Swansea yoga studio opening a 2nd place in metro-east. Offers hot yoga, retreats and more
A Swansea-based yoga studio plans to open a location in Edwardsville this year.
Go Yoga! Express, at 216-5 Frank Scott Parkway East in Swansea, offers yoga and hot yoga classes, infrared sauna and halotherapy, yoga teacher training and life coaching.
Owner Kellie Mathes said the second location will be in Edwardsville’s Whispering Heights community at 1010 Enclave Blvd. and open this fall.
Mathes said she and her family went to 1818 Chophouse for her son’s birthday in November.
She “really fell in love” with the area and came up with the idea to have a studio there.
Mathes said she has several students who moved to Edwardsville, so she’s glad to be able to offer classes and expand services there.
The new studio will have a similar floor plan and elements as Swansea, she said, adding that rooftop yoga classes will be held for the residents at Whispering Heights.
Yoga on the rooftop is just one of the multiple locations Go Yoga! Express holds yoga events.
Recent events include Yoga & Coffee at LongStory Coffee in Belleville, Yoga Then Mimosas at 1818 Chophouse in Edwardsville and Pups, Poses & Pints at Eckert’s Cider Shed in Belleville.
Later this year, Go Yoga! Express will hold yoga retreats in Belize, Mexico and Italy (Mathes is currently learning Italian).
She said through these events, the “idea is to … bring yoga into the forefront of the community” and share the benefits of the practice.
Mathes started practicing yoga in 2007 and has done hot yoga for 13 years.
In late 2011, she co-founded Yoga Core and More in O’Fallon as a way to bring hot yoga to the metro-east.
Prior to opening that business, Mathes and her then partners, Theresa Blomberg and Michele Taylor, drove to St. Louis to do hot yoga.
“I was the yoga teacher, and Michele and Therese were students,” Mathes told the BND in 2015.
“Michelle decided that we needed hot yoga in the metro-east. So the three of us had been traveling to St. Louis about four times a week, about 50 miles round trip doing hot yoga, and we didn’t have any hot yoga available in the area. So we decided to open a hot yoga studio.”
Mathes said she sold her share of Yoga Core and More to open Go Yoga! Express.
Go Yoga! Express opened in April 2017.
Go Yoga! Express in Swansea is located at 216-5 Frank Scott Parkway East.
Hours of operation vary. Class descriptions and schedules are available online at goyogaexpress.com.
For more info, call 618-416-5199 or visit the website or Facebook page.
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This story was originally published May 24, 2023 at 8:10 AM.
