Led by a new generation of dynamic female teachers, this “new” yoga replaces the male-centered, more rigid style with a distinctly feminine practice that honors intuition, family, flow, connection, community, activism and the cyclical nature of women’s lives.

YOGAWOMAN is a groundbreaking film that captures this fascinating time of awakening female power.

Join us for a special screening of YOGAWOMAN on Saturday, March 3, 2012 at 1 p.m. This event is limited to 20 participants.

Yoga was brought to the west from India by a lineage of male teachers. Now there’s a generation of women who are leading the way. They’re strong, they’re inspiring, and they’re radically changing people’s lives. From the busy streets of Manhattan to the dusty slums of Kenya, from the golden beaches of Australia to the serene piazzas of Italy, YOGAWOMAN uncovers a global phenomenon that has changed the face of yoga forever.

Through rich personal stories, YOGAWOMAN reveals how yoga has utterly transformed the lives of millions of over-stimulated, overscheduled multitasking modern women. With vivid detail and poignancy, YOGAWOMAN shows how women have embraced yoga for easing health conditions like breast cancer, infertility, heart disease, anxiety and depression. A, and given a lifeline to women in prison, cancer abuse survivors and those struggling with body image or eating disorders.

YOGAWOMAN bears witness to millions of women who have integrated yoga into their daily lives so they are happier, healthier and more fulfilled – allowing them to give back to others with full hearts and creative minds.
In intimate interviews with the world’s leading experts, many who have become worldwide icons with rock-star status, YOGAWOMAN captures how these teachers have blazed a new trail for women. World-renowned teachers appearing in YOGAWOMAN include Patricia Walden, Sharon Gannon, Shiva Rea, Angela Farmer, Cyndi Lee, Seane Corn, Donna Farhi and forward-thinking medical professionals such as integrative physician Dr. Sara Gottfried and world-renowned research scientist Dr. Shirley Telles. YOGAWOMAN is the first film of its kind to bring together these luminaries, distilling their wisdom and spreading their message of peace and empowerment for the benefit of women everywhere.

As we approach the stroke of midnight and the Meeting of the Courts, Namasté has some special offers to sweeten your Lenten resolve.

The Pilates Reformer is making its Namasté debut!

Image Credit: © CarlFourie / www.fotosearch.com

The resistance created by the Reformer’s pulley and spring system distinguishes it from a traditional Pilates mat class by challenging the strength and endurance unique to individual users.  Reformers can produce visible results sooner — firmness and definition in arm, leg and abdominal muscles improve within a dozen or so regular sessions in most students.  The Pilates Reformer is the perfect core-strength-building complement to any regular yoga practice.

For a limited time, take advantage of one of these Reformer promotions:

   Register by February 29 for any workshop listed below and receive a COMPLEMENTARY one-hour introductory private Pilates appointment — wowza, that’s a $60 value to jumpstart your post-Mardi Gras yoga and Pilates fitness routine!

   Try a one-hour introductory private Pilates Reformer appointment for $18!  ($60 value, limit one per student.)  After your first introductory session, you will have the option to continue with 6 private appointments for $195 — that’s $32.50 per private appointment.  (This highly discounted purchase is only available for purchase at the end of the introductory appointment.)

   Introduction to Yoga: For those who have always been curious about yoga but don’t know where to start, we’ve extended the cut-off date to sign up!  This workshop introduces the fundamentals of how yoga can increase strength, balance and flexibility, and explores basic standing and seated postures, breathing and relaxation techniques.  Sign up before Feb. 27 to  take advantage of the COMPLIMENTARY Pilates Reformer appointment!

   40 Days to Easter: For non-beginners looking to enhance or jumpstart their practice, commit to honoring and strengthening your mind, body and spirit through vinyasa yoga. 13 classes for less than $10/class — plus the private Pilates Reformer appointment, a $255 value for $125!

   New Client Info forms are available for download to save you time as you arrive for your first visit.

If you are ready to commit to toning your core, losing weight and building muscle,

don’t miss the opportunity to try the Pilates Reformer!

Prenatal Pilates students won’t be left out!  Attend any Prenatal Pilates class in February and receive a COMPLIMENTARY Private Pilates reformer appointment 6-weeks+ postpartum — a $60 value to ensure Mom stays healthy both before and after delivery!

   Pre-register for Workshops or before February 29, 2012 to receive your COMPLIMENTARY private Pilates Reformer appointment (a $60 value)!

40 Days to Easter (13-Class WORKSHOP) with Brooke
Wed & Mon Date: 2/22/2012 – 4/4/2012 From: 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM
$125 for 13-Class workshop, $15 Drop-In
Science of yoga teaches it takes 40 days to create or change a habit. A 40-day commitment to change can provide the shift needed to develop a healthy habit or to drop a destructive one. Signify Ash Wednesday and the 40 days before Easter by committing to honor and strengthen your mind, body and spirit through yoga. Turn inward and grow deeply with the movement of vinyasa flow — a fluid linking of breath and movement. Classes begin Ash Wednesday and continue to Easter.

