Studio-Spotlight: The Good Rooms Muswell Hill

This month we met with Jamie Glassman, studio owner of The Good Rooms in Muswell Hill. Jamie was previously a comedy author, producer and actor and decided to follow his passion in 2019 and decided a year later and when the pandemic arrived to open a hot yoga studio. He talks about how the business was affected and how he had to change to keep the studio running.

Tell us a bit about you and your background

Before I opened a hot yoga and Pilates studio, I worked for years in the comedy industry-writing, producing and performing-with different success. My most successful gig was to write and create the characters ali g, borat and bruno . My least successful gig was, now, there are far too many of them to list them all, which explains why I am no longer in the comedy industry.

How and when did you discover yoga for the first time?

Around 20 years ago I started visiting bikram courses and was quickly thrilled. I did everything wrong - tried too much, stopped the air, brought all my frustrations onto the mat - but for some reason I have stayed with it and I am afraid to imagine how I would be if I hadn't found anything yoga. Unbearable. Or even more unbearable, as my wife would probably say.

When did you open the studio/tell us about it

We originally opened the studio as a franchisee of a larger brand in early 2019. We had the most wonderful, busy and glorious first year, but then Covid hit 12 months after the opening and we had to switch around to survive. We became an independent studio in the summer of 2021 when we got out of pandemic and the good rooms was born. We were very lucky to have an incredibly supportive community here in Muswell Hill, which gathered, some wonderful people who even maintain their membership while the studio was closed, and only the most brilliant studio manager, the best teachers and the best team who brought us through.

What is your favorite part as a studio owner?

I love how people go in the good rooms happy to be here and to go even happier without exception. It is a real thrill to see how people become stronger, fitter, calmer and happier. There is a special sum when you see how people with certain physical or mental symptoms come to the studio that are slowly getting better before their eyes. Yoga really works, you know.

What was her biggest challenge?

like so many companies and as many people was also an enormous challenge. Changes to rules and regulations, the security of people and the feeling of security, we all had to become experts in ventilation and virology and so many other things.

It is heartbreaking to know that so many studios have not survived. I know how much work and love are in companies like this, so I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for these studio owners to close their doors.

What is your most memorable yoga moment?

Oh, there are so many to choose from, but I met my wife at a yoga course, so I have to say that.

Who/What inspires you every day and do you have a mantra or quote you live after?

My children inspire me every day to live life with joy and lightness. Okay, not every day, but on most days. I love the line of George Bernard Shaw: "We don't stop playing because we get old; we get old because we stop playing."

What advice would you give someone who begins his yoga/wellness trip?

Oh God - do everything, try everything, be open, take time, have fun, think of breathing. As Samuel Beckett said: "Try it again, fail again, fail better".

To learn more about The Good Rooms, visit their website or follow them Instagram