Variety of Classes Offered at Empower Yoga
Yoga, a practice with origins dating back more than 5,000 years, continues to be a popular way to find balance. Empower Yoga in Northville is meeting the demand for a variety of classes by offering Hot Vinyasa, Ashtanga, Slow Burn, Candlelight Yin, and other special engagements such as a 30-day beginner program and 21-day wellness cleanse workshop. With so many options available, yoga enthusiasts can find a class that fits their specific needs and goals.
Empower Yoga: Support Groups and Private Social Media Groups
Today, yoga has become more than just a class - it is a lifestyle and community. Empower Yoga has responded to this trend by offering support groups with private social media groups, weekly face-to-face meetings, journaling sessions, and goal achievement celebrations to help students gain greater physical and mental well-being. The Northville Yoga Center has also seen an increase in people seeking traditional classes as well as those referred by their health professionals. To meet the growing demand, the center is expanding to offer private instruction and classes for kids. Meanwhile, Updog Yoga in Rochester has attracted new people to yoga by introducing fun variations such as stand-up paddle board yoga, gong immersion, and restorative yin classes. Nevertheless, posture, breathing, mindfulness, and meditation remain at the core of these classes and continue to be highly beneficial for those who practice them.
Friday Evening Workshops
Peters’ studio is seeing a surge in demand for Friday evening workshops, offering an array of topics such as Kundalini energy awakening, incorporating essential oils and sandbags into practice, deep slow flow, Yoga Nidra or yogic sleep, as well as the studio’s popular restorative yin practice. UpDog Yoga also provides children’s yoga classes and teacher and Thai yoga massage training. Peters has proudly seen exponential growth, going from one to two yin classes a week to seven classes, providing an opportunity for students to take a break from their busy lives and gain mental and physical balance through their reflective and self-care practices.
Blue Yoga Birmingham co-owner Niki Fink is proud to have watched the evolution of the studio, noting an increased need for classes to challenge multiple skill levels. To foster a more cohesive class experience, instruction has returned to the roots of practice with shorter sequencing and pose modifications while still developing a greater sense of community and support. Fink expressed that Blue Yoga's sophisticated student base can deepen their practice if they are not too deep in their minds worrying about which poses to do next.
Kid-Friendly Environment
At the Center for Yoga in Birmingham, Founder Jonny Kest has been dedicated to providing an environment of meditation and pranayama, or breathing exercises, to help relieve the stresses of modern-day life. To meet the demands of a younger audience, the studio has become increasingly kid-friendly, with more than 30 youth visits each week. Additionally, Blue Yoga has further developed ties with Lululemon Athletica Inc., many of whose teachers are also brand ambassadors, while expanding its range of products to include Namaspray mat cleaner and juices and food products from Be Well Lifestyle Cafe.
Kest is also pushing the boundaries of traditional yoga practice, introducing hip-hop music to help students discover new energy and movement. He explains that “breathing and meditation are still the foundation of yoga. I tell students, ‘My classes are breathing classes. Everything else is optional.’” Additionally, he notes that yoga today is promoting social change, as seen with the organization I Use Yoga which is redefining stereotypes surrounding mental illness and substance abuse. The brand’s chic athletic apparel and accessory line provide yogis with positive “addiction with intention” T-shirt slogans such as “Detroit Inhales.”
Yoga has found increasing popularity in recent years, offering immense physical and mental benefits to those who practice it. Yoga practitioners now have a range of classes from which to choose so they are guaranteed to find a class that best suits their individual needs. Studios like Empower Yoga and Updog Yoga in Northville and Rochester respectively, along with the Northville Yoga Center have seen a growing demand not only for more traditional types of yoga but also for more special engagement courses. With its various resources, mindfulness practices, and healing benefits, people have recognized just how essential yoga can be when it comes to achieving both physical and mental health.
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