Flow Wellness YYoga

Back to YYoga! For anyone who didn't check it out during the Olympics, YYoga's downtown location is deluxe! With three studios, beautiful changing/shower spaces, infrared sauna, lounge, juice bar and store, it is definitely one of the nicest studios around town. I just wish it wasn't so busy and "corporate". YYoga is a yoga chain to be reckoned with, but sometimes loses that community grassroots atmosphere that you get with smaller studios.

What: YYoga Flow Wellness

Where: 888 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC

When: May 9, 2010, 10:00am-11:30am

Class: Power Yoga

Teacher: Mike

Drop-In price per class: $15-20

Comments:

Space:

Gorgeous! There is no denying that this YYoga studio is beautiful. It really has that upscale yoga studio feel - lots of round shapes, soft lighting, bamboo. By far one the nicest studios I have ever seen. It almost feels like a spa.

Atmosphere:

Lots of sweaty people walking around due to all the hot classes that take place there, but it had a friendly atmosphere. As with YYoga Yaletown, this location did give me the feeling that it was for hardcore yogis only. They did offer a variety of different classes, including hatha, hot, power, yin and cycling fusion classes. Overall, it was a nice place to be in.

Teacher/Class:

Mike was a very cool teacher. He had this way of teaching that was very personal, as if he was having a conversation with you. I really liked the set up of the class with people facing each other - it lightened things up a bit. His power flow was pretty challenging! Lots of time spent on the wrists which is something about power classes that I'm not particularly fond of. This was definitely an advanced class, which made me feel again like this studio caters primarily to hardcore yogis. We did a number of arm balances and even tried head stands. I am always interested in how teachers teach these advanced poses, especially inverted head stands, because there is so much that could potentially go wrong. One guy that was really sweaty collapsed while doing some inversion and slammed his body into the floor. It didn't seem to hurt him, but I would be really scared if that happened to anyone in my class. I really liked his flow, but one thing that ticked me off a bit was that he was more than 10 minutes over time. It's important for teachers to respect the class' allocated time because you never want to make people feel rushed after class.


Rating: 9/10 I would recommend this studio to intermediate to advanced practitioners. I wish they would offer classes that cater more to beginners, though.