Discover the instructor-created group fitness class combining yoga with functional strength work.
In a 10-year span, Frances Flores had transformed from a professional dancer to an Equinox group fitness instructor leading barre, mat Pilates, yoga, and strength classes in Los Angeles. As she racked up fitness certifications across modalities, though, traditional takes on those methods just didn’t hit the same.
Flores felt an itch to create something brand new, a class that blended elements from multiple formats.
“I didn't want it to be like a traditional yoga sculpt class, where you use little dumbbells in a Warrior II — nothing bad with that, but that's already done,” she says. “There's already so many of those formats. I didn't want it to be just a yoga-Pilates format, either. I wanted it to attract a different demographic.” Specifically, members who were interested in both practicing yoga and enhancing functional movement patterns (e.g., squat, lunge, hinge, plank), she adds.
The result: Yoga Shape Up. The format officially launched in Clubs throughout Los Angeles in 2024 but has recently earned Flores the title of Equinox Studio Visionary, an accolade that celebrates instructors known for their unique programming.
The class begins with a vinyasa flow, a moment for grounding and connecting your movement with your breath. “It really becomes a moving meditation, and you are so present in that moment that nothing else matters,” says Flores. “You're breathing together. You're moving together. It's not about perfection, it's about the connection that you're cultivating.”
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Traditional strength exercises (e.g., squats, lunges), upper-body work, and core exercises come next. Members move at their own pace and rely only on their body weight and resistance bands to challenge their muscles. “The goal of the strength block is for everybody to master their own body weight — to be able to move better, not just in your workout, but to build the foundation to move better in life, like, get off the couch when you're 80 years old,” she says. The class ends with a series of restorative stretches, breathwork, and savasana to bring your body into recovery mode.
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Expect the music to sync with the block; beats that energize during the initial sequences, reggaeton, hip-hop, and Afrobeats that empower during the strength moves, and sound bath-style tones that help shift into recovery.
This combination of strength and stillness gives Yoga Shape Up a broad appeal. It’s a match for yogis who typically skip resistance training, as well as lifters who have never done a sun salutation. Members of all backgrounds, ages, and fitness levels support each other through the fiery resistance work and find relief together during the wind-down, creating a tight-knit community, says Flores.
“You have 30-plus people moving together, and to me, that energy, there's nothing like it.”
Book your first Yoga Shape Up class at Equinox Clubs throughout Los Angeles now.
Photos courtesy of Frances Flores.