Peak Physique Hot Yoga Underwood

Whooosh that happened fast!
There's a lot to be said. From where I'm sitting this evening, I can appreciate that the merciless speed with which I had to digest and respond to the shifting situation - from the announcement of the building's sale to new owners at the start of June, to the 28 days we were given to leave the space and leave no trace by 31 July - was a mercy. There wasn't time to overthink or over-plan. There wasn't time even to make for the shore to catch my breath before yielding back into the hissing, tempestuous waters that had risen around me so swiftly. For passage into the underworld.

I am humbled by the journey into fear and grief and the dreaded unknown. Awed by the way the practice rose up to steward me and hold steady my centre, while the situation stripped from me layers of security and identity. What a profound encounter with meeting my attachments, and handing them over with swollen eyes, trembling. My manomaya kosha (emotional and mental body) bloated and raw from the inner fight. With nothing else to do but surrender at Her feet.

From amidst the residue of those final days in the studio, I still continuously find glimmering strands with which to weave bright, billowing candle lanterns. I send them soaring over the ocean of possibilities. Offerings of my gratitude. I press my face into their beauty and breathe in deep when my foothold starts to feel shaky.

Those 10 days of taking down the studio were big. Tearing down with my own hands what I had been in devotion to building felt deeply sacred, however bittersweet. Something opened up within me. Not something new. Something old. A part of me that had had to take a seat right at the back of the classroom of my becoming for many years. It's the part that sees art in everything. That would have run away from home if her parents didn't let her go to Art School. Who reads the poetry scribbled into the balancing act of refracted light in a glass of water, who perceives music in the ebb and flow of shadows and light when the sun and clouds are spiral dancing. Perhaps reading this, that part within you is stirring too, even if just faintly. You know the part I'm talking about. The child-part. The part enraptured by nature, by the wide world turning, the part who moves from and toward wonder.

It was wonder, and the great heart of the Peak community that sustained me through the take down. Not to mention the perfect way it spontaneously unfolded day by day. The best project manager in the world couldn't have planned it better. It was nothing short of miraculous. Day after day I was bombarded by wonder! I could give you a blow-by-blow account of it, but that would extend what is already turning into a super long letter. Ask me about it some time. I'll be so happy to tell you the whole story. Of how on the first day a perfect rainbow took up residence in the sky just in front of the studio. And how in the 9 days that followed, from time to time that rainbow would blink through cloudy skies.

I want to thank every single person who showed up to help. Who so generously gave up their time and energy. Thank you. There is simply no way I could have done it without every single one of your contributions. I'm so deeply grateful. Thankyou to everyone who offered to help. You held my heart and returned it covered in kintsugi.

And then there was the extraordinary way that everything aligned to give us one last chance to gather in the skeleton of the studio to practice yoga - the second last night before our exit date… beneath the full moon… That's poetry homies.

And it felt good. It felt defiant and rebellious. It felt wholesome and reverent - a somatic lovesong to the 72 square meters that had been our home of hot yoga. A ritual blessing of the space for whoever occupies it next. I like to think that all the years of yoga in there have charged it with an irrepressible spirit of goodness that will always be felt by any who enter it.

Homies! We’re rolling out Active & Healthy community yoga classes at Strength in Balance studio from this Thursday - 23 July 🔥

Strength in Balance is at 8 Sports Dr, Underwood - walking distance from Peak! So good! Thankyou so much to Subida for taking us in with such goodwill, generosity & grace. We appreciate you so much Subida ❤️

Classes have changed. Now you’ve got 3 chances to practice with Christine every week -

Thursdays at 10am: Vinyin
Sundays at 7.30am: Vinyasa
Sundays at 9am: Yin

Please arrive 15 minutes before the time. $5 cash payment preferred while we get ourselves fully in flow with the post-Peak new way of doing things…

Can’t wait to be back in practice with ya’ll! Yay!

