Work from home. School from the bedroom. Virtual vacation from your living room. Yoga from the office? Why not? When my longtime color commentating expert Brad Fischer invited (or challenged) me to attend a Zoom yoga class through Sollid Studios in Owatonna with him and his co-workers with the Owatonna Area Chamber of Commerce, I was "all in." He pretty much embarrasses me on the golf course anytime I go out. I felt I could out-yoga him.

The reality is that I enjoy a good workout, but usually all I do is run. Doing a little something different would probably be beneficial. Plus with all of the sponsored runs I've signed up for getting canceled, I haven't done an "organized" event in a while.

Owners Katie Berg, Stephanie Hanson, and Katie Sollid, who led our class, only moved into their new location at 1400 South Oak in Owatonna in mid-December. And now with the closing of workout facilities due to the coronavirus pandemic, they are thrust into new territory.

In a phone interview Sollid said it was scary at first, but she has learned a lot and is finding new ways to market. She pointed out that out-of-town friends and family members of clients can join the Zoom classes. Sollid sees the business continuing an online presence even after the current healthcare crisis abates. She says they have created a library of recorded workouts that customers can use.

Online classes include fitness in addition to yoga, but Sollid said their venture into cycling has to take a break for the time being. She said she has upped her teaching skills by needing to plan better and be ready to handle the technical side of things. She started offering yoga in Owatonna in 2016 and then merged with Dynamic Fitness.

She says seeing the students at a Zoom yoga class can be difficult. I'm willing to guarantee that my form for our 11:30 am class recently was probably way off. I would likely benefit from being in the studio to be instructed on the proper way to perform each pose to get the most out of it. Maybe I'll improve next time, especially since I now know how to 'pin' her video on Zoom so I can see her better.

I still felt like I got a good workout and tried replicating a couple of the stretches after a weekend run. Maybe at one of the Huskies football games this fall, Brad and I can compare our poses during a commercial break.

 

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