The Studio: Finding Warmth And Balance In Yoga

Dec 04, 2024 11:15AM ● By Wren Wahrenberger Photography By Cperry Photography

Luci, Mae, and Ashton greet a student before class.

At The Studio, located in the Junction Marketplace in White River Junction, Vermont, the front desk employee’s greeting makes you feel like they have been waiting for you to enter that door all day. The instructor for the class you’ve signed up for online is also waiting near the desk, ready to ask how you are doing, help show you around if you are new, or assess if you need any modifications to your practice due to injuries. You take off your shoes, sign in, and find a place for your mat in the hot room, knowing you have made it and carved out time for yourself at this magical and healing yoga and fitness studio.

In the Beginning

The Studio owner Maeghan Finnigan began her journey as a fitness instructor in 2005 as a certified Original Hot Yoga (OHY) teacher. She was trained by Bikram Choudry in Los Angeles. Five years later, she bought The Studio’s current expanded space, calling it Bikram Yoga Upper Valley.

However, by 2016, the studio was struggling, and Maeghan realized that her clients wanted more than just yoga. New information made it “imperative” that the business “disassociate from the series founder and also consider additional modalities that would positively impact their students’ bodies and minds.” A few other hot yoga studios had added Inferno Hot Pilates (IHP), and as soon as Maeghan started talking with IHP creator Gabby Walters, she and her sister Julia Finnigan, who had received OHY teacher training in Australia, both realized it just made sense to add the class. (IHP is now called Inferno HIIT on the schedule.)

Over the ensuing years, more classes were added to the BYUV schedule, including the relaxing YIN yoga and the “power” Flow yoga classes. Then in 2021, they decided to rename the space simply The Studio. Maeghan and Julia worked to add new classes to “The Studio’s teaching toolbelt to help increase strength, flexibility, neuroplasticity, and improve range of motion.” The result was a series of new classes that complement each other and work together to holistically support healthy bodies from the inside out.

The Studio’s mission became “to create a safe space where people are encouraged and supported to connect, heal, and grow through life-changing classes taught by empowering teachers.”

Evolving the Offerings

“Because we loved the yoga so much and because it was so special to us, we tried to make it something it wasn’t,” Maeghan says. “Yoga is a lot of beautiful things, and everybody should have some yoga in their life for the peace of mind, for the acceptance of body, and for the challenges to your brain and your muscles. Passive stretching should be a part of everybody’s life, but it’s not the only exercise you should do, and you shouldn’t do it five days a week. You have to add some resistance training—especially women over 34.”

Maeghan learned how important it is to lift weights and added an Inferno Weights class with exercises similar to the Inferno HIIT, but using weights. At first, the heaviest weights were 8 pounds, but as her students became stronger, they purchased weights up to 45 pounds. For these classes, students choose their own weights (the lightest are 2 pounds) based on their ability level. Both weights classes and Inferno HIIT classes add disco lights and music, which provide a party feel to these challenging and popular fitness offerings.

Maeghan explains that according to leading expert Dr. Stacy Sims, as soon as a person hits 30, unless they’re actively trying to put on muscle, they’re losing muscle. “Muscle is how we prevent—I don’t want to say aging because I love aging—injury, disease, and arthritis and all these things that we’ve heard for years were just going to happen, but they actually don’t have to happen at that frequency,” she says.

When it comes to injuries, Maeghan encourages transparency. “It’s very helpful when people share what they are going through,” she says. Maeghan has had her own injuries over the years and has learned how to help her students work through injuries and find alternatives to some of the exercises or poses in the classes. She does the weights classes herself because she wants to maintain the strength to “carry her own children for a long, long time,” and move things when she needs to move them. She does the Inferno HIIT because of the cardiovascular benefits. And as for the yoga, she points out, “The more people who do yoga, the better this world would be.”

A New Approach

The Studio’s offerings evolved even more as Maeghan and Julia began studying Functional Range Conditioning (FRC) created by Dr. Andreo Spina, a renowned musculoskeletal expert, with the goal of improving mobility, joint strength, and body control.

