Hip and Shoulder Opening Workshop at The Om Yoga Show London

The Om Yoga Show took place on the 24th-26th October and as part of my partnership with Om Yoga Magazine, I got tickets to go along.

I also paid for a workshop (£10) which were taking place over the weekend, along with the free classes and demonstrations.

The show was held at Kensington Olympia and the hall was packed with stands!

This is just a quick sample of some of the brands I stopped to check out- if you were looking to purchase yoga mats, yoga clothes or tasty healthy treats then this was definitely the place to be!

Fortunately I already have a yoga mat and a pretty respectable collection of workout clothing, and while I was tempted by the gorgeous looking leggings, they were a bit too pricey for me.

I taste-tested lots of samples from the different food brands, but having recently purchased a box of the new Nakd Bakewell Tart bars didn't really need any more snacks. I did pick up a couple of the Christmas Pud flavour to try- they're good!

I did buy some Yogi Tea, one of my favourite brands- I love the little quotes on the teabag labels- and tried some Pukka tea flavours as well. They were running a competition to win £500 worth of Yoga Matters products, although it has now sadly ended and I didn't win...

Yoga Matters
Yoga Matters had a large "shop" area in the centre of the show, exhibiting their colourful selection of yoga mats, props and books.

I have one of their sticky yoga mats, which I can highly recommend, and picked up a matching yoga strap as well to help with my home practise. They were doing some good deals on class size sets of yoga mats if you're a yoga teacher, and 3 for £10 offers on some of the smaller accessories.

These guys were the ones giving out the awesome gold feather tattoos that you saw in the photo further up the page!

They had a pretty cool stand, one of the nicest decorated that I saw, and are a London based company designing yoga clothing and accessories.

If you've been looking for a gym bag that looks nice enough to carry out to dinner afterwards, these guys are the perfect solution!

I've been lusting after a GymTote, but they're pretty pricey, so Mia Tui offer a cheaper alternative. Their bags come in loads of different colours, and you can pack quite a lot in! They have multiple pockets, clips for keys, airline travel compliant clear plastic bags, and a coordinating clutch bag that you can remove to use separately.  

Movement for Modern Life
If you're a fan of home yoga practise like me, then check out Movement for Modern Life. Their website is an online yoga community, with hundreds of yoga videos from the best teachers in the UK, and some of the top studios in London including Blue Cow Yoga and Hot Power Yoga.

The Movement for Modern Life website

You can select videos by level, style of yoga, which area you wish to target, and how long you want to practise for.  And if you sign up now, you get a 14 day free trial!

This was supposed to be led by Leah Kim, but we were told at last minute she couldn't make it, so it was covered buy a friend of hers, Ryan Carldon-Miah. Ryan is a Budokon instructor in LA, a discipline that mixes Yoga with Martial Arts. As such the nature of the workshop also changed, but I decided not to cancel, and was quite intrigued to see what was in store.

Ryan was obviously a very fit yogi (he did the class with his top off!) and to be honest, it wasn't a particularly beginner friendly workshop despite being billed as suitable for all levels. There was lots of nervous laughter from the participants when he demonstrated some of the flows, so I was glad I wasn't the only one finding parts a bit tricky! He also didn't really show alternative options to poses, and had a habit of saying "this is easy!" a lot....

Having said that it did start off manageable, with familiar flows that I could keep up with. And I enjoyed doing something a bit different- Ryan incorporated a lot of Budokon style moves, which were challenging but interesting to take on something new. A 90minute class for £10 is a bit of a bargain too, even if it wasn't quite the relaxing Hip and Shoulder opening I was originally expecting, I still had fun! 🙂