Despite the fact that I’m rarely motivated to try a new-to-me yoga class—especially at one of the many big-box-style studios popping up everywhere with their sleek cubbies and branded tank tops—I recently stepped outside my comfort zone to take a class at YogaSix. Billed as a modern yoga boutique, the brand has opened more than 200 locations across the U.S., quickly becoming den største yoga -franchisen i USA, og har utvidet seg internasjonalt til Tyskland og Japan . In a post-pandemic time when many independent studios have closed their doors, that kind of growth is hard to ignore. So while I prefer practicing yoga at small, independent studios, I signed up for a restorative class at my local YogaSix to see what’s drawing so many people in. Having practiced an array of yoga styles for more than a decade, I wondered whether this modern, chain-studio version of yoga could possibly work for someone like me.
For mange kan jeg bare anta det strukturerte formatet, konsistent studiolanding og fellesskapsfølelse som følger med å være en vanlig her, kan appellere til noen som er nye for yoga eller leter etter et inngangspunkt med lav barriere. Det er en tilgjengelighet som ligger i å gå inn i et kjent følelsesrom, uansett hvilken by du er i. Det er appellen til en franchise, ikke sant? Du vet hva du kan forvente, uansett by eller studio.
Yogasix tilbyr ikke tradisjonelle yogaklasser (hevder de heller ikke), men mer av en fusjonsstil som har blitt populære på mange treningssentre og studioer. Jeg valgte å ta en Y6 -gjenoppretting, som beskrives som en praksis for å frigjøre store muskelgrupper i hele kroppen og finner sted i et varmt rom. Jeg unngår vanligvis oppvarmet yoga som en personlig preferanse, men jeg var nysgjerrig på studioets valg om å legge et varmt miljø til en yoga -stil kjent for sine avslappende og langsomme bevegelser.
Despite my initial panic when I started to sweat before class even began, I tried to keep an open mind. The room was dark, which was ideal, but when dramatic neon blue and green stage lights turned on, the room felt more like a nightlife venue than a yoga studio to me.
hvordan å spraye cologne
Likevel føltes det betryggende og imøtekommende at læreren allerede hadde satt opp rekvisittene for hver elev før ankomst. Yogasix har sin egen versjon av en bolster, som de kaller en pute. Det er styrket formet, men den er også veldig myk og ikke så solid som en typisk styrke. Da jeg brukte den under beina i Savasana, ga det mindre støtte enn jeg var vant til for korsryggen. Læreren ga oss også fløyelsaktige putetrekk for å ta på oss, noe som ga min indre kimfreak. (På de fleste studioer gjør du bare fred med det faktum at rekvisittene har sett mye bruk - og sannsynligvis absorbert mye svette. Prøv å ikke tenke på det for mye.)
For the majority of the class, the vibe was a hybrid between a stretching class and physical therapy, except when it turned into a workout class, in which the teacher cued reps of Chair Pose. She mostly offered verbal cues, which were a little too vague to follow without a visual demonstration. There were very few variations offered and, more than once, I found myself lingering in limbo because I didn’t want to do the stretch as she showed it, but I didn’t know what else to do with my body.
She did, however, make an intentional effort to cue students to breathe multiple times throughout class, which I appreciated. She guided our awareness to specific areas of the body—like the ribs and belly—where we could direct the breath. Her prompts to notice where the breath is in different poses helped me deepen my stretches and relax more fully into each posture.
In the Y6 Restore class I attended, the teacher put her hands on me to adjust my leg in Reclining Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose without asking. I was surprised and disappointed, as in recent years, there’s been increased awareness surrounding student consent when it comes to a teacher’s hands-on adjustments. Different studios tend to handle the matter differently. Some have strict policies, whereas others leave it to the teacher’s discretion. In my class, when the teacher later returned to offer an adjustment, she did ask for consent beforehand, and when I said no, she respected that.
tatoveringer på menn
While in Corpse Pose at the end of class for Savasana, Etta James played loudly while the teacher handed out cold lavender-scented towels for our eyes during the final resting pose. (I don’t mind Etta, but this felt out of place to me.)
For a week following my class, I received several texts, calls, and voicemails from both a wellness advisor and the yoga teacher at Yoga Six asking me if I was interested in continuing my yoga journey with them. I’m not used to that level of follow-up after a first class and it turned me off to the experience. (I usually practice at small, independent studios where that kind of post-class outreach isn’t the norm.) After the fifth time I was contacted, I opted to block the number. Ultimately, this wasn’t the type of yoga class I want to take again.
Of course, this was just one class at one YogaSix studio with one teacher. I can’t speak for the entire brand or the experience someone else might have in a different class or city. But I can say that, for me, this version of yoga—highly structured, branded, and studio-lit—felt worlds apart from what originally drew me to the practice.
70-talls motediskotek for menn
Likevel får jeg appellen. Denne typen studioer tilbyr en kjent, repeterbar opplevelse uansett hvor du er. Og kanskje det er avveiningen: noe mer tilgjengelig, selv om det er mindre personlig og langt fra min foretrukne praksis. Kanskje gir fremtiden til yoga rom for begge - for den buzzier boutique -tilnærmingen og de roligere tradisjonene som holder oss tilbake til mattene våre av grunner som ikke alltid kan merkes.
