About a month ago I visited QiYoga for the first time, and I liked it a lot! Great location, beautiful rooms, varied offering (although I must say I miss early morning classes on that schedule…). So last week I went back to take advantage of my 3x trial pass and tried out two classes that would not immediately qualify as “standard yoga sessions”, but rather experiments with yoga elements.

One was the Power Barre Workout class with Tanja, and the other was Yoga Conditioning with Klara.

Quick review: Both kicked my ass.
Ok, I’ll elaborate.

The Power Barre Workout is not a yoga class, also doesn’t claim to be one, but it does contain a few yoga elements and movements. The majority is however originating from ballet. Smooth, swift and gracious movements, which look so simple but require a lot of concentration and body tension. Tanja is obviously a pro: she is tall, lean, yet exhudes a lot of strength. You only realize when you start doing the exercises exactly how challenging it can be to fully stretch your limbs and keep them like that (while still breathing!) 🙂

I would definitely recommend this class for those looking for a dynamic class that builds strength as much as flexibility.

The Yoga Conditioning session was definitely on the dynamic side, you could even call it a yoga-cardio combo. Klara curated some of the most intense yoga positions, devised a very fast-paced flow (incl. balancing poses, but not incl. breaks :)) and embedded some deep stretches at the end to make the class a full body-and-mind-workout. This class is a new addition to the QiYoga schedule, and I was glad to be one of the first to try it out. I bet opinions differ on this type of class, but in my view it’s great to mix up different yoga concepts, from low to high intensity – it’s a testimony to yoga’s versatility.

So if you’re looking to focus more on the physical elements of yoga, and are looking to break a sweat in a more challenging set of poses, you’ll love Klara’s class. Also, you’ll be surprised how nicely you can relax after you step up to the challenge 😉

I’m always pleasantly surprised when I see yoga studios getting more experimental with their offering. More variety means more opportunities to reach more people and get them introduced to yoga (elements) – sometimes an intro is all it takes… ♥