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…