Class styles
Our Interdisciplinary Approach
At Samatva Yoga we host a range of classes, courses, events and workshops in our lovely energy filled studios in both Kingston Downtown & West End. With our interdisciplinary approach, we cater to everyone: complete beginners, experienced practitioners, pregnant women, kids, teens and parents with babies. Each location hosts two studios, one hot (105 degrees + 40% humidity) and one room temperature (73 degrees). We have bolsters, blocks, straps, mats, blankets and everything you’ll need to make your class comfortable and enjoyable whatever the session. Mat & Towel rentals are also available.
Classes Explained
Take it easy on me.
Slow it Down
Ease into your practice, restore or simply just slow down! More time for aligning, adjusting and intention-setting.
Peace
Restore
Luna Flow
Yin
Yin + Yang
Yin + Restore Suspension Yoga™
Peace
A relaxed pace class designed to enhance mobility, decrease pain, and refresh the mind, body and spirit. Slow, fluid movements coordinated with the breath release tension and open the flow of healing energy within the body and the soul. Modifications are offered to facilitate ease of practice for every body. This class is perfect for those times when we may feel weak, fatigued or stressed from daily activities.
Restore
Restorative yoga is a calming and grounding practice that is a wonderful complement to cardio-based exercise or a vigorous vinyasa practice. Restorative practice invites you to let go, allowing gravity and the breath to bring you into a deep space of inner reflection and openness. Expect to melt away your stress in this one! This class is available for all levels.
Luna Flow
Enjoy an all-levels hatha class that focuses on hips and low back. Perfect for runners, athletes, women who are pregnant, as well as for anyone needing to give their hips and back a little love! Luna will include breathing, postures and relaxation so you leave feeling wonderful.
Yin
Yin, the feminine principle: dark, passive, receptive, reflective, withdrawn, cool, introspective. Yin yoga was developed to penetrate deep into connective tissue expanding flexibility and aiding healing while stimulating the nadis or meridians to loosen energetic blockages and increase energy flow. Yang, the masculine principle: light, active, outward and upward moving, hot, extrospective.
Yin + Yang
Yin/Yang Yoga is a class that balances the newly developed Yin yoga practice for the first half of the class with traditional Yang yoga practices for the second half of the class. This class can provide you with a practice that starts with deep, introspective, and quiet yoga that evolves into an energizing and uplifting yoga that sets you on your way for the rest of your day. Yang yoga is the more traditional hatha or ashtanga based asana practice that develops muscular strength, stamina, and flexibility.
Yin + Restore Suspension™ Yoga
++ No Pre-requisite Required.
Fun + Challenging
Challenge Me!
You asked for it! These classes flow from one posture into the next and will get the prana flowing.
Wake Up
Detox
Ashtanga
Energize
Sculpt Suspension Yoga™
Wake Up
Did you know that our body is the MOST honest first thing in the morning? The mind is at it's most still just having woken from sleep so morning is the traditional time to practice yoga. Greet your day with a moving flow which includes seated pranayama (breathing), variations of surya namaskara as well as postures to strengthen and tone your entire body and mind to set the tone for your day.
Detox
Ready to sweat? Detox Yoga is exactly what it sounds like - DETOXIFYING! Done in a room heated to approximately 105 degrees, this practice is based on a therapeutic, progressive sequence of demanding strength postures that will have you moving, breathing and sweating! Considered to be a more athletic style of yoga, this class will "push your edge" in the most rewarding way. The continual flow, linking movement to breath, produces heat and purifying sweat to detoxify the body and calm the mind. Hot yoga is a great way to build stamina and flexibility. Even iron will bend if heated enough!
Ashtanga
Ashtanga Yoga (often also called Power Yoga) was first developed by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and is an aerobic, muscle-shaping, mind-sculpting, physically demanding workout. Students move through a series of flows, moving from one posture to another to build strength, flexibility, and stamina. Room temperatures are often set high to promote detoxification through increased perspiration. Ashtanga often appeals to athletes and those who enjoy high-energy exercise.
Energize
The foundation of Energize Yoga is vinyasa, linking one breath to one movement. Create heat and energy in the body as one posture leads fluidly into another in a class that integrates balance, strength and relaxation. Energize classes are accessible to all levels and modifications are given so students can practice at their own comfort level.
