Astoria wellness studio brings yoga,
fi tness and meditation under one roof
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
A new yoga studio that
just opened for business in
Astoria takes a holistic approach
to healing a person’s
mind, body and spirit.
Breathe Strength Yoga
& Wellness, located at 31-16
36th Ave., officially opened
to the public on Oct. 7, offering
classes in yoga, fitness,
and mediation at all levels
led by a team of 16 teachers,
including owner Charlotte
Muller.
For eight years, Muller
began to teach fitness classes
as her “side hustle,” teaching
fitness classes in gyms
and other public spaces
wherever she could during
and after college.
Muller quickly found that
this wasn’t a particularly
stable way to make a living,
and was working in human
resources after graduation
to make ends meet.
“I always had an idea to
open my own studio, but the
thought was always along
the lines of, ‘Oh, I’ll do it
when I’m married’ or ‘I’ll do
it when I’m more financially
stable’,” said Muller. “I tried
to do it out of college but it
didn’t work. But it was always
on my mind because I
wasn’t happy in the corporate
world.”
Muller ultimately took
the plunge, quitting her job
in the corporate sector and
eventually finding Breathe
Strength’s Astoria studio
space in February 2019.
“Once I stepped inside
the studio, I felt, ‘Yup, this
is it’,” said Muller. “I knew
that it was meant to be.”
If you were to tell Muller
years ago that she’d be running
her own yoga and fitness
studio, she’d probably
think you were crazy.
“I was not athletic,” said
Muller, laughing. “I hated
going to the gym and gym
class at school.”
It wasn’t until Muller was
faced with the death of her
mother that a switch flipped
inside her and started her
fitness journey from the
ground up.
“When I was 17, I lost my
mom unexpectedly,” said
Muller. “I got tested and
found out that I had a genetic
disorder that gives my high
cholesterol. I had to change
my life completely, and about
a month into it I had a complete
change of heart.”
Muller made a complete
turnaround, not only incorporating
exercise into
her routine but gaining
her certifications to teach
Zumba, high intensity interval
training and yoga,
and building the “Breathe
Strength” brand while she
was in college.
“The company was originally
called ‘Conquering
Cholesterol,’ but the more I
wrote that down, it didn’t feel
right,” said Muller. “I started
writing down words that
felt beautiful to me and tried
pairing them, and landed on
“Breathe Strength.” Now my
studio is Breathe Strength,
“breathe” for yoga, and
“strength” for fitness.”
While the Breathe
Strength studio didn’t officially
Courtesy of Charlotte Muller/Breathe Strength
open until Oct. 7,
Muller and her staff had been
teaching community yoga
classes in the space while it
underwent construction.
The classes, which take
place on Monday afternoons
at 3:45, helped Breathe
Strength build its following
well before it opened to the
public.
“Construction took about
three or four months, but
the space was still usable for
yoga,” said Muller. “I offered
six or seven community yoga
classes a week, which were
completely donation-based,
and after two months we had
100 people who had either
taken a class or in our contacts
for future classes.”
Now that it’s open,
Breathe Strength currently
offers classes in yoga and
fitness — including but not
limited to vinyasa yoga,
yoga sculpt, and high intensity
interval training — and
they are also working to include
meditation into the
mix. Every third Friday of
the month, Breathe Strength
will host a “Meditation 101”
class, taught by Tawn Le,
that aims to teach everyone
the ins and outs of meditation
while cracking the mystery
of why it’s so hard to
meditate.
Meditation 101 will cost
$10 per person. Breathe
Strength also hosts a weekly
community meditation every
Wednesday from 12 to
12:30 p.m., also led by Le,
which is run completely off
of donations. In fact, Muller
made sure that classes are
affordable.
“We’re not in it for the
money,” said Muller. “That’s
why it was important for us
to have donation-based community
classes on top of our
regular classes.”
For more information
about Breathe Strength, visit
breathestrengthwellness.
com.
Reach reporter Emily Davenport
by e-mail at edavenport@
qns.com or by phone at
(718) 260-2567.
38 TIMESLEDGER, OCT. 18-24, 2019 BT QNS.COM
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