lit room so tightly they occasionally brush limbs.
“What I tell people is that regardless of what you need in your life you can get it on a yoga mat,” says Landry, a hair stylist by day who’s been practicing yoga for six years, and who’s a disciple of Boston-based power yoga guru Baron Baptiste.
“Whether it’s weight loss, strength, flexibility or something just to calm your nerves, yoga will do it for you.”
While it’s an intense workout, Landry welcomes beginners.
“Yoga’s a process,” he says. “And if you’re a beginner you just do what you can. Nobody’s better than anyone else in the yoga studio.”
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