When entrepreneur Josh Masimore heard that Russian Hill’s storied Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe church was up for auction, he knew immediately what he wanted to do with it. He had to turn the former Catholic sanctuary at 906 Broadway into a new temple for the mind, body and spirit.
“This gorgeous venue was just sort of sitting empty,” he said. “And so I figured why not do yoga?”
Now, the 117-year-old church, which was once owned by a Russian oligarch with ties to Vladimir Putin, has been reborn as Yoga 906. The new yoga center, opened in recent weeks, offers practitioners the opportunity to om under the church’s celestially painted domed ceilings or power through a vinyasa flow as Zen world music bounces off saint-adorned stained glass and ornate marble surfaces.
“There’s a spiritual element to the church,” Masimore said. “It’s definitely a special space that looks beautiful.”
The studio holds a handful of sessions per week at various times—check Meetup or Yoga 906’s website for class times—but is aiming to ramp up to a full-time schedule of five to six classes per day in the weeks to come.
Interestingly, Yoga 906 isn’t the only church in town to offer yoga lessons, nor is it the only spectacular spot to practice your downward dog and tap into your inner yogi. Here are four more gorgeous places throughout San Francisco where you can bow down to beauty and say, “Namaste.”
📍906 Broadway, Russian Hill
🔗 yoga906.com
🎟️ $15
Try out your temple pose at Temple Immersive
When this downtown San Francisco space is not a nightclub, it turns into a yoga studio—and it recently brought back its popular immersive yoga classes for a new season. On select days and times, the yogi side of the space repurposes the party den’s 4K LED screens, turning the dance floor into a Zen oasis for perfecting your tree pose or calming your mind with video projections that range from cosmic to psychedelic. Tuesday’s Interstellar Power Flow turns the ceiling into a starry red solar system, Wednesday’s Ocean Slow Flow immerses you in an underwater world with images of crashing waves and Thursday’s Desert Canyon Practice will transport you to an iconic national landmark.
“It’s like doing yoga in the Grand Canyon,” said Darian Gemora, Temple Immersive’s community manager.
📍540 Howard St., Downtown SF
🔗 templeimmersive.com
🎟️ $38
Spread your wings with Outdoor Yoga
Few places in the world offer backdrops as beautiful as San Francisco’s. With Outdoor Yoga, you can hit your best pose in front of some of the city’s most iconic landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, the Ferry Building and in the grassy fields of Golden Gate Park. The open-air yoga classes at Baker Beach, along the Embarcadero and Hellman Hollow, not only feature wireless headphones so you can tune into the instructor’s voice and calming ambient music.
“From the beginning, we’ll orient toward just where we are to our environment,” said Outdoor Yoga’s founder Julianne Aiello. “Unlike a studio, where sometimes people feel a little intimidated or watched, you can really take up a lot of space.”
Sometimes, the classes will even be swathed in the city’s signature fog, which “is really quite magical,” Aiello said.
🔗 outdoor-yoga.org
🎟️ $33
Heighten your senses at New Mission Yoga
Since 2001, New Mission Yoga has been known for its intensely hot hot yoga classes, which will have you dripping with sweat by the end of a workout. The sauna-like sessions—tucked behind a newly renovated lobby complete with a custom shrine to the Virgin de Guadalupe and artwork by local artists—are heightened with groovy, multicolored mood lighting and trippy music deejayed by the instructor.
Twice a week you can, let’s just say, tap into your higher self with the studio’s one-of-a-kind Hot Box Yoga class ($42). It’s pretty much what it sounds like: a yoga class mixed with a—one could say—-herbal-smoking session. You’ll run through 26 hatha yoga poses and deep breathwork while feeling the elevating effects of your favorite plant ally. (There’s a state-of-the-art filtration system, in case you’re worried about ventilation.)
Participants can light up of their own accord before, during or after class—“It’s totally come as you are, do as you please,” said instructor Gabrielle Nayale—but the goal of the class is to bring like-minded yogis together in a beautiful space, especially after the pandemic.
“Everyone’s lifting each other up in there,” New Mission Yoga proprietor Steve23 said.
📍 2415 Mission St., the Mission
🔗 newmissionyoga.com
🎟️ $10+
Lift your spirits in a literal cathedral
Twice a week, Nob Hill’s magnificent Grace Cathedral invites members of the public to lay their yoga mats on its sinuous stone labyrinth and set their intentions at the feet of this place of worship’s soaring columns. Live world music by local musicians—playing everything from Himalayan singing bowls to didgeridoos—bathes the space in sound, putting participants in a spiritual state of mind regardless of their practice level.
“Yoga studios and gyms are great places to practice, but they’re typically more small, austere,” instructor Darren Main told San Francisco Standard media partner ABC7. “When you’re doing a Sun Salutation in this beautiful gothic space, you really get a sense of your place in the universe.”
📍1100 California St., Nob Hill
🔗 gracecathedral.org/yoga-2
🎟️ $15+