One of the greatest things about Seattle in the summer is that it’s much easier to take advantage of all of the fun – and often free – events and activities taking place all over the city, when the weather is cooperating at least. One popular summer series is back at Seattle Center starting today – free summer fitness classes!

Every Tuesday starting today, June 21, the Seattle Center will be offering a free evening Zumba class from 6 to 7 p.m. on the Fisher Pavilion rooftop. The class will be taught by Brooklyn Dicent of Brooklyn Zumba. From the press release:

Zumba® Fitness is a dance-based class that fuses Latin and world music in order to inspire 60 heart healthy movements. Absolutely no prior dance experience is necessary. The steps are easy to learn and continuously repeated. Water, a towel, workout clothes, and wear comfortable sneakers are suggested.

Every Wednesday starting tomorrow, June 22 the Center will be offering a free lunchtime Gentle Yoga class from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on the Exhibition Hall lawn. This class will be taught by teachers from Queen Anne’s own Home Yoga and Wellness Center. Attendees are asked to bring their own mat. From the press release:

Gentle Yoga allows participants to gently stretch their bodies and breathe stress away while enjoying lots of fresh air. The class focuses on fluid movements to increase range of motion and joint and muscle flexibility. A yoga mat is required.

Each series will run every Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, through Tuesday, August 23 (for Zumba), and Wednesday, August 24 (for yoga).

For more information on other events happening at Seattle Center this summer, check out the Center’s events page.

*Photo courtesy of Seattle Center Director of Communications Deborah Daoust.

One of the best things about having a festival center and cultural hub at the base of Queen Anne hill are a few of the fun and unexpected perks that come along with the large crowds drawn to the city center and utter lack of parking during Folklife and Bumbershoot. I’ll give you a few examples. One, there’s almost always something going on. And two, often times that something is fun, and free!

This month Seattle Center has brought back one of those perks: free summer fitness classes mid-morning to early afternoon on Tuesdays and Wednesdays on the North Fountain Lawn Space throughout August. Every Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. there will be free Tai Chi on the lawn with the folks from the Wallingford School of Oom Yung Doe. At 11:30 a.m. on Wednesdays there will be yoga with the Home Yoga and Wellness Center (don’t forget to bring your own yoga mat).

The Center offers the program as “a lunchtime opportunity to stretch, breath, build muscle and develop balance” in the middle of a crazy and hectic day. Here’s a little more about the two classes:

Tai Chi is a form of Chinese exercise created to improve health and well-being. Movements are slow and graceful without using force or power. The speed of the breathing matches the speed of the movement. By improving the respiratory and circulatory systems, basic joint and muscle flexibility and overall muscle tone, Tai Chi helps to release stress that accrues in daily life.

The weekly Hatha Yoga class offers stretching, balancing and strengthening, mixed with fun. The practice of yoga, around for thousands of years, originally developed to keep the body strong and healthy so that practitioners would be able to sit for long periods of meditation. Individuals now participate in yoga to exercise, deal with stress, and heal injuries.

Starting this Saturday, February 27, Yogalife, will be offering a free weekly Sivananda community class with instructor Mandi Grover.

Sivananda is a style of hatha yoga and is a good balance of breathing (pranayama), postures (asana) and relaxation (savasana). The class can be seen as a moving meditation where you slowly move through holding steady postures, allowing yourself to focus your energy and attention inward.

Yogalife in Queen Anne is located at located at 8 Boston St. The Saturday classes will be help every Saturday from 2:15 to 3:30 p.m. through Saturday, March 27.

Two days ago we reported that a new yoga studio may be opening on the famed caffeine corner. We’re happy to report that the mysterious spot currently under construction at 2215 Queen Anne Ave. N. is in fact going to be a pilates studio!

After reading our previous post, one of the owners, Sue Hahm, wrote us, elaborating on what the studio will offer and what will make it unique from it’s two other corner competitors.

We won’t be offering traditional pilates. Our workout is based on the holistic principles of pilates, but also emphasizes strength training and cardio…to give you a more complete workout.

It’s called Inspire Pilates, and according to Sue, it will be opening in early October.

Good to know caffeine/yoga/pilates corner will have even more variety!

Queen Anne residents know caffeine corner from the scent of espresso beans roasting a mile off. No matter which coffee houses open up shop there, the intersection of Queen Anne Ave. N and Boston Street is always brimming with cafes ready to supply that much-needed caffeine fix. The current residents of caffeine corner are Starbucks, Pete’s Coffee & Tea, Teacup and Caffe Ladro (so it’s not right on the corner, but it’s just stone’s throw away – it still counts!).

Rumor has it that just a few doors down from caffeine corner the currently empty space at 2215 Queen Anne Ave. N is soon to be a yoga studio.

We haven’t confirmed this yet (we did a little snooping and questioned one of the guys working inside), but if this is in fact a yoga studio to be, it will make the third on the already coffee and yoga-laden corner.

Haute Yoga is just across the street at 2131 Queen Anne Ave. N, and although it’s the newbie in town (Haute just opened back in June), there’s often a crowd outside the door, yoga mats in hand, waiting for the next class to start.

Yogalife is also on this corner (at 8 Boston Street, right above Opal Bistro), and it has an edge-up on its two competitors – a 1,000 square-foot studio.

With three yoga studios on one corner, you’ll need four nearby choices for a post-workout caffeine boost!

We’ll keep you posted as we find out more.