It’s no lie I try to do yoga everywhere I go to – and this year I want to do more than just try, but make it happen!

So when I decided to celebrate my dear friend’s birthday in London, I knew it was the perfect opportunity for some new yoga studio experiences in that amazing crazy city (after my first studio visit a few months back).

I was based in East London for the weekend (fantastic, vibrant area!) and Google pointed me to 3-4 sizeable studios in the area. I decided on two of them, and started with a Saturday morning vinyasa flow in Triyoga. It was a 90-minute level 2-3 (so intermediate to advanced) class, and boy, that was an understatement. I’d probably rate it level 5… still on a scale of 1 to 3 =))

Let me get down to the details:

The location is lovely: Triyoga Shoreditch boasts a beautiful lounge including a hip café and shop, and three practice rooms of varying sizes, with simple woody details, decent décor and a lot of props. It was crowded, not just in my class, but in all practice rooms, from what I could see. I noticed it’s common in London studios to have the mats already lined up before class, in tight rows, maximizing use of space.

As I grabbed a spot, I could tell I was in for an “advanced treat”: fellow yogis were not just relaxing in shavasana, but properly warming up with inversions. Yeah, I was out of my league but that’s ok, that made me even more excited about what was coming. So what came was our teacher Katarina leading us through a crazy good, fast-paced, challenging flow that really pushed me to the limits of my practice!

I honestly can barely remember the opening meditation (maybe I was too excited), but I do recall we picked up the pace quite quickly. That was probably the fastest set of sun salutations I’ve ever done. We warmed up with versions A and B, and proceeded to add some more poses to the flow, such as wild thing/rockstar pose, crow pose, and other fancy arm balances which seemed very natural to my fellow yogis. I’m not comparing, I’m just in awe of all the cool (and fun) poses one can do – yoga really is so endlessly fascinating to me!

What felt to me like cardio came pretty natural to some advanced practitioners who transitioned from downward facing dog to forward fold via a full-blown handstand. This kind of reminded me of my first “dynamic” yoga classes, in which I thought a transition from chaturanga to upward facing dog would be downright impossible! My practice has since evolved and now I know: where there’s a will, there’s a way 😉

I truly enjoyed this challenging class, as I think it’s important to regularly test my current boundaries and get some inspiration for when I want to go beyond them. I’m sure I would have made this class my regular Saturday studio practice if I were living in East London… but until then, I will keep enjoying the impulse it gave me and hope to return soon… maybe in even better shape 😉 ♥

(By the way, I was back at Triyoga the following day, for a very different type of class – more details to be revealed very soon, stay tuned!)