Tucked in Liberty, The Practice Yoga and Pilates has been helping Northlanders move, breathe and reconnect with their bodies since 2003. Owner and founder Mandy Froehlich started the studio after a life-changing neck injury at 16 nudged her toward a lifetime of studying movement. She went on to earn degrees in exercise science, spent 20 years as a personal trainer, and eventually found her way into Pilates and yoga.
Pilates hooked her first. Focused on spinal health, it helped ease the lingering effects of that neck injury. As Mandy explains, Joseph Pilates believed “we are only as young as our spine is flexible,” and urged students to “create a body that thinks for itself.” Yoga arrived a few years later, offering something she hadn’t expected: nervous system calm. After a class with a chiropractor/yoga teacher, she remembers feeling stronger, more flexible and genuinely at peace in her own body — and she never really stopped.
Today, The Practice offers about 30 classes a week with around 10 instructors, from gentle unwind-and-stretch sessions to more vigorous vinyasa flows and mat Pilates. Classes cater to a wide range of skill levels — they have beginner-friendly and intