At a Glance: 

Website: http://www.evokeyoga.com/
Address: 212 W 7^th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90014
Length: 60 minutes
Price: 1 class/$18, 10 classes/$150, month unlimited/$99 with year commitment, $135 with no commitment
Sweat scale: high
Energy level: medium

Us Angelenos—and I can say that now that I’ve been here exactly a year ;)—love to stay in the vicinity of our own neighborhoods. Venturing outside means dealing with traffic and parking, two things that induce way more anxiety than necessary. When I was going to be downtown for work, I decided to take advantage of this momentous occasion and book a class in the heart of Los Angeles.

Pre Sweat

I’m pretty sure if you exercise in DTLA, you live or work in DTLA. After driving around the block a few times—which is WAY harder when most of the streets are one way streets—I decided to bite the bullet, suck up my pride and shell out $6 to park in a lot. The garage near CVS, next to Evoke, was $8 initially but literally when I walked the block from my lot it had gone down to $5.50. It all depends what time you go. The meters also vary in price depending on street—around $3-4 an hour. I left my keys with the guy and headed to the studio where I filled out the waiver and topped off my water bottle. In all the confusion about parking, I left my mat in the car, but they let me forgo the $2 rental fee because it was my first class. I changed in the changing room, put my stuff in a cubby, and headed into the studio where I grabbed 3 and 5 lbs sets of weights.

Sweat

We started with some light flows including plank, Chaturanga, and downward dog. Then we moved into arms where we did a variety of push-ups and used our light and heavy weights to work our triceps and biceps while kneeling. If you’ve never been to a yoga sculpt class, you should know that it’s more of a hot strength class with bumpin music. Next, we kept the light weights and continued with a lot of lunges, squats, pulses, and planks. When our arms felt like jello, we moved into a short cardio section including jumping jacks and high knees, and then ended with abs on the mat. I welcomed savasana with sweaty but open arms when it was over.

Post Sweat

Craving a cold juice after such a hot hour? Head across Spring Street to Juice Crafters (open daily from 7 am to 7 pm). Turn left on Spring and walk up one block to find my favorite LA taco joint, Guisados. Opt for the sampler for a set of six mini tacos and quench your thirst with the horchata mixed with cold brew, my personal go-to. Also nearby is The Last Bookstore—an iconic DTLA landmark—where you can peruse their extensive library of books and score your next good read in their $1 room. If you have some time and it’s light outside, check out Bottega Louie for amazing macarons (3.5 blocks away) and Grand Central Market for a huge assortment of food kiosks (5 blocks away).

Tricks of the Trade

• Definitely bring a yoga mat towel (or a bath towel) to class; the studio is HOT.
• Coco always gave modifications and levels for each exercise.
• There are no showers so make sure you don’t have anywhere important to be afterwards.
• This area isn’t the best if you’re alone and it’s dark outside. There are a lot of homeless people shouting to themselves…and others…so just be aware of your surroundings at all times.