We are a modern hot yoga school, following the Kolkata tradition as it has evolved in India and then the West. We focus on asana practice and meditation.
Modern yoga school at Hakaniemi, Helsinki with principles of sustainability, community and wellbeing of everyone at its core. A school where it is easy to come to. Following our own tradition, yet open to evolving ideas. That is what we are building the best that we can.
We follow the yoga style that came out of Kalkutta, the way it was first developing in India and later in the West. We have an interest and respect to history and philosophy of yoga but are not a faith-based school.
Antti
Antti’s own yoga practice is rooted in over a decade of Ashtanga Vinyasa. He graduated from Esak Garcia’s Advanced Teacher Training from Bali in 2018 and teaches from the full Kalkutta tradition of 84 asanas.
Students tell us his teaching style is calm with a sense of humour and his wide experience in yoga shines through the teaching. They love his ability to teach, share and tirelessly remind them about the grounding principles of bandhas, alignment and breath.
Lead software engineer by day, if not at work or at the yoga studio Antti will be running, climbing or swimming in an ice hole somewhere.
Antti teaches the full variety of our hot classes, Warrior Training sessions and can do private groups and classes too.
Minttu
While her first love was ashtanga, Minttu found hot yoga while trying to rehabilitate years of persistent injuries from misalignment created by carrying heavy film cameras around.
She graduated from a Bikram Teacher Training nearly a decade ago and has completed the Advanced Teacher Training with Esak Garcia in 2017. She has taught hot yoga in its various forms in 29 studios across five continents and has traveled doing films, photography and yoga extensively attending various long trainings, retreats and yoga festivals over the years.
Minttu truly believes yoga is for everyone regardless of ability and teaches hot classes across the range from foundations to the full two hour 84 Asana Class. She also teaches pranayama and meditation, private classes and small groups.
According to the student feedback her classes are easily approachable for yogis of all levels. The love for the practice and the vast experience as a teacher is tangible throughout her class.
Minttu is the co-owner of the school.
Milena
Milena’s career as a flamenco teacher and dancer has lasted over 30 years. She found yoga in her twenties, but fell in love with it when she started to really feel the repetitive strain injuries and osteoarthritis while dancing.
Asanas found themselves to the warm-ups of her dance classes and sometimes to the choreographies too.
Milena did her first teacher training with Yoga Nordic and is currently studying another 250-hours at Roots Helsinki.
Yoga practise is part of her daily routine, without a moving start to the day the evening flamenco classes would not be happening.
Yin yoga balances the energetic and loud flamenco and it has become Milena’s strength to teach. Milena’s classes are calm, gentle and with a sense of humour. She is encouraging and respectful of every student.
Anna
Anna has been teaching both dynamic and gentle yoga styles from 2018. In addition to hot yoga she teaches yin and vinyasa.
For Anna it is important to create a safe atmosphere for each class so that everyone can do their practice at the level they happen to be at. As a teacher she gets excited about seeing her students progress and gain confidence in challenging themselves in their practise.
Linda
Linda started teaching group exercise classes in 2002 and has since made a career out of teaching. They started teaching pilates in 2008 and have completed two long pilates teacher trainings at the Somatic Studio. Pilates for Linda is a way to allow the body to become as well-functioning as it can be.
They graduated from Hiyoga teacher training in Oslo in 2019, and a second training with Yoga Nordic in 2020. Yoga for them is a chance to learn to live in the moment and to listen to one's own body. Their favourite kind of yoga is for "stiffies" meaning the kind of practise where the asanas can be modified to fit any body.
Linda is a trained massage therapist and currently studies to become a physiotherapist at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. They teach pilates as well as hatha, vinyasa and yin yoga and can guide private classes for individuals and companies. You can come to Linda's class exactly as you are at any given moment of your life.
Mirja
Mirja lives and mostly teaches in Arizona but visits Finland and teaches for us sometimes here in Helsinki,
Mirja found yoga through illness. Because of severe rheumatoid arthritis the Original Hot -sequence was almost the only thing she was able to do. Yoga has given her immeasurably valuable support for living with arthiritis and the desire to share the method gave her the inspiration to teach.
Mirja visited her first class in 2004 and became a teacher in 2008. Her other career is in nursing but having spent years working in acute care, she now wants to focus on how to support health and wellbeing, and how to live the best life despite of illness.
Niilo
Niilo brings the business expertise with him as the co-owner and our main investor. He has 20 years of business experience including start-ups in creative and game industries
Current CTO of Wolt, loving dad to two excellent cats and passionate about yoga - Niilo has first hand experience in managing all that high pressure work brings - as well as chronic injuries - through hot yoga practice.
He found yoga while looking for ways to heal his broken back, and has discovered it to be the best help for relieving the symptoms of overtight muscles and bad balance caused by nerve damage. While he has tried yin (with gin) and flow to heavy metal, he found the hot yoga practice the most beneficial.
He finds that yoga provides an essential counterpoint to the chaos of high stress work with stillness and focus, simply being in the moment and space you occupy. After 6+ years of practice his balance is better, back happier and mind calmer.
We share an idea of a school that focuses on the proven physical and mental benefits of yoga and are excited to be building a yoga home for all!
Annaleena
Annaleena has been guiding group exercise for almost 30 years and pilates for 17. It is important for her to create a safe and allowing atmosphere in her classes.
She believes every person is an expert of their own body, and she wants to support her students in achieving a stronger, healthier and well functioning body as well as generally feeling physically and mentally better.
Annaleena is also a physiotherapist. She graduated in 1997 and specialised in occupational physiotherapy nearly 20 years ago.
Ana
For Ana, yoga is her passion, work and a healing too. She took her first class while searching for a way to heal her body and mind after a big car accident, and has dedicated the last 15 years for study and teaching of yoga.
Her first certification was in Nepal where she lived for 4 months in an ashram studying hatha and meditation, and has since studied hatha, flow yoga and hot yoga as well. She has lived in 12 countries and traveled many more as a teacher. She leads retreats regularly and has supported hot yoga teacher trainings as staff.
Ana has studied organizational psychology in university of Monterrey in Mexico and also works as a personal coach. Having married a Finn, she now calls Finland home. On her freetime you can find her doing yoga, dancing or spending time with her daughter
Want to teach for us?
Write to info@yogahel.com.
We primarily follow the Kalkutta tradition of yoga, and offer heated classes, from warm to hot.
We do not hire studio spaces when our own class schedule is active. Always happy to hear from traveling teachers!