With a youth spent near the ocean, saltwater always has played an important role in Wendy Foster Elliott’s life.

“I feel like it just heals everything that ails you,” she said.

Salt also has other special meanings to the Pine Township resident. A yogi once instructed her to put more “salt” into her teaching, meaning to ground it. The sweat that pours off the body during a hot yoga session also can be described a “salty,” she said.  

So when it came to time to dream up a name for her new yoga studio, Foster Elliott decided to go with the mineral.

“We were going to name it Cranberry Power Yoga, but within a few seconds we had changed it,” she said.

On Monday, Salt Power Yoga officially opened for businesses. Featuring a style of yoga called power vinyasa flow—which is practiced in a hot room—the studio is located at the former Three Rivers Ski shop on Highpointe Drive in Seven Fields.

While Prima Yoga on Route 19 also has a hot room, that studio specializes in Bikram-style yoga. Foster Elliott said Salt is the only studio in Cranberry to offer power vinyasa flow.

“The response has been overwhelming,” she said of the opening. “We just feel so blessed by the community of people who’ve come in.”

A mother of three, Foster Elliott has been practicing and teaching yoga for close to a decade. Along with half a dozen others, including her husband, Phil Elliott, Foster Elliott is an instructor at Salt Power Yoga.

Foster Elliott said she and her husband, who, when he’s not being a yogi, works in finance at EQT, started taking yoga around the same time. Together, they’ve studied the discipline at classes around the country, including at the Jivamukti Yoga School in New York City.

After experimenting with different styles, Foster Elliott said she found her favorite form of yoga in vinyasa power flow, a practice developed by former Philadelphia Eagles trainer Baron Baptiste.

“I absolutely fell in love with the pace and the heat and the movement,” she said.

For her own studio, Foster Elliott said she wanted to make it as warm and welcoming to the community as possible. Those taking classes are encouraged to stick around after sessions to drink tea and chat on the comfy gray couch pushed against the far wall of the airy lobby. Near the entrance to the classroom is a giant chalkboard where students can sign their names or leave a message.

“We really want this studio to be a community studio—and we really mean that,” Foster Elliott said.

Throughout the September, Foster Elliott said Salt Power Yoga is offering $5 classes. The studio also holds morning and evening classes, plus shorter midday sessions for the lunch crowd.

“We have a shower so people can get in and get back to work,” Foster Elliott said.

Later this year, Foster Elliott said the studio would launch yoga classes for kids. Instructors also are developing an “Empowered Girls” six-week program for young females who, like Foster Elliott’s 12-year-old daughter, Kyra, are of middle school age.

For attendees who don’t have their own, the studio provides mats, blocks and towels. Although Salt offers an “Elements” class for beginners, Foster Elliott said everyone is welcome to attend all classes—any time.

“New people are welcome in all classes,” she said. 

To learn more about Salt Power Yoga, including a schedule of classes, click here.