HOTWORX Opens in Lynchburg, Bringing Infrared Hot Yoga to Central Virginia

HOTWORX opened on Forest Road in Lynchburg, giving Central Virginia its first infrared sauna fitness studio and offering another clear example of how yoga is being packaged into hotter, tech-driven fitness formats that are spreading beyond major urban markets.

The new studio is at 18013 Forest Road, Suite B-02, Forest, Virginia 24551. Members have 24-hour access every day, while staffed hours run Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. A ribbon-cutting was scheduled for April 25, 2026. Inside, the studio uses individual and small-group infrared sauna pods that can fit up to three people, with workouts led virtually rather than in a live classroom.

Co-owners Jimmy Thompson and Miranda Dessalet have described the opening as a long-time dream, and Dessalet said the response from the community has been overwhelming. That local reception matters because HOTWORX is not arriving as a niche yoga room alone. It is arriving as a family-owned wellness business built around convenience, heat and a menu that stretches well beyond traditional mat work.

HOTWORX says its 3D Training method combines heat, infrared energy and exercise, and its official workout lineup includes hot yoga, Pilates, barre, cycle and HIIT. The Lynchburg Region Chamber of Commerce described the studio as a 24/7 infrared fitness space offering hot yoga, hot pilates, hot barre and high-intensity interval training sessions. That mix is the key to understanding the brand’s appeal: it gives yoga consumers an infrared twist, but it also pulls in cyclists, strength-focused members and people who want a sweat-heavy session without committing to a fixed timetable.

Compared with a standard yoga studio, the difference is obvious. A typical studio sells scheduled classes and a quieter, single-discipline experience. HOTWORX sells around-the-clock access, virtual coaching and a heated pod that can hold up to three people. For some members, that looks like innovation. For others, it is branded heat-and-tech packaging around familiar movement patterns. Either way, the model is working well enough for HOTWORX to say it has more than 800 locations worldwide.

That expansion is still accelerating. HOTWORX announced TrainingTRAX, an AI-powered personal training system, in April 2026 and said it was scaling toward 1,000 global locations by the end of 2026. The company also used International Day of Yoga messaging in June 2025 to promote infrared yoga as a way to combine strength, flexibility and recovery. In Lynchburg, the newest studio shows how quickly that formula is moving into smaller metros, where convenience and novelty are increasingly part of the wellness sale.