Yoga Studio Reviews

Studio Review – True Yoga Vermont, Rutland, VT

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At the end of June 2019 I traveled with my husband to Vermont, for me it was for the first time, to attend a training for work. We extended my work trip into a little mini-vacation, renting an adorable Airbnb on a lake, riding bike trails, visiting farmers markets, and of course going to yoga classes. The first studio I visited in Vermont was in Rutland, a small city south of Burlington by about an hour and where my work training was held. I found True Yoga Vermont online and signed up for their new student deal which was just $20 for a week of unlimited classes.

There is something that you should know about True Yoga Vermont before going – it’s a hot yoga studio. They have hot pilates, Bikram, and flow classes. It’s my opinion that hot yoga is not for everyone, but many people love the experience of doing yoga in a very hot room. True Yoga Vermont certainly believes that hot yoga is for everyone as they outline in their FAQ section. Just know that hot yoga is demanding, so take it at your own pace, even experienced yoga students will likely struggle with the stress of the heat if not used to it. The heat may also cause some to feel dizzy, be sure to rest if you’re feeling fatigued – trust me, teachers don’t mind at all if you rest in child’s pose for a while or a long time, we understand that you are listening to your body.

Regardless of the heat, or because of the heat?, True Yoga Vermont is a fantastic studio in a old renovated bowling alley with tons of character. The owner, Liz, does a great job of making new students feel welcome whether they’re just new to the studio or they’re new to yoga in general. The studio’s website has guidelines of what to expect, how to make the best of your new yoga practice, and how to safely see results from practicing in the heat. Better than just a great website, True Yoga Vermont’s staff are friendly once you arrive and there’s even a sweet little goodies bag for new students after their first class, a detail that gave me the warm fuzzies.

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As mentioned, the studio is in an old bowling alley on the second floor. There are two studios in the space and a spacious welcoming area complete with merchandise for sale – clothes, mats, and more. There is also a big changing area that has two showers which are vital after a class in which simply entering the space makes sweat bead on the body. Honestly, during the flow class I attended I saw sweat on my arms where I’d never noticed sweat before, it was quite interesting and obviously a detoxifying and purifying experience. For sure it felt effective.

Liz’s welcome statement on the homepage of the website states that it’s normal to feel nervous and excited when trying yoga or hot yoga for the first time, but that the studio is there to support and guide through the experience and that there is no need to know what you’re doing or to be flexible in order to attend. She also says that True Yoga Vermont is a community, I love that. It is a ethos of mine to learn my students’ names, to learn about their lives outside of the studio and to mold unique classes that will aid them on and off the mat, clearly Liz and everyone else at True Yoga Vermont have similar sentiments. I definitely noticed during class that Liz knew her returning students and gave them coaching throughout their practice. She spoke to me before class as a new student to gauge my level, not out of judgement, but to see how much aid I would need. What every good teacher should be doing.

Unfortunately I did not get to maximize my new student special of a week of unlimited classes. I was planning to return the following two days that I was in Rutland, but I can’t have all of our vacations revolve around yoga, so spent quality time on bike trails and eating ice cream with my husband instead. If you live in Rutland I encourage you to try the new student special and to get to as many classes as you can. If I’m ever back in quaint Rutland, I will for sure be returning to True Yoga Vermont.

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Studio Review – Vision Yoga, Cleveland, OH

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A couple of weeks ago I visited one of my best friends in her beloved hometown, Cleveland, Ohio. It was not a special visit in that I go and crash at her place probably 3-4 times per year to attend concerts, eat ethnic food unavailable to us in rural western New York state, and to generally spend quality time with my good friend and her very cool friends. Crazily, I haven’t tried out many of the yoga studios in CLE, until recently.

I had been wanting to go to a class at Vision Yoga & Wellness located on W 25th St in the western part of Cleveland since noticing it while attending an outdoor yoga class in 2016 at the Ohio City Farm, I just never got around to it. Out of all the trips I’ve made to Cleveland since summer 2016 I never got myself to a class at Vision Yoga until I finally woke up early on  Sunday and booked a spot at their 9:30am Powerful Flow.

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The studio’s entrance is a large glass door with their name and logo and takes you to a second floor location. After dumping my stuff on the old church pew next to the desk I checked in with the woman working the desk (prior to leaving my friends house I bought a drop in pass and checked in online to reserve mys pot.) I wasn’t a very good student and arrived right on time instead of early, but in my defense – my GPS took me a very roundabout way to get to a studio that was literally down the street. The way home was much quicker.

