Introducing our 700 club!

Miki & Karen are the honorary members of our 700 Club, having been members since 2017. They’ve done well over 700 classes on Punchpass (probably more if we count the year we used Mindbody software, or all the classes they did online during lockdown!)

We spoiled them with a celebratory lunch at Mandoon Estate, and then took 5 to ask them about their journey at Vital Beat...

KAREN:
I’ve done yoga since I was 10, starting with a school friends mum and then on & off my whole Life. I came back to yoga when I was pregnant with my son, but I was eventually practicing with a teacher that I stopped resonating with, but I really wanted to keep up my practice. A friend of mine Jo, started attending VBY. I saw “hip hop yoga”, and I thought ‘I don’t wanna dance, and I’m not sure about hip hop’ but then Jo said she’d really loved it. I went to Kaye’s class first in Jan 2017.

One of the things I love about Vital Beat is you don’t pick on people, you don’t single people out for not getting the form perfect. I’m lucky I live so close and I really have an amazing yoga studio right by my home. You do notice how warm and inviting the space is, you feel welcome to stay and hang out.

I wish people knew that yoga is for your whole life. A lot of people I talk to think it’s just stretching, that there’s not enough of a workout, but especially after a vinyasa I feel so strong! Yoga takes me out of my head, that mind-body-spirit thing, it’s not repetitive, there’s always a story to learn. I like maintaining my flexibility & strength and as an over-50 that’s really important to me.

This studio environment is next level, it’s not just the yoga that makes people come. The time I started at VBY coincided with my partner going to work overseas, and my son moved out the same time, so it helped me cope with being alone. The studio is about having that connection with others, and something for myself that I really love, I go get a hug and a chat, have coffee afterwards. Even during Covid and classes were online, I just missed sitting in reception!

MIKI:
My daughter is quite shy and she asked me to come with her to yoga when she was in year 12. We started with an ashtanga yoga studio beginner course and it was so so hard & rigorous and I was a bit shocked by it. I was going to the gym, but I was quite sad with a glaucoma diagnosis and she pushed me to do yoga, to do something for myself.

Then I found another studio, but I was injured badly there so I had to take a lot of time off and was in immense pain. I couldn’t do yoga for 6 months and I missed it so much, but I had a tiny crack in my spine. I was too scared to go back to a studio and I almost gave up on yoga, even though I loved it. I had developed PTSD from my accident and my Psychiatrist encouraged me to return to the mat. My physio was amazing and went to yoga on my behalf to see what was required in a class, and developed exercises to help me rehab so I could go back to yoga again. I couldn’t do downdog or a chaturanga I was so scared of reinjuring my spine.

I wasn’t going back to that old studio but with help of my daughter I found Vital Beat, and did your trial. I felt very comfortable, everybody wanted to talk to me.

Before my injury, yoga wasn’t enough for me, I wanted more cardio. After my injury I understand how important yoga is for me. Without yoga I can get sad and caught up in my emotions, and my body feels so tight, yoga helps me let that go.

I love yoga more now, that I’m at Vital Beat, than I ever had before. My husband is jealous, even when it’s his day off I still say “I have to go”.

#humansofVitalBeat #HOVB