By Ivan Pereira
For more than a decade, Zhana Galjasevic has enjoyed teaching various yoga and exercising classes around the city.
When she opened up her new studio in Astoria, where she has lived since moving from Croatia in the 1980s, Galjasevic decided to incorporate the most popular forms of the exercise to make it a one-stop shop for all her clients.
“There’s not a lot of studios in the city that offer hot yoga, regular yoga and pilates in one studio,” she said.
With nearly 5,500 square feet of space, the Yoga Room, at 38-01 35th Ave., there is enough to wet any energetic Queens resident’s appetite. The studio has three rooms for its main programs.
In the room used for hot yoga, which is growing in popularity across the world, the room is heated to close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Galjasevic said the high heat provides advantages to exercisers weary of wearing out their muscles during the exercises.
“Hot yoga is more static while [regular] yoga is more kinetic; you’re moving more,” she explained.
The Yoga Room offers dozens of classes based on the two types of yoga and pilates seven days a week for as low as $18 for a single class. With close to 30 instructors, who have screened thoroughly and have years of teaching experience, those interested can choose the program that fits their needs.
One such program is the prenatal yoga, designed to help pregnant women stay fit while they prepare to have their babies.
“Everybody can find something for themselves,” Galjasevic said.
Galjasevic caught the yoga bug shortly after arriving in New York. While working various odd jobs, such as a waitress, restaurant manager and graphic designer, the single mother said she always read about how yoga provided a great workout while relieving stress and decided to take a class.
“I went in and I loved it,” she said.
After years of practicing yoga, Galjasevic decided to become a teacher and eventually opened up her own studio in SoHo in Manhattan. Although the space had a lot of clients coming in week after week, the yoga instructor decided to bring it closer to home and moved the studio to Steinway Street in 2003.
Her classes attracted more students so she opened up a second studio in Long Island City and eventually moved her Astoria classes into the bigger 35th Avenue space in October. The secret to success, according to Galjasevic, is the relationship between the instructors and the hundreds of students.
“They say they enjoy it because it is like a community,” she said.
For more information on the Yoga Room, log on to www.the-yoga-room.com.
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.
