First Impression: Yoga Vida

Yesterday I had my first yoga experience at Yoga Vida. It was the next trial on my list and an added bonus is that they just changed from an unlimited $20 for one week trial to $40 for an unlimited month trial! They have two studios, one downtown and one in Westlake, and the trial membership can be used at both.

I took my first class at the downtown location which surprisingly has parking! There are a couple spots in the front and then some down the alley in the back (if you are going north on West Lynn you can turn left into the alley). The studio is really clean and nice. The bathrooms have one shower and some space to get ready, and you store your belongings on the shelves inside the bathroom area. There aren't any towels though for either sweating or showering...so I wasn't prepared for that and substituted my shirt.

The room itself at the downtown location is nice. It's wood floor with bamboo walls and fairly large. The one thing I'm not yet sure about is the lack of mirrors. I can see how some people would like no mirrors but I enjoy being able to self adjust because I can see my mis-alignment in the mirror...I'll let you know after a couple more classes how I feel about it (haven't had this experience before).

The purchase and sign-in seems to be headed up by whichever instructor is teaching the next class which is pretty typical. It was very easy and quick and they have both of the class schedules on nice small business cards so you can conveniently keep them in your wallet! You can buy water for $2 and it's a fairly large bottle, you can also rent a mat for $2 if you don't have one.

The class I took was taught by Sanieh. I was expecting more of a power yoga class and we focused mostly on core work, but I can't complain my stomach can also use more work during bikini season. It was good core work and very challenging. She definitely knew was she was doing and walked around to teach instead of practicing with us. I'll have more thoughts once I take a vinyasa style class.

Overall I'm impressed so far and look forward to the next month!