Moksha Yoga

4th & Alma
"Moksha Mild"
Teacher: Monica
Drop-in: $18.00/
Currently Intro Week: $20.00

SUMMARY: Releasing, Strengthening, slow but not overly stressful or fundamentalist Hot yoga that increases total embodiment. A nice blend of styles in a clean, classy studio. But be careful there's an hour parking limit outside of the facility and some classes last 90 minutes (I learned this one the hard way, damn you parking patrol!).

SETTING: There was sincerity and naturalism here, qualities you don't find at every yoga studio. A more intimate experience was created by the small number of attendants and warm lighting in this weekday mid-morning class. Moksha seems to have a well developed environmentally sound philosophy. Nice hard wood floors, simple decor and modern, practical yoga accessories add to the feelings of purity.

STYLE & PACE: It was Hot yoga (as in you'll be dripping) and the poses were held stationary for a substantial amount of time; this brings the chore of ignoring an often uncooperative mind. This is an important habit to develop:ask yourself "are these thoughts serving me right now?" and if they're not, you let them go because they're hogging your moment!

SCENE: Roughly 25% out of shape middle aged men, %25 fit young females and %50 middle aged woman of various ethnicities. Although my friend and I did scope a rather attractive young man getting ready for the more intense class after ours. There were less than ten people in the class.

MY EVALUATION: I can't resist the temptation to compare this class to Bikram's (the first copyrighted hot yoga series?) there were definitely likeness in the continuum. But Moksha's defined a less rigid approach, that blends popular hatha yoga poses with flow and other forms. They offer classes of varying levels, lengths and styles. I think practicing yoga in a hot room is great when you're really craving embodiment. You can manipulate your body so much more freely and move into positions you never imagined you would experience in this lifetime. It can be a bit dangerous though if you're worried about loosing too many fluids or have any sensitive medical conditions.