Yes, "Buti" is pronounced the same as "booty". No, this is not your traditional vinyasa flow. Yes,…read moreyou have to park downtown. But all that aside, Raw Renewal Yoga is my newest place to practice the way I want to, and I absolutely love being able to absorb myself in a style of yoga that fits in with my personal practice.
For the unfamiliar, Buti Yoga is probably the most fast paced style of yoga I've ever practiced, and also the one that seems the least like yoga. You will move around. You will sweat. You will get the same mental high that traditional vinyasa yoga gives you. You will dance, and you will dance for joy. Most importantly, you will work hard. I suppose you could say all of that for all of Raw Renewal's class offerings, at least the ones I've tried.
Since Raw Renewal Yoga is so close to my office, it's been convenient to attend the lunch hour classes. Those classes are 30 minutes and you can get a lot done in that short time. Hour long classes can be found in the morning and after the work hours. If you're new to the studio, they offer a 2-week unlimited package, which I got in order to try as many classes as I could and decide what I liked the best. And there were many!
Buti Yoga is fast paced and kind of insane, so if you want to try something similar but a little slower, consider Buti Flow. During the lunch hour, I tried Buti Bands (resistance bands on legs), Fit Flow (think vinyasa yoga with weights), Sculpt (think HIIT style training), and Hotcore (done in socks for extra drag while you swing your legs all over the place). The lunch classes had similar styles, you would do a cardio type move, then stretch it out in a traditional yoga pose and repeat this for a few sets. Again I say, you can get a lot done in 30 minutes during that lunch break!
Megan is the studio owner, and she is extremely welcoming and helpful. I told her about my chronic shoulder injuries, and she has been conscious of it to the point where we were talking about certain yoga poses that may have caused my injuries and how we were going to build up my strength so that I could get back into them. How nice is that? I also took class with LauRen, who was great about getting me into a rotator cuff-friendly version of Hotcore (planks and I don't really get along anymore, so I did the plank moves on all fours and still felt it big time). I didn't make it to class with Mandy, but I've taken her class at Barre Centric a ton of times so I knew what I'd be getting into there, and I can absolutely see how she ended up teaching Buti Yoga!
I can't wait to get another pass to Raw Renewal Yoga. It's so wonderful to have another studio in town and a new style to practice in. See you on the mat!