June 28, 2002

From Bikram to hatha, yoga booming in Boulder

New yoga studios are sprouting all around Boulder, catering to the athletic-minded who recognize the need for strength and flexibility in their workouts.

Along with new studios specializing in yoga, more health clubs in the area also are offering yoga classes.

In February, Prasad opened at 1750 30 St. in Boulder. The studio offers 10 yoga classes a week, and also features South Indian temple dance ? ?a rather obscure sacred art form,? said owner Lisa Stone. In addition, Prasad offers Nia, which blends martial arts, dance and aerobics with spiritual and emotional work.

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The facility has some coed yoga classes as well as separate classes for men, women and children.

?The main teacher at our studio teaches men and women separately. Physiologically, we’re different, and it’s easier to address in separate classes,? Stone said.

Sofia Diaz, the primary instructor at the studio, has been teaching yoga for 20 years, including three years in Boulder. Stone said she and partner Satchi Royers decided to open the studio to accommodate all of Diaz’s students.

?There was such a strong following of people attending her classes. I’ve been her student for two and a half years,? Stone said. ?Sofia is a unique teacher, and that’s why our studio is so popular. She already had a number of students before we opened the studio.?

Previously, Diaz taught at the Community Dance Collective. Stone also teaches yoga classes at the studio.

?Typically, in Sofia’s women’s yoga classes, there are 50 to 75 students. In other classes, we have less than that,? Stone said. ?A lot of (Sofia’s) teaching is influenced by her study of South Indian temple dance. Her style is hatha yoga, but she brings the influence of sacred dance to it.?

The 1,800-square-foot studio offers beginning, intermediate and advanced yoga classes. It has seven teachers. Yoga classes are available every day except Sunday. A drop-in class can cost from $10 to $15, Stone said. She declined to project revenues for the business’ first year of operation.

Boulder is also home to two facilities offering a trendy and — literally — hot form of yoga.

Bikram Yoga, located on 27th Street and Baseline Road, behind Wild Oats, is a new studio offering the Bikram method, which is a demanding series of 26 postures and two breathing exercises done in a heated room. It is designed for beginners, but also challenges the expert yogi.

Each posture stretches and strengthens muscles, ligaments and joints while preparing the body for the next posture. The sequence of postures stimulates organs, glands and nerves.

Another Bikram studio, Bikram’s Yoga College of India, is located at 3035 Sterling Circle, suite A. This studio opened in January 1999.

?I brought this technique to Boulder in 1994. For five years we worked in a little studio in my home. It had a separate furnace in it and was a full-fledged Bikram studio, but very small,? said Radha Garcia, operator of the studio. Her new studio can accommodate from 50 to 60 people, she said. It offers 40 classes a week.

Garcia, who has been teaching yoga for 30 years, notes that by practicing yoga in a very hot room, participants can sweat, detoxify, tone, stretch and strengthen their bodies.

Bikram yoga is also said to help prevent or cure conditions such as asthma, arthritis, headaches, high cholesterol, insomnia, migraines, pinched nerves, rheumatism, ulcers and varicose veins.

?The class ends above body temperature. We add humidity since Boulder is so dry,? Garcia said. ?We keep it well humidified, and it keeps you sweating.?

The heat keeps students from getting any muscle contractions when they stretch. ?You don’t get as sore. You don’t want to get to a point coming out of a stretch where the muscle contracts by reacting to the outside air. We keep the cells of the body well-oxygenated,? she said.

About 750 to 1,000 students take classes each week at the studio. Many of them are repeat students, Garcia said, and vary from beginners to advanced yogis.

Usually, classes have about 20 to 30 students, but Garcia also conducts private classes by reservation. The studio also offers a pregnancy class once a week.

Classes at Bikram’s cost $12 each. Garcia said when the studio was first started, prices were a bit higher. Now, she believes classes are affordable for everyone. ?We have a lot of packages to offer people so they can pay discounted prices. It’s no longer for the elite,? she said.

She declined to disclose the business’ annual revenues.

Garcia teaches eight classes a week. There are seven other teachers, including her son and daughter.

Garcia doesn’t limit her teaching to Boulder. Recently, she returned from instructing 300 Bikram graduates at a studio in Los Angeles. She also has been invited to Costa Rica to conduct Bikram workshops.

?I came to this yoga in a vision, in a dream. My daughter was the first one to talk to me of this style of yoga. This style healed all the chronic conditions I had and gave me mental clarity,? she said. ?In yoga, you store life energy so you can go off and do other things for fun. It’s a unique technique for healing and exercise.?

All teachers at Garcia’s studio are certified and follow the Bikram technique.

?We try to keep it as pure as possible, and mold it after where it originated in India,? she said.

One of Boulder County’s most venerable yoga facilities is the Eldorado Mountain Yoga Ashram, located at the mouth of Eldorado Canyon south of Boulder. The ashram has been offering yoga classes to the public for at least 18 years, said hatha yoga teacher Satya Larrea.

The residential ashram has 10 people who live on the scenic grounds. ?One of the primary focuses of our center is to offer classes in hatha yoga and meditation,? Larrea said.

The ashram offers 10 drop-in yoga classes a week. Price is $10 a class. There are also six-week classes, along with a hatha yoga teacher-training program.

Larrea said about 100 students participate in the yoga classes each week. ?The classes are more intimate and small since we’re off the beaten path,? she said, although numbers increase for the weekend classes, when people have time to drive out to the ashram.

?We have a good regular clientele,? Larrea added. ?There are always new people, too. We welcome beginners as well as seasoned and serious practitioners. Our classes are for all levels.?

New yoga studios are sprouting all around Boulder, catering to the athletic-minded who recognize the need for strength and flexibility in their workouts.

Along with new studios specializing in yoga, more health clubs in the area also are offering yoga classes.

In February, Prasad opened at 1750 30 St. in Boulder. The studio offers 10 yoga classes a week, and also features South Indian temple dance ? ?a rather obscure sacred art form,? said owner Lisa Stone. In addition, Prasad offers Nia, which blends martial arts, dance and aerobics with spiritual and emotional work.

The facility has some coed yoga classes as…

Christopher Wood
Christopher Wood is editor and publisher of BizWest, a regional business journal covering Boulder, Broomfield, Larimer and Weld counties. Wood co-founded the Northern Colorado Business Report in 1995 and served as publisher of the Boulder County Business Report until the two publications were merged to form BizWest in 2014. From 1990 to 1995, Wood served as reporter and managing editor of the Denver Business Journal. He is a Marine Corps veteran and a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder. He has won numerous awards from the Colorado Press Association, Society of Professional Journalists and the Alliance of Area Business Publishers.
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