After checking in I walked down to the studio space which is a narrow room at the front of the building, past yoga supplies and merchandise that the studio sells. The walls of the studio are beautiful exposed brick and there’s a nice stained glass piece that I rolled my mat out underneath. The studio is warm and inviting with house-plants-a-plenty. At the back of the room there is a shelving unit with props which I helped myself to.

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The Powerful Flow that I attended lived up to its name. The flow itself was challenging and incorporated lots of back bends. There were quite a few of challenging asanas sprinkled throughout the entire class that were both playful and invigorating. The teacher offered assists which were welcomed and beneficial. It was the perfect warming class for a chilly Sunday morning.

After class ended the teacher kindly stuck around and took the arm balance photo of me, shown below, to promote an upcoming arm balance workshop that I was teaching back home in WNY and we also shop talked yoga, as I love to do with anyone, anywhere; handstand technique was discussed.

As mentioned above, I had noticed the studio while attending an outdoor class at Ohio City Farms, but I also admired the studio every time I went to the West Side Market, both are walking distance from the studio so an afternoon could easily be made of a class and visit to farm & market.

Through FB sleuthing I discovered that Vision Yoga teaches rooftop yoga classes in the temperate seasons (if you’ve never been to a rooftop yoga class, get to one) and also has a second location. Both studios have a plethora of class times and styles to choose from and like most yoga studios offer discounts to new students and give a deal for buying class passes as opposed to dropping in. I paid $18 for my drop in since I don’t live in the area. I highly recommend this studio with lots of charm and friendly teachers.

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The Yoga Loft, Bethlehem, PA – Studio Review

/ karabemis / 1 Comment

I made a commitment to myself that I would train more this year, so when I saw on Instagram that Jason Crandell was teaching a weekend workshop on the east coast of the U.S. I didn’t have to think twice before booking a spot. The studio is a good five and a half hours from where I live, but the idea of a weekend with a well-known vinyasa yoga instructor to practice and learn made the drive worth it. A separate post to follow regarding the workshop with Jason, this post is about the studio alone.

The Yoga Loft is in a central area of Bethlehem which is an old steel city with the decaying remnants of that time still dominating the skyline. The studio is in an old brick building with street parking and a parking lot to the side. The studio is up three flights of stairs, something to keep in mind if running late or suffering from an injury.

Once up the flights of stairs you pass through a door into the foyer of the studio. There you can register at the front desk, browse their yoga accessories for sale (clothes, books, etc.), and lounge in a sitting area. There’s also a water machine to fill up your reusable water bottle before class.

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Just beyond the entry way and slightly to the right is a doorway that leads to two changing rooms and the toilets. The double doors directly ahead lead to one of their three studio spaces. The space that I practiced in was massive, photo below, it held 70-80 people with mats tightly placed side by side. The floors of the studio are beautiful hardwood and there are a lot of windows to let natural light in. All areas of the studio are welcoming and kept clean. Staff that I interacted with during registration and during breaks from the workshop were friendly and sociable, although I did not take a class with any of the local teachers while there.

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There are a lot of classes on offer at The Yoga Loft. Looking at their weekly schedule online, there are three to eight classes offered per day, with less offered at the weekend. Classes on the schedule are labeled by level, a guideline that ensures students attend appropriate classes, something that not all studios provide prospective students with. Styles offered on the weekly schedule include: Yoga Flow, Infant Yoga, Barre & Pilates, Candlelit/Restorative, and more. Special events, workshops, and free events also found on the website.

The studio offers a lot of promotional classes to get new students in the door. There is a six-week beginners series for those new to yoga to help them get them on their feet and gain confidence to then explore other teachers and styles at the studio. They also have a new student, promotional, unlimited monthly rate of $39. Lastly, they host open houses that include a free class and option to ask questions about yoga to staff. These all make a lot of sense in terms of brining new students in the door and getting more people interested in yoga, especially those that may feel shy or nervous to try yoga for the first time.

Another interesting page found on their website that I have never seen before on a yoga studio website is a section called ‘Places We Love’ which includes restaurants and places to stay recommended by the studio. This is so useful because the studio hosts traveling teachers with big names that no doubt draw in students from all over the east coast; case in point my five and a half hour drive there, I also met two women rushing out the door at the end of the Jason Crandell workshop that were rushing because they had something like a nine-hour drive home to Maine! Us out-of-towners appreciate recommendations. Listing restaurants is very smart as most people who do yoga tend to lead a healthier lifestyle than the average American, therefore would appreciate knowing where the local vegan restaurant is as opposed to walking into the nearest McDonald’s.

