Ellen Heed's Functional Anatomy Course Offered at HYFL in September 2015 | Hot Yoga For Life Archive

Dates: Friday-Sunday, 9/11-9/13/15, 8:30AM-5PM at Hot Yoga for Life Beaverton

This dynamic, three-day course will give yoga teachers, students, and wellness practitioners new tools to practice and communicate the benefits of yoga. Ellen Heed has a gift for translating the complex language of Western anatomy and Eastern philosophy and medicine into usable, practical concepts that yoga students and teachers can successfully integrate into their teaching.

You’ll learn names of bones, muscles, and connective tissues and how to locate them in both your own and your students’ bodies. Learn why and how we are different from each other becomes the basis for how to use yoga as a tool to develop your strengths and strengthen your weaknesses.

Location: Hot Yoga for Life, Beaverton, Studio B Register online here.

Practice Context

Hot Yoga For Life operated with a clear teaching philosophy distinct from many heated yoga studios in the broader market. The studio resisted framing hot yoga as fitness — heat was understood as a tool for cultivating sustained attention rather than as an intensification of cardio. This philosophical orientation shaped class sequencing, teacher development, and the studio's broader cultural identity over its operational years.

The studio's offerings extended beyond standard heated vinyasa to include specialty classes and workshops covering mandala-style sequences, partner yoga, aroma yoga, inversions, and traditional sun salutation endurance events. This breadth allowed students to deepen specific practice areas while maintaining their regular hot yoga sessions. Few studios in Portland offered this combination during the studio's operational years.