ALTON — River Bend Yoga is moving to a larger location in April.
Currently at 202 State St., it will relocate to 100 W. 3rd St. in the former Tony’s banquet center at the corner of Piasa and 3rd. The move will allow River Bend Yoga have three rooms to conduct three classes at one time, providing more space for the popular 6:30 p.m. time slot.
Owner and certified yoga instructor Vicky Delaney also will move her River Bend School of Yoga, now in a leased space at Mineral Springs Mall, into the 3rd Street space. Delaney, 60, of Godfrey, opened River Bend Yoga in 2014 thanks to a surprise from her son, Mike Weller, who owns AP Cigar Co. at 501 E. Airline Drive in East Alton.
Weller’s help also allowed his mother to move River Bend Yoga into its new 4,700-square-foot space. Delaney earned her yoga certification in 2012. She taught here and there, working as a yoga instructor at various places.
“My son, who bought the building of the present studio location, had walked past, saw it was for rent, called, went in, took pictures, sent them to me, and said, ‘Mom, here is your yoga studio,'” she said. “He had leased the space and paid the first six months’ rent.”
A manager at an industrial repair facility, Delaney had planned to open a yoga studio when she was nearing retirement from her day job. But she found daytime studio help and opened in June 2014. She taught, independently, various kinds if yoga once she was certified — including goat yoga at a Brighton farm and paddle board yoga in Alton’s Ellis Bay.
“I’ve done so many different things trying to keep things fresh and new. But some don’t want that,” she said. “They just want a normal, sedate type of class, and we offer those.”
River Bend Yoga has no set hours; a class schedule is pinned at the top of its Facebook page. Folks can walk in, but reservations are recommended for all classes; use private messaging at River Bend Yoga’s Faceboook page which is monitored by Delaney and her granddaughter, Emily Weller. .
An Alton native, Delaney moved to Godfrey in 2016 and graduated from Marquette Catholic High School. She grew up in Fieldon and attended Jersey Community High School.
“I will be 61 this year, and that gives me a little bit of a difference since I started yoga in my 40s,” she said. “It gives the balance and all we really need as aging Americans.
“I was able to flourish and thrive with a wide variety of classes and instructors, all Yoga Alliance-certified by at least 200 hours,” she said. “A lot of our instructors have 500 hours and I have a wide variety of classes from beginner to yen yoga to tribal dance, called buti, and power yoga.”
River Bend yoga has a full roster of classes and employs three buti yoga teachers. Beginners’ yoga is at 10 a.m. Saturday and 5 p.m. Wednesday.
The word “yoga” means “to unite” and refers to the fusion of body, mind and spirit through meditation, breathing and physical postures. The postures were developed to strengthen the body, improve health and prepare for meditation.
“Nobody ever said they wish they hadn’t gone to a yoga class,” Delaney said.
At its new location, River Bend Yoga will occupy the entire first floor of the former Tony’s Restaurant’s banquet center. Weller also bought the building.
“He knew I needed to increase space, so he bought the building,” Delaney said. “I also have River Bend School of Yoga and have been renting space at Mineral Springs in order to not shut down the State Street studio for one week during those classes of instruction for teaching hours.”
Weller has been rehabilitating the 100 West 3rd St. site for the last year.
“He’s done the build out,” Delaney said. “We had no bathrooms or water on our side. It’s been a long rehab and it’s just about finished now.”
The new location also will have a full ayurveda kitchen, a nutrition science related to yoga based on an individual’s dominant dosha, eating specific foods, which includes dietary changes and yoga classes.
“It’s preventative health care, like, if wheat affects you, you learn to cut out wheat,” Delaney said. “Cooking is only part of it and the ayurveda classes to go with our Yoga Teacher Training program. We’ve always have had an ayurveda class on weekends.”
Delaney’s Yoga Teacher Training consists of a 200-hour program sanctioned as a legal school with the Department of Higher Education; tuition is tax deductible. The training is accredited through Yoga Alliance, considered the governing body of the yoga industry with more than 7,000 registered yoga schools and more than 100,000 registered yoga teachers.
“We will very soon be working on our 300-hour certification,” Delaney said. “Five hundred hours is optimal, 200 hours touches all the bases, and 300 hours is advanced; 500 hours is considered very well educated.”
River Bend Yoga also offers aerial yoga and aerial certification for 200-hour certified teachers, which requires about 40 to 60 hours of additional certification. Aerial fitness and aerial yoga classes use fabric, rigging and safety precautions to strengthen and stretch the lower body for a much better work out, Delaney explained.
“We do yoga poses with aerial fabrics,” she said. “Aerial yoga helps strengthen lower body strength, particularly in females, which you can’t get by pulling down. Most females lack in lower body strength, and aerial yoga rounds out the whole yoga body experience.”
Amanda and Jeff Alred of White Hall swear by River Bend Yoga, and Delaney specifically. Jeff Alred, now retired, had four back surgeries and started doing yoga at the recommendation of a physical therapist.
“There’s no judgment when you do yoga at River Bend Yoga. No judgement,” said Amanda Alred, a special education teacher. “They don’t care what anyone can do. It’s changed our life. We drive an hour to come here, and I set up an entire yoga room at my home since I’ve come to River Bend Yoga, with Vicky Delaney.”
Paper pamphlets on River Bend Yoga are in the studio’s box outside its bay window at 202 State St. in Alton. Visit River Bend Yoga’s Facebook page for more information.