Scott Devenney is hoping to share his passion of training movement to improve the lives of as many people as he can.
by Matthew Foley
When you think of yoga, it is easy to imagine having to do impossible stretches in uncomfortable clothing and being in a room full of candles and incense, but couple Melissa and Scott Devenney are determined to show the people of Donegal and beyond what amazing health benefits yoga can have.
Melissa (41) and Scott (37) both have their own backgrounds in yoga and personal training but since meeting in Scotland, they have gone from strength to strength and as the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, they packed up their life in Dublin and moved to Donegal, setting up
The Hot Fox Studio in New Mills. An astounding response from the public has led to the Devenneys relocating their business to Grand Central on Canal Road at the start of October. I caught up with Melissa to learn about herself and Scott’s inspiring journey, the amazing benefits of yoga and what Hot Fox Studio has in store for 2024.
Melissa, born in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States began her yoga journey 12 years ago.
“I started practising yoga back in 2011. I had a terrible image of myself at that time. I had been battling chronic depression for years and I was even on medication for it. One day I attended 26 & 2 hot yoga class and honestly after that first time I found it ridiculous. I thought it was too hot and I hated it, but I got outside and then into my car, turned the radio on and I sang the whole way home. I realised two things, number one was that I was happy, which I hadn’t genuinely felt in a really long time and number two was that I had to go back to the yoga classes to keep this feeling going.
“From then I started practising as many days as I could and everything changed. I realised that I wasn’t happy at my job at the time so I began to go to teacher training for yoga and with the help of my doctors I managed to get off all medication I was on for anxiety and depression and I even got rid of the chronic back pain I had. I started teaching around two years after that.
“I met my husband Scott in Scotland who was a personal trainer who focused on helping pain through movement. Scott was very fascinated by the physical things you can heal with yoga and movement, while I was very focused on the mental and emotional side of it so between the two of us we founded Hot Fox.
We moved up to Donegal from Dublin when the pandemic hit and we realised there was nowhere here that offered hot yoga so we decided to open a studio. Our first location was in New Mills which continued to get busier and busier until we realised we needed to move to a new location. We moved into the town and officially opened the new location at the beginning of October.”
Starting any new hobby can be daunting, but Melissa is determined to let those interested in getting into yoga know that it will only provide amazing benefits to your life.
“We are very focused on meeting all of our students where they are at. Yoga is a combination of movement, stretching, mindfulness and philosophy.
“In my opinion there is nothing yoga can’t provide! The first thing people notice after their first class is better sleep. They will be calmer after class. People are living in such a state of fight or flight all the time that they are not used to being calm.
“One of the biggest things that yoga does is influence your central nervous system. You are constantly swinging between fight or flight and rest and digest. Chronic fight or flight can lead to chronic illnesses such as autoimmune disorders, IBS and arthritis. Going to yoga helps calm down the nervous system which can help with digestion, improving injury recovery and making your whole body function better. Your body is an amazing thing, people just don’t realise it.”
According to a RedC Research article written by Derek Bell, over a third of all adults in Ireland (36%) say that they regularly suffer from stress, higher than the global average of 31%.
Ireland is a country where people tend to not only stress a lot, but bottle these emotions up and let them fester, rather than talking about them.
Although yoga is not the answer to everything, Melissa truly believes that partaking in classes will bring plenty of positive benefits to a person’s well-being, as well as giving them an escape from the stresses of everyday life.
“Our body can’t tell the difference between a physical threat and an emotional threat. If someone from work emails you, your body will react the same as it would if it was being chased by a lion. Even attending a class for one hour a day will make a world of difference when it comes to dealing with these feelings.”
Hot Fox Studio specialise in hot yoga, a form of yoga performed under hot and humid conditions. “Our studio has infrared heat, so some classes can be very hot and others can be nice and mildly warm. The warm classes are like being outside on a bright sunny day.
“Infrared heat improves collagen health. It’s amazing for your health. People who go to a sauna once a week, your risk of having a major cardiac event goesdown by 40%. If you go to a sauna three to four times a week that risk will go down by 70%. Infrared heat is a major benefit that comes with partaking in hot yoga,” she said.
As we enter 2024, Melissa and Scott are determined to spread their message and help their community in amazing ways.
“We do a Parkinson’s specific group every Monday. We had a wonderful man called Jimmy who came in for private lessons and he has just spearheaded this entire thing. He went to a conference that mentioned how yoga helps with Parkinson’s disease so he began coming to see us. It has only grown since then The Parkinson’s group is free for anyone to come to through Parkinson’s Ireland. It is on Mondays at 3pm.”
As well as this, Melissa is looking into starting a specific class for breast cancer survivors and those currently going through treatment.
Research by BreastCancer.org in breast cancer patients has shown that yoga may be able to help improve physical functioning, reduce fatigue, reduce stress, improve sleep and improve quality of life.
“What I would like to do going forward is work with one of my students who is a physiotherapist who specialises in breast cancer survivors and those currently in treatment. Most of them have issues with fatigue and what they have found is that the outcomes for cancer patients are so much better with regular yoga practice.
“We are looking into how to offer something along those lines. We just want to help people and that is the bottom line.”
Receive quality journalism wherever you are, on any device. Keep up to date from the comfort of your own home with a digital subscription.
Any time | Any place | Anywhere
SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT EDITION TODAY
and get access to our archive editions dating back to 2007(CLICK ON THE TITLE BELOW TO SUBSCRIBE)