3 Weeks at a Pasadena Vinyasa Yoga Studio: Pick Your Flow

One Life Yoga, at 553 S Lake Ave in Pasadena, runs All Levels Vinyasa at 12 pm every weekday, and new students who live in LA County can take three weeks of unlimited classes for $70. A single drop-in costs $33. The doors lock once class starts, after a three-minute grace period, so arrive early enough to climb the stairs from the back parking lot and roll out your mat before the teacher begins.

Reza Samadi founded the studio in October 2017, and Lizzie Pereira joined the following year. The two are now married, and the business is registered as MoreSamadi LLC, so this is a family operation rather than a franchise. The couple also own The Salt Studio, a salt therapy and massage spa that has been open since 2013. On its homepage the studio says it was voted 2025 Reader Recommended for Best Yoga Studio.

The about page describes the teaching as an "all of the above" approach that draws on Hatha, Vinyasa and Yin, with breath work and meditation layered in. That mix shows up in the floor plan. A Hatha Room holds up to 22 students, a smaller Calm Room hosts slower and mid-level classes, and a Meditation Room is kept for the 45-minute sits that Reza leads on Tuesday and Friday at 8 am.

The core class is All Levels Vinyasa, which the studio calls challenging but suitable for all levels, built on Sun Salutations and Warrior postures, with a sequence that changes with each teacher. In the week of October 26 it ran at 12 pm Monday through Friday, at 6 pm Tuesday, at 4:30 pm Friday and at 10:30 am Saturday. Lizzie takes the Monday noon slot, and most sessions last 60 minutes, which fits a lunch break.

Early risers get Get Up & Flow, a level 1/2 class at 6:30 am Tuesday and 8 am Saturday that focuses on alignment, strength and balance. Vinyasa Level 2 builds toward a single peak pose each week and is labeled intermediate-to-advanced, with sessions at 6 pm Thursday and 11 am Sunday. Elemental Flow on Sunday at 10 am blends vinyasa and hatha around one or two of the Five Elements, and Flow & Restore ends in long Yin holds.

One student quoted on the new student page wrote that the studio offers both heated and non-heated classes, which she called rare these days. The heated lineup includes HEATED All Levels Vinyasa at 7:30 pm Wednesday and 6 pm Thursday, HEATED Vinyasa Level 2 at 7:30 pm Tuesday, and the 75-minute HEATED OLY Flow at 10 am Saturday. No room temperature is published, so think of these as warm flows and not a fixed hot-yoga setting.

Here is the honest advice: skip HEATED OLY Flow on your first visit. Its description says the class moves somewhat fast, repeats a mostly set sequence and expects familiarity with basic poses, so a true beginner will spend the hour watching other mats instead of breathing. Start with Yoga Fundamentals, offered at 10 am Friday and 8 am Sunday, and then move on to Flow & Restore and All Levels Vinyasa, the same order the beginner FAQ recommends.

Booking runs through the Walla app, and the studio recommends reserving ahead because classes can fill. The cancellation window is one hour, and late cancels or no-shows are charged $10. Shoes, phones and bags stay out of the practice rooms, with cubbies and phone lockers by the entrance. Props are plentiful, a mat rental costs $4, and OLY Unlimited members rent mats for free. Livestream classes run over Zoom for days when you cannot make the drive.

For most newcomers the $70 intro is the obvious buy. It covers three weeks of unlimited in-studio and livestream classes, and the studio suggests taking at least eight classes in that window to sample enough teachers. After the trial, OLY Unlimited costs $155 a month on autopay and adds a monthly guest pass, while the 10-Class Pack costs $270 and lasts six months. The 5 Class Autopay at $115 a month suits a steady once-a-week habit.

The testimonials on the site come from long-term regulars rather than drop-in visitors. Bertha Garcia wrote that she first came for sciatica more than eight years ago and credits the early morning classes for keeping her at work. Joel Kutz said he had taken over 100 classes with more than a dozen teachers in two years. Maria E called the yoga-barre class one of the hardest she had ever done, including pilates, which is fair warning.

Weekday evenings and Saturday mornings are the pressure points. The studio stacks two classes at 6 pm on Wednesday and Thursday and runs three overlapping sessions between 10 am and noon on Saturday, so book those slots the night before. If everything is full, Yoga House, at 11 W State St, is a separate Pasadena studio across town with its own weekly classes, a Yoga 101 beginner workshop and a five-day morning immersion in early November.

Parking is in the Pavilions lot, reached from Hudson Ave or California, and you enter from the back of the building. A flight of stairs next to the credit union leads up to the studio, and one ClassPass reviewer called it steep, so allow for that if your knees complain. By train, Lake station on the Metro A Line sits at 340 N Lake Ave, under a mile north along Lake Avenue.

Bring your own mat if you have one, plus a water bottle, and pack a towel for the heated sessions, since the OLY Flow description asks for both water and a towel. Wear clothes you can move in and silence your phone before you walk in. Workshops and the New and Full Moon sound baths on Sundays at 7 pm are priced outside memberships, with member discounts. The studio also led a weekend retreat in Ojai from February 27 to March 1, 2026.

After class, walk a few blocks to Pie 'n Burger, at 913 E California Blvd, a counter diner serving burgers and pie since 1963 that still takes cash only. For a longer stroll, head north to Vroman's Bookstore, at 695 E Colorado Blvd, founded in 1894 and known as the oldest independent bookstore in Southern California, with The Next Chapter coffee shop inside. The owners' spa, The Salt Studio, at 1380 E Walnut St, is about five minutes away by car.