CorePower Yoga is Coming to Baltimore

I'm always saying I need to go to yoga more and never really make the time to fit it in. Apparently I can fit in some yoga to stretch  on the beach in the Bahamas a couple weeks ago (my prize for being Women's Health Top Action Hero of 2015!!!) .  Bridge pose is my favorite for stretching out my back. 

Yep, I was the most basic girl doing yoga on the beach.  

Unfortunately, most days I am not chilling at the beach (but a girl can dream!). I really want to try to go to more classes or even do some shorter at-home yoga videos a few times a week. I was really happy to be able to take a free yoga class at a new studio in town. 

Recently I found out that CorePower Yoga is coming to Baltimore with a location in Federal Hill on Key Highway (across from the Royal Farms).  

CorePower Yoga has a high-intensity style with a wide range of class styles. CorePower Yoga 1 is an unheated foundational vinyasa flow class while CorePower 1.5 is heated at 88-91 degrees and is slightly more challenging. Both heated at 95-98 degrees CorePower 2 is for more experienced yogis and it's taken up another notch in CorePower 3.  

Also offered is a Hot Yoga class (at 102-104 degrees & humidity) and a Hot Power Fusion class (at 100-103 degrees & humidity) which combines power and hot yoga.  

There is a heated YogaSculpt class which mixes free weights and strengthening moves with yoga. CoreCardio circuit is an unheated HIIT style class and CoreRestore is an unheated restorative yoga class. 

Their prices are comparable to other yoga studios I've seen, but they are running a bunch of great grand-opening deals before the new year. Normal pricing is $20 for a single class, $175 for 10 classes as well as other class packages such as monthly unlimited packages. You can also use CorePower Yoga class packages at any of their over 130 locations. 

They have been having free yoga classes partnered with various gyms and businesses for over the past month. I was lucky enough to be able to attend their Yoga on Tap free yoga class at World of Beer in McHenry Row last week. There was a small group including my friend who attended the class on the patio of World of Beer. 

We did a 1 hour vinyasa flow which also included part of their signature core circuit. My abs were burning by the end of the core part. They had a bunch of heat lamps out on the patios so it actually got really warm. It was way more of a sweaty workout than I expected which caught me off guard.

 It was mid-finals week so I was expecting something lighter and less heart-pumping, but loved the flow the instructor taught.  It included a lot of twisting and chair poses in between the typical up-dog, chattarunga, down-dog poses flow. I really liked the difference in flow and some different parts of their class including a part where we all tried to work on a specific pose for a couple minutes at our own pace. 

I love vinyasa flow yoga because it's a good mix of challenging my strength and providing space for meditation for me as well. 

I wasn't paid or sent anything special to write about CorePower, I just thought others in the area would be interested about this new addition to our fit scene! You can check out some of their free classes around the city and find more information about CorePower Yoga-Baltimore on their website or Facebook. 

What kind of yoga do you prefer? What's your favorite back stretch?