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.  

Yoga To The People - St Marks Place

Yoga To The People
12 St Marks Place
New York, NY
Price -- DONATION 


I've been to this particular YTTP two times.
The space is nice and roomy with high ceilings and some brick walls and some apartment facing windows.  There is modern day elevator music playing most of the time. 
The yoga is a "POWER VINYASA FLOW" which sounds kind of hardcore but I wouldn't call it hardcore, it is a good strenuous stretch that gets me sweating and makes me want to take my shirt off.

As a beginner, I get a bit confused because sometimes they have you do some of these little flow series on your own at your own time. Since I don't know the flow (its like plank, to upward facing dog, to downward facing dog) or the warrior various pose flows I get a little confused.

I need to get with the flow. Maybe thats one of the goals of this here project.

The crowd is a good mix of people. 50/50 male/female split. seems like a lot of NYU kids.
It's a big room but gets crowded, so I like to get there early.

The teachers seem to know their stuff but do not seem to offer too much individual guidance, probably due to so many people and such turnover.

The mats are kind of dirty but the rest of the facilities are clean.

Bikram Yoga Park Slope

This studio was my original stomping ground and where I learned exactly what a japanese ham sandwich was and how pushing was the object of stretching.  It's small, crowded, stinky, and too hot.  But I will always love it. How could I not. I popped my yoga cherry there.

Bikram yoga is like the mcdonalds of yoga.  The idea is that the guy, Bikram Choudhury, looked at American culture and determined what ails us (think obesity, stress, anxiety, insomnia, etc) and prescribed (like a doctor) these 26 postures that you do to adjust those problems as a whole.  It's also hot as Hell.  I once heard him speak (again, in my pre-capoeira, bikram days) and he explained that butter, which is fat, melts in heat, so if you do yoga in heat, your fat will melt, you fat ass! Needless to say, he's a bit of of a controversial figure.

Any bikram studio you go to will have the same 26 postures and the same "monologue" that the instructor will do (and not give many, if any demonstrations.)

It is a good workout. You will sweat your ass off. You will be miserable in there at times. But it feels so good after. You also can't eat for at least two hours before and need to drink lots and lots of water before and after.  So it's kind of high maintenance.
 
Pricewise, here, it's about 18/class.  If you get a year long subscription and go a lot you can break it down to about $8/class. Which is cheap but then you have to go a lot.  In terms of introductory specials, which is what my focus is  -- they have a $20 intro week or $90 intro month.


Bikram Yoga South Slope is the same owner, nicer space, cleaner space, not quite as hot, but way down on 15th street in park slope.  I find the teachers there, in general to be newer.


I plan to go to other bikram places to utilize the specials, and also to compare with these two since I have nothing to compare them with.

I cannot give either of them a rating.

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