Sculpt Suspension Yoga™
The foundation of strength is a solid core and conscious stability. Build a strong core – join our new class that focuses on workouts that will strengthen and challenge you to your core! Using your own body-weight in the Suspension Yoga™ Sling, our educators Gill & Jaime, will safely guide you through a series of exercise routines guaranteed to build strength and improve body awareness.
++ No Pre-requisite Required.
Alignment + Meditation-focused
Learn Something New
Take time in posture (asanas) alignment and breathing techniques (pranayama).
Sama-Set
Hot 26 + 2
Core
Yoga to Life Drums
Sling + Stretch Suspension Yoga™
Ashtanga Mysore
Sama-Set
Included in each class:
• monthly theme/yoga posture focus
• pranayama (yogic breathing exercises)
• guided mediation (seated or reclined | 5-10 min each class)
• yogic philosophy
Why this style? We need foundations. Theory can help us to create intention in our practice and then our experience integrates into our understanding. This class will deepen any students understanding of the yoga practice.
HOT 26 + 2
Modifications are offered to suit your unique body. Watch yourself progress as you deepen your practice and stillness with each class and you reap the benefits of repetition.
Core
We take the best from Hatha Yoga and Pilates to create a flow that allows you strengthen and tone your entire body with just one class each week. Yoga and Pilates are blended together to create an atmosphere that is complete for all fitness levels- from beginner to fitness enthusiast. Goal: Weight-loss, boost metabolism, total body conditioning and strengthen of CORE muscles- chest, abs, back and legs.
Sling + Stretch Suspension Yoga™
With the support of the Suspension Yoga™ Sling you will also be able to enter more advanced yoga poses that you may have never been able to arrive at before…safely. class you will leave feeling invigorated, inspired, relaxed and yes, even a little bit taller!
Perfect for beginners and floor based yogis alike, participants will discover how inversions and aerial movements decompress the spine, strengthen the core and achieve deep delicious stretches formerly only dreamed of. Enjoy foundational techniques that will enable you to feel comfortable, confident and at home in your Suspension Yoga™ Sling! Exploring partial + full intro-inversions, learning fluid sequences, moving with breath and your floating savasana cocoon to finish…Expect to feel relaxed, lengthened and strengthened as you learn to fly and decompress the spine!
++ We recommend this class style to all those beginning Suspension Yoga™. No Pre-requisite required.
Yoga to Live Drums
The soft beat of a Djembe drum can easily transform a yoga practice into a powerful experience that combines music, rhythm, the body and the mind. Drumming and yoga connect body, mind and spirit. Both are healing to the inner most parts of our beings. Drumming and yoga form a natural partnership. The vibrating resonance of the drum seems to pull the practioner deeper into the practice. The drummer moves energy into space while the yogini moves energy through the body. This is a pop-up class that will be on the west end and downtown schedules at various times, temperatures and days.
Ashtanga Mysore
Mysore is open to all levels, from absolute beginners to more experienced students. The class is NOT led and all instruction is given on an individual dasis. As you gain strength, stamina, flexibility and focus, poses will be added on to your sequence.
THE FORMAT OF THE PRACTICE ALWAYS REMAINS THE SAME. One always begins practice with Surya Namaskar, concludes with Padmasana and rest, and the various asanas gradually fill the space between these two poles.
YOU CAN SHOW UP ANYTIME WITHIN THE FIRST HOUR OF PRACTICE AFTER WHICH WE WILL CLOSE THE STUDIO'S DOOR. This way you will have enough time to finish your full practice by the end of the allotted time. If you are new to the Ashtanga Method, we will ask you to come at the beginning to get the full tutorial.
YOU CAN DEVELOP YOUR MEDITAITON PRACTICE BY FOLLOWING YOUR OWN BREATH. Ashtanga is intended to be a moving meditation. Led classes are a fantastic way to learn about the breath and the vinyasa, but Mysore-style is where you follow your own beath and deepen your focus and meditation skills.
YOU GET INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION. In any type of yoga we come across poses or aspects of the practice that are difficult and challenging. In a led class you may just skim over a difficult pose, but in Mysore style, you have the chance to work one-on-one with a trained teacher. Most people feel this individual attention helps their practice soar.
Learning yoga in this traditional manner benefits the student on many levels. It is possible for one to gain independence and confidence in their sadhana (spiritual practice), as well, something truly becomes on'e own when they learn it by heart.