Yoga Vida - University Place

Yoga Vida
99 University Place
New York, NY
Class name : Open Vinyasa 

Price - $10 for one week unlimited.
($5 /class)


I ended up at YogaVida on a whim - it happened to have a class starting right when we got there and I was happy to learn they had a $10 weekly unlimited beginners deal.

It's located in a nice building just south of Union Square on the 6th floor.  The foyer/lobby area is calming and the workers received us well, with smiles and good energy.

The facility is the entire floor and it's nicely spread out, not cramped at all. Cubbies for shoes in the lobby and more cubbies for bags in the actual yoga room itself.

The studio space is large and roomy with big windows. Like YTTP, they had new-agey eclectic elevator music going.

The female/male ratio was about 4:1

I had the same teacher both times I went, Jessie, I think.  She called for the use of various props -- yoga blocks to increase your stretch, blankets to sit on or put your knees on, straps at one point to wrap around your body for one posture (I didn't find this to be a pleasant experience).

Her class was light and fluffy. She had you dedicate to somoene who inspires you both times.  For me that was a mix of people. A hodgepodge of character traits that I admire in various people at different times.

The class was not strenuous and I did not break a sweat. We did a mixture of different postures but both classes were very similar. a bit like the vinyasa class at YTTP but not nearly as strenuous. Kind of boring.  She also used a lot of asana terminology that I was not familiar with. So instead of saying go into a plank and move to up-dog, she'd say get in your "Urdhva Mukha Svana" or for downward dog she'd say get in your "Adho mukha shvanasana" and I'd have no clue what she was talking about.
But if I went back, I might know now what she's talking about since I just googled those phrases

There was a long savasana at the end,  like really long, and I almost fell asleep. 

The best thing I got out of the class was forcing me to think about who I would dedicate it to and what kind of character traits I admire in people I know and I am grateful for her passing that on to me. 


I need a deeper stretch though and probably won't return. Though it is kind of cheap $12/class drop in.