Amber Borgomainerio and Ross Yearsley are embarking on two major adventures this year. The first is the opening of Breathe Hot Yoga at 3750 s.w. Alaska Street in early May and the second is their upcoming marriage.

Amber "stumbled into Yoga at college in 1996" and was so taken with the practice she became an instructor just two years later. As the popularity of yoga grew she taught at a variety of studios and in 2001 was brought in as the instructor at Bikram Yoga in West Seattle in the Junction. She stayed for seven years becoming a Bikram certified instructor.

She founded Breathe Hot Yoga in South Lake Union a few years later and then in the last few months the couple was approached by Harbor Properties, developers of The Link Apartments in the West Seattle Triangle (between Alaska Street and Fauntleroy Way) seeking to have them open a location there.

Hot Yoga is performed in rooms whose ambient temperature is warmer than normal room temperature, ranging from 85 degrees to over 100, but the heat itself is supplied by radiant heaters, which heat the object (in this case a person) rather than the room. "Heat allows your muscles to relax and open up," said Amber. "It's a very healthy and therapeutic form of heat."

Unique to Breathe Hot Yoga is the idea of different temperature zones. One might be as much as 10 to 20 degrees cooler than another.

They teach a very specific kind of yoga, from the lineage of master instructor Choudhury Bikram using a similar "position vocabulary."

With such deep experience Amber believes that the "health benefits are almost too extensive to list." She cites its stress reduction qualities, its value as a form of physical conditioning, "it alleviates aches and pains from arthritis and other conditions and it works with the internal body as well (...) it really covers the whole body. The main thing everybody takes away from it is...You feel better."

Ross, whose day job is as a computer software engineer, has a remarkable history involving both mental and physical discipline. He was a principal dancer with Pacific Northwest Ballet and also danced with American Ballet Theater under Mikhail Baryshnikov.

"This is an interesting time in Yoga," said Ross, "We've gotten to the point in our lives when I think people need a practice where they can quiet down and they can also be physical, given our busy world, and yoga is fitting that niche."

Breathe Yoga members can choose between 60 classes each week (between the two locations) and can attend at either studio. "We really have a class for everybody," said Amber.

Prentice Architects designed the space and Ross promises that it is a "beautiful, integrated design." They note there will be wood accents and other thoughtful touches.

The couple is very detail oriented and want the space to be restful, warm, and friendly but focused on the physical discipline that yoga requires.

That's not to say they are not flexible. "We have students in their 50's and 60's who are just discovering yoga," said Amber," so we work with them at their pace to help them." They are also highly focused on a very clean environment. To that end they use anti-bacterial, medical grade vinyl flooring and the studio will have men's and women's changing rooms and a shower.

"From the moment you walk in the door to the moment you leave should be a yoga experience," said Ross.

They will have 6 to 7 employees, part and full time.

Monday through Friday they begin with a 9:30 am class and a 4:00 pm class, a 5:15pm class and a 6:30 pm class. Each class could be as many as 35 to 40 people.