When Nirvana’s music drew this Midwest soul to Seattle, little did she know she’d become a pillar of the Pike/Pine wellness community. From teaching in 2003 to taking ownership in 2019, Frani Assaf’s journey with The Sweatbox spans over two decades of fostering community through yoga.
Her resilience shone brightest during the pandemic—just months after becoming owner. Thanks to dedicated members, innovative safety measures (including a state-of-the-art air purification system), and unwavering commitment to community wellbeing, The Sweatbox not only survived but thrived.
Tell us about your journey to yoga and how you found The Sweatbox?
I’m a Midwest girl who grew up in Iowa. What drew me to Seattle was the music scene. I was a huge Nirvana fan – that band changed my life. When I first moved here, I wanted to be on Capitol Hill, so I had this tiny little apartment that was a studio for only $600 a month (which is nuts) right above what is now the Central Co-Op. I don’t live in this neighborhood anymore, but it still is my neighborhood because I’ve been teaching here for over 20 years.
I kind of tripped upon yoga when I was in college in the late 90s and literally started with a manual and just at home doing my own practice. When I moved to Seattle in very early 2000’s, I started trying lots of different studios. A friend told me I needed to try hot yoga, and I didn’t think I’d really like the heat that much but I took one class and I was hooked. I loved the way it made me feel, and not just physically. I was working corporate at the time and under a lot of stress. I would cry on Sunday nights about having to go back to work on Monday, but doing this style of yoga was like the one time I could turn off my brain and not think about work and really just focus on my breath.
It had a huge impact on stress levels for me. Obviously there’s a big impact physically too, but like the emotional really solidified it. So I decided to become a teacher in early 2003.I went to Los Angeles and studied with Bikram Chowdhury and then came back and started just testing out other studios and then found The Sweatbox. I taught at probably five different studios all over the city, but really resonated most with The Sweatbox. Frankie and Laura, the original owners who founded the studio, were very committed to being in the heart of Capitol Hill because there’s a lot of people here who really need yoga. It’s not just for middle-aged housewives anymore, and we want to serve people who are underserved. It’’s always been about how to support community at this studio.
When I took it over I really wanted to continue that. We do a lot of like promos where we give back. We just did a promo for Estelita’s Library called the “Estelita’s Five Punch” and 50% of the sales of that specific punch card will go to Estelita’s Library which is a justice focused bookstore and library in the Central District.
Tell us about the types of yoga that you teach at the Sweatbox – you’ve expanded far beyond the traditional hot yoga and added an unheated studio with new classes.
We offer traditional Bikram or traditional hot yoga, which is the 90-minute sequence of 26 postures and two breathing exercises done in a 105 degree room. That’s what we were built on – that was originally all we offered. But over the last 15 years, we slowly started adding things, and making it more accessible for a lot more people.
We offer vinyasa in the hot room, but we also have an unheated loft studio upstairs, where we offer yin yoga as well as unheated vinyasa. Once a month up in our Loft, we offer a free “Yoga for BIPOC” class on the last Sunday of every month, and we have workshops. We do a “Full Moon Yin Yoga” class every month – it’s a little bit of astrology, guided meditation, and yin practice.
We have a sit and stitch workshop that is all about crochet and meditation. So that’s a really interesting one, plus a savor, stretch and reset is workshop that is some restorative yin style yoga and non-alcoholic mocktails.
How did you weather the pandemic as a physical studio that is all about people breathing?
When the pandemic hit, it was about four and a half months after I bought the business. My first year was a rough one, but I’m so thankful for this community, because we’ve been here since 2001.
We had a lot of members who were willing to just keep their package running, even though we were fully online for about six months of 2020. When we did open back up, we could only have five people in the studio because we were trying to figure out how much square footage per person so we could keep it safe.
We purchased an air purification system that runs through our heating. Because we are heated yoga, the benefit of that is it’s harder for viruses and bacteria to kind of survive. But we did put in an air purification system that actively kills viruses and bacteria in the air, because we want to keep people safe while they’re breathing.
We did a lot of tracking that first year. When anyone would get sick, we would immediately email the whole class and say there was a person who tested positive. But because of our air purification system, we had zero transmission, even though we probably saw 30 cases over two years of people getting sick. But no transmission felt really good!
What should a first time student expect from a traditional hot yoga class?
If you’re a first time student in our heated studio, always come in really well hydrated. That doesn’t mean chugging a bunch of water an hour before class, but hydrating well throughout the day.
You don’t want to eat two hours before class. You don’t want to have a full stomach because you’re going to be doing compressions, and in the heat, that can make you feel a little kind of nauseated. So, empty stomach, well hydrated.
Bring your mat and a towel and a water bottle. You can have your water bottle with you, and we do rent mats and towels if you don’t have them.
Upstairs in the loft space, it’s unheated so you don’t really need to worry so much about being super hydrated, but I would still be hydrated because if you’re not drinking water, your muscles are kind of tight. We want to lubricate your joints and your muscles so that you’re able to move them a little more freely.
Why should someone come try The Sweatbox?
We have a breadth of different kinds of teachers, we have a very diverse staff, because we really want to have a very diverse community. We really do want to make everyone feel welcome here. We’ve been here for 24 years, since 2001, and the reason we stuck around for so long is because we are welcome to all. We want everyone to feel like they have a space to come and be seen, feel supported, and feel like this is their community. People sit around after class and chat for 10 minutes, because these people who you practice with, and they become more than just acquaintances. It’s a little bit like a yoga family, which just sounds so cheesy to say. People do support each other, and people want to know how you’re doing. That’s always been our mission – to make sure everyone feels welcome.
What advice would you give to someone who wanted to open their own studio?
Really focus on why you want to do it. Because some people think that you don’t have to do a whole lot of work and you just get to teach a lot of yoga.
You can’t pay your staff with karma. You have to be a number cruncher – which I was not when I came into this. I had never owned a business before. I’m really lucky that I’ve had some great support. Find the people who can best support you, because you can’t do everything on your own as a business owner. It eally has to be a passion that you really want to help people. You’re really in the service industry. You’re being of service to your community.