• Studio Name/Class: NY Loves Yoga – Classic Vinyasa (in person)
• Activity Type: Yoga
• Total Calories Burned: 309
• Average/Highest Heart Rate (measured through Apple Watch): 109bpm w/ 148 high
• Skill level needed (i.e how beginner friendly is it): Easy
• ClassPass Credits: 5 normally but got for 2 (a single credit cost anywhere from $2.50 – $1.99 depending on plan)

Quick thoughts?

NY is back bayyybeeeeeeee and gosh it was so nice to go back to a yoga studio. I am going to go on a tangent for a second so feel free to skip until after the picture for the review.

Let’s get deep, I have completely fallen off the wagon the last 6 month fitness wise which is OK. The last 2 or three months have been fantastic at easing back into normal life and I’ve finally been able to enjoy friends and safely travel and feel some sort of normalcy. With this, my mental health has slowly gotten to a much better place. I am going to sound incredibly spoiled and privileged when saying this and I acknowledge that it is a major privilege which I am VERY thankful for however traveling every 3-4 months even if its a quick trip has such positive effects on me and it’s something I like to prioritize and made me really struggle during the pandemic. I have chosen a career where it’s not what can I do, it’s what should I do as I always have 100 tasks with time to do about 50. This is one of the things I love most about my job, however it’s not uncommon to work late hours and I struggle to turn off outside of work. This vacation every 3-4 months which is often really affordable as I am visiting friends or family for a weekend are something that really help me unwind and reset (which in turn makes me so much better at work). Due to this thought, fitness has taken a back burner which isn’t ideal since I have put on the quarantine 30 and I simply don’t have the energy and strength that I used. I know this “new body” is temporary and it will take time to get to a place where I am happy but I know this is something alot of people are struggling with (Fitness?? Youtuber HopeScope addressed this in her most recent video talking about rental clothing companies beautifully but essentially this is not my normal life, our energy expenditure is off and we are stuck at home, this will and are getting back to normal BUT I do need to maybe start fitting in my clothes again if I don’t want to have to buy an entirely new wardrobe. I have maybe 2 cute outfits I can fit into at the moment and NO WORK CLOTHES… which I own alot of very cute work clothes). I also have a fitness trip to Costa Rica planned in a few months so need a certain level of endurance for that!

If you have followed me at all or read any of my post you may have gotten the hint that working out for me is beyond physical health and asthetics (as I know alot of people say.) It truly makes me feel better in any way possible and before the pandemic I would try and regularly practice Yoga once a week. My Sundays would consist of morning church and yoga followed by aimlessly walking around NYC and it was my favorite way to start the week. I would do this by myself and it was a great way to take time , reset and have no where to be. It would provide a similar release as traveling every few months and I would often feel less stress. It was something I missed very much so during the pandemic which was GREAT to get back for the first time 1 year and a month and a half later (but who’s counting).

After that quick commercial rant we are back to our regular scheduled reviews! Full disclaimer, I believe I had been to NY Loves Yoga previously YEARS ago. It was an ok studio, I book everything through ClassPass and it was on the cheaper side from a credit standpoint however a drop-in class is $22 and monthly membership is $160. I wouldn’t be opposed to visiting them again however I wouldn’t go out of my way to go back. Starting with the basics, they where INCREDIBLY covid friendly and had very limited capacity (not sure if this was on purpose or just an empty class). The whole class was roughly an hour fifteen and personally anything over an hour is a little long for me when it comes to yoga. I loose attention but that’s a me problem but if you have a certain level of patience I’m sure it’s nice to go deeper into the poses. It was on the upper west side, pretty close to Central Park and was a long studio which was pretty bare bones while still maintaining that yoga aesthetic. One thing I noticed at many yoga studios and this one was no exception is that they like to keep it on the toasty side.

It was a standard class where we started off on the ground with cats/cows before moving into your flow. It was a lot of going at your own pace and there was alot fewer warriors than most classes I have taken which is always nice. I definitely noticed I lost a good amount of flexibility and balance recently so it was nice that it was a longer studio with a good amount of wall space since I was using that pretty often for balance. I think the thing that made this class ok instead of great is that my favorite thing about yoga is playing and challenging by body. I’m not very good at yoga but I enjoy when studios encourage that play. I enjoy when you have the opportunity to try new poses which often results in failing and I didn’t have that sense with NY Loves Yoga. It may have been this specific class however there wasn’t alot of poses that had that playful energy whether it be bind progressions or inversions. Aside from that it was an overall good class.

All in all, I happily gave them 5 stars on Classpass. The studio definitely had a community feel and it was very beginner friendly. The staff was so nice and they where Covid safe.