University Park resident Kelsey Starr opened Numi Yoga in College Park after seeing how successful yoga studios were in two other university towns where she lived: Ann Arbor, MI and Champaign, IL.

The yoga studio at 4513 College Ave. opened two years ago this month and is centrally located for students at the University of Maryland.

But it’s also become a frequent partner with other businesses along the Route 1 corridor in an effort to attract members of the community who aren’t affiliated with the university.

“I think college towns are places where a lot of diverse ideas and humans get to cross paths,” Starr told the Hyattsville Wire. “I love the cross-pollination we can have on one another in the community, and I think yoga studios are places where this can happen.”

Yoga has taken off in recent years along the Route 1 corridor, with Bikram Hot Yoga in Riverdale Park, Yoga Space and Love Yoga Studio in Hyattsville, and at Joe’s Movement Emporium in Mount Rainier. OpenBarre Studios, not far from Numi, also incorporates elements of yoga in its barre program.

But Numi Yoga’s approach offers a sense of community along with the workout.

Among other things, Numi Yoga runs a book club where participants read books like the Bhagavad Gita, offers infant massage classes and even has a Numi Yoga Teacher Training Institute as registered with the Yoga School with Yoga Alliance.

And it has already partnered with MilkBoy ArtHouse on after-work “Pints + Poses” events featuring an hour of yoga followed by drink specials, held a “Yoga at the Farm” event at Mount Rainier’s New Brooklyn Farms and has even partnered with Riverdale Park Station offering free yoga sessions in Bear Square.

That kind of outreach helped it win “best yoga shop” in the Hyattsville Wire’s 2017 reader poll and  “best locally owned shop” in the 2018 poll.