The heat is on for students attending local yoga studio
By Shari Kaplan
One wall is lined with mirrors so that students--and teacher--can see what others are doing, and from all angles.
On another wall is painted a large aum or om--an ancient, sacred Sanskrit meditation symbol found in Buddhism and Hinduism and said to represent the sound of the universe being created.
This is the home of Yoga Source, the second studio in the area to bear that name--the first is in Palo Alto. Linda Schlamadinger opened the Los Gatos venue this March, after working at the Palo Alto Yoga Source for founder Christina McLeod. Before Schlamadinger became a teacher, she was, of course, a student herself.
"I wanted to do something physically challenging, but not high impact. Yoga is just the opposite--you're stretching, not compacting," Schlamadinger says of what drew her to yoga many years ago.
"I did it once and I found my religion!" she recalls, chuckling. "I wanted to engage in physical activity that also had a little more meaning."
The décor of the Yoga Source helps set the mood. The ceiling--all 120 or so panels--is lined with slender bamboo matting, while the open windows are hung with fiber mesh blinds, thus giving the effect of an island hut rather than the upstairs of a N. Santa Cruz Avenue building above a busy nail salon and beauty parlor.
For Schlamadinger, discovering the satisfaction of yoga--and later, of running a studio--came after traveling a convoluted path. The daughter of an Austrian father and Bulgarian mother, she grew up in Europe. As a willowy teenager--she is now 6-foot-1--Schlamadinger lived in Paris for three years, working as a model.
As a young woman, she came to the United States, answering the call of California. After earning a bachelor's degree in business management from Menlo College in Atherton, she worked as a portfolio manager for a Palo Alto venture capitalist firm until she was laid off in October 2001. While having lunch with Schlamadinger and hearing her job woes, McLeod suggested she head up a Yoga Source in downtown Los Gatos.
"I'd heard of Los Gatos before, but I didn't really have a concrete idea of where it was," Schlamadinger says with a sheepish smile. "So I came down here, drove around and fell in love. You still have the cosmopolitan feel of the Valley, but you don't have the pace. Also, you have the beautiful [Santa Cruz] mountains." Los Gatos is now her home.
Falling in love is also how Schlamadinger says some students feel after trying Bikram, the type of yoga that Yoga Source is known for. Sometimes called "hot yoga," Bikram consists of 26 yoga poses, carefully selected from the thousands that exist. Bikram's nickname stems from the fact that the air in classes is heated to between 96 and 115 degrees Fahrenheit.
Schlamadinger, who heats her classes to around 105 degrees, says there are many reasons for this, the primary one being that heat relaxes muscles and connective tissues, which allows greater range of motion and less likelihood of injury.
"Bikram is something people either love or hate," says Schlamadinger, who adds that the heat also helps participants build willpower and concentration.
"The first session can be brutal," she admits. "But you start to notice improvements by the second time around. By the third time, you're hooked."
Yoga Source, whose instructors also teach Ashtanga yoga, is at 227-C N. Santa Cruz Ave. For more information, call 408.315.2096 or visit www.yogasource.com on the Internet.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
