A guide to the best yoga and Pilates studios across Melbourne
Image via @goodtimespilates/INSTAGRAM
Words by Fashion Journal
Strengthen your body and mind.
Whether you’re looking to tone your body, increase your flexibility or find some zen amidst the stress of everyday life, yoga and Pilates are great options for both exercise and mindfulness.
Originating in India, yoga stretches back over 5,000 years and offers a range of different styles. Pilates is a significantly newer practice (it was created in Germany in the late 1800s), however both focus on a combination of physical, mental and spiritual wellness to varying degrees. This is probably why yoga and Pilates are both appealing habits in the current age of hustle culture, internet dependency and general societal anxiety.
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As with any form of exercise, finding an environment where you feel safe and encouraged to pursue your personal goals is key. To help you out, here are some of the best studios from across the country – specialising in everything from calming meditation to intensive reformer Pilates to gravity-defying aerial yoga.
Casa Pilates
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Casa Pilates is all about mindful movement. A light, airy sanctuary tucked away from Fitzroy’s Brunswick street, you can choose from five different class types, with varying levels of difficulty. Sessions run for 50 minutes and are capped at 10 people, so you’ll get plenty of personal attention. Bring your grip socks, drink bottle and wear whatever you feel more comfortable moving in.
Fitzroy
Universal Practice
Universal practice is more than your average studio. Led by a team of physiotherapists, each yoga, pilates, strength, physiotherapy and meditation class is based on science, proven to make you feel better. Universal Practice has two locations across metropolitan Melbourne, keeping wellness within arms reach.
Locations in Fitzroy and Malvern
Good Times Pilates
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Intimate and encouraging, Good Times Pilates has three community-focused studios across Northcote, Brunswick and Fitzroy. You’re pretty much guaranteed to find a class you love, no matter your skill level or goals – whether you’re looking to feel the burn, stretch and chill or learn some action sequence-worthy stunts and skills. For those of us with a busy or unconventional schedule, the studio also offers an extensive library of online classes that can be accessed on-demand.
Locations in Fitzroy, Brunswick and Northcote
Upstate
Upstate is a fitness jack-of-all-trades. It has studios across Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, with a large range of hot Pilates, reformer, yoga and boxing classes at different levels of difficulty. Plus, its 30 days of unlimited classes for $59 intro offer is too good to pass up.
Multiple locations around Melbourne
Peaches Pilates
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Peaches Pilates is a collection of studios with spaces across Sydney, Melbourne, Byron Bay and the Gold Coast. From traditional mat to hot mat, barre and strength classes, you can pick the class that best suits your workout style, or opt for an online membership if you prefer an at-home workout.
Windsor
Core Plus
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Core Plus is almost like the mecca of Pilates and yoga studios. With almost 30 studios across Melbourne, it’s a safe bet you’ll be able to find a studio near you. Choose from athletic reformer, cardio strength reformer, hot mat Pilates, hot yoga flow (and plenty of other class types).
Multiple locations across Melbourne
One Hot Yoga
Hot (or Bikram) yoga is a practice designed to increase your heart rate for a more intense workout. One Hot Yoga offers classes in both hot and not-so-hot yoga, as well as combo yoga and Pilates classes for a bit of variety. Both its Melbourne and Sydney studios are welcoming, contemporary spaces with a focus on finding the right practice for you in order to refine both your body and mind.
South Yarra
Fluidform Pilates
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For a habit to stick, it has to be engaging and effective. Fluidform practices Pilates with that goal in mind, pairing its team’s in-depth technical knowledge with a warm, encouraging teaching style to keep people coming back again and again. A highly personalised program covers just about every fitness goal, from improved everyday function to injury rehabilitation to postnatal support.
Malvern
Happy Melon
Mindfulness plays a huge part in yoga, bringing the body and mind together to find calm and fulfilment. Armadale’s Happy Melon studio puts this idea at the forefront of its practice, integrating meditation into all its yoga and Pilates classes. Everything from the bright, aesthetically pleasing studio space to the encouraging team of teachers is designed to help you achieve zen in comfort.
Armadale
Good Vibes Yoga
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Combining the traditional tenets of yoga with a modern, aesthetically fulfilling experience, Good Vibes emphasises practices that benefit you both on and off the mat. The studio focuses on asana, but incorporates all eight ‘limbs’ of yoga to ensure you’re getting a holistic experience. The eponymous vibe is laid back, encouraging and positive, with the goal of empowering the health and wellbeing of everyone who steps through the door.
Collingwood
Club AM:PM
Unlike your typical club, AM:PM is for everybody, whether you’re a pilates regular or it’s your first time on the mat. Hawthorn’s newest pilates studio is the coolest kid on the block, featuring a ’70s interior with homely, warm touches. The studio offers full-body dynamic reformer and hot mat Pilates classes, allowing you to really get in touch with your mind and body.
Hawthorn East
Street Pilates
Located in Melbourne’s Bayside, Street Pilates is a new ‘low-impact, high-vibrations’ studio offering one-on-one personal training and fast-paced reformer workouts. If you lean towards a more intimate exercise experience, Street classes are more tailored compared to the standard Pilates practice. Book in for a strengthening, powerful workout.
Cheltenham
Little Mandarin Yoga and Pilates
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Little Mandarin Yoga and Pilates are making aerial yoga part of your weekly wellness rotation. Alongside reformer pilates, its Melbourne CBD, Burwood, Camberwell and Blackburn studios offer mat and aerial yoga classes for beginners, experts and all those in between. Mats and silk are provided, but if you’re trying aerial for the first time be sure to attend the aerial 101 class first.
Multiple locations across Melbourne
For more on the benefits of Pilates, try this.
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