Yoga: Where to Start & Where to Stay By: Mark Phillips, Certified Yoga Instructor & Personal Trainer 8 Yoga is one of the best ways to keep your body and mind in the best shape of your life but where do I start and where do I stay to get the best yoga practice for me? I have been practicing yoga in the North Dallas and Plano areas for the past fourteen plus years and I have personally practiced in each of the locations that I reference in this article. In this time, and you may too have noticed, yoga studios are popping up all over town. Even our local gyms are adding yoga classes to their daily group schedules. All these studios and gyms that offer yoga have websites that can provide you with information and most advertise to newcomers on Groupon so that is a great and reasonable way to give yoga a try. You may be asking yourself with all these options, how do I know what’s best for me and my body? GYM YOGA Let’s start with what I call Gym Yoga and as you might have guessed from the name is yoga is taught in the big gyms. Gym yoga classes are nor-mally taught in the group exercise room on a hardwood floor. In most cases, some type of a mat will be avail-able for you to use but if you have a yoga mat I would bring it with some water and maybe a hand towel. Gym Yoga is normally taught by someone that knows the yoga poses and has developed a yoga flow for the one hour yoga classes that they teach. The instructor will lead the yoga class from the front of the room while they call out the queues and poses. There are a lot of advantages to Gym Yoga and one major plus is the cost is included in your gym membership and it is an easy way to take your first class. Based on your fitness goals, Gym Yoga can be incorpo-rated into your existing workout routine. I have to also add that I have encountered many very practiced yogis and very talented instructors in the Gym Yoga classes I have attended in the big gyms over the years. HOT YOGA You might say that this is the “hottest” thing to do these days and if you want to do it you have a lot of choices in the DFW area. There are a number of these classes offered and I will focus on Hot Yoga Formatted classes first. The two studio’s I am looking at in this category is Bikram Yoga and Sunstone Yoga. Sunstone and Bikram are the bigger yoga studios and they are both nationwide and both are franchise type operations. If you like it really hot… then Bikram might be the place to start. Bikram yoga may be the hottest yoga you can do anywhere. It’s well-known for its hot yoga and the studios are heated to 105 degrees with 40% humid-ity. The classes are 90 minutes long with a series of 26 poses that are always done in the same order and for the same amount of time in every class. If you want or like to sweat then Bikram is a place you might consider. It’s a proven practice and has been around a long time. You might want to bring your mat and an extra towel as all classes are done on a mat with a large bath towel or a yoga mat towel on top of your mat. Don’t forget your wa-ter, and I always take a dry set of clothes to change into after. Bikram has men and women’s locker rooms with showers and cubbies for your gym or yoga bag. They can also supply a bath towel and mat for an extra charge based on your membership level. If you prefer a slightly cooler option, at around the 90 degree range, then Sunstone yoga might be a place you want to start. Sun-stone has been around the metroplex since 2002. They now have eight uniquely formatted yoga classes that are 60 minutes long. They also offer classes that are shorter (this may be good for the newcomer) and some are longer. The different formats offer both Hatha and Vinyasa (flow) yoga. A few of the formats are now including a cross fit type of yoga. This style incorporates yoga with a gym type workout and sometimes includes equipment. The classes are done at 90 and 98 degrees temperatures with 40/60 percent humidity depending on the format you attend. With the eight different fixed formats you have more variety for your hot yoga practice. Like most studios these days all classes are listed online. Most of the Sunstone Studios have both men and women’s locker rooms with showers. The first thing I do when looking for a new studio is check to see if the loca-tion works for me and if the class time fits my schedule,
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