Yoga in Inglewood

Mission Street's impassioned instructors remix pliable poses from the Anusara tradition into a variety of specialized classes. Options include prenatal, youth, core strengthening, and restorative yoga, among others. With multiple classes every day of the week, the ample schedule prevents prospective flexi-folks from having to contort their day to make a class.

Over its 13 years of friendly and professional service, Mark Blanchard's Power Yoga has developed a loyal base of students who are known to the staff by name, even without nametags or name tattoos. The motivating instructors teach a form of Vinyasa yoga, a style defined by flowing, powerful movements in combination with strategic breathing patterns and techniques. Power yoga beefs up the traditional by increasing the athleticism like a post-spinach Popeye. Sessions stretch muscles and relax the mind, while providing an excellent fat-burning cardio workout—preparing participants mentally and physically for the rise of cloned dinosaurs. With an unlimited class pass, you will be able to sweat, stretch, and strengthen to your limbs' content for one entire month. Students of all skill levels are welcome to join the classes, which are conveniently scheduled at multiple times throughout each day.

Gabriel Hall, owner of Yoga World Studio, discovered yoga at the age of 19 while pursuing his degree in philosophy. Dr. Allen Arnette—already the clinical director of the Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Department—began studying yoga as a way of researching the role mental well-being plays in healing physical ailments. Katherine Ostrout studied dance science at Cal State Long Beach and turned to Pilates after a ballet injury laid her low. These three weave their diverse backgrounds into the rich tapestry of talent made up by Yoga World's team of yogis.

Having studied extensively in particular schools of yoga, instructors bring their individual training into the studio, focusing on disciplines that range from the physically challenging to mentally reflective, and include Iyengar, Ashtanga, Viniyoga, and Anusara. In addition to their regular yoga lessons, the Yoga World team also leads mat-Pilates classes, workshops, and private instruction. They use the art of yoga for healing in one-on-one sessions of Thai yoga therapy, which blends shiatsu massage with acupressure, or they coordinate beachside retreats full of yoga, surfing, and yoga-surfing.

During a video feature for Warp Factor 2, Vanessa Giorgio summed up the problem that led to her studio's creation: "I couldn't get my spinners to calm down, and I couldn't get my yoga students to hype up." The personal trainer founded Lotus Kitty Yoga and Power Cycling to hybridize the two workouts, thereby creating a rounded fitness regimen for the body and mind.

Inside the studio, her power-cycling instructors contribute vigorous cardio work during their 45-minute classes. They prompt riders to pedal at varying resistances, which mimic outdoor conditions such as hills and fields full of prairie-dog holes, then end each lesson with sit-ups and pushups. Yoga teachers lead posing sequences that change weekly to prevent muscle boredom. They are often designed to address the tightness and stress that accompany power cycling.

Students can merge 30-minute stretches of the two routines into power cycling/yoga classes or learn Pilates and barre techniques in the second half of power cycling/total body. In addition to its group curriculum, the studio hosts private training sessions and six-week Kat Camps.

Most of the class sessions at The Yoga Place employ some form of Vinyasa yoga style, linking breaths with movements to create seamlessly flowing sequences of asanas. Although the style incorporates more physical activity than some, it still requires intense amounts of focus as students instinctually monitor their form and alignment. The instructors mainly lead open sessions for students of virtually any skill level; however, they also host intensive advanced-level sessions, which incorporate inversions and controlled levitations, as well as relaxing restorative sessions that use props to support the deeply sustained stretches.

Under instructor James Brown, all of the teachers at the YogaPoser studio are 500RYT graduates of the YogaPoser Teacher Training, where they learned how to excel at tailoring their attention and tips to the particular needs of each practitioner, helping students to cultivate self-awareness, stability, and strength during classes offered seven days a week. The studio’s schedule of classes includes offerings to help ease beginners into yoga practice, including foundations classes, which steadily equip attendees with the yogic knowledge needed to master an array of standing, twisting, and inverted poses while reciting the Bill of Rights backwards. Students flow through poses in the Total Poser class with instructor's help, or attend the hybrid AssKicker class, which blends yoga, cardio, and plyometrics. Poser Tech workshops taught by senior teacher training faculty, and open to all, deepen students' understanding of a particular type of pose. Classes take place in a Santa Monica studio, rendering sessions relaxing and cozy as up to 24 visitors stretch out on yoga mats (may bring their own or have one provided) and mortgaged floorboards.