This is what the Berkeley's new rooftop yoga class is like

Frankie McCoy tests out London's latest yoga offering - which promises to be a summer hit
Frankie McCoy4 June 2018

Whale music and chakra-scented candles are all very well for helping you contort yourself into yoga poses.

But for real mood-boosting, mind-clearing meditations, you can’t beat sun-saluting the actual sun, outside and high above London’s madding crowds — and with the promise of a luxury swim in one of the city’s loveliest pools to follow.

Enter The Berkeley, which is launching rooftop yoga classes for the summer months in its secret seventh-floor mini-garden.

Everything is designed to make you feel as comfortable as possible. No scary paperclip-shaped instructor here; instead, Phoebe Greenacre, the Aussie founder of athleisure brand Silou and the yoga instructor leading the twice-weekly classes on Friday and Saturday mornings. She doesn’t presume expertise but wants you just to take the time to chill out and child’s pose your way out of anything too strenuous. A maximum class size of six means this is practically a personal training session, with Greenacre free to correct your every badly twisted bend.

Which is good: I am not a yoga person. I smash HIIT classes to ear-bleeding music and run 10kms fast, and alone. The idea of slowly gliding through slinky vinyasa surrounded by die-hard contortionists is pure anathema.

But the Berkeley class takes a perfectly do-able 45 minutes. Even better, it fuses different techniques into a flow class at a perfect level for non-yoga types with an impulsive desire for bendiness. It’s not too back-bendy or headstandy or wrap-your-big-toe-around-your- elbowy. There are sun salutes, but not too many of them. There are chaturangas that get the heart rate up and the arms shaking, but they’re soon over.

Free and low-cost yoga in London

1/8

There are poses that work your core hard so that you feel your abs click on, without feeling like you might, in fact, die. There is also the best bit of the class – the shavasana (ie, lying down at the end), eyes closed against the sun’s glow while Greenacre wafts deliciously lavender-smelling oil over your head. Freshly made berry smoothies afterwards complete the sense of wholesomeness. And those who don’t have to sprint off can upgrade their bliss with the luxury package that includes a round of protein balls, bowl of fruit and a half- day in the pool.

Treat yourself and strike a pose.

From £65 for class and post-workout smoothie, the-berkeley.co.uk

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