Herndon Yoga Studio Slowly Adds New Classes Following Coronavirus

HERNDON, VA — Like many other small businesses in the Herndon community, The Health Advantage Yoga Center was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

Susan Van Nuys, who has owned and operated the yoga studio at 1041 Sterling Road in Herndon since 2001, told Patch back in April her core business was walk-in traffic. That pretty much stopped when Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam ordered all non-essential businesses to close in March.

Just like other business owners, though, Van Nuys found a way to adapt and has managed to keep her business afloat through the state’s closure and the early stages of its phased reopening. Now that the state is in phase three, gyms and fitness centers can operate at 75 percent capacity, and recreational sports will have continued physical distancing requirements.

Van Nuys recently answered a few questions about how well her business has weathered the pandemic and the first three phases of Virginia’s reopening:

How has your business fared through Phase 2 and now Phase 3 of Virginia’s phased reopening?

We began offering online yoga classes and videos in mid-March and are continuing to offer them now. The response has been great, and we are grateful that our students have continued to take classes with us virtually. Over the past month, we have seen more students return to our live Zoom classes as they become more familiar with the technology. For those whose schedules do not allow them to attend a live class, we have over 200 videos of classes available 24/7. To better fit people’s interests, we’ve also added more classes in the past few weeks including a teen yoga class, another class on Saturday morning, and we added a weights section to our Thursday Gentle Yoga.

What changes have you been able to make in these new phases?

We are now selling yoga props with curbside pickup. Props make it easier to practice at home, and I expect everyone will need their own props when we reopen.

How would you compare your current state to pre-coronavirus times?

Teaching and taking classes online has been a big adjustment for everyone, and I think we all miss the in-person interactions. One positive has been that some people who moved out of the area are now taking classes with us regularly again, and people are joining us for classes while they are on vacation.

We offer 19 live classes a week and though this number continues to grow, it is only about a third of the number of classes we offered previously. I expect it will be quite a while before we will be able to offer as many classes as we did in pre-coronavirus times.

Also see …

This is one in a series of articles Patch is writing about small businesses in the area are responding to the coronavirus pandemic. Small business owners can also add their the name of their business to our list of open businesses in Herndon and Reston.

This article originally appeared on the Herndon Patch

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