Class Descriptions

Santa Cruz Yoga offers 50 classes weekly for beginning to advanced students. Our outstanding teachers draw from a wide range of yoga backgrounds in their teaching, including Vinyasa Flow, Iyengar, Ashtanga, Anusara, Power and other forms of Hatha yoga.

The best way to get a feel for our different classes and teachers is to come try some classes. Read the teachers' bios to get a better sense of which of these styles they draw from in their classes.

Questions about classes? Send us or email or call us at 831.227.2156.

Level 1-2
Open to beginners as well as experienced students who want a moderately paced class. Most Level 1-2 classes are taught in the Vinyasa Flow style, offering dynamic movement with and between poses that generates internal warmth and helps the body to more naturally open. Level 1-2 classes focus on the fundamentals of basic poses, offering a well-rounded class emphasizing safe alignment, breathing techniques, and the gradual development of greater flexibility, strength and balance.

Level 2-3
Building on the foundation of Level 1-2 classes, Level 2-3 classes are for physically fit and experienced students. Each classes offers a variety of relatively complex and challenging poses, sequences and breathing techniques. These classes are taught in the Vinyasa Flow style, offering dynamic movement with and between poses that generates internal warmth and helps the body to more naturally open. Come  expecting poses, sequences and variations that require moderate strength and flexibility.

Vinyasa Flow
This is a dynamic style of yoga is all about precision amidst movement and ease amidst flow. Here we move from steadily pose to pose in coordination with the breath, gradually building deeper internal warmth as we explore a variety of Sun Salutations, Standing Poses, Core Integration practices, Arm Balances, Backbends, Twists, Forward Bends, Hip Openers and Inversions. Usually set to lively yet soothing background music, these classes offer a vigorous yet sustainable approach to Hatha yoga in which every part of the body is awakened, purified, tonified and brought into greater balance. Put differently, this appraoch integrates the best that Ashtanga Vinaysa and Iyengar have to offer.

Ashtanga Vinyasa
This is among the original "flow" styles of yoga and also one of the foundations for Vinyasa Flow, Power Yoga, and a variety of other styles. There are six levels in this practice, the first (called "Primary Series") being a fairly advanced practice. Originally taught to youth at the Mysore Palace in southern India, this vigorous practice links each pose to the next in a single breath, with most poses being held for five breaths. The flowing movement is coordinated with the breath, building deep internal warmth that helps to open the body and rid it of toxins. (Note that many teachers and even an entire studio in Santa Cruz offer something called Ashtanga Yoga that is not what the rest ofthe world understands as Ashtanga, instead taking their cues from the guru Baba Hari Das at Mount Madonna.)

Iyengar
One of the few styles named for its founder, in this case the legendary B.K.S. Iyengar, this style focuses on precise alignment and the use or modifications and props to make the asanas more accessible and safe. It was the #1 style until Ashtanga Vinyasa hit the shores of California, giving way to a variety of blended approaches such as Vinaysa Flow that have since become the most popular.

Anusara
This increasingly popular style started a little over ten years ago when a Texas-based Iyengar teacher named John Friend decided he wanted a more spiritual and dynamic approach, blending his Iyengar methods with the tantric spiritual practices of the Siddha Yoga Ashram he visited for years in India. With the slogan "aligning with the divine," this heart-centered practice gives very specific direction on bodily actions based primarily on Iyengar's methods.

Gentle Yoga
These “easy does it” classes are idea for anyone who wants a slow-paced class.  If you are recovering form an an injury, have a chronic condition such as osteoporosis, arthritis, sciatica, carpal tunnel syndrome or multiple sclerosis, or are limited in practically any other way, our Gentle Yoga classes are for you.

Pre-Natal Yoga
Pre-Natal yoga classes are for pregnant women who are new to yoga or want classes specifically designed for doing yoga while pregnant. All classes include breathing techniques, modifed postures (which vary by trimesterand special conditions), and meditation tools to help ease pregnancy, labor, delivery and post-partum healing and integration.

Kids Play Yoga
The name just about says it all. The Tuesday class is for 4–7 year–olds, THursdays for 8–11 year-ølds. is a healthy and fun after-school activity for kids ages 4-9. Offering lessons in creativity, self-acceptance, interpersonal skills, positive thinking, personal and environmental awareness, and (most of all) fun, the Kids Play Yoga classes offer your kids healthy tools for happier everyday lives!

Tai Chi Chih
Tai Chi Chih helps to circulate and balance the life force energy that flows within us through a series of twenty non-strenuous, soft flowing continuous movements. It's basically a moving meditation, and is simialr to yoga in its emphasis on relaxation, breath, and peace of mind. It can be practiced by people of all ages and any degree of physical ability. Each movement is repeated a number of times, making it easier to learn and enhancing its benefits.

Relax Deeply
The title just about says it all, but we’ll add a few more words. This class is all about pure relaxation, completely letting go of tension and stress. Free of standing poses and requiring only as much effort as it takes to occasionally change to a new position designed to more deeply release tension, this class is the perfect way to prepare for the coming week.