Lunchtime Beginners’ Yoga (2-week WORKSHOP) with Kerrie
MonWedFri Date: 2/27/2012 – 3/9/2012 From: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
$65 for 6-Class workshop, $15 Drop-In
You can do this – no sweat! This 6-class workshop will get you started with basic poses that build strength, increase flexibility, and enhance  balance. Learn proper alignment and breathing techniques to enhance relaxation. No experience necessary and – literally – no sweat! Get  back to work rejuvenated and on time!

Renew Your Resolution (1-Day WORKSHOP) with Brooke
Sat Date: 2/25/2012 From: 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
$30 early bird (if registered by February 24, 2012)
$35 at-the-door (space permitting.)
Relax and revive your sankalpa (Sanskrit for intention or resolution). Whether you are working on a 2012 New Year’s resolution or a sankalpa that you created in 2011, this workshop will help you strengthen your resolve and address unconscious blocks to achieving your goal. We will use the powerful technique of yoga nidra (the yoga of sleep) to plant the seed of your intention. You will leave feeling rejuvenated, with a renewed commitment to fulfill your sankalpa.

Yoga Warriors Boot Camp for Women (12-Class WORKSHOP) with Jen
MonWedFri Date: 2/27/2012 – 3/23/2012 From: 5:30 AM – 6:30 AM and/or
MonWedFri Date: 4/2/2012 – 4/27/2012 From: 5:30 AM – 6:30 AM
$160 Workshop, 12 Classes (Drop-Ins not allowed)
A vigorous, more athletic approach to yoga and strength-building, Yoga Boot Camp combines flowing poses designed to burn calories and increase flexibility with weight-based movements to strengthen and tone muscles. Classes are designed for students looking to lose weight, gain strength and get fit. This hour-long, high energy workout is choreographed with sequences set to up-tempo music and ends with a brief meditation to help you retain a mindful sense of being in the moment. This is a fun, inspiring and challenging new look at yoga  and yourself!

Belly Dance for Health (6-WEEK WORKSHOP) with Iona
Thu Date: 3/1/2012 – 4/5/2012 From: 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
$70 Workshop, 6 Classes (Drop-Ins welcome!)
This class is specifically suited for the female physique, no matter what your size! As Belly Dance has evolved, more and more women dance for health, positive self image, intimating the dynamics of one’s unique femininity and form, and most of all, for a fun workout. Incorporating both slow and quick moves, Belly Dance provides the means to increase flexibility and strength as well as to improve balance and comfort. This class includes a focusing warm-up; introduction to basic techniques; coordination of movements to belly dance music; and a Yoga-style cool down. Tummies of all sizes welcome and no dance experience is required for this beginner level class. Open to women ages 16-99.

Yoga Booty Ballet (6-Week WORKSHOP) with Courtney
Fri Date: 3/16/2012 – 4/27/2012 From: 6:45 PM – 7:45 PM
$65 Workshop, 6 Classes (Drop-Ins welcome!)
Yoga Booty Ballet is a fun, sexy and spirited workout that will leave you feeling refreshed and inspired. Work your body, engage your mind and lighten your spirit as you practice this East-meets-West amalgam of meditation, cardiovascular dance, ballet, Kundalini and hatha yoga.The results are immediate and long term. Students consistently complete class feeling better about themselves than when they arrive. The meditation element serves to focus busy minds as well as awaken dull ones. The dance portion improves cardiovascular endurance, promoting weight loss and improved body composition. The ballet section increases strength and agility, building muscle and bone density. The yoga sections promote flexibility, balance and inner wellness. Classes are fun and easy to follow, designed to draw out individual self-expression in a comfortable, non-competitive environment.Various dance styles explored include jazz, hip hop, burlesque, Latin, Bollywood, go-go, and more. Come dance, play, and fall in love with your body!

Yoga & Journaling (1-Day WORKSHOP) with Amanda
Sat Date: 3/24/2012 From: 1:30 PM – 4:30 PM
$35 early bird (if registered by March 1, 2012)
$40 at-the-door (space permitting.)
Combining yoga with journaling has profound benefits: it releases and processes unwanted emotions, inspires creativity and increases the body-mind connection. This process promotes clarity and helps free up energy for you to achieve your goals. We’ll use visualization techniques, meditation and breath work to create a safe, supportive environment while journaling and practicing yoga. Bring your journal, your favorite pen, a yoga mat if you have one and join us for an intensive afternoon of jounaling while practicing yoga poses. Some yoga experience is helpful, but not required.

