Link to the original interview
[Wendy teaching] A few minutes today to change your attitude, downward facing dog, combining cardio flow strength training.
[Courtney] Welcome to Texas Today, I'm Courtney Gilmore, if you're looking for more ways to get moving and feel more alive look no further than this studio right here. ALIVE isn't your average fitness studio it's a whole sensory experience!
[Wendy teaching] How you feel on the inside is how you look on the outside. And the sweat is flying. Life is short and we're doing this!
[Courtney] We're here with Brandon Hartsell who is the CEO of ALIVE, this amazing studio, Brandon thank you so much for having us.
[Brandon] Thank you!
[Courtney] Tell me what is Alive?
[Brandon] ALIVE is a full sensory fitness experience and it's designed to get you a fully immersed in the environment. We've got yoga, Pilates, barre, and fitness classes and it's for all levels.
[Courtney] So you say immersive what does that mean?
[Brandon] "Immersive", a full sensory experience, is achieved when all the elements of the environment invite you to be fully in the moment. For your Mind Body Spirit, your whole life, is just in the moment, in the now.
[Courtney] Right, when you walk in you notice something different. There are lights lining the hallways. Talk about what a person experiences when they walk through the door.
[Brandon] If they experience what we want them to experience then everything starts to calm down. We're trying to make all those elements work for you so that your whole body, when you come in here, starts to relax, starts to get in the moment. Leave the other stuff behind so that you can really have a break from your day, and really have a true pause in the day, whereas everything tends to have continuity in your day. Usually, by the devices and stuff we're on we're always in that mode. This is going to cause that break and really bring you back into yourself.
[Wendy teaching] Expand! Expand! Expand!
[Courtney] I love the tagline too outside it says, "inhale the present exhale the past", tell me about that.
[Brandon] That's really about being in the now, being in the moment, not in the future, not in the past, so you just let that stuff go and be here and now.
[Wendy teaching] One more time inhale lift, good relax the forehead, bring it down.
[Courtney] Talk to me about the space, when people get into these yoga classes this is a different yoga experience though. How is it different?
[Brandon] Yes we infuse two things: we have the audio and visual elements in here, and lighting elements as well.
[Wendy teaching] Last one, bring your hands to the floor, and come to plank position, your wrists are underneath your shoulders.
[Brandon] So when you come in you're going to notice that you have all this instruction going on the background on these giant screens, and then those instructors that are on the screen, they're providing the basic level stuff for all levels. So they're using their skills and knowledge of what they've seen before to present different levels to people. So no matter what level you're at, what your skill level is, you're going to have somebody on the screen representing [your level]. But then we also have coached classes so they're in there at the same time.
[Wendy teaching] Down and lift, tap and lift, Alicia Rose, you got this, do it, do it! Jennifer looking good. Nice pace. Getting that tempo in the body.
[Brandon] [The coach] can now focus 100% of their attention on giving you individualized instruction instead of spending 90% of their time delivering the base content.
[Courtney] Oh! I love that, so you can start at any level?
[Brandon] Any level, yes, but when you do come to a coach class they have all their attention, not on trying to just give you a basic experience, to give you a personalized experience the basic experience is taken care of.
[Wendy teaching] And the more you do this sequence the more you're going to start to learn how it flows, and it'll get better every time.
[Brandon] Regardless of what class [you attend] that really comes from our experience in teaching yoga, so it's all grounded in the way that we carefully go about instructing yoga. So you'll always feel that element, they're really all yoga classes, but they fall into [different] categories so that you have a different experience. But because we come from that yoga background you're going to feel that undertone of the intentionality and mindfulness of a yoga class.
[Courtney] Okay, and background, what's your background in yoga, why do you love it so much?
[Brandon] Why do I love you so much? I got a job back in 97, on the West Coast, and I was looking for a fitness place. I had always been active in fitness and played basketball. So I was looking for a gym but the neighbors were going to yoga and they invited me. And, yeah, it was just the story where I ended up loving the yoga very much, and it was very challenging, it challenges the body in ways that I just not ever had before, it was good for my posture, good for my shoulders and stuff that had kind of suffered in other sports.
[Courtney] But also good for the mind too well!
[Brandon] Yeah for sure! I mean that's the number one thing. People can go for any number of reasons but ultimately you go because it changes what's happening inside of you. It's that true break right, think about that, you just don't get that anywhere else anymore.
[Courtney] Tell me about the instructors here what makes that experience unique with the different teachers?
[Brandon] Yeah so the ones that are on the screen, we chose because they were really good at demonstrating the variety of different levels, they look good on the screen because you can really see what's going on with what they're doing; the nuances and the differences. And, you get that feeling that, OH!, not everybody has to be doing exactly the same thing, even though everybody's doing stuff that's in the spirit of the same thing that's going on.
[Courtney] How many people are in the class roughly?
[Brandon] It varies throughout the day because we have classes starting every 30 minutes, since the classes start every 30 minutes, you're going to have classes that hardly have anybody in them, all the way up to 10-20 people in the class; just depends on the time of day.
[Courtney] How can people sign up?
[Brandon] Just go to www.alivestudios.fit. We've got a trial month, you get unlimited classes for 24.99. If you like it we hope you'll stay!
[Courtney] Thanks so much, Brandon.
[Brandon] Thank you!
[Courtney] And if any sign up for your next yoga class, you can go to alivestudios.fit.