Social Workout

Yoga Culture

The Greenwich-Hamptons-Manhattan Yoga Circuit

Yoga Beach (via KeralaTourism)

Gina Norman and Stan Woodman taught yoga in Manhattan for a decade, spent a few years teaching both in-season and off-season in the Hamptons, then transitioned to Greenwich where they founded Kaia Yoga. "When we were transitioning," Stan says, "There were some days when I would teach privates in each place." In part, because some of their clients had houses in the Hamptons, apartments in the city, and houses in Greenwich. So, we wondered, is there some sort of ritzy yoga triangle with ritzy yoga culture we need to know about?

Yes and no. Stan and Gina's insights on all three yoga hotpots:

• You get the most celebrities in the Hamptons. "Russell Simmons, Gwyneth Paltrow, they're out there, and they're taking classes. But when they're in class, it's very casual."
• No one does restorative yoga in the Hamptons. "You're coordinating around the beach, so there's no wiggle room in the schedule for classes that are more specific. It's basically all vinyasa."
• But in Greenwich, people love restorative yoga. And they only go to yoga when their kids are in school. "We have a lot of housewives. Our most popular classes are our 9:30 or 10:00 A.M. classes. Once 5 o'clock hits, it's like the town shuts down."
• In the city, you get more men in classes. In Greenwich, "Wives set up yoga privates for their husbands on the weekend." 
• In the city, there's obviously more diversity, in age, in style, in everything. Plus, night is where it's at. "It's always the evening classes that are the most packed and have the most energy." 
• In the city, you have juice bars and bodegas with health food galore. 
• In Greenwich, nada. "There's a lot of money, but not a lot of holistic health culture." (Stan and Gina are compensating with a juice bar of their own).