THE BIG IDEA
hat’s the big idea?
Yoga
in a sauna. Tiina Vainio
was working in advertising
three years ago, when she
visited London and had
a eureka moment of sorts in the quiet
room of a London gym. “It was this place
of solitude and total quiet, and I thought
it was just like being in a sauna back in
Finland. I started to think of other quiet
places, like yoga rooms, and the idea of
yoga in a sauna started to form.”
That’s a bit of an unlikely leap…
Well, Vainio had for 10 years been a
trainer in BodyBalance – a sort of hybrid
of yoga, tai chi and pilates – as well
as practising yoga for longer. Not long
after her trip to London, she hosted a
workshop for her wellness clients on ways
to attract foreign tourists to Finland’s
hotels, day spas and health clubs. “We
brainstormed what was essentially
Finnish – saunas kept coming up, as did
the idea of silence, which Finns are very
comfortable with. We discussed the
concept of doing yoga in one – I thought
it would all end there, but the idea stayed
with me.”
Know of a Big Idea?
We’ll award a prize to the best Big Idea of the year. If you’ve got one let us know:
What makes this special?
Vainio started coming up with poses that
work sitting down in even the smallest of
spaces and tweaked the idea so it would
have wide appeal. “In Finland, there’s a
certain stigma about yoga, particularly
with men – a lot of them find it a bit weird
or complex.” Essentially, she came up
with a “more user-friendly” form of yoga,
with a sequence of six main poses over a
30-minute session, with eyes closed for
much of the session. “It had to be easier
because you’re in a 50
o
C room, but I also
wanted something everyone can do, from
sportsmen to 80-year-old men.”
Sounds good…
Vainio says one of the
benefits is that “everyone’s equal. There’s
soft lighting, no mirrors and no pressure
– and having eyes closed means people
can’t judge each other. It’s also a kind of
meditation – one woman said it was like a
30-minute holiday for the mind.”
But how does it work, business-wise?
In December 2010, Vainio approached
wellness companies about doing test
classes and around 700 people tried it in
early 2011 (“Most of them fell in love with
it,” she says). She had barely applied for a
trademark, come up with a business plan
and starting training instructors, when
newspapers and TV broadcasters started
reporting on this new concept.
And it went big?
As Vainio says, “That was it – after that
I just answered my phone.” Sauna Yoga
today operates through 40 companies in
Finland, from Helsinki to Rovaniemi in the
north, with 150 trained instructors. Vainio
is set to launch the concept in Estonia,
Spain and Germany, and to expand her
core team from three to five or six. It’s a
licence-based product, so companies pay
a monthly licence fee as well as paying
instructors. Vainio, who has also published
a book on Sauna Yoga, says: “Now I think
it could go worldwide. I feel like Alice In
Wonderland, on this unlikely journey.”
saunayoga.com
Norwegian flies to Helsinki, Turku and
Rovaniemi, which all have Sauna Yoga
classes. See norwegian.com
W
Tiina Vainio
demonstrates Sauna
Yoga: 30 minutes
of poses practised
sitting down
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