265 W. 37th Street, 17th Floor
New York, NY 10018
212.616.8661
One of the studios Eric at East West Yoga had suggested I try was OM Factory. I had been interested in checking it out so I planned to go there after work one Thursday. Unfortunately for me, I was under the false impression that it was near Union Square (wishful thinking maybe?). At the last minute, I realized that it was actually in Midtown West and had to scramble to make sure I could get there on time from far north on the Upper East Side.
In the end there was nothing to worry about and I was embarrassingly early. Seeing as I don’t often frequent Midtown, I didn’t know where to go to kill some time so I just decided to head upstairs early. They are on the 17th floor of a high rise building on the corner of 8th Avenue and 37th Street. They have large banners on the scaffolding that surrounds the building so it’s very easy to find.
The elevator opens on the 17th floor to face the front desk and a small lobby and retail area. To the right of the elevator is a fun lime-green bench that snakes around the oddly shaped corners of the lobby. I was oddly drawn to that bench.
As I filled out my paperwork, I chatted with the guy at the front desk who was really friendly. Sadly, I don’t remember his name. He told me how he had found his home at the studio not long ago after having relocated himself.
After perusing the retail area, I grabbed a free magazine and headed into the asana room to relax for a bit. It was a muggy day and as I walked in I surveyed the room for a prime spot. Seeing as I was the only one in there, I moved myself around several times before deciding on a location. I settled near the far wall underneath the windows as I thought the circulation might help cool me down. I later realized that these windows were actually closed so it really did me no good.
Emily, the instructor and director of OM Factory, walked in a couple minutes after I had situated myself and after saying hello, she began warming up on her mat. The rest of the students slowly trickled in and there were at least 10 of us by the time class began. Emily divulged that we would be doing a fairly sweaty and vigorous class, but to stay with her if we could as she promised us some delicious, long forward folds at the end of class.
As promised, we quickly moved through our Sun Salutations and Standing Poses working our way up to Handstand prep pose at the wall. We ended with several twists and forward folds, some of our own choosing, and then floated off into a decent length Savasana.
After practice, I got to talking with Emily about their classes. I noticed the schedule was fairly heavy on Vinyasa Flow classes with a few other styles peppered in like Restorative and Prenatal. She explained that since they are located in a non-residential area of Midtown, they are working to update their schedule to keep their classes creative and imaginative and entice students to come later in the evenings and weekends.
They’ve created a style called Yoga Fight Club, which is a combination of Yoga, Kickboxing and Martial Arts. They also have a couple of Acro Yoga classes on the schedule and are in the process of building a new asana room specifically for Anti-Gravity yoga classes. I had to agree that there was nothing mass-produced or "factory-like" about these classes. I’m not sure if Yoga Fight Club is my thing, but being a past gymnast and cheerleader, Acro and Anti-Gravity yoga sounds right up my alley!
No comments:
Post a Comment