[Unfortunately Kim Groark has moved on from Thrive, but that hasn't changed the quality of their classes. They continue to maintain a rich schedule and terrific workshop offerings... and day care.]
I took my first Bethesda yoga class yesterday at Thrive Yoga. I found them through YogaFinder, a useful if not comprehensive listing of yoga centers by city.
I chose Thrive because Kim Groark has a great pedigree (and they had a Sunday morning class). Kim has studied with, among others, Shiva Rea, Sharon Gannon and John Friend, and you can find each of them in her teaching. She combines Vinyasa flow, Anusara alignment and inspiration, and Kundalini energy in a challenging and rewarding 90-minute (actually 100-minute) Level 2/3 class. I was charged afterward.
The studio is located, sadly, in a strip mall (easy parking!), and as hard as they try, it's impossible to forget that. 
Both practice rooms have windows that scream, and reveal, strip mall, and the commercial, developed energy of the building is a formidable match for the spiritual energy of the studio. The space itself is cool, almost too cool. There's stone everywhere -- the floors, the bathrooms, the changing rooms -- and even the practice rooms are appointed with some high-tech slightly cushioned floor instead of the usual warm yoga-studio wood. Also in the practice room roars the heater, with all its ducts exposed and painted black. Cool, cool, cool.
The heat comes from the class, and from Kim. She's warm and energetic, and came up to my mat before class to introduce herself and welcome me and ask after any injuries I might have. Then she bounced back up to the front of the room, took her seat and asked us to follow suit.
She started us off with three rounds of kapalabhati (cleansing breath) with a kundalini hands-out seat during two rounds. That alone got the blood pumping, and Kim talks throughout, about energy and effort and stamina, and that encouragement increases the charge as well. The class was rigorous and inspired. There was music on the whole time, the usual world stuff (no rock, no jazz) and that warmed up the room even more. There's an element of flow, but never rushing through a pose. In fact, she holds many postures for a good four or five breaths, long enough to feel the burn, but never long enough to seem sadistic. She makes very few adjustments, physical or verbal, but of course that may be different with her lower level classes.
Overall it was a delightful experience, and I can't wait to get back. Kim is knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and seems to have a warm heart. She is a new mother and bopped out of class as soon as it was over to go see her daughter at the front desk. And Thrive set up day care at the space a few days a week ($5 for the first child, $2 thereafter), and seems to be building not just a studio, but a community.
Thrive Yoga, 1321 Rockville Pike, Rockville, 301.294.9642
