New Columbia yoga studio offers energy transfer and help with your golf swing
For the last few years, Josee Madison has gone from home to home in northeast Richland County giving private yoga lessons to her neighbors. Finally, she decided there was enough demand for yoga in the area to start her own studio.
On Friday, Palmetto Yoga holds its grand opening at Sparkleberry Crossing off Clemson Road, offering aspiring yogis a place Madison hopes they feel comfortable honing their skills.
Many of Madison’s clients told her they were reluctant to take their yoga practice to an organized class, because it would mean doing it in front of other people.
“They say, ‘I won’t look cool, I have no idea what I’m doing, I can’t touch my toes,’” the yoga instructor said.
So Palmetto Yoga will offer a weekly beginners’ class, plus classes with more specific focuses. There will be one for people with back problems, plus courses to help tennis and golf players improve their playing muscles. (Madison notes her studio is in-between WildeWood and Woodcreek golf courses.)
“I did some target market research,” Madison said.
But Madison says she wants to keep her yoga classes tied to the discipline’s spiritual origins.
“It’s not gym yoga,” she said.
The 52-year-old has been practicing and teaching yoga for years, but decided to open her own studio when her husband retired from the Army and she could settle into a permanent business.
Friday’s grand opening will begin with a welcome at 6 p.m. and a 7 p.m. class featuring “singing bowls” that create musical notes when played by rotating an instrument around the rim. Such bowls are often used to accompany meditation and chanting in some Buddhist traditions.
Alongside its yoga classes, Palmetto Yoga will also offer by-appointment sessions of reiki, a Japanese alternative medical practice that transfers energy from a practitioner to a patient through the palms in a massage-like setting.
This story was originally published November 14, 2019 at 3:46 PM.
.jpg)