July 10th is the grand opening of GoYoga’s new location in Worthington, Ohio. After four years, this homegrown “mini-chain” of yoga studios now has 4 locations in Columbus. Marketing director, Chelsea Bragg, and owners, Zach Spafford and Alissa Rodgers, shared some of their past and future plans with me, and I also took a couple classes at the new location while it is in the “soft-opening” phase.
GoYoga Worthington, as Bragg says, “Has lot of character.” It is near the intersection of Dublin-Granville and Linworth Roads, in a 2 story building behind the corner BP and former Hoggy’s. This location follows “the master plan” that Go owners formulated years ago.
“People will flock to a good price point,” says Spafford. To keep overhead low, GoYoga started by subletting a karate dojo in 2011. They slowly built clientele and have expanded into larger spaces such as their premiere studios in Powell and New Albany. People come to Go from many places.
“I found them on Groupon 3 years ago,” says Bragg. “It’s not just a yoga class. Its taking part in a community.” She did the 100 hour teacher training program and, now she is the marketing guru for Go.
Among other achievements are having sizable sales of yoga goods, such as Spiritual Gangster. “Our clients kept saying, ‘Could you sell more clothes?’” Also, one of their teachers makes special mala-bead jewelry for the Go group. Rodgers and Spafford love growing the community and being a “people-centric” place.
Rodgers started practicing after the birth of her first son, to stay mentally and physically in shape. Through her work travels, she found Bryan Kest’s Power Yoga in Santa Monica.
“It just resonated,” she says. “He took the scariness out of yoga.”
Bryan Kest is famous for his non-Sanskit language and powerful sequences built on a serious study of Ashtanga yoga in Mysore, India. Rodgers loved the combination of pose, intention and breath and, she really encourages students to enjoy not just the poses but the intention of yoga.
We believe firmly that yoga is not about what you do on your mat, it’s about how you do it. Quality over quantity. It’s not about bending into pretzel like positions or standing on your head. Just because you are doing triangle pose doesn’t mean you are doing any yoga at all. Yoga is not intended to be just another fitness discipline. Yoga is not just the physical poses most Americans associate with yoga. So what it is then? Yoga in it’s true essence is actually the stilling of the mind and the yoga tradition consists of a set of tools to help you clear your mind and live a full life. At our studios we hope to provide you the space to learn and grow through these tools: the physical practice, meditation, breath, focus. Our classes include space for all of these components, with the hope that our clients will find the yoga within them. And we do this in a way that is relevant, not scary or cult-ish; a way that is welcoming to all however they show up – from beginners to advanced and everything in between, we welcome you to come and enjoy the many benefits of yoga and we hope we can inspire you to find your fullest potential!
-Alissa Rodgers, GoYoga Co-founder and Owner
Spafford came to yoga via meditation.
“I spent hours in my room doing fire breath with a Kundalini cassette,” he says. Rodgers’ pulled him into yoga classes. Eventually, he found his way.
“For me, yoga is therapeutic — in some ways better than having a massage therapist manipulate your body — when you yourself engage it is different,” he says. “You take responsibility for your body. I realized yoga wasn’t just a group fitness class. People are looking for something that will feed their soul.”
Certified through Yoga Alliance, Go’s teacher training programs are also taking off, including a 500-hour program that starts August 20th. GoYoga offers 100 and 200-hour programs, including a 100-hr in Belize, a 200-hr program in Sedona, and an intensive training in 8 days. Quite a few of the teachers at GoYoga have done their teacher-training programs.
The newest GoYoga location is in a former martial arts space on the second floor of 2246 W. Rte 161. A walk up the stairs brings one to a large room with several south-facing windows and a wide, wooden floor. Ample hooks and cubby holes are in the women’s dressing area. There is one, single-toilet restroom on the first floor, but, as it is small and rather basic, I suggest that you go before you go. The classes I took were nice Vinyasa flows of 50 minutes each with enthusiastic instructors -Spafford shared all of their teachers have 200-hours of training at a minimum- and the drop in price was $12. If you pre-pay online it is $9.99 for a 50 minute class and $12.9 for 80 minutes. Their packages are quite competitive. There are free loaner mats, too.
Good luck GoYoga! The grand opening of the fourth Go location will have a DJ party on July 10th at 2246 W. Dublin-Granville Road, Columbus, OH 43085. For more information, visit GoYogausa.com.
