Building to a climax with Flow Yoga

A session of Flow Yoga will, with some meditation thrown in, will keep you limber and relaxed
Tribe YogaTribe Yoga
Tribe Yoga

The treatment

A 60 minute warm Flow Yoga session with Jacob Mellish (pictured in the middle of this yogi sandwich) at Tribe Yoga, Edinburgh, 9am on Sundays (other times available). Classes are £10 each (or £6 for a beginners’ class), £47.50 for a set of five or £90 for ten (other price plans available). Mat rental and filtered water included.

Why go?

If you want to try a relatively fast paced yoga class that builds up to a climax, then gently slows down, Flow (otherwise known as Vinyasa) might be for you. This class takes places in Studio One, which is heated to a humid 26 degrees (they also do classes, like Power Hot, at 32 degrees in here). Or, if you’re averse to getting sweaty, you can try it in the normally heated Studio Two.

Our spy says

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This New Town yoga studio has cherry picked some of the best young yoga teachers in town, and South African surfer Jacob Mellish seems to be one of the most popular, if this packed out class (with, unusually, an almost 50/50 split of men and women) is anything to go by.

“Hello beautiful yogis,” he says, on entering the space, with its starlit ceiling and hot air blowers pumping.

The class starts with gentle ujjayi breathing (think Darth Vader), then, moving in time to an inhale or exhale, we’re up into our downward dogs, moving through into chaturanga (the plank), then upward dogs. It gets harder. Soon we’re flowing from warrior one to sun warrior, then triangle pose, then windmilling back down into the plank. These patterns are repeated, and repeated, until my legs and arms are trembling.

There are other sequences of moves that stimulate the core as they require balance, like the mountain pose that turns into a warrior three (like you’re a giant letter T, with one leg on the floor), then a standing split.

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Just when you think you can’t take much more, the pace is taken right down, and we finish lying flat on our backs on the mats, while Jacob talks us through some relaxation techniques.

The results

I feel longer and leaner after stretching out almost every single muscle in the warmth of this studio. I’m also extremely chilled after the meditation section at the end. Do one of these classes on a Sunday morning and I’d say you’re perfectly entitled to an afternoon spent on the couch/roast lunch.

• 71 Northumberland Street, Edinburgh, 0131-202 6022, www.tribe.yoga

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