These are the people in your neighborhood

Yoga High

19 Clinton St, Suite 205

New York, NY 10012

www.yogahighnyc.com

212.792.5776

 

I’ve been trying to teach my dog the intricacies of walking on the streets of NYC. He’s afraid of walking over anything that isn’t sidewalk (no subway grates, manhole covers, basically half of what comprises NYC sidewalks) When he sees something he doesn’t want to walk over, he reacts by sitting down in the middle of the sidewalk and refusing to walk. No matter how many times I try to explain to him that we can’t just randomly decide to stop, he doesn’t seem to get it.

 

Seeing as I spend a lot of time standing around on these “walks” around my neighborhood, I often notice people carrying around yoga mats. I always debate stopping them to ask where they’re going or where they just came from. Instead, I opted for the less intrusive method and began doing research online to find some studios in my area.

 

I decided on a studio called Yoga High NYC, a relatively new studio on the LES. Still feeling a little bit out of practice from my lack of yoga classes over the last month, I picked a level 2 class with Mel Russo, one of the co-owners. After looking at the studio schedule in further detail, I realized that the majority of their classes are level 2.

 

I found the studio easily as there was a sandwich board on the sidewalk announcing the studio entrance. I walked in right after Mel so I just followed her to the second floor studio. If she hadn’t been there it still would have been easy to find as there are signs pointing you in the right direction at every turn.

 

The lobby is small but cozy and includes a retail area and mat storage, which many of the students utilize. There is just one studio, but it has beautiful, large arched windows, one of the things I love best about New York City architecture. I don’t believe there is air conditioning in the room so if you’re like me and you don’t enjoy being too hot in yoga class; snag a space in one of the two corners with fans. I unknowingly placed myself next to one of these fans and was entirely grateful halfway through class.

 

The class was so full we were rearranging mats to make room for the last few students who arrived, which surprised me for a mid-week 10am class. We started with a short meditation in which Mel acknowledged the recent passing of K. Pattabhi Jois. As we began to warm up she allowed a few minutes for free expression and we moved in our own variations of cat/cow and downdog. As we warmed up, she mentioned that the focus of the month was on reconnecting and as such the pose of the month was navasana (boat pose). She further added that she was choosing to incorporate 108 sit-ups into her classes this month, but quickly reassured us that she would break them up.

 

The class, and as I later found out, the studio in general, is vinyasa flow based and we certainly did our fair share of vinyasas, broken up every once in a while with 27 sit-ups of varying styles then followed by some sort of cooling posture to allow a couple minutes of rest. The culmination of the class came when we used all of our core strengthening work to practice our handstands. Mel challenged us to really connect with our core and use it to help us kick up without relying so much on the wall to catch and support us.

 

We ended class with a few backbends and some forward folds of our choice before settling into a seemingly short Savasana, although in my world Savasana is almost never long enough.

 

After class, there were numerous conversations happening around me and I was easily caught up and welcomed into them despite not actually knowing anyone. I walked out of the studio with another student and since we were heading the same way we struck up a conversation as she had heard about my recent move from LA and had lived there herself in the past.

 

Once we went our separate ways, I saw a healthy convenience store called E&S Wholesome Foods on the corner of Essex and Stanton and I decided to go check it out. They carried the regular corner store staples, but also had an impressive selection of boxed teas, snacks like nuts and trail mix and Kombucha (something I still can’t decide if my taste buds are for or against). I also noticed a brand of quinoa I purchased at Whole Foods last weekend. I didn’t think to check how much it was though. They also had a menu of tasty sounding smoothies, salads and sandwiches, but what intrigued me was their breakfast selections like pancakes and egg white sandwiches, alas, since it was almost lunchtime, I left empty-handed, vowing to try it out next time…

Stick with what you know

YogaWorks

138 Fifth Ave, 4th Floor

New York, NY 10011

www.yogaworks.com

212.647.9642

Having recently moved from LA to NYC, I’ve spent the last couple of weeks drowning in a sea of boxes and cluttered surfaces. Now that things are starting to calm, I decided I’d let my practice languish for long enough and it was time to get back on the mat.

           

I’ve been eagerly researching studios since I found out I was moving here. I was very curious to see what the differences are between yoga on the east and west coasts. Seeing as my home studio in Los Angeles was YogaWorks, I figured it was only fitting to start my journey in NYC where I left off in LA so I chose to visit the Downtown location and take a YogaWorks Flow 2/3 class from Jenny Aurthur. Every time I have a lapse in my practice (which I’ll admit is more often than I’d like), I worry about jumping back in at the 2/3 level. I’m always concerned that I won’t have enough strength and stamina to make it through the class without coming out of all the more advanced poses early. 99% of the time I am completely fine, but the mental chatter that accompanies me to class on these days is so loud it could drown out the NYC street noise. This day was no different than the others and as I walked over to the studio I tried to focus on being present with where I was each step I took. I took comfort in realizing that this was actually quite easy, and necessary because if I wasn’t present I was likely to run into oncoming pedestrian traffic, or worse actual traffic.

 

After finding the entrance to the building hidden amongst a lot of construction, I was buzzed in and took the elevator up to the 4^th floor where the doors opened into the lobby facing the reception desk. As I signed in, the girls at the desk began discussing their excitement about a visiting teacher from LA. I immediately felt a little more at ease.

 

There were two studios on opposite sides of the lobby, both had dark wood floors and skylights and windows to add lots of natural light. Apparently I hadn’t gotten the memo about showing up right as the class was scheduled to start because I spent about 15 minutes prior to class with just one other guy (who upon talking to him I found out was a visiting student from LA!)

 

The class filled in right as it was starting at 9:30 and we began sitting in a supported Sukasana (easy cross-legged pose) and soon were tuning in with 3 OMs. My concerns about struggling through multiple sun salutations and vigorous vinyasas were still present but quickly dissipated when, to my surprise, I realized we were still sitting on our mats 20 minutes into class. 

I was even more surprised that we didn’t do a single sun salutation the entire class. This was definitely not the kind of flow that I was expecting, but since this was my first class back, I was okay with that. During the second half of the class we worked on some sequences linking balancing poses (tree to warrior 3 to half moon, etc) and suddenly the class started earning its level 2/3 status. Even though we were working hard, Jenny kept the mood playful so that we didn’t take ourselves too seriously, which can be tough to do when working on balancing poses.

We finished the class by somersaulting ourselves into a nice long supported legs-up-the-wall.

I noticed after class that the bathrooms/changing areas are pretty small and there was a bit of a wait to get in. No one seemed to mind, as they all knew each other and happily passed the time catching up.

After class I went around the corner to check out City Bakery, a cafeteria-style eatery on 18^th St. They had a plethora of baked goods, but trying not to undo all the good I had just done, I wanted to find something a little lighter. I went to the back to check out the lunch options, but wasn’t thrilled with the offerings. They had a few sides, some fruit and yogurt and some oatmeal. I ended up with some fruit and yogurt that was tasty, but according to the weigh scale that told me the cost of my purchase, it wasn’t as “light” as I was hoping for…