Brokelyn

Photo by sporkist.

Maybe you’re a first-time yogi, maybe you’ve posed in the past and just need a little push back into your old transcendent ways. Whichever, there’s no time like the present to touch your toes and feel that surge of spiritual energy that leads straight to stress-free well-being. And forget the fancy studio with blasting A/C. Do it in nature, under the trees, with Yoga Sole’s free Sunday-morning yoga classes in Prospect Park. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s yoga with your mat touching your sweaty neighbor’s, your arms touching uncomfortably in Warrior 2 and the instructor concentrating only on the pregnant lady. Then there’s Brokelyn-RAFFLE-OF-THE-CENTURY yoga: a private lesson on a rooftop, plus a free week of group yoga, courtesy of the good people at goodyoga. Win this one, and you’ll enjoy a one-on-one session with co-founder and vinyasa instructor, Flannery Foster, hailed as one of the city’s best. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by Melissa Scott

We love Midwood Martial Arts & Family Fitness Center, the slightly misnamed karate-yoga-gymnastics-family-fitness-and-recreation hub on Avenue H. Sunny and clean studio, zero pretension, excellent instructors, friendly neighborhood vibe, etc. etc. etc..

We also love the owners: Alison and Alfred, who are so nice they belong in some small town somewhere (ignore the fact that small-town friendliness is often overrated). That’s why we’re thrilled that they’re colluding with us on a little deal exclusively for Brokelyn readers: Alfred and Alison have agreed to offer a very limited number of 10-class cards for the unreasonably low price of $85 (normally $140). That means each class is just $8.50. Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve resolved to get in better shape in mind and body. You’ve also resolved to spend less money. You have not resolved to start running outside when it’s 10 degrees. (Maybe next year.) For yoga aficionados, January is the season of deals—and have we got one for you! Actually, you’ll have to wait until next week to find out about Brokelyn’s exclusive offer of unreasonably inexpensive yoga, dance and family fitness classes at a studio we LOVE. In the mean time, here’s a sampler of what’s in various other neighborhoods around town, and a tip: take the money you save and buy a mat now. Rental is always about $1, which quickly adds up to the price of just buying your own, and you’ll never have to wonder what else is sharing the mat with you.  Read the rest of this entry »

Tyler Sussman and A.J. Block of the Didge Project, featured on Well+Goodnyc.

Whenever we find out about a promising new blog that has to do with Brooklyn, affordable anything, or a combination of those two, we feel the need to pass along the info. So here’s Well+Goodnyc, a new site dedicated to helping New Yorkers find accessible ways to feel, as the name suggests, well and good. Though the blog covers all of NYC, it has some fun Brooklyn-related items already. Currently, their top story is a feature on the adorable lads behind The Didge Project, a healing-through-didgeridoos org that we’ve been meaning to do something on. (Can someone PLEASE bring didge yoga to Brooklyn?) Read the rest of this entry »

The mint Cape Codder at Anima. Photos by Eric Reichbaum.

Clinton Hill certainly has its share of alluring little traps that can easily sabotage the neighborhood cheapskate. For example, Elly’s Market (So cute! So much variety! Oh my god I just spent $60!) or Barking Brown boutique, where the funky patterns might hypnotize you into dropping a week’s pay on a tank top. But even in Clinton Hill, deals abound if you know where to go. From Park Ave down to Atlantic, Vanderbilt Ave on east to Classon, Clinton Hill is a prime territory for stoop sales. But the deals don’t stop at your neighbor’s trunk of disco-era suede jackets, as I found out on a recent weekend exploration: Read the rest of this entry »

Papacito's, home of the $1.50 taco.

ASME is the American Society for Magazine Editors. Add another ‘S’ to that, and you’ve got ASSME: the American Society for Shit-Canned Media Elites—a support group and material pool for pink-slipped members of the worlds of word and pictures.

On the ASSME blog today, Brooke Moreland (she’s Broke to us!) writes a fun piece about a whole day’s worth of cheap-o activities you can do in Greenpoint, starting with handball ($1 if you don’t have any of the equipment already), moving on to $7 yoga, $1.50 tacos at Papacito’s, and ending with a 7-and-a-half hour drinking marathon, planned for those with plenty of experience imbibing in the middle of the afternoon and consisting of over half the day’s $25 budget. You’ll have to read the piece to find out where to get $2 pitchers and so much more. Bravo, Ms. Moreland: a day well spent, and with plenty of unemployment-check change left over.

[via the skint]

Photo by iStock

A reader wrote in to ask where to find affordable yoga in town. A reasonable question: the going rate in Brooklyn is $16-$20 per class and $135-$175 for a 10-class card—expensive. I’ve grappled with this problem as well, and solved it in various ways: through trial-class discounts, Brooklyn yoga meetups and a few good DVDs.

I especially love Bikram yoga, and a lot of studios—say, Bikram Yoga South Slope—offer a “30-day challenge.” You pay for a month unlimited ($175), you go 30 days straight, then you get the next 30 days free. It can be tough, yes. But the financial incentive is huge. Read the rest of this entry »