Pure Yoga’s Figure 4 Class is designed to give you the most effective results and a more flexible body. It can be tough to brave the winter elements to stay in shape, which is why this high-intensity yoga class is great for maintaining flexibility and keeping you limber for all those high-powered snow sports. Figure 4 will also help you ease your way into swimsuit season come spring. Pure Yoga has Figure 4 classes this winter at its Upper East Side and Upper West Side locations.

Keep Your Wheels Winterized
Cybert Tire and Car Care, 726 11th Ave., 212-265-1177, cyberttire.com
Need winter tires or a tune-up for the blustery months? Or maybe you just need a phone number on hand in case your car winds up in a snowbank. Cybert Tire and Car Care in Hell’s Kitchen, which has been servicing New York City cars for nearly 100 years, comes highly recommended from its customers. You can even buy your winter tires and order other services online from the luxury of your heated apartment.

Rock a Winter-Themed Pedicure
Carol’s Daughter, 24 W. 125th St., 212-828-6757, carolsdaughter.com
Carol’s Daughter salon in Harlem offers a “haute chocolate” pedicure in the winter months, complete with cocoa and brown sugar skin products. This winter-themed pedicure is guaranteed to keep your skin smooth and healthy all season, with these products’ proven antioxidant properties. Added bonus: hot beverages are served chair-side at Carol’s Daughter.

Work Up a Sweat
Bikram Yoga LES, 172 Allen St., 212-353-8859, bikramyogales.com
Bikram Yoga Lower East Side’s hot yoga is guaranteed to make you sweat this winter. One Yelp reviewer commented Bikram Yoga LES’s 105 degree temperatures can be a bit overwhelming, especially for first-timers, but the classes are ultimately enjoyable and great for healing all sorts of injuries. Alternate extreme snow sports with hot yoga this winter to whip your body into shape and keep injuries at bay.
Best Winter Coat Repair
Wilfred’s Tailoring, 277 Fifth Ave., 212-242-3030, wilfredstailor.com
Wilfred’s Tailoring in Flatiron will work miracles on your busted winter gear, from jackets to pants and everything in between. Wilfred’s tailoring and alteration skills have been featured in New York magazine, for their “best of” services, and even on various movie sets for their impeccable sewing and alteration skills.

Chill Out with a Mid-Winter Massage
Dyanna Body and Nail Salon Spa, 40 E. 21st St., 212-995-2355, dyannaspa.com
Dyanna Body and Nail Salon offers a cozy, comforting atmosphere and a full range of spa services. Hit up Dyanna’s for a revered massage this winter at a reasonable price and let the masseuses work their magic and rub away your winter worries. Customers say Dyanna’s massages are brief, but well worth it, especially for kicking those cold-weather blues.

Ski, Snowboard and Snowshoe Tune-ups
Paragon Sports, 867 Broadway, 800-961-3030, paragonsports.com
Stop in to Paragon Sports this winter for sports equipment tune-ups or new gear. Paragon Sports sells gear for every sport imaginable—from snowshoeing to table tennis—as well as clothing, footwear and accessories. According to customers, Paragon’s convenient Union Square location has a huge selection and a helpful, knowledgeable staff.

Donate to a Coat Drive
New York Cares, 65 Broadway, 19th Floor, 212-228-5000, newyorkcares.org
Get in touch with your charitable side this winter and donate a coat to New York Cares. The New York Cares organization accepts clean, gently worn winter coats for residents in need. Hurricane Sandy has left even more New Yorkers badly in need of donated winter items this season, so dig up your gear and help keep a fellow New Yorker warm.

Can’t-Miss Holiday Toy Shopping
FAO Schwarz, 767 Fifth Ave., 212-644-9400, fao.com
FAO Schwarz near Central Park may be daunting this time of year, particularly with all the holiday tourism, but where else can you go toy shopping for every kid on your list and see guards dressed as toy soldiers alongside other winter festivities? Nothing will get you in the winter spirit quite like FAO Schwarz, not to mention the store is guaranteed to have every toy and gadget a child can dream up and more.

Tricia Donegan coaxes inspired poses and generosity out of her local yoga enthusiasts

By Sophia Rosenbaum

Yoga studios in New York are as common as pizza joints, but there’s a reason Lady Gaga chose Tricia Donegan to be her yoga instructor.

Donegan, 42, is a burst of energy with a toned physique adorned with tattoos and a mess of curly, multi-colored hair. She’s the owner of Bikram Yoga Lower East Side—a walk-up studio with cases of water bottles lining the stairwell, pops of pink paint from the floor to the ceiling and people dripping in sweat from the 107-degree yoga room.

With a team of 15 other instructors, Bikram Yoga LES offers six classes a day, seven days a week. Monty Stilson, 54, has been taking classes at Bikram Yoga LES for more than a year and said the only negative part is all the laundry.

“Tricia truly has a gift to deliver the perfect balance of wit and wisdom, all the while coaxing the body into never-realized positions and undreamed feats of strength,” Stilson said.

Donegan’s yoga business is just one of her many ventures. She is also a Lower East Side community activist and a mother of a 5-year-old daughter, Lula.

“I’m here to change the world,” she said. “I build communities wherever I go.”

Donegan was born in Michigan and moved to New York City in 2001. Prior to her career as a yoga instructor, she worked as a restaurant owner in Atlanta. Although she loved the restaurant business and being a community activist in Atlanta, she feels much more at home in her yoga space at 172 Allen St.

“Everyone who comes to the yoga studio is trying to empower themselves or better themselves in some way,” she said. “This is a true well-being destination for people, so it becomes this safe haven for people to come and let go of themselves.”

For more than a decade, Donegan has been teaching Bikram yoga, or hot yoga, which is a series of 26 postures and two breathing exercises in high-heat, high-humidity rooms. While Bikram originated in the early 1970s, it has became popular in the United States in the past decade.
Donegan said the heat forces students to focus on their bodies and push themselves more than a regular exercise class.

“It’s sort of like spaghetti,” she said. “If you try to bend cold spaghetti, it breaks. But when you put it in the water, you can do whatever you want with it.”

Tamara Pollack, Donegan’s life partner, said part of what makes Donegan talented are her interpersonal skills and her deep understanding of yoga.

“She won’t tell you to blindly push into a locked knee, she won’t just coach you into a deeper backbend,” she said. “Instead she will empower you in your weakness and lead you toward your strengths. She wants to see you try, and once you enter her hot room, that’s all you want to do.”
Four years ago, Donegan created a class that combined her love of yoga with her passion for community engagement. Nite Sweats is a donation-based class that’s offered the first Friday of every month.

The proceeds go to the Lower East Side Girls Club, which counts Donegan among its board members. The Club serves girls and young women from ages 8 to 23, teaching them the importance of education, healthy eating and equality.

“We’re not just babysitting girls from the projects,” Donegan said. “We’re giving them power.”
Donegan said Nite Sweats rakes in about $1,000 a month for the Girls Club.

“Tricia Donegan’s luminous and infectious presence enriches our community in boundless ways,” said Lyn Pentecost, the visionary behind the Girls Club. “She lives, works and runs her unique business on the Lower East Side and sends her daughter to school on the Lower East Side. One can’t get more ‘community’ than that.”

And while Donegan rarely leaves the neighborhood, she frequently goes on tour with Lady Gaga as her fitness instructor. She said she’s proud of her accomplishments in life thus far, but attributes most of her success to yoga.

“I have so many ideas, I have so much energy and it wasn’t until I slowed my head down with yoga that I realized why I am here,” she said. “Once you get real precise, then your dreams come and chase you.”