The bags, called pindas, are made fresh for each session: linen tied around a mix of medicinal herbs, rice and sometimes milk, calibrated to the guest's Ayurvedic constitution. The bags are warmed in medicated oil through the session. The practitioner moves them across the body in long firm strokes, holding heat over the joints and the long muscle lines.

Heat and herbs together do work that bodywork alone cannot. The combination is used in Ayurveda for joint stiffness, arthritic patterns, muscular fatigue, post-exertion recovery and the kind of cold deep ache that comes with age or overuse. The session is one of the firmer Ayurvedic offerings; it suits guests who carry physical load.

The heat is steady rather than sharp. The bags carry their warmth deeper than oil alone reaches. Most guests report a sense of weight lifting from the joints inside the first twenty minutes. The smell of the medicated herbs lingers in the room afterwards.