Down Dog Yoga

[Anonymous]

Anyone have experience with this studio/opinions?

[Anonymous]

It's power yoga with a lot of power. It is a very good but exhausting work-out. The classes are meant to be very uniform. Every instructor has to do the same thing, with very little room for variation. The room is heated to over 100 degrees. It is very hot. You will sweat a ton. It is very expensive. All in all -- when my fave instructor was there I went 1x a week religiously. After he left the studio, I left as well. I disliked the heat, the owner, and what I considered to be the very high fees. But if you want a yoga class that will get you or keep you in great shape, this is it.

Amy

[Anonymous]

My sister goes there and loves it. And she's very picky.

[Anonymous]

Is it like Bikram?

[Anonymous]

I also think it is expensive...but it is great for your body. Heat was hard to get used to at first but I think that was part of what worked. A major complaint I had was buying a group of sessions - they expire too quickly. Think they need to be more flexible...that turned me off. And finding parking.

[Anonymous]

To Amy - why did you dislike the owner - just curious?

[Anonymous]

I had several reasons for disliking the owner: 1) she sets the prices, and they are the highest I have seen for any yoga class in the area. This alone would not have caused me to dislike her -- she runs a good program and may deserve top dollar, BUT:

2). She runs a very strict shop and has run at least two good teachers out the door because of her methods. Andrew Gray was TO DIE FOR, and he did, for the most part, stick to the format prescribed. But if he deviated even a little bit by adding a new pose or transition -- any variation whatsoever -- Patty interrogated Andrew at the end of class as to why he done certain things and he had to explain himself. He was bringing in the biggest crowds her studio had ever seen, but he quit because of this. She fired another teacher for similar things.

3). She makes the studio dangerously hot. Even when it was 100+ degrees outside in August, she had the heat on. Sometimes Andrew would open the back door to give people some relief -- and again he'd be chastised for this. I'd sweat so much that my mat got so slippery that it wasn't safe to do certain poses. A lot of people had to use rugs and other props to avoid slipping.

4). If you try to save some $$ by buying a series of classes, you still get screwed coming and going. The expiration date on the series is such that the price of each class remains practically the same. There is simply no such thing as a discount for Patty Ivey.

I do very much like Baron Baptiste Power Vinyasa yoga. And I do understand that his accreditation requires a certain flow of certain poses. But I do not believe that Baron meant it to be this inflexible -- both with regard to the format and the heat.

Making the classes so uniform has another bad effect: the studio tends to attract only the very newest teachers, who know little about yoga. Think about it: the teachers that have been exploring yoga for years want to teach a varied practice and inject their own little bits that they picked up from various years of study. A yoga teacher of 10+ years isn't going to have much interest in running through a very strict set of uniform postures, and then having to explain himself to Patty for any variation. I think it more valuable to take a class with a more experienced teacher who will explore a greater variety of poses and transitions -- and for much less money.

5) No music during class. Another example of her inflexibility. It would have been nice to have some music.

I still loved Andrew's classes. And DDY is undisputably a great calorie-burner and muscle toner. But I have some problems with it (maybe more than you ever wanted to know).

Amy