“All of a sudden,” says Maeghan,” I had a much better understanding of how bodies move and work—even about my own injuries and beliefs that I’d been holding on to for many years. It turned out I was wrong—I wasn’t approaching it the way I could have or should have.”

One of the principles Maeghan has learned through studying FRC is the importance of maintaining and strengthening healthy joints. If you don’t develop the prerequisite strengths around different joints in the body, and you try to use those joints, such as your knees or hips, you will be straining them.

The Studio added Kinstretch class, which their website declares is “the most important class on the schedule. Full stop.” Kinstretch, which focuses on small muscle movements and uses various props provided by The Studio, warms up the spine and joints. It helps other exercises feel more accessible and provides a different awareness of your body.

Maeghan talks about a study done to determine why some baseball pitchers ruin their shoulders. They analyzed videos of their pitching, and the pitchers who threw the ball the exact same way over and over became permanently injured. Those who moved their shoulders or elbows in slightly different ways each time were able to have long careers. “Taking a different class will influence your practice,” Maeghan says.

Still Passionate about Yoga

Maeghan added The Studio Yoga and OHY 2.O to help her old-school yogis vary their practices. “We’re not going to improve those neurological connections without looking at the postures in new ways. Even as a walker, we know to change the route,” she says. The OHY 2.0 teaches ways to better prepare and warm up before moving into a posture in the original hot yoga series. Examples of prerequisites for yoga postures are shoulder flexion, thoracic rotations, and spine flexion.

Hot Beats is another fun adaptation of the original hot yoga series. The class adds music, dims the lights, and allows for a more relaxed experience. The new Fusion class is an adaptation of the Yoga Flow and the HIIT series combined.

Heat remains an integral part of most classes at The Studio (the schedules have a little fire emoji next to heated classes), and towels are an important accessory to bring, not only to catch the sweat on your mat during class but also to dry off if you choose to take a quick shower after class. Both towels and mats can be rented before class, and The Studio has a gear shop that sells water bottles, men’s and women’s yoga clothing, sweatshirts, yoga mats, and some activewear, such as stylish Apres clothing.

Building Community

Studio teachers, front row: Luci, Maeghan, Scotty, Jess, and Mitch. Back row: Julia, Heather, and Gwen

The community at The Studio is vibrant and inclusive. The feeling of being part of a family is enhanced by playful, thematic competitions over the course of the seasons, including the popular March Matness during college basketball season. Members find a partner, come up with fun team names such as Silver Peri-Power Posse, Ladies Who Crunch, and Bitches and Britches, and enter the bracket system drawn in chalk on the hallway wall. Every week they face different challenges, such as “take a class together three times.” Julia reaches out to local businesses for donations, such as Indigo and Von Bargen’s, for the winners’ prizes, and the businesses are in turn featured on their social media.

Another fun Studio challenge is the Turkey to Tree over the holiday season. Students check off calendar boxes, which include “buy a friend a drink after class,” “take a weights class,” or “support a local business.” Students who check off every box get a prize, such as money on their account.

To add some enthusiasm to summer classes, students can play July BINGO and endeavor to check off boxes that ask them to, for example, “set up in the front row,” “bring a friend to class,” or “take a yoga class.” Again, winners get a prize, such as a Studio water bottle.

The Studio also supports the greater community. Because registered no-shows prevent other students from reserving a spot in class, Maeghan has had to implement a no-show fee. She has donated a portion of that fund to local organizations such as JAG, WISE, the Haven, the COVER store, and the Sharing and Caring food pantry. This year, The Studio will send an Amazon wish list link to students to purchase holiday gifts for families in need through the Hartford/Norwich Holiday Basket Helpers program.

The staff at The Studio work to create a joyful environment. It is a safe space where you can work on feeling better both physically and emotionally because, as Maeghan points out, “It can be tough out there.” You may struggle to get to class sometimes, but you will never regret going.