Yoga For Everyone

I have been practicing yoga on and off for about 6 years. I started doing yoga at Salt Lake Community College for general credit. Although it was a basic introduction, it was fun and new. It totally got me hooked. For the New Year, I wanted to try something different, so I decided to take some classes at CorePower Yoga in Salt Lake City.

I had never tried hot yoga before, but I was prepared to take on the heat. The rooms are typically heated to high temperatures, sometimes over 100 degrees. CorePower Yoga offers a variety of classes for beginners to advanced yoga students, which means there are a ton of classes to choose from CorePower Yoga offers classes for everyone even those that have never tried yoga before. The intro to power yoga class or C1 is structured to slowly introduce you to the heat with room temperatures between 70 and 80 degrees. This class is designed to build strength, flexibility, and focus which is much needed for higher level sequences. The teachers walk you through poses that are preformed throughout the one hour practice, giving advice and guidance to those that need it. The heated power yoga class or C2 is a fast pace sequence in heated rooms using the focus gained from the intro class to guide breath to movement and using strength to guide your practice. The class I find most enjoyable is the Hot Power Fusion class, it incorporates everything learned from C1 and C2 to not only motivate, but detoxify your body for a better quality of life. The best part of all the classes CorePower offers is the intense core ab workouts you get in between each class. Every class starts slow and gradually builds up core, and gradually slows to provide you with a strong finish.

 I was initially drawn to CorePower because they offer one week of free yoga for new members. It was perfect, because I wasn’t ready to commit to an entire month for something I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy. Yoga can get pricey ranging from $15 to $18 per class depending on the studio, so it was the best option for me to try hot yoga for the first time. After three classes I decided to get a monthlymembership, and as an added bonus, I even got a decent student discount.

For most weekdays, classes are scheduled as early as 6a.m. and as late as 9:00p.m., but for weekends you’re lucky if they have classes that fit your schedule. Fortunately for me, there are three locations to choose from in Salt Lake City, making it convenient to attend class wherever I found myself. Every studio has two rooms so that classes can be scheduled every half hour. A downside to CorePower is that is operates on a first come, first serve basis, unlike other studios I’ve been to that have an online reservation or pay ahead option. This makes it difficult, especially at night, to get a good spot, so you have to plan a little bit ahead and go in early. Even though they don’t have an online reservation option, they have made it easy to access the class schedules through an IOS and Android friendly app.  The app itself is pretty easy to use, though the interface could be better. It doesn’t allow you to see all the schedules from all the locations in one particular city. You have to look at each individual studio to find a class that works best with your schedule making it time consuming and a bit frustrating.

Another great thing about CorePower Yoga is that it’s a growing franchise, with more than 100 studios in 15 different states. That means that I can travel to anyone of their locations and get the same benefits without filling out new waivers or paying extra. I like having the ability to go “my” studio, but the studio does loose that quaint feeling that locally run yoga studios have.  The studio’s layout is welcoming with a modern and bright colored lobby and a retail store front.  You can find everything you need to enhance the quality of your practice from apparel right down to the mat. It’s super convenient and nice to have everything you need, especially if you forget something, right when you walk in the door. Every studio offers the same classes, with slight variations depending on the teachers, which is great for some people. It makes it easier to know what you’re getting out of each practice, but for me it can get a bit repetitive.

Overall, CorePower Yoga is a great studio to practice at. If you like the traditional more meditative yoga this studio, however, this place is not for you. CorePower Yoga classes are more focused on making you sweat and feel like you’ve worked out at the gym. If that’s how you like your yoga, then I highly recommend you give CorePower a try!

For more info. about CorePower Yoga go to their website.