Introduction to Yoga (6-week WORKSHOP) with Christine & Studio Instructors
Mon Date: 2/13/2012 – 3/26/2012 From: 6:00 PM – 7:15 PM
$65 for 6-Class Workshop (Week 2 Registration open, space permitting)
Introduction to Yoga: Begin at the Beginning – This workshop is for those who have always been curious about yoga but don’t know where  to start. The instructor introduces the fundamentals of yoga, showing how yoga can increase strength, balance and flexibility, and explores basic standing and seated postures, breathing and relaxation techniques. Begin at the Beginning builds confidence and prepares you for the studio’s regularly scheduled Hatha classes.

— Joseph Pilates, Return to Life Through Contrology

Image Credit: © Image Source / www.fotosearch.com

German-born Joseph Pilates was living in England, working as a circus performer and boxer, when he was placed in forced internment at the outbreak of WWI. While in the internment camp, he began to develop the floor exercises that evolved into what we now know as the Pilates Method.

As time went by, Joseph Pilates began to work with rehabilitating detainees who were suffering from diseases and injuries. It was invention born of necessity that inspired him to utilize items that were available to him: he create resistance exercise equipment for his patients using bed springs and beer keg rings! These were the humble beginnings of the equipment we use in the studio today: the Pilates Reformer and the magic circle.

Pilates Mat Class

Pilates targets the deep muscles of the abdomen and spine to strengthen the body from the inside-out and achieve proper alignment. The goal is to attain a balance of strength and flexibility, a balance of opposing muscle groups and better balance in the body when moving through all of life’s activities. Joseph Pilates, years ahead of his time, knew that gravity pulls our bodies out of alignment, distorting joint relationships and causing some muscles to bear greater loads and others to under perform. Pilates derives its effectiveness by working against gravity, improving alignment and correcting faulty movement habits so that the body learns the correct way to perform movement and the correct muscles to use in that performance.

Image Credit: © CarlFourie / www.fotosearch.com

The Pilates Reformer

The resistance created by the Reformer’s pulley and spring system distinguishes it from a traditional Pilates mat class by challenging the strength and endurance unique to individual users. Reformers can produce visible results sooner — firmness and definition in arm, leg and abdominal muscles improve within a dozen or so regular sessions in most students. The Pilates Reformer is the perfect core-strength-building complement to any regular yoga practice.

“The benefits of working out on a Pilates Reformer include access to hundreds of exercises for small and large muscle groups alike, plus the ability to keep workouts varied and modified according to your fitness goals or physical needs. A consistent Pilates practice delivers fitness improvements ranging from stronger muscles built by resistance work to deep core control built through stabilization exercises.”

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/146949-what-can-you-expect-from-using-the-pilates-reformer/#ixzz1mb0U5HdG

“Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness. Our interpretation of physical fitness is the attainment and maintenance of a uniformly developed body with a sound mind fully capable of naturally, easily, and satisfactorily performing our many and varied daily tasks with spontaneous zest and pleasure.”

— Joseph Pilates, Return to Life Through Contrology

Renew Your Resolution with Brooke (1-Day WORKSHOP)

Prenatal Pilates

Find Us

Amanda Anderson

Combining yoga with journaling has profound benefits: it releases and processes unwanted emotions, inspires creativity and increases the body-mind connection.  This process promotes clarity and helps free up energy for you to achieve your goals.

Join us in this very special workshop as we welcome (visiting) former instructor Amanda!  Visit our instructor page to learn more about Amanda and her journey.

This workshop will use visualization techniques, meditation and breath work to create a safe, supportive environment while journaling and practicing yoga.  Bring your journal, your favorite pen, a yoga mat if you have one and join us for an intensive afternoon of jounaling while practicing yoga poses. Some yoga experience is helpful, but not required.

View dates, sign-up for Workshop

Renew Your Resolution with Brooke (1-Day WORKSHOP)

Restorative yoga with Michele

Lunchtime Beginners’ Yoga with Kerrie Starts Friday!

Yoga for Athletes

Yoga Booty Ballet is Back!

We’ve made the following changes at the request of students:

Michele’s evening Hatha class will move from Monday to Tuesday eve starting this week (Michele will teach Monday, February 6 and Tuesday February 7 during this transition.)

Lauren’s Yoga for Athletes has been added to Tuesday and Thursday mornings, 5:45-6:45 AM, and her Saturday morning class has moved to 7:45AM (for those of you who want to sleep an extra half hour on the weekend!)

