A heiter approach to movement with Studio 70 founder Laura Rice

heiter contributor Anna Considine sat down with Laura Rice, founder of Glasgow yoga and pilates studio, Studio 70. Laura shared how she follows a joy-led approach to movement, both personally and in the studio’s new reformer pilates space.

Hi there Laura! First of all, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and Studio 70?

Hi Anna! I’m Laura Rice and I’m the founder of Studio 70 in Glasgow. We offer yoga, mat pilates, and now reformer pilates too. We are a purpose-driven studio on a mission to make yoga accessible and inclusive for all.

Studio 70 founder Laura Rice

Amazing, I can so see that in everything you do. Getting more personal, I’d love to hear how has your idea of “joyful movement” evolved over time?

Well, I didn't actually have any particular sports or movement practice as a young person or as a child. I gradually got into running and found yoga complemented that, and I got into rowing as well. From speaking to our clients, I think not finding movement that resonates is so common at school, especially for women.

But, over the years, yoga has been my consistent practice while other things have come and gone. The most recent example has been getting into strength training since having my last baby 18 months ago. I've been wanting to refocus on regaining the strength I lost through pregnancy and focusing on other things over the last few years!

I’ve definitely found that exercise has also been about finding that social hub; it was one of the ways I made friends when I moved to Canada, and we've seen the studio become that for folks here, too.

I love that so much. I'd love to hear what your vision was when you first imagined Studio 70 and how it has shifted since opening?

Well, before opening Studio 70 I was teaching from different community venues and it left me wanting a space to teach and that I was able to shape… a bricks and mortar business where people could gather. It was normal to be in a room with a dance class next door!

Over the years, we’ve evolved a lot, expanding multiple times to create the space Studio 70 is now. We've brought in an amazing team of teachers, as I'm sure you'll know, and they’re sharing so many beautiful offerings. It’s let me step back a little, which has suited me for the last couple of years especially, but I’m always listening to the community to see what they want. 

We’re definitely more values-led now: we’re really clear on what our values are and they impact every business decision we make. I love that we’re making choices like offering a scholarship space for our teacher training, because we know that the wellness space can be quite whitewashed, and we want to bring people of colour into the seat of the teacher. Nowadays, I think that when folks come to our studio, it’s quite clear what we stand for.

That’s beautiful… I think a lot of fitness spaces can feel really intimidating! How do you ensure that Studio 70 is welcoming to all bodies and all abilities?

One of the things that we were really clear on with our teachers is that it’s really important that our classes feel welcoming and accessible. This means we encourage them to suggest a range of options for poses, and we have plenty of props too. It’s about ensuring everyone can decide what’s the right version of a pose for them on that day, and there’s no pressure for that pose to look a certain way. We also educate our teachers on asking for pronouns, to ensure that nobody will be misgendered while they are here.

And of course, we are very intentional about our marketing too. We try to make sure we are showing bodies of varied sizes and shapes, and also different ethnicities too.

Brilliant. heiter is all about joyfulness; how does that philosophy resonate with your approach to movement?

I think my approach to movement is that it should come from a place of self-love rather than punishment. So, I'm going to go to Pilates tonight because I know that that is a way of nourishing myself on so many levels: not just a physical level, but also for my mental being. For me, it's really about finding a sense of joy and nourishment. 

I love that too. Lastly, I'd love to know: where do you see Studio 70 in five years?

Ooh gosh, that’s a question! We’ve expanded a lot over the last few years, so on the one hand I can see that continuing. On the other, we might decide we are really happy at the size we are now. We have a project in the pipeline that we haven't announced yet, where we’re working on a bigger reception area, which is exciting. I could see us focusing on events, retreats, and workshops, that kind of thing. We shall see.

You can find Studio 70 on Instagram, TikTok, and on their website here.

How to look after your garden in late summer, and how it benefits your well-being too!

As summer progresses, we may start to notice that the vibrant colours from the flowers in our gardens slowly begin to diminish.

In August we can see that most of the blooms start to look a bit tired, and some simply fade and disappear.  This is a natural process. Gardens, exhausted after producing colourful delights of flowers, begin to look a bit quieter. Now the patterns and shapes of foliage start to become more visible and pronounced.  

Even though our gardens look more subdued, there are still a number of tasks to be carried out in summer that could elevate their look:

If you want to extend the colour display in your summer garden, it is important to stay on top of the deadheading the spent blooms. Plants, like for example roses, when deadheaded regularly, will reward you with a new display of flowers. It is worth noting, that if you have a variety of rose that makes attractive rose hips, then leave the old flowers on the rose, so it has time to develop into a fruit. Red or orange rose hips will make your garden look more attractive during winter months.

Herbaceous perennials can be cut back in summer so they produce fresh, healthy foliage. This practice will not only improve the overall look of your summer garden, making it a bit tidier, but will also encourage the plants to generate another display of flowers. 

During prolonged dry spells, you might need to water your garden. The best time to water is in the evening or very early in the morning, before the sun comes out and the heat increases. Remember to water your plants directly into the soil around the plant base, not on the foliage, to avoid sun burn. 

When it rains, make sure you have some buckets placed around your garden to collect and store rainwater, as it is a precious resource. 

Also, you might want to consider adding more drought tolerant plants into your garden, reducing the need for constant watering. Some of the drought tolerant plants that will grow well in a sunny garden border are: Santolina, Phlomis, Artemisia, Nepeta, and lavender. Consider herbs like thyme, rosemary or salvia, which will fill your garden with warm, southern scents.

Weeding is one of those tasks in a garden that needs to be done on a regular basis, especially when the weather is warm and humid. If you would like to limit the time spent in your garden weeding, have a look at the density of plants in your garden. If there are big gaps between individual plants, add more plants to create a higher density of planting, this approach limits the chance for weeds to grow. 

With some gentle gardening a late summer garden can be renewed and boosted with life and colour. 

---

“…seeing green leaves makes us calmer, happier, more focused and more creative.”

---

Gardening is one of those activities that greatly benefits not only our physical health, as it requires our bodies to lift, squat and stretch multiple times. It also has a very positive impact on our mental well-being. Simply put, gardening is a great activity for both our bodies and souls. 

In her book, Good Nature: The New Science of How Nature Improves Our Health, Kathy Willis points us to a number of studies showcasing the impact plants and in particular colour green has on our well-being. There is mounting evidence that just seeing green leaves makes us calmer, happier, more focused and more creative.   

Moreover, gardening teaches us to be more attuned with nature and its cycles, through listening, observing, touching and smelling. As the seasons change, we gain knowledge on the complexities of life and its processes. And to experience all of this we don’t have to live in a cabin in the woods for two years, like David Thoreau, a well-known naturalist and philosopher, we can simply use gardening as our way of connecting with nature and to reflect.

With time spent gardening we build our confidence. We are not afraid that we will do something wrong – we learn with enthusiasm and correct our mistakes as we progress. We become a patient witness to the changes in our garden, which becomes our teacher that guides us gently as we move through the seasons.

Even though there are numerous tasks still to be performed in our gardens this summer, we should never forget how good it is for our “Heiterkeit”.

Kornelia Pawlukowska-Dible, the founder of Hastate Design, has a background in history, art curation and illustration. Her love of learning led her to study horticulture at the SRUC in Edinburgh, where she developed a keen interest in planting design. Kornelia discovered that planting design is a great medium to express herartistic side as well as allowing for constant learning and knowledge development. This encouraged her to create Hastate Design, a planting design business with strong ethos and design principles.

Images by Andrea Marvan, @mondegreen_studio, www.mondegreen.ca