Yoga Sausalito
There was not much to choose from in Sausalito, which was surprising to me. I found an excellent studio called Yoga of Sausalito which was about a 10 minute bike ride from Clipper Harbour. It offers mostly Hatha, Anusara and Power classes. It was a warm and inviting studio, with clothes, books, jewelry, and cds, etc for sale. www.yogasausalito.com
I attended mostly Anusara classes and enjoyed them. The Anusara teachers have been taught by John Friend here in California and one gal has been studying with him for about 7 years and just got her certification. A few of the gals have their own web sites and promote retreats in Mexico and Jamaica. The studio has a web site and an e-newsletter they send out and the teachers have their flyers in the newsletter about upcoming workshops and also guests who will be at the studio, so that is very informative. In October Donna De Lory was there one night performing, unfortunately I was in Ontario otherwise I would have attended.
The quality of teaching is very good and what I noticed that was consistent with all the teachers was their impressive anatomy and physiology knowledge and technical knowledge of the postures. The studio charges $17 for a drop in and if you purchase a 5 series card you get the first class free. The 5 series card was $65. A good number of classes were offered during the week and always a noon class which was $10 drop in. So I bought the 5 series card but if I was there for a noon class I would pass the cash and not use my card up.
Yoga Berkeley
In Berkeley, I was fortunate in finding a yoga studio nearby as well and rode my bike. It was about a 15 -20 minute ride, so by the time I got to the studio I was nicely warmed up. The studio is called 7th Heaven, www.7thheaven.com and they offer a variety of classes in 2 studios. The cost was $14 for drop in and as a new attendee you could get 3 classes for $20. I attended a few Hatha, as well as tried out Forrest yoga. A local California based style which has a focus on holding poses for longer periods of time, a more significant use of core muscles and while the room is kept slightly warm, allows students to generate lots of heat and sweat. A number of the poses have different names and the teachers pay close attention to alignment of students, coming over to do adjustments is the norm.
Another class I attended was Vinyasa with a teacher named Shakti. She had all 30 or so of us state our name and say what, if anything we would like to work on during the practice. She incorporated all the requests and also added a nice spiritual message throughout the class. The studio had a very warm and inviting atmosphere, sold clothes and accessories, had a large change area with shower, and even had a couple of other rooms dedicated for local practitioners to see clients. The floors were wood inside the studios. Again I found the teachers to be well trained, with very good knowledge of anatomy and physiology and very good descriptions for getting into the poses and what to try to feel during the pose. One gal is a stage performer and sang to us during savasana, so that was cool.
I also attended an Iyengar class at a yoga studio on 4th Street, called ‘The Studio on 4th Street’ that had about 6 gals attending all above the age of 50. The teacher was good although I found way too much time was spent with her describing how we were going to be setting up the pose and then she would go to each student and do adjustments or modifications. So I found I was a bit bored as the pace was slow at times, or you were holding the pose forever! Being a 9:30 am class I wanted to move my body and have a warming wake up so I didn’t go back there.
