“This is a nice wow,” said my yoga pal when she saw the entry space at Yoga Six in Upper Arlington. With its gleaming surfaces, cheery front desk staff, and neatly organized retail, Yoga Six says, “We are clean, fun, and ready to serve you!” Amenities abound at Yoga Six, and they have a variety of one-hour yoga classes. Yoga Six is another of the “chain yoga” fronts opening in Columbus that is changing the local yoga scene.
I took four classes at Yoga Six (introductory month pass $49) since their opening in UA, and found the service and amenities very nice. Located across from the Lane Avenue shops, the two studio rooms have lighting from large windows with white scrims, and very large mirrors reflect the light. There is a novel HVAC system that gives an even heat and takes some of the usual odors out of a hot yoga room. The Zebra mat floors are so squishy that you could practice without a mat.
[Related: Read about the duo behind the Columbus locations of Yoga Six]
“We tried to think of everything you need to have a positive yoga experience,” said Meghan Rolfs, formerly of Abercrombie and Fitch. They not only have many rental and retail items, but also there are showers, fluffy towels, and lockers with built-in cell phone chargers.
Yoga Six also has plans to create a mentally comfortable place. They encourage feedback via their Yoga Six app, which appears as a spreadsheet for the local management. Teachers asked every student individually about injuries before each class I took. Classes are conducted in English so as not to intimidate students with Sanskrit terms. They used positive imagery at the end of every class that I took. I particularly enjoyed a Deep Stretch class, which was very upbeat.
The heat was over 90 degrees F. in the hot yoga classes that I took. The flow was brisk and the hour was well structured. Yoga Six has some teachers from out of town here temporarily, including Alece Demaray who trained with Cyndi Lee at OM Yoga in NYC, and Elena Schneible from San Diego (who gave everyone in one class foot massages), as well as hired special local teachers like Laurel Hodory.
Yoga Six has ambitious expansion plans for the U.S. yoga market. The founder of Yoga Six, William Koman Junior, is a successful real estate developer and philanthropist in St. Louis and San Diego who came to yoga while recovering from lymphoma. Yoga Six opened first in San Diego then in St. Louis. Later this year, Yoga Six will open another Columbus studio in the South Campus Gateway area near The Ohio State University.
While there are lots of physical amenities and other nice things about Yoga Six, I felt there were a few places for improvement. I was confused about registering for a class on their website using a mobile phone, until I found that you must use the Yoga Six app. I noticed on the website they charge fees for a no-show or for cancelling a reservation less than an hour before class. Yoga Six is one of the few yoga studios in C-bus that has a strict no-cell-phones-in-the classroom policy, but since they always have at least one staff member at the front desk, they will mind a phone and fetch you out of class if the need arises. Finally, Yoga Six is a bit pricy with a drop-in $20, but their membership prices are comparable to the higher priced studios in town, and you there are a lot of amenities available at Yoga Six, such as showers and towel service, that are unavailable at other yoga studios in Columbus.
In July, Modo Yoga opened in Columbus. Yoga Six will open a second location at OSU soon, and CorePower Yoga will open two locations shortly. These chain yoga studios are bringing some different standards to the Columbus yoga scene, and it will be interesting to see how they fare.
Photos by Nancy Alkire.
Visit Yoga Six in Upper Arlington at 1600 West Lane Avenue, Columbus, OH 43221. For more information, visit Yogasix.com.
