While my standing forward bend looks exactly like my standing half forward bend (read: my body looks like a lumpy 45 degree angle) and I can't put my heels on the ground, straighten my legs, or hold myself in downward-facing dog for too long, I still love me some yoga. By now, yoga is popular everywhere and maybe my experience would be the same no matter where I lived. But, I have to say, every yoga class I've ever taken in San Francisco has been exactly what I needed at the time. So, it leads me to a hypothesis that every yoga studio in San Francisco is great.
Case in point... Most recently, I started going to Bernal Yoga. It's on my way home from work and when I dropped in on a Tuesday at 6:00pm, I became hooked on KT's Vinyasa Flow classes and have been to almost every one since then. She's gentle and pushes just the right amount while reminding folks not to over-push themselves and to listen to their bodies. She also tends to say things that resonate with me and whatever my day has brought my way.
Previously, I went to classes at the Mindful Body on California Street in Pacific Heights. Deborah and Catherine made me "om" my way to serenity. Even though the studio is big, with multiple rooms, as soon as I'd get into a room, it felt like the one room studios I tend towards.
The first studio I frequented was Yoga Tree Stanyan, a one-roomer in the back of a store front in the Upper Haight. Catherine taught there before she started teaching at the Mindful Body and was my first official yoga teacher in San Francisco. She read poems by Mary Oliver at the end of Savasana and often lead chants which some may find cheesy but, I find quite enjoyable. I tried to get to her classes at least twice a week.
Even my brief hot yoga experience was not terrible. While it's not my favorite method and was too intense for my taste, A-ha in the Marina had a nice vibe despite its location. And, I don't remember hating the teachers there. In fact, I took a daytime power flow class once that isn't usually my style. As I insinuated, I like the woo woo side of yoga. But, that particular power flow class was actually pretty invigorating.
It's also easy to get cheap yoga in San Francisco. If you don't mind going to a new studio every two weeks or a month, you can get the starter pass while touring the studios in your neighborhood. Usually the offer for new wannabe yogis is an unlimited pass for less than you would pay for two or three classes.
Case in point... Most recently, I started going to Bernal Yoga. It's on my way home from work and when I dropped in on a Tuesday at 6:00pm, I became hooked on KT's Vinyasa Flow classes and have been to almost every one since then. She's gentle and pushes just the right amount while reminding folks not to over-push themselves and to listen to their bodies. She also tends to say things that resonate with me and whatever my day has brought my way.
Previously, I went to classes at the Mindful Body on California Street in Pacific Heights. Deborah and Catherine made me "om" my way to serenity. Even though the studio is big, with multiple rooms, as soon as I'd get into a room, it felt like the one room studios I tend towards.
The first studio I frequented was Yoga Tree Stanyan, a one-roomer in the back of a store front in the Upper Haight. Catherine taught there before she started teaching at the Mindful Body and was my first official yoga teacher in San Francisco. She read poems by Mary Oliver at the end of Savasana and often lead chants which some may find cheesy but, I find quite enjoyable. I tried to get to her classes at least twice a week.
Even my brief hot yoga experience was not terrible. While it's not my favorite method and was too intense for my taste, A-ha in the Marina had a nice vibe despite its location. And, I don't remember hating the teachers there. In fact, I took a daytime power flow class once that isn't usually my style. As I insinuated, I like the woo woo side of yoga. But, that particular power flow class was actually pretty invigorating.
It's also easy to get cheap yoga in San Francisco. If you don't mind going to a new studio every two weeks or a month, you can get the starter pass while touring the studios in your neighborhood. Usually the offer for new wannabe yogis is an unlimited pass for less than you would pay for two or three classes.
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