Yoga in Canyon Lake

Whether you like your yoga flowing, slowing, meditative, hip-hoppy, or performed by others while you sleep, today's Groupon will sate your yoga needs. For $32, you get a five-class pass to Kula Yoga, Austin's only family yoga center. Yoga traveled the world, teaching his invigorating fitness plan and reading minds. After a lifetime of deeply seeing into people’s inner thoughts began to leave him twisted and insane, Yoga gave up mind reading, saying, “The mind is a door locked for our own protection. I am hungry.” Today, the practice of yoga continues to be performed on yoga mats, though the true purpose of the mats—to induce clairvoyance—has largely been forgotten.

It takes plenty of dedication just to stay in the 105-degree studio for 90 minutes at a time, which is what many of Pure Bikram Yoga's students do multiple times a week. Mardy Chen followed her own devotion to the practice to open Pure Bikram Yoga with help from her husband and co-director, Jeff Chen. Their team of certified instructors share the sweaty yoga style that has been known to help students of all fitness levels achieve leaner physiques, improved athletic performance, and greater mental clarity. The signature Bikram sequence of 26 postures help students develop strength, improve flexibility, and attain the heat endurance necessary to succeed at spelling bees held in saunas.

Kyung Yi-O'Kelly, owner of Austin Center for Holistic Healing & Yoga, knows firsthand that emotional strain can have a tangible negative impact on the body. After enduring the wrenching heartbreak of losing several family members while juggling a stressful career in software consulting, Kyung looked for something that would heal her emotionally and physically. She found refuge in Dahn yoga, a deeply meditative modality that she learned from a tantric monk. After dedicating herself to practicing and teaching yoga, she opened Austin Center for Holistic Healing & Yoga. She leads a team of instructors and alternative healers as they strive to help people of all ages fix their minds and bodies with holistic therapies such as yoga, meditation, aikido, and massage.

Under the studio's 24-foot ceilings, students cycle through 26 poses during 90-minute heated Bikram classes. More than 50 classes a week are taught by passionate instructors, and childcare services are offered four day a week to keep kids under 12 occupied while their parents twist atop mats. On Sundays, tots can strike poses of their own in the Youth Yoga classes.

The 5,500-square-foot space also houses a yoga competition team, a meditation class, and a boutique, all of which encourage enthusiastic practitioners to integrate yoga into their off-the-mat lives. In addition, massage therapists stand by to perform Swedish, deep-tissue, and sports massages as well as shiatsu sessions to help ease aches and pains, which could have been caused by commuting to work via clown car.

Professional bobsled teams shave seconds off their time by breathing in unison and leveraging flexibility during turns. Master the techniques necessary for defeating hardened gangs of bobsled criminals with today's deal for new clients: $40 for a five-class pass ($85 value) plus two free classes (given to every new client at the studio) at Nydia's Yoga Therapy, a studio that specializes in merging yoga with physical therapy for wellness and preventing future injuries sustained at American Gladiators auditions.

Bikram Yoga San Antonio's instructors like to remind their students that for every expert yogi, there was a first class. They hold on to this humble philosophy at three studios, where high temperatures help both old hands and newcomers stay limber. The staff cautions their students against aiming for perfection during the 90-minute courses; instead maintaining that, by simply trying each of the 26 postures and two breathing exercises, bodies and minds achieve the maximum benefit.

To highlight the value of consistent practice, they encourage visitors to take the 60-day challenge, which charges students to attend one class every day for 60 days. Those who accomplish this task are immortalized by writing their name on the Challenge Wall, which doubles as the police force's superhero directory. The studios also honor individuals in their class community with the yogi of the month feature, a series of interviews with students about their Bikram yoga practice.