Yoga in Jefferson

It may seem counterintuitive to some, but Affirm Fitness’s head fitness trainer, Lauren Leitner, also owns a biscotti-making business. Of course, all of the desserts she doles out are low in fat, making them tasty complements to the healthy lifestyle that she hopes to impart upon her students at Affirm Fitness. There, she and fellow trainers lead exercisers of all stripes through boot camps that are either traditional or tailored to new moms. Cardio-and-sculpt boot camp shows exercisers how to have fun as they transition between drills in agility, interval training, and body-weight resistance. In baby-friendly Bootie Camp, participants push strollers a little bit faster than usual for a cardio workout that allows them to spend time with little ones while they improve themselves. Moms can even spend a little time sculpting muscles with hand weights or by lifting diaper bags filled with bricks. Affirm Fitness’s class schedule also includes dance-inspired Zumba cardio workouts, relaxing yoga, and TRX suspension training.

Yogi Michele Baker began teaching yoga at a New Orleans athletic club in 1998. Ten years later, after Hurricane Katrina forced Baker to evacuate her home, she started writing a yoga-instruction training manual. She soon put it to use, using it as a guide to lead her staff at Swan River Yoga, which she opened with business partner Keith Porteous. Today, the yoga center helps pupils practice yoga and guides aspiring instructors as they hone their craft and nurture the third eye that sprouts from their forehead.

Yoga classes are suitable for a variety of skill levels, and range from prenatal and beginners’ yoga to Anusara yoga—a class that focuses on flowing movements and proper alignment. Swan River Yoga also provides holistic services such as massage, reiki, and acupuncture.

At the helm of Freret Street Yoga, Geoffrey Roniger employs his own approach to yoga: intuitive movement and alignment to help students to achieve mental, emotional, and physical balance. He and his team of instructors do not teach just one way to practice; instead, they arm students with a range of breathing and posing techniques to best fit their ability and prepare them for successfully hiding in overhead compartments. In addition to beginner and intermediate classes, Freret Street also specializes in athlete’s yoga and techniques designed to foster workplace wellness. Newly limber muscles can find additional relief under the practiced hands of massage therapist Brad “Yogi” Barra. He tends to sore spots with deep-tissue and neuromuscular bodywork, as well as craniosacral and active-release therapy.

Holistic practitioners April, Jerome, and Jeffrey have united their complementary areas of expertise in Eastern healing techniques to help patrons foster a well-rounded approach to health and wellness through yoga, life coaching, reiki, and qi gong. Yoga504's yoga instructor, April, leads weekly yoga classes that vary in style, from the vigorous aerobic Vinyasa tradition to the slower-paced Yin yoga practice. When not easing patrons' stress and pain through yoga, she also helps them manage their lives through her life-coaching services, empowering them to effectively manage their time, lose weight, or build a healthy relationship with their estranged shadow. Further reducing patrons' anxiety and tension, Jerome performs reiki sessions designed to channel positive energy to bolster emotional and spiritual health.

Those suffering from chronic pain issues may be able to relate to qi gong practitioner Jeffrey, who began his career in alternative healing after being diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a chronic disease that causes inflammation in the joints with the possibility of the spinal bones eventually fusing together. He credits his experience in Eastern medicine for being fully mobile at age 34—which his doctors believed to be impossible—and strives to help each of his clients manage their ailments though qi gong's therapeutic techniques.

At Mulananda Yoga, Louis LaVie and his troop of enthusiastic instructors strive to foster an atmosphere that embodies the studio's name—_mula_, the Sanskrit word for "root, source," and anada, which means "pure happiness." They blend focused breathing and conditioning through yoga poses to help their clients reach inner peace and happiness while also boosting their outer strength. Their classes explore yoga’s capacities to heal and uplift beyond the standard sun salutations. They crank up the tunes during hot Vinyasa classes and focus on meditation, philosophy, and chanting in Swan River yoga. During symbiotic yoga, patrons learn to cultivate trust and connections via partner acrobatics and games of Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board. Further soothing spirits, the studio's holistic healers aim to relieve stress and tension with reiki and Thai yoga massage.

Brooke Riglin, owner of Karmady Yoga & Massage LLC, is extremely hands-on with her business. Of the 41 weekly yoga classes held at her newly opened studio, Brooke teaches more than 30. Every one of these classes is open to everyone, because Brooke helps her students modify each pose to fit their ability levels and specific goals. In addition to yoga, the studio offers nine different types of massage, each of which is administered by a professional, certified massage therapist who is a former pro thumb wrestler.