CorePower Georgetown is a solid standby for a down and dirty hot yoga class. The music will be loud, the classes will be short and you’ll feel like you got a good stretch in. With classes that are all yoga and others that include some weighted strength training exercises, CorePower lets you choose just how much you’re trying to sweat. Ample showers and rentable mats and towels make CorePower the perfect studio for the busy professional.
Yoga sculpt should really not be called “yoga” anything. One round of Sun A and one of Sun B with weights does not a yoga class make. After our very quick “flow,” the remainder of the class was broken up by body part. There was a bicep song, a tri/back song, two squat songs, a push-up song, a cardio song, a core song, two bicep curl-lunge songs, and some burpees at the end. While we did move through a few Vinyasas between the static weight lifting, for the most part, we just did one exercise with a few pulses and holds in each song. The class felt like barre meets intro weight lifting but with way lighter weights and much less variety. While the 95 degree room and ample sweating made us feel like we got a good sweat in, in reality we were a bit bored and didn’t feel like we were worked that hard. Right as we began to transition into the stretching cool down portion of class, two-thirds of the class just packed up and left. We’ve never seen something like this happen before and the cool breeze for 30 seconds was not our ideal end of class.
Rebeca taught a fine class and we appreciated her high energy at 6am. With the variety available in a Yoga Sculpt class, the exercises to choose from are endless. Unfortunately, Rebeca chose more basic moves, which left us a bit uninspired. The exception was that bitch of a seated hover where she made us sit on our heels and then lift up and hover our butts one inch over them. We’re still sore from that one two days later. She successfully projected above the music (albeit by yelling), which is often an issue with CorePower. Her cueing was decent, but she definitely was more focused on doing the workout with us than assisting with helping us dig deeper. She oddly gave time checks when we had 7 minutes left and then 5 minutes left, and ended class with, “You’ve been in savasana for one minute,” which took us out of the moment. She opened and closed class with a short reading which also felt a bit misplaced with the high energy of the class.
As a hot yoga studio, CorePower benefits from having four showers stocked with (bottom shelf) amenities. The CorePower Georgetown location also doesn’t have many locks for their locker room, so plan to bring your own or leave your stuff unattended. In line with others in their field, they charge $2 for a towel whether you’re using it for class or for a shower afterward. Anytime we need to BYO, we’re not happy about it. Who has room in their gym bag for a damn full-sized towel? On the apparel side, CorePower excels, featuring clothing from lululemon, Spiritual Gangster, Alo Yoga, and Beyond Yoga. There are two studios at this location, each with a mirror that may help with form correction, but which can also be a bit jarring the first few times. For classes, the sign-up policy is to just show up, which can mean a dicey game for the post-work crowd trying to get their stretch on without leaving work really early.
1055 Thomas Jefferson St NW, Suite L14A & L14B, Washington, DC 20007 Georgetown Yoga $$$
CorePower Yoga Georgetown
Georgetown Yoga, $$$
1055 Thomas Jefferson St NW, Suite L14A & L14B, Washington, DC 20007
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CorePower YogaYoga
Maybe it was just us, but from the time Laura started class, we got the feeling that she was new. For a class size that small, we were confused by the minimal hands-on adjustments she offered. Her flow was strong, but the core section was particularly short for a studio seemingly rooted in core work. Though she sometimes stumbled a bit over her directions, her cueing did help us to dig a little deeper.
CorePower YogaYoga
Sometimes a supportive and energetic teacher can really make us excited to take class, and Joy is one of those teachers. She gave hands on adjustments throughout while offering a nice mix of demoing in front of the class and then walking around. Unfortunately, it was really hard to hear her since she didn’t lower the music at all when she was giving instruction. This left us relying on regulars for cueing and made us lose the groove of class. Though thorough and high energy, Joy did end up going over time in class, which was fine for a Sunday afternoon but not ideal for a pre-work morning class.
CorePower YogaYoga
Yoga Sculpt can be be described as weighted strength training for yogis. We started class with sun salutations and a normal flow, and from there built on the flow by adding in weights and individual strength training songs. They weren’t the toughest reps we’ve knocked out, and sometimes the yoga component felt a little forced (like when we were doing pseudo shoulder presses while in star pose). We did work out most muscle groups during the class, and felt like we got to stretch a little bit at the same time. The two cardio songs threw us off though, since we were expecting to just focus on muscle strength. In a 60 minute class, we appreciated that we really moved the whole hour. That said, we started our cool down at minute 61 on the dot, which meant that the cool down and stretch made the class go over by a few minutes.
CorePower Yoga
In a world where getting a reliable and sweaty yoga class can be hard to find, CorePower stands out. At 60 minutes long, the level two class offered enough movement and stretching that we walked out feeling like we had a solid workout without having dedicated a ton of time. C2 is the chain’s more advanced class, meaning we got to try deeper variations of poses and were able to flow on our own. The room was heated and it got very sweaty up in there, so dress accordingly and most definitely don’t forget your towel. It’s not necessarily the hardest class we’ve ever taken, but between the heat and the good music, we’ll keep this one solidly in the rotation.
