The Heat’s On

Attorney Eileen O'Hern Luby, of Rumson, prefers Hot Yoga to most other workout options.

Eileen O'Hern Luby, of Rumson, practices Hot Yoga at Synergy Hot Yoga in Fair Haven.
Photo by Chris Crisman.

Name: Eileen O’Hern Luby

Age:
47

Profession:
Attorney turned stay-at-home mother of four (ages 11 to 16).

Fitness goals: “At my age, I need to be burning calories and staying fit,” says O’Hern Luby. “That’s especially important for women as we get older, to keep doing it as long as we can to stay healthy.”

Workout of choice: Hot yoga, a style of yoga practiced in heated rooms (usually between 105 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit with 50 percent humidity).

Location: Synergy Hot Yoga in Fair Haven (synergyhotyoga.com).
Frequency/cost: Ninety-minute Hot 26 and Power Vinyasa classes three to five times a week. The cost is $19 per class or $175 per month for unlimited classes.

How’s it going? As an attorney, O’Hern Luby always pursued new workouts amid her busy schedule. The self-proclaimed StairMaster queen jumped from aerobics in the 1980s to spinning in the 1990s, but it was not until discovering hot yoga in 2001 that she learned what it really means to break a sweat. “I remember my first class like it was yesterday,” she says. “When I walked out I thought, This is like childbirth. It was horrible. But I’m going to come back and do it again.” She did, and was immediately hooked on the “notion of just sweating. You’re detoxing every class, and the sweating is really good for your skin.”

O’Hern Luby says hot yoga’s community aspect distinguishes it from other forms of exercise. “We’re all working off of each other’s energy,” she says. “Every posture is just about going deeper, maybe an inch further than you did before. And everyone is very respectful, regardless of level.”

With her kids in school now, O’Hern Luby says it’s easier to find time to work out. “They say you should do hot yoga every day, but that’s almost impossible,” she says. “The class is 90 minutes, and that is a big chunk of your day. And it’s not like you can do it and then just shoot off to a meeting. I mean you really have to shower,” says O’Hern Luby, who serves on the boards of nonprofits, including 180 Turning Lives Around in Monmouth County and the Visiting Nurses Association of Central Jersey in Red Bank.

In addition to toning muscle, burning fat, and building flexibility, O’Hern Luby says the activity brings other health benefits—increased circulation, decreased blood pressure, and even improved organ function—which have made her a loyal follower. “All I wanted was to burn calories and really work out, but what I’ve done for my body in the past nine years is so much more beneficial,” she says. “I just all around feel better.”

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