Yoga has long been practiced in Uruguay. However, as in many countries, self-care, wellness, and emotional balance have gained more attention recently, to combat daily stresses. The result? There are more Uruguayan yogis and more yoga studios in Montevideo than ever, to help people find a better balance in life – both figuratively and literally. These are the best yoga studios in town.
Ticky Yoga
Yoga Studio
This yoga studio is only one year old, but it’s very popular already. Its young founder, Mariana Vega, known as “Ticky,” studied in India with some of the best gurus. Her yoga classes have an important component of meditation and breathing, as in any yoga practice, but she devotes more class time to these techniques than most. A regular practice starts with breathing, followed by several asanas, and ends with a deep relaxation. Food is also a key factor to her yoga, as the studio operates in a vegetarian gluten-free restaurant that prepares delicious healthy dishes every day.
This yoga studio is part of the Art of Living foundation, a wellness program with a presence in most countries. Yoga practice is a huge part of Art of Living’s principles, along with meditation, breathing techniques, and different workshops meant to help people find happiness in everyday life. In these ways, the yoga studio emphasizes yoga as part of a healthy mind and body. They even have yoga classes to train future instructors, so it’s a great place to hone your practice.
This studio – one of the most popular in Montevideo – is one of 80 Sivananda centers all over the world, and is part of a foundation created in 1976 by Swami Vishnudevananda. Their lessons are aimed at different levels and conditions, so there are sessions for beginners, children, pregnant women, elders, and advanced yogis, every day of the week. During Saturday mornings, there are also free trial lessons for beginners and on Sundays, anyone – not only yogis – can experience a guided meditation of an hour and a half.
This yoga studio follows Swami Satyananda Saraswati and Behar School of Yoga’s system. As with other studios mentioned here, Satyananda combines yoga practice with breathing and meditation, but they have a particular way of seeing this discipline, more like a process that changes people with the passing of time. The yoga sessions are meant to help people go deeper into their personalities and deal with issues in their everyday lives. The studio also has gentler yoga sessions for elders or people with chronic conditions.
Asteria Yoga specializes in Vinyasa yoga, which involves lots of powerful flow and faster movement from one asana to the other. Founder María Macarena Varela studied in Scotland, Greece, Denmark, and India, and has traveled the world teaching this discipline. Macarena’s sessions are held in a different location every day of the week. On Monday afternoons, the practice takes place in Montevideo’s Club de Golf del Uruguay, and on Monday nights in Amartesana – the same restaurant where Ticky Yoga studio is located. Apart from yoga lessons, Asteria Yoga also organizes yoga retreats to numerous destinations throughout the year and workshops for families, companies, and sport teams.
Located in the Parque Rodó neighborhood, Alma Libre (which means “free soul”) is a studio that views yoga as a tool to help people deal with routine and daily external factors that they face and can’t control. The studio doesn’t specialize in just one yoga style – instead, yogis can try different types and instructors, until they find the one that best suits them. They offer Thai massages as well, meant to heal the body and soul. Alma Libre also has a healthy coffee shop and a store that sells everything any yogi would want.
Dalí is not exclusively a yoga studio, but an arts center where many different disciplines are taught. Yoga is one of them, and Kundalini yoga sessions, with teacher Diego Alegresa, take place here twice a week. Kundalini is a type of yoga that focuses on a greater understanding of the world and the mind, so a session typically combines asanas, pranayamas, and mantras. Though for Kundalini yogis, yoga is conceived as a physical practice, their main goal is to find relief and emotional balance.
