Liz Nierzwicki did not know exactly what to expect when she entered a Santa Monica, Calif., studio for an evening fitness class about four years ago. The Mishawaka native, who has always been an avid runner and dancer, placed her mat on the floor of the crowded room, where the instructor started calling out poses by candlelight.
“It was so dark you could only see the people right next to you, and when we did the tougher poses you could hear people breathing pretty hard,” Nierzwicki recalls. “I walked down the street after class feeling like I was floating. I had a light airiness and had no idea what it was.
It was yoga. A short while later she found herself purchasing three magazines: one dedicated to fitness, another geared specifically to yoga, and a magazine for entrepreneurs. Upon returning to the area in 2009, she enrolled at the Green Tree School of Yoga in Elkhart.
And last week she opened a business called Solace Yoga Studio, located at 620 W. Edison Road, Mishawaka, at St. Andrew’s Plaza. The studio can be found in the same shopping center as Bonefish Grill restaurant. It employs a manager and six yoga instructors.
Nierzwicki, who majored in marketing at Indiana University Bloomington and has worked for years in marketing and sales, believes she has found her calling. Over time, she’d like to open other studios under the Solace name in other parts of Indiana and surrounding states.
“I love to travel and there are so many big-city things in Boston and New York and San Francisco and St. Louis that I wished we had here,” Nierzwicki says. “And I have always loved spas so I wanted to make my studio spa-like. The name ‘Solace’ means relief and comfort.”
Solace encompasses a retail boutique that contains fitness apparel and yoga mats, locker rooms and showers, as well as a dedicated yoga room that can hold 45 people comfortably.
“I wanted a dedicated space where it is quiet. You can sit in silence and have no distractions here. You can help yourself focus and not be distracted by other noises around you,” she says.
The studio offers a variety of classes and levels, as well as something rather unique to the market: hot yoga. In these classes, the room is heated to upward of 100 degrees. “It’s our most popular class,” she says. “It’s a more dynamic active class, and the heat allows you to stretch a little deeper.”
Hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. General membership is $119 a month for unlimited yoga, or without a membership, classes are $15 each.
Bagging contest
Around this time last year, Kyle Perry, grocery bagger extraordinaire, made headlines for winning the Best Bagger competition at the National Grocers Association in Las Vegas. The title earned him $10,000 in cash, numerous prizes, and a guest appearance on “Late Night with David Letterman.”
On Feb. 14, South Bend-based Martin’s Super Markets is sponsoring two new state entrants to the national competition. David Smith, 31, who has worked at Martin’s for 14 years and is currently employed at the Granger location, will represent Indiana.
Mina Eskander, 25, who is currently employed at the Niles store, has worked at Martin’s for the past eight years and will represent Michigan. This is the first opportunity for both baggers to compete for the national title.