Yoga Passbook 2011 - YogaWorks: Soho/The Snob in Me

Monday September 12th

YogaWorks Soho, 459 Broadway, New York, NY 10013

The original plan for this day was to get up and go to a class at 9:15am in Brooklyn. Well, I got up and was going to get ready to go, when I really started to think about my schedule for the day. I needed to finish some work and then head into the East Village to do a bit more. Then I wanted to go to meditation, which on 27th and 6th Avenue later that night so something had to give or in my case nothing had to give, I just had to change some of the order of my day.

So I found a yoga class that started at 1pm and chose to stay home and do my work until it was time to heard the City. The class I found was at YogaWorks in Soho. YogaWorks actually has 4 locations in New York City and one in Westchester. I have been to the location on 5th Ave and 19th street so I decided to give Soho a try.

The studio on 5th Avenue has one room, but in Soho there are three studios. The place is beautifully designed and has all the bells and whistles. A clothing and yoga accessories boutique, Organic Tea Bar, showers with towel service, sauna and digital locks on the lockers for starters. I know there were probably a few things that I missed as I didn’t take a tour of the entire facility. Sounds great right?! For many people they would be joining right away, but I have to admit that I was a little leery when I walked in. I know it sounds crazy and it is a little bit.

I have this thing about large yoga studios that I need to get over. Sometimes I feel like the more amenities, the less serious the practice or wait maybe it’s the opposite. The more amenities, the more seriously people take themselves in their practice, which can sometimes translate to a competitive vibe. Yes I know this is a total stereotype. I know that this is totally a story that I’m making up. I know, I know! I have to work on it. If you recall that’s how I felt when I walked into Pure Yoga [Click Here for Pure Yoga Blog], which is the mega-mall of yoga studios in NYC, but I had a great class. Maybe because all 50 mats that were set up weren’t used. LOL! I think my old Jivamukti experience has got me shook people. LOL! Anyway back to YogaWorks.

A very excited young lady named Christen showed me around a bit and and told me to come check her out if I was interested in joining the studio. I went into the locker room, locked up my things and headed to Studio 1.

When I walked in the studio all I could think about was the fact that it was big. I found a spot toward the front of the room so I can see the teacher (I practice without my glasses on), got my blanket, blocks, sat and prepared myself for class. The class was filling up and soon the teacher arrived. Everyone was situated when she told us to all bring our mats to the wall. We ended up spending the whole class was there, which was cool. The teachers name was Libby and she was also a hands-on teacher. She would walk around the room and adjust people in their postures. She did a really great job considering how many people were in the class.

It was during this class that my shoulder really started to hurt. When I was in Triangle pose or anything where I would have to put pressure on my left arm or even just to have the left arm in the air it was killing me. I could barely lower my body to the ground and I wasn’t even trying Chaturanga. Well I tried it once and it felt like my arm would come out of the socket. So I was kind to myself and did what I could do. It kind of reminded me of my 30 days of yoga last year. By day 5 my shoulder and the rest of my body were angry with me. That’s how the shoulder was feeling, angry. It was even hard to get up into bridge pose. I’m not even talking full wheel. Well you get my point. I was hurting. So I took my time. We did a lot of work in that class with blocks and straps so that was really helpful.

Somewhere in the midst of my shoulder pain and just the sheer focus that I had to have to make sure I wasn’t hurting myself, I totally forgot about all the other mess I was thinking about the studio in general. Another impressive thing about YogaWorks Soho is that they have a light up sign outside of the studio door that say “Shhhh… Savasana” to remind people walking by the studio to be quiet while people are in Savasana. Crazy!

Once I got over myself I realized that I would really like to go back, but I might use my last pass to go to the Eastside or Westside studios just to mix it up a bit. As I headed out and on to my next destination for the day I knew it was going to be a soaking in the tub night. My body was killing me. I know it’s that good pain, but damn if my legs didn’t feel like lead.

I told you. LOL!

Namaste.