Brooke’s Monday and Wednesday Vinyasa Yoga Flow has moved to a 40-day Lenten challenge workshop (10:30 AM – 11:30 AM workshop, 13 classes from 2/22/2012 – 4/4/2012):  Science of yoga teaches it takes 40 days to create or change a habit. A 40-day commitment to change can provide the shift needed to develop a healthy habit or to drop a destructive one. Signify Ash Wednesday and the 40 days before Easter by committing to honor and strengthen your mind, body and spirit through yoga. Turn inward and grow deeply with the movement of vinyasa flow — a fluid linking of breath and movement. Classes begin Ash Wednesday and continue to Easter.

Friday and Saturday morning Pilates classes have been temporarily removed from the schedule while we work with students — you! — to develop a time and class that works best.  Please continue to let us know your thoughts!

And finally, we’re working to put together a Beginner Yoga Class on Monday evenings — details coming soon!  [UPDATE: Monday evening Beginners' Workshop is scheduled!  Click the "schedule" link for more information or to register!]

Thanks so much to all of you who have shared feedback — keep it coming!

Namasté…

RELAX the body

RENEW the mind

RESTORE the spirit

Restorative yoga is a therapeutic style of yoga that utilizes props to provide support for opening the body, passive stretching and total relaxation.  Relaxation is a state in which there is no movement, no effort and the mind is quiet.

Restorative Yoga with Michele, Mondays 7:30-8:30 PM.

Yoga for Runners

During the course of an average one-mile run, your foot will strike the ground 1,000 times.

The force of impact on each foot is about three to four times your body weight, which is why runners complain of bad backs, bad knees, tight hamstrings and sore feet.

This power vinyasa class is an accessible, challenging, and flowing style of yoga designed specifically for runners who have tight hip, backs, and/or legs, and is beneficial to all athletes looking to improve their performance on the field, court, course or place of competition. A warm classroom loosens up the joints and breaks the repetitive motions. Poses are linked with breath for a dynamic flowing sequence of movement.

Contrary to popular misconception, running and yoga are not mutually exclusive! If you are running off-balance — whether you feel it or not — every step you take forces the muscles to work harder in compensation. Tight muscles get tighter and weak muscles get weaker. A tight muscle is brittle, hard, and inflexible. Because muscles act as the body’s natural shock absorbers, ideally they should be soft, malleable, and supple, with some give. Brittle muscles, on the other hand, cause the joints to rub and grind, making them vulnerable to tears. This class can help strengthen and lengthen muscles, bringing the body back into alignment and help cure imbalances which open up athletes to injury. Adding yoga to any athletic regiment will help keep you enjoying your sport for years to come.

Classes are playful and energetic, providing a great full-body workout improving flexibility, balance, and strength.  Drop-Ins are welcome!

Athletes: get ready to move, sweat, and let go of daily stresses through this moving meditation to unlock your potential from within!

Lunchtime Beginners’ Yoga with Kerrie Starts Friday!

Renew Your Resolution with Brooke (1-Day WORKSHOP)

Prenatal Pilates Starts Sunday 4p.m.

Yoga Booty Ballet is Back!

Relax and revive your sankalpa (Sanskrit for intention or resolution) in this one-day workshop with Brooke. Whether you are working on a 2012 New Year’s resolution or a sankalpa that you created in 2011, this workshop will help you strengthen your resolve and address unconscious blocks to achieving your goal. We will use the powerful technique of yoga nidra (the yoga of sleep) to plant the seed of your intention.

You will leave feeling rejuvenated, with a renewed commitment to fulfill your sankalpa.

Saturday, February 25, 2012, 11 AM to 01 PM

Early Bird Online Registration Price $30.00 At-the-Door/Day of Workshop $35.00 (space permitting)

Yogawoman Screening

A quiet revolution brews in yoga studios, hospitals and living rooms around the globe. In record numbers women are disco...View full post »

Big Fat Tuesday Special

    As we approach the stroke of midnight and the Meeting of the Courts, Namasté has some special offers to s...View full post »

Pilates Mat Class & Pilates Reformer

“A few well-designed movements, properly performed in a balanced sequence, are worth hours of doing sloppy calisth...View full post »

Mardi Gras Schedule Updates

Namaste of Metairie will be closed Mardi Gras Day, Tuesday, February 21, 2012.  We will resume with morning classes Wed...View full post »

Yoga & Journaling

  Combining yoga with journaling has profound benefits: it releases and processes unwanted emotions, inspires creat...View full post »

We’ve updated our schedule, added new workshops

As we continue to adjust our schedule to best accommodate our students and their requests, please check to verify the ti...View full post »

Restorative yoga with Michele

RELAX the body RENEW the mind RESTORE the spirit   Restorative yoga is a therapeutic style of yoga that utilizes pr...View full post »

Lunchtime Beginners’ Yoga with Kerrie Starts Friday!

You can do this — no sweat! This 6-class session will get you started with basic poses that build strength, increase f...View full post »