Yoga on a budget
Yoga is an amazing way to relax the mind and stretch and tone the muscles. In many ways it can be equally as challenging as an activity such as boot camp or kickboxing, because yoga challenges you to truly focus and balance the mind and the body.
I’ve flirted with many different forms of exercise over the years – belly dancing, running, boot camp, step class, cycling, field hockey, swimming – but they’ve all come and gone as I’d tire of them and move onto the next one. Walking is the one form of exercise that I’ve never wavered in how much I adore it, and yoga is beginning to wriggle its way into my heart as well.
It’s mainly been over the last year that I’ve started to appreciate how fantastic yoga is. I think what I like best about it is it’s stress-reducing qualities; it really is a great way to find some “inner peace” in our busy lives.
I do yoga at home using online videos primarily because it’s cheaper than going to a studio. I’m still finding my feet when it comes to a steady income, so I’m always on the lookout for where I can save a little money. Even so, I’ve been to yoga studios in the past and I always found it really beneficial to have a yoga instructor push against my back to properly align the spine or to offer suggestions if some poses are difficult.
Passport to Prana offers the best of both worlds: for $20, you can buy a yoga card which gives you access to nine different yoga studios in Winnipeg. You can use the card to visit each studio once. That’s about $2 per class, rather than the usual price of $15 or more! And it gets even better, because most yoga studios let you try your first class for free: so that means that really, you can get two classes for $2 😀
I’ve already used my card to go to some different yoga studios and it’s been great to try out different types of yoga. One of my classes revolved around using yoga props: a chair, the wall, bands, pieces of foam, block of wood, and blankets. It was so unusual; I had never seen so many props used in a yoga session before. I went to another class with my friend Caroline which was a “yoga for runners” class that focused on opening the hips – even though I’m not a runner, I could still feel afterward that the session would make my walking muscles happy!
I also enjoy experiencing how each yoga instructor teaches: each have their own style, and you can learn something new about yoga from all of them. The varying styles of yoga are a good indication that there’s no one right way to do anything: if you want to reconnect your mind and your body, you have to find the way that works best for you. Hot yoga, yoga with chanting, yoga specializing for different age groups and yoga with props are all varying ways to strengthen the mind and the body. And they’re great fun to experiment with.
The Winnipeg card is good until the end of June, so definitely buy a card now so that you can spend the next few months yoga-ing across the city! Passport to Prana also has yoga cards for a number of cities across Canada and the United States, so check out their website to see if your city is listed to take advantage of the offer.
What’s your exercise history like? Do you prefer to do yoga at home or in a studio? Had you heard of Passport to Prana before? Check it out and save yourself a few dollars the next time you head to your local yoga studio!
Disclaimer: Passport to Prana gave me the yoga card for free. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own and even if I weren’t working with them I’d still have the same views on how awesome the yoga card is 😀
I wonder how long western-style yoga will be a fad for?
I mean, I think it’s wonderful. But I’m still calling it like I see it…
No, I get what you mean. It’s unfortunate that an exercise which is supposed to bring you to nature and to bring inner peace and everything is very much a middle/upper class activity in our culture… which is also why Passport to Prana is so awesome, because it offers the opportunity for people who don’t have the funds to still get the chance to be a part of the yogi lifestyle 🙂
And also if you think about it, just about any type of exercise could be considered a fad. Aerobics was a fad in the 80’s. These days yoga and boot camps are getting more attention. Depends on how you look at it!
My favorite type of yoga is hot yoga – I love it! But I have not gone to a class in a long time. 🙁
oh i wish I could find a card like that around here! donating $12 per yoga class at this hot yoga studio here really takes a toll on my bank account, though it feels very zen.
I love yoga! At home, at a studio, at my Y! Wherever! I love the idea of a yoga passport too – I hope you get to try lots of fun stuff!
I find it incredible that more people don’t know that all they’ve got to do in order to have a reasonably healthy life is include high antioxidant containing foods in their diet. Think about it. That’s really not difficulty at all.