Our Story
Had a Vision, Built a Community
Meet Our Founders
What is our Lineage & Style?
At the time Brent and Sheri started practicing yoga, there were not many styles available. Practicing yoga for many years deeply rooted this strong tradition into their lives, which developed an urge to give back yoga to others. Their desire to teach pushed them to take teacher training courses. They received their training through Body Language and Jonny Kest’s Center for Yoga.
In Plymouth Yoga Room classes, you will experience the strength and emphasis on breath, mindfulness, and asanas that are intelligently sequenced and flow to keep your attention inward with minimal distraction. Heat is a necessity in practice – it is needed to allow the muscles to stretch, become pliable, and then strengthen better. To aid you in your practice, we use the safest form of heat, Infrared panels, in both our locations so you can build heat, burn calories, release toxins, and "discover inner peace”.
What is our Philosophy?
Our Philosophy can be summed up in one word: Consistency. We develop teachers from our teacher training programs. Our style and our training ensure that no matter what class you attend, no matter the instructor or the class type, you will receive a consistent, quality practice.
What is our Mission?
To create a non-judgmental space where you can practice yoga and “discover your inner peace”. A place for community and family to flourish. Even down to the name, it’s not Brent and Sheri’s Yoga Room, it’s Plymouth’s Yoga Room - it’s the Community’s Yoga Room.
Our Story…
In the Western World, it is rare that a person is born into a yogic lifestyle. Rather, yoga has a way of finding you. Yoga found Brent and Sheri Rieli, the dynamic married couple who owns and operates Plymouth Yoga Room. Brent came from a new-construction real-estate world and Sheri the former Office Manager of an Engineering firm.
Brent started yoga over 25 years ago with Jonny Kest. Why yoga, we asked Brent? “It felt good, clean and healthy and I just never stopped practicing. Same thing after meeting Sheri. It felt right. We’ve seen each other every day since”.
Flashback to 1997, Sheri was into aerobics and kickboxing. The adorable story goes that when Brent met Sheri, they playfully joked with the other that their method of workout was harder. Brent got Sheri to try yoga and she found herself attending more yoga classes. Eventually, her entire workout regime turned over to yoga.
In 2008, Sheri and Brent were teaching at gyms and dance studios. They craved more. They wanted a boutique studio with just yoga, so they could watch the students grow as their yoga practices deepened. Filled with the need to share this gift with the community, they opened Plymouth Yoga Room in 2009. Sheri and Brent can still remember the day they walked past our building at 474 Forest Avenue in downtown Plymouth – “We could just feel the energy, it called to us.”
It was a long road of struggle, hard work, tears, joy, and certainly a family affair! The Rielis’ youngest child, Dante, was age 5 when Plymouth Yoga Room opened, and he grew up at the Studio. Sheri can still recall years before they opened, that she put Dante into a stroller, walked into town, got supplies for a vision board and cut out all of the words to try to come up with the name of the studio and pictures to fill the space.
A challenge arose - to meet the demands of modern workout trends and yet keep true to self exploration, discovery, and also a tradition of discipline. Plymouth Yoga Room’s style of teaching developed: a fulfilling freeform version based on the sequencing of Ashtanga Vinyasa.
Their perseverance and belief in yoga kept them going through the very difficult first few years of business, even during the period in which they almost lost their house while not even making minimum wage. The floors were hand laid by them, the walls painted, the tile placed. Today, Plymouth Yoga Room – Plymouth is over 10 years old and a deeply rooted part of the Plymouth and surrounding Communities.
What keeps us not only going, but enthusiastic? “Every day, we hear a story of how yoga has helped heal, strengthen, and bring greater well-being into a student’s life,” Sheri and Brent reflect.
It is Brent and Sheri’s dearest dream that Plymouth Yoga Room will outlive them and continue to give peace and well-being back to its clients and community for many more years to come.
“We joyfully welcome you to our humble Studio, and hope that you experience Plymouth Yoga Room as your place for inner peace.”
— Sheri & Brent Rieli