Business Profile: Putnam Yoga, Mahopac
DAVID PROPPER PHOTO
When Christine Dodge talks to possible new students wary of whether to try yoga, Dodge always conveys to them, “If you can breathe, you can do yoga.”
“Anybody’s body can do it,” Dodge, a fitness guru and owner of Putnam Yoga, said. “Old, young, fit, not fit, active, not active, anybody’s body can do it.”
Dodge, a Carmel resident, will be celebrating her fourth year owning and running Putnam Yoga at the end of the month, a venture that started as a part-time commitment that grew to a full-time, seven-day-a-week schedule filled with classes and no shortage of clients from the lower Putnam County and upper Westchester County area. While Dodge guides and instructs, she ensures and encourages every student to discover what their body wants to do.
Dodge has been active her entire life, but as she grew older, she had to slow down a bit. What she was doing with ease in her 20s, are things she had more difficulty with today. It puzzles her that yoga is often misconceived as an activity where participants only chant the entire time, or have to wrap their legs over their head.
But Dodge insists Yoga is a journey that can begin at different paces. It has helped her become more loose and relaxed, affecting her health positively in several ways.
“I got introduced to yoga about ten years ago and I love it,” Dodge said. “I love it because it compensates for every other sport, activity thing you can do. You can run, you can swim, jog, lift, walk, you do nothing, yoga’s perfect.”
Dodge rents space along Tomahawk Street, which has brought her more clients than when she rented space inside the New York Sports Club. Club members followed Dodge to her new location and brought non-members, like friends or husbands, along to the classes.
The first class offered is free, Dodge said, because it gives those interested a risk free chance to see if they like it. Dodge has five instructors that teach and even offers a kickboxing class one night for a change of pace.
Dodge is surprised her business has taken off the way it has. She admits she’s a “baby-step” type of person, but also believes in the “universe.” She credits the consistent support of her family, like her husband and three grown children for her business success.
One of her sons does the marketing for her, and another son, who is also into fitness, attends classes. Her husband has been going to classes for the last four years.
“I do believe in the universe and ask and you shall receive and ask and really believe that that’s what’s going to happen and good things are out there and good things happen,” Dodge said. “So I just kept saying am I suppose to be on my own, am I suppose to do this on my own and then one thing led to the next and I’m on my own and I can’t believe that people are coming and more people are coming.”
