When Janie Savage and Mackenzie Rigsby practice together, which is often, they set up next to each other in the same spot for their favorite Flow classes. They are always smiling, and usually laughing, enjoying their mom-and-daughter time away from the usual distractions of busy lives. They found HYA thanks to Hope, Janie’s oldest daughter and Mackenzie’s big sister, who bought them both a 30-day pass in December 2018 and they came to a myofascial release class (called Rolling with Our Fascia and Friends), which didn’t exactly hook them into yoga. Also, Hope lives in Iowa and wasn’t around to influence them.
“I had never done yoga before,” Mackenzie said. “We did that one class and we let 28 days go by without coming back. And Hope was like, you guys didn’t go back?
“So we went back to a Hot 26 class. I didn’t care for it. I’ve never really cared for 26. But then we came back and a did a Flow. Those were the last two days of the pass. We loved it. We paid for a membership right then.”
They have been stalwarts ever since, kept their memberships through Covid, practiced in masks when that was a thing. Mackenzie and Hope also both participated in HYA’s Hot Vinyasa Teacher Training in 2022.
“When Mackenzie gets on something, she’s always like, come on, come with me,” Janie said. “So she was the wheels I was going with. We love being here. And to be able to do it with my daughter is so special. That’s something you take for granted when it’s always there. But now I don’t.”
Mackenzie is a busy mom of two kids, works a full-time job in health care and attends school to earn her Bachelor’s Degree. Janie is a retired mail carrier. They moved to Asheville from Salisbury, N.C., in the early 2000s, when Hope also lived here. Their yoga practice became an extension of their family time.
“A lot of people don’t realize you can come to a place like this, never having done it, or being different generations and do it together,” Janie said. “Everybody has their own level. You do what you do, listen to your body. And be together.”
“We can be together independently, that’s what’s so great about it,” Mackenzie said.
Read more about Janie and Mackenzie’s story:
HYA: What was your fitness background before HYA?
Janie: Way back when, I did those Jane Fonda videos. I would get up at 4:30 in the morning to start my day. I delivered the mail so I had to get up really early, get the kids to school. I would get up and do that. Mostly videos, yoga and aerobics. In 2000, I went to some retreats, but mostly I just did my videos at home. It was more convenient.
Mackenzie: I’ve always done really high impact workouts. They always had to be hard: HIIT classes, go to the gym and work out with weights. I was like, yoga, it’s just stretching, right? I used to run but that just hurt my body. After time it just hurt. But I thought yoga? That’s not going to give me what I need to work out. Hot yoga was the niche that I needed. The yoga was good for my body and the heat gave me the intensity that I needed.
HYA: How did you come to Asheville?
Mackenzie: Hope is the first one that lived here of all of us. Her husband is an emergency room doctor and he got a job at Pardee. So they moved here and mom followed. I got my aesthetics license and I was doing facials at the Grove Park and that’s how I moved here.
Janie: I was working on moving to this area to run a bed and breakfast. It was one of the places where we were going to land. I commuted from Salisbury for a few months and stayed with them.
HYA: So, Hope was the one who found HYA first?
Mackenzie: Hope has always done yoga. She dabbles. She went to India for awhile. She’s very adventurous.
Before the teacher training, she mentioned it and was kind of like, what do you think? Do you think we could do it? It was her idea to do it. I had to work some things out with my job and school and the kids, but we were only going to do it together. That was incredible.
HYA: What’s your favorite part about your yoga practice together?
Janie: I love our time in the car together coming here. I drive to her house and she drives us here. It’s such a positive place and to be here with her. There’s no talking during class but just having the presence, the positive presence and what we’re doing is so good and life-affirming. Just the togetherness. When I think about it, I almost get teary because it’s so special.
Mackenzie: What she said. And that’s so sweet about the car ride.
