Macon native opening third yoga studio closer to home with sunrise, outdoor classes

Homegrown Yoga owner Rachel Gerrity has big plans for a new location she’s opening in Macon in the new year.

Gerrity, a Macon native, who has two yoga studios in Houston County, purchased the former Phelan Auto Group site at 2995 Vineville Ave. on Dec. 10.

Already, Gerrity has had the walls knocked down inside of the building that once housed multiple offices to create a large, open space.

She also plans to create an outdoor space in the fenced-in area in the back where cars were once parked.

“With a lot of people not being comfortable with coming inside to practice yoga (due to COVID-19 concerns), we’re building an outdoor studio there,” Gerrity said. “We’re going to turf it out and hang little lights around and hang some hammocks around and everything.

“For the people who want the traditional yoga experience, will have that inside studio but we’ll also have an outdoor space where we’re going to do sunrise yoga and just fun outdoor yoga classes as well,” she said.

Gerrity also is collaborating with graffiti artist Randy Heart of Macon on “a little community graffiti art project.”

“He does a lot work with kids. So, we’re going to have a day where families can come out and help us spray paint the outside of the building and everything,” she said.

‘A cool space’

Gerrity also wants to house a small library space for book clubs and discussions.

“Most of the teachers who work here, we all have like little kids and everything so we’re trying to have it be a cool space not just for people to do yoga but for a bunch of people in the community to be able to come and do some cool stuff,” Gerrity said.

Gerrity’s 7-year-old daughter Freida is a known figure at the Warner Robins location.

“She’s become my little helper, studio manager,” she said. “All the time, she comes with me. She’s my little shadow.

“She comes everywhere, and everybody always jokes with her like, ‘Rachel pays for stuff. But Freida is the one that makes the decisions on everything.’ So, whenever we go on a new adventure, she’s right there.”

At the Warner Robins location, a 200-hour accredited yoga training program is offered.

“We’re going on our fourth year now of running teaching training, which means we have like lot of yoga teachers around in the area,” Gerrity said. “So for us to bring in some of our teachers and for us to lead some continuing education programs for them, it’s also one of the reasons we’re excited to have this new space.”

She also expects to start a meditation class at the new location, she said.

“I’m going to say end of January, that’s my positive yoga thought,” she said. “I’m hopeful if everything aligns, we’ll be open at the end of January.”

Beginnings

In January 2016, Gerrity opened Homegrown Yoga in a leased space in a shopping center at 150 South Houston Lake Road in Warner Robins.

In December 2019, she opened a second space rented from the city of Perry in the Perry Arts Center at 1121 Macon Road.

“Everything in Warner Robins and Perry will be the same,” she said.

Gerrity’s first yoga business, the former Hometown Yoga in Macon, was a partnership. She sold her half of the business about a year after opening Homegrown Yoga on her own.

“When I moved out of Macon, stopped teaching, I’ve missed it so much,” she said. “It means the world to me to have people know that we’re coming back into the area.”

The new Vineville location is between Bike Tech, which sells bicycles, accessories and offers repair services, and American Faves & Mo!! restaurant.

This will be the first time Gerrity said she’ll own the building.

“I heard that in the 1940s, it was a Tasty Freeze, and so like the whole front of the building are these really cool old windows that people told me that used to open up to serve frozen yogurt out the front,” she said.

When she saw the building, Gerrity said she fell in love with it.

“We live downtown in one of the little historic homes near right near Beall’s Hill,” she said. “From here to the Warner Robins studio, it’s like 25 minutes for me so it hasn’t been bad. But it will be nice. This studio is like five minutes away from my house.”

Gerrity was forced to temporarily shutter her yoga studios during the pandemic.

“’As soon as we opened and started talking to people, I realized that the practice of yoga — the idea of taking care of your body and taking care of yourself mentally — was so essential right now,” she said.

“I think my belief in the practice of yoga was strengthened so much, and also I was a yoga teacher and I never really knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur and then through the experience of COVID and like having to figure stuff out, how we going to market things, and how are we going to cut costs, I also became more confident that this is my path.”

This story was originally published December 21, 2020 at 5:00 AM.