I enjoyed every aspect of my short visit to The Yoga Loft in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Never before had I even really heard of the city or studio, but I am glad that a post on Instagram about the workshop got me interested and travelling across New York and Pennsylvania to travel there. If you live in the vicinity, vicinity being the entire east coast it seems, then check out their upcoming weekend workshops and book yourself a spot. A highly recommended experience.

 

 

Beginner’s Workshop at Yoga Roots, Cleveland Heights, Ohio – Studio Review

/ karabemis / Leave a comment

Yoga workshops, can’t get enough. Workshops are more than classes, they’re longer and they’re for learning and generally they cost a fair bit more than a normal drop in class, but not the Beginner’s Workshop at Yoga Roots in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. In fact, their Beginner’s Workshop is totally free, but it’s still two hours long. I know, I couldn’t believe it either, so I checked it out.

I admit that it might sound odd that a trained yoga teacher would attend a workshop for beginners, but I went with a friend and I enjoy taking beginner’s classes sometimes because, guess what – I teach beginners! Attending beginner’s classes is a good opportunity for me to witness and hear how other teachers communicate effective teaching to their students. This workshop was no different and it was really inspiring as a teacher to attend.

19866498_10100474775782817_358879747_nThe studio space at Yoga Roots is pretty cool. It has an industrial feel with a high ceiling and exposed heating units. There’s a wall of props and a nice floor space to practice on (it’s heated, too – must feel amazing in winter.) My friend and I walked in somewhat late so we took spaces up front right next to the teacher. The room was packed full of at least 30 students. The teacher settled us all in and we began gently, after she explained how when she began yoga years ago that she had injured herself by pushing herself too far beyond her physical abilities, and therefore she enjoys teaching beginning workshops so that she can teach others to avoid doing the same thing to their bodies. I very much appreciated her openness and honesty to a roomful of mostly strangers, who likely had the same emotions of the ego as she had as a beginner. By sharing her intimidating experience as a beginner the teacher broke the ice and brought her down to the level of of everyone else in the room.

The workshop that continued from her introduction was similar to a typical vinyasa class, but was broken down into pieces, first teaching a vinyasa itself bit-by-bit and then standing poses that are common posses in classes at Yoga Roots. I have not attended a general class at Yoga Roots, but I gather from things said by the teacher that a typical vinyasa class consists of little breakdown of poses and is taught more as a guided vinyasa sequence, which are great for students who know what the heck the difference is between Warrior I and Warrior II, but very intimidating (and not necessarily safe) for beginners.

That is where the Beginner’s Workshop comes in. It is a long class where beginners can feel comfortable in a room full of other students that practice at their level and where basics are broken down and taught to them. It’s Yoga 101. Then, when they are comfortable and ready, they can make the leap into other classes on the schedule at Yoga Roots, and there are a lot, classes at time slots at all times of the day, seven days a week.

The best part, in my opinion, of the Beginner’s Workshop was that it was Q & A. Students were encouraged by the teacher to ask questions about poses if any arose and once one student asked a question, many followed. Some questions were personal, such as about a previously acquired injury and how to perform a posture, which displays how special this event was, that a student could ask a trained and qualified teacher a very specific and personal question, not common in all yoga classes and certainly not while practicing with YouTube. By asking questions students will have gained confidence in areas of uncertainty so that they could then go into a class at Yoga Roots feeling sure of themselves. At the end of the class they offered everyone who attended a discount if they signed up for a membership, another, and happily surprising bonus; unfortunately, I don’t live in the area.

It would make anyone happy to enter this nestled studio. Initially it was difficult for my friend and I to find, but a guy in the neighborhood helped us out (it’s down a driveway right next to the hair salon.) When you enter the studio there’s a counter to sign in at and merchandise to browse if you’re on top of your game and arrive early. Remove shoes upon entrance and sign in. There’s a bathroom and separate changing room as well as cubbies to keep your personal items. A special event happening while we were there that I was told about after the workshop was a yoga challenge and it wasn’t one of those “do an impossibly challenging pose in your cutest Lululemon and post it on Instagram” type of challenges, it was an actual challenge. Students earned gifts for attending classes. The first mark to make got you a mug then a T-shirt and finally if you attended 30 classes in the month time frame of the challenge then you received a gift card to the studio. The amount of participants was impressive and the fact that they were improving their well-being and being a bigger part of their yoga studio community by attending more frequently were secondary bonuses beyond the gifts.

To wrap up, if you live in the Cleveland area and are looking for a great studio then try Yoga Roots. If you are a beginner then get to their next Beginner’s Workshop which happens monthly, except for in the summer, check their website for exact dates.