This is one of the top studios in Chicago.

Yoganow has excellent workshops and a very knowledge group of instructors with a wide variety of yoga classes. There are many very dedicated students and instructors at YogaNow that can be intimdating for new comers.

Reading the other review comments, it seems the one downside is getting yourself integrated. If you go to a beginners class and make it known you are new, you will very likely get a warm reception and extra attention. The owner if very well regarded in the yoga community on many levels. This is a long term studio to align yourself for yoga as well as other holistic endeavors.

I have been practicing yoga for about 3 or 4 years now, and I decided to come here to try something new. First of all, it's a nice studio, I'll give it that. The people however, are unbearable. I've noticed that its nearly all women all the time, and everyone there seems to have this air of "if you don't already know the answer to the question you're about to ask, you may as well leave." I felt very uncomfortable here, and would not go back. Definitely not for serious yoga students, as this place seems to care more about appearances and "the scene" than identifying students who really want to learn.

Every time I go to Yoga Now I get a new experience with staff who are friendly, helpful, non judgmental, and very knowledgeable. I love that each class I?ve taken has helped me learn more while building upon what I already know. The instructors I?ve had have always pointed out the benefits of each asana and demonstrated how to safely flow through them. They also stress the importance of listening to your own body and taking a comfortable pose if needed. Beginner classes truly are for the beginner while more advanced classes provide appropriate challenges.

I highly recommend checking this place out.

The inside of this shala is absolutely beautiful, but the staff are not as knowledgable as one might hope, or as knowledgable as other reviewers have indicated. Though it seems that the instructors are knowledgable to a degree, they don't seem very ready or willing to disseminate this knowledge. I tried a few basics and regular classes here with different instructors and it was obvious these instructors have no idea what they are doing. In every other basics class I have ever been to at any shala throughout chicago, they are always slower, more considerate of beginners, and cater more to issues that may come up with injuries, etc. None of these instructors even brought any of these issues up, and simply led us through the sequences of poses without so much as a sentence of background explanation. They would prefer instead to start class early and churn people out as fast as possible. Advice: Go somewhere where they actually care about you as a student, and aren't just set up to lead people blindly through classes.

I have been to a variety of Yoga studios in the Chicago area. While this studio is beautiful well maintained, it is not for new yogis. The atmosphere and people in the studio is pretty hardcore, and they are more focused on people who already know what they are doing. Many of them expect that you are there most days of the week. When I was just starting to learn Yoga, I had an instructor at this studio refer to me as a member of "the spandex crowd," with virtually no knowledge of how serious I was or how long I had been doing Yoga. It wasn't very appropriate or encouraging and didn't make me want to return to this studio. If you are new to yoga and are looking for a positive environment to learn your practice, look elsewhere.