What a journey! Among the demands of tending to the unexpected dissolution of this studio, I’ve been doing much reflecting. If someone told me 2 and a half years ago when I took on ownership, that it would end like this - so brutally and suddenly, and strip me to the bone, you know what? I would have chosen it anyway.
The last 30 months of stewarding this studio and community have been one of my favourite life chapters. I learned so much. I loved so much. I am so proud of what we co-created here. It was good. What a heartful place of real goodness we nurtured here. It was home, and care, and acceptance and healing and growth. It was friendship and belonging, reconnection and remembrance. It was unlike any other studio I’ve ever belonged to. It was Christine’s hummus and Julia’s baking, Kanitta’s plants. Sweaty hugs and Subhashni’s “no breaks Chrissie?”. It was witnessing each other go through challenging moments, but continue to show up to the mat. It was witnessing each other overcome, witnessing each other grow and bloom and come home to ourselves. I’m going to miss it so much! From the hallway chats before and after classes, Sandra grabbing the clipboards to help get new students registered for A&H classes, to the stunning Sunday morning yoga mat Tetris to fit everyone in. The blinds that would faithfully break every time I’d fix them. The flickering studio lights. The special juju that would be in the room mornings after Zenthai Temple Nights. The hum of our hearts every time we gathered. My heart is so broken at this turn of events for us. I have wept long and hard. But if there’s one thing I know, it’s that grief and pain arrive as initiators. Theirs is the business of expansion, of cracking open. As Rumi wrote “you have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.” I also know when one door closes, another one opens. What feels like a sudden, searing death, is actually just the beginning of a new expression of what we’ve seeded & watered and grown here as a community. I was this studio’s fourth owner. It was an honour to be the one to perform its death and funeral rites with you all on Sunday night. Thankyou. Nothing else to say but thankyou. I love you

Celebrating Ghowrie who this week clocked her 800th class at Peak! What a beautiful, strong practice you have sister.

Our last Saturday at Peak 💜
I want to honour Cameron. How lucky to had a teacher like you on the team. With your incredible, vast knowledge & experience. A teacher who has devoted his life to mastering yoga asanas and helping others on the path develop and elevate their own practice. Thank you for all the workshops you delivered at Peak. Today’s workshop was so epic! I get excited anew about what’s possible every time I’ve done a workshop with you.
Thankyou Cam for your dependability and your friendly, positive nature.
Saturday night ended with our final Temple Night.
Here i want to honour Caity for being a Temple keeper with me from Day 1. I want to honour for serving the first year of Temple. And who would travel all the way from Sunshine Coast to serve at the monthly Temple Nights.
It’s been the best

I grabbed this picture of Kim, Hamida and Vanessa on my way out after Vanessa’s final class at Peak last night, which she offered as Seva to the studio & community.

It’s been so powerful to recognise and witness these embodiments of the teachings of yoga in this community in these days.

My heart spills over. Thankyou family. Thankyou Vanessa for bringing your full heart to this studio & community. Stay in touch with Vanessa by following

After 11 years, this beloved studio is closing its doors. Peak has been a special place for so many of us. It’s where we became a family. And this gift of community, we get to retain, even after this studio is no longer our gathering place.

In honour of the thousands of hours of yoga that have been poured into the studio, the healing and remembrance that so generously flowed through this space. The friendships forged. The creativity uncovered. Courage, peace and connection recovered.

To honour what is, what has been and what is to come we’ll gather for a Closing Ceremony on Sunday, 19th July from 7pm - 8.30pm.

Ceremony is the place where grief, gratitude, and belonging are given a home - where what matters most is remembered in the presence of others.

We’ll share some words, some hugs, some soundbath medicine, and song. Wear something that makes you feel really good about yourself, but still comfortable enough to sit or lie down on the floor. Bring your yoga mat, and if you can and have access to flowers, bring one or two.

The Closing Ceremony is listed in the app 💜

Thankyou to these two. Brilliant teachers, beautiful yogis. Wednesday nights at Peak have been in great hands. Thank you 💜

What a special place of real goodness we have grown and nurtured here. A place of true belonging, connection, friendship and heart.
Where we have held and witnessed each other meet challenges, overcome hardships, be stretched and polished by the shifting tides of life. To be able to meet life on life’s terms, while being held steady and safe by the loving anchor of community. It doesn’t get much sweeter than that friends. This is the real treasure.
Catch Tess for 4 more classes - today (Wednesday 15 July) at 9.30am & 12pm, and Monday 20th July at 6am & 7am.

This morning Shaz taught her 387th class at Peak. Her first appearance was on a warm late Springtime Saturday afternoon 6 years ago - on 3 October 2020.

It’s a true and valuable blessing to have a teacher with such love and devotion for yogic philosophy, and the deep teachings at the heart of the practice. A teacher continually steeping in, exploring, drawing in and offering back to the ancient, authentic roots of yoga. Shaz, you have been a true role model of how it looks to walk with yogic wisdom and integrity, with great joy and generous heart. It’s been a real honour. From the hundreds of students who have been guided by you, every member whose life you touched, from everyone in the Peak community, thank-you. Namaste Shaz 🙏🏽