Well at home spotlight: Power Move Yoga
As we adapt to our new normal, many people search for a sense of community through work, family, and friends, whether in-person or virtually. For fitness instructors, the sense of community they’ve established through their career and studios has been disturbed by COVID-19 and the resulting quarantine. Some participants prioritize virtual classes with their favorite former studio instructors, while others are taking time off from their regular routine. Many are reassessing what classes and studios they want to invest in now that the investment is digital.
So where does this leave instructors? That’s where Power Move Yoga’s mission shines through. We spoke with Heather Hartel and Loulou Gaget, two certified yoga and yoga sculpt practitioners, who want to make yoga empowering for both the students and the instructors, as well as motivate their students to take donation-based classes. They developed Power Move, a virtual yoga studio that offers dynamic pricing, so students can pay anywhere from $10 to $35 to flow wherever they find themselves and their mat.
And while the vision to develop a virtual studio was inspired by a necessary quarantine, Heather and Loulou have found benefits they didn’t think possible, including being able to reach a large number of students at any given time, practicing all over the world.
“I feel like the most successful and incredibly inspiring days have been when I’ve [said], ‘Okay, now from Canada to Ohio to California, everyone take a deep breath together and close your eyes.’ It’s been really dope because every one of my friends and people in my network that used to be my regulars are now bringing their friends … even people who have never done yoga before.”
Power Move offers yoga sculpt, beginner to advanced flow, restorative flow, meditation, and even high intensity interval training (HIIT) among other classes. And as a part of their goal to empower instructors both financially and physically, Loulou and Heather don’t restrict what the instructors can teach in any given class.
“Anything that our teachers want to bring to their classes, we welcome and invite. The really exciting thing about being a startup and hiring teachers who are independent contractors is that they can design their classes. No one is getting into a rut of teaching the same thing over and over, everyone is experiencing creativity, and we are learning ourselves that we’re powerful instructors,” Heather said.
While their collective of instructors doesn’t teach to a regimented curriculum, Loulou and Heather are confident they’ve cultivated a group that shares values, is well-trained, and is both trauma aware and mental-health aware.
“We were all trained in a way that kind of gave us the tools to teach from an absolute beginner all the way to an advanced yogi. So different classes may feel like different levels, but we welcome anyone to any class.”
In an effort to be even more movement-inclusive, Power Move instructors conduct class over video meeting rather than Instagram Live or recording. This way, they can chat with their students before and after class, and offer modifications, corrections, and encouragement throughout.
“Something that’s really special about having the live classes is that it creates a studio feel. People come on the call and chat about their days, and then stay on the call for 10 or so minutes after and regroup. And now my communities from high school, college, New York City, and more have all merged together and are recognizing each other when they never would have met in other circumstances.”
Laura Pachnos, a yoga, HIIT, and dance instructor who formerly held a popular Power Move class, “Toned & Tipsy,” (yes, students were encouraged to use wine bottles as weights, considering weights were temporarily out of stock on multiple e-commerce sites), found unique ways to connect with her students despite their physical distance.
“Following up with students, I’d ask them, ‘okay, next time what song do you want to hear in a playlist, what movements do you want me to work on, etc.’ That way I held myself accountable to bring that to class the next time … we started developing deeper connections that way, too.”
Deeper connections are at the center of the Power Move experience. Opening a studio, even virtually, during a global pandemic felt remiss to the founders if it didn’t give back to the community and world as a whole. Teachers choose where they want the money from any one of their classes to go, and Power Move as a company donates 100% of the proceeds that teacher would have earned toward the organization of their choice. In their first week alone, Power Move raised over $500 to benefit multiple organizations including Doctors Without Borders, Reclamation Ventures, OutRight Action International and CAST. And while we talked on May 15, following the protests and demonstrations in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, Power Move instructors have chosen to show solidarity and support and donate proceeds from their classes to organizations including Black Visions Collective, Black Lives Matter, Know Your Rights Camp and more.
“Our donation-based classes are the number one thing we’re proud of that we worked on,” Loulou said, noting, “You just want to have something that allows people to recognize they got a physical benefit, and mental benefit, and their money is going toward something that means something for the teacher and student.”
We were, of course, naturally inclined to ask about this mental benefit. Yoga, at its core definition, originated as a Hindu spiritual discipline, a part of which, including breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practiced for health and relaxation. And while Power Move instructors are free to utilize what they’ve learned about yoga instruction and incorporate it with other fitness practices, we wanted to recognize how the mental health of those who found their careers in flux, was affected, and how their physical practice assisted their mental wellbeing.
“Mental health during this time is something I’ve personally struggled with,” Laura said. “I flip the verbiage so it’s not, ‘I have to do this,’ it’s ‘I get to do this, I get to teach.’ That’s something that’s been really powerful for me.”
Using positive physical experiences to shape mental perspective was something Heather resonated with as well. “As a person who has been an athlete all my life and now, since graduating college, has discovered other ways of finding joy through movement, the integration of mental and physical health is really crucial for me as a person.”
Loulou and Heather also both mentioned how starting a business during the quarantine gave them a deeper sense of purpose. While they considered owning a yoga studio or founding a company to be something 10 or more years in the future, realizing it could be a reality amidst a global pandemic was, in a way, exhilarating. “Our mission really does come from what we want and what we want to give,” Lou Lou said. “To be able to create a business that’s benefiting us and benefiting the people that we love and care about and then also serving thousands of people we don’t know through donations … it’s really been a dream.”
Throughout November, Power Move Yoga is offering a multitude of payment & subscription options so that you can find your favorite way to flow. This includes $9.50 Video On Demand (grab it before this offer expires at the end of November!) & a variety of charitable Thanksgiving sculpting classes.
*Starting in August 2020, Power Move Yoga began offering subscription-based payment options in addition to their continued dynamic pricing model. Participants can now book month-to-month unlimited class access, annual unlimited access, unlimited access to the Power Move class library, as well as combination packages. For the most recent payment options, visit the Power Move website.
