York tsunami survivor Lou Harrand launches new hot yoga studio to help beat depression

But they were on the island of Phi Phi Don, just 50km from Phuket, on December 26, 2004, when a giant tsunami struck.

The Boxing Day Tsunami was one of the world's worst natural disasters, killing 230,000 people across14 countries and causing widespread devastation in the region.

Lou and Greg were lucky to escape with their lives. Both were struck by the wave and almost drowned. The force of the water separated them, and Lou suffered injuries to her ribs and face.

But they survived and returned to York, determined to make the most of their second chance. They quickly started a family, soon becoming five, with the additions of Harrison, now nine, Raya, seven, and Bo, four.

L-R: Lou Harrand in hospital after the tsunami; reunited with husband Greg, and their three children

All the while Lou was plagued by depression.

"I've always been quite up and down," says the 41-year-old. "After the tsunami, we had our children very soon afterwards. I really struggled with post natal depression, with all three children. I also developed massive anxieties around flying and driving after being in the tsunami."

Lou was on medication for her depression for several years - until a new hobby began to help turn her life around.

"I used to be a netballer until I got injured and had to stop, " she says. "A friend suggested yoga, but I thought it was all about chanting and sitting cross-legged!

"Then I went to a power yoga class at the Railway Institute and loved it.

"I suffered from depression and was on medication and under medical supervision and I found yoga really helped to clear my mind and calm me down. I have been able to come off my meds - and after six years that is amazing."

Lou loved yoga so much that she trained as an instructor. Spotting a gap in the market for hot yoga - where participants practice in a heated room - she decided to set up her own studio in York.

Yogabomb has just opened in the basement of Lou and Greg's family-run hotel, Hedley House, Bootham Terrace, York.

Lou, along with a group of instructors, offers a range of Vinyasa flow classes for all levels (including a male-only slot) as well as hot yoga sessions.

Special infra-red heat panels have been installed in the studio to generate the correct type of heat needed for a hot yoga class.

Lou explains: "These panels are the same as those used in a special care baby unit. They are different from radiator heat. It doesn't heat your skin. It heats you from within."

Hot yoga allows you to get deeper into a pose as these participants show during a class at Yogabomb

The temperature is about 40C with 40-60 per cent humidity. "It's a wet heat," says Lou. "Not as wet as a sauna but its like being on holiday in Turkey - but not that uncomfortable! You don't feel like you are burning."

The humidity levels are important, she says. "If you don't have that humidity, people would dehydrate."

The benefits of practising yoga in these conditions are many, says Lou. Mainly, the heat helps people warm up quicker, allowing them to get more from their yoga session.

"It warms up the muscles quicker and allows you to get deeper into your postures. You can move through your progressions quicker than in a regular yoga class.

"It also detoxes the body, boosts the working of the lymphatic system, and improves circulation as well as stimulating your metabolism to burn more calories. You can burn up to 800 calories in an hour of fast-flow yoga at an intermediate level."

It's the combination of a great physical workout and a sense of wellbeing that makes yoga so appealing, insists Lou.

"I like to feel I have had a work out and power yoga uses upper-body strength. But I also like the mental and spiritual benefits of yoga.

"I was going to call my business headspace - because that is what yoga gives to me. With three children and a business we are a very busy family. Yoga just clears all that and gives me a fresh sheet. It helps me be a better mum because it helps calm me down.

"I want people to know that there is so much more you can get from yoga than the physical side."

Find out more at yogabomb.co.uk

Maxine Gordon (pictured above right) gives her verdict on hot yoga

The graffiti walls, the basement location and the humidity that hits you like opening an oven door, makes me feel like I am in New York rather than York.

I've come to a taster session of hot yoga at Yogabomb's new studio on Bootham Terrace.

We begin by stripping off. Less is definitely less here; a vest and cropped leggings would be your best bet. But bring a towel and a water bottle - they will be your best friends.

I am new to yoga, but do Pilates and have done some Body Balance classes which fuses both along with Thai Chi, so some of the moves we try during the taster session are familiar.

Which doesn't mean they are easy.

Lying on our tummies, we rise on to all fours, spring up into Down Dog pose (like an inverted V), before lunging forward with one leg, then the other, and come up to standing. Then we do it all again, and again, and again.

In ordinary circumstances, you'd be getting warm, but when the room temperature is pushing 40C and the humidity is set at melting levels, you soon start to sweat.

It all begins with a glisten around your face and chest. Soon, your hair is damp, and dripping. And that's only after 15 minutes.

But everyone seems to like it. We're all sweaty together.

And as we carry on, practising more lunges and warrior poses, I do feel that I can push myself a little bit deeper and further into the pose.

Afterwards, walking back to the office on a cool, damp Autumn day, my body feels great: reset, with aches and pains gone. But my mind is reset too. Refreshingly, I feel like I don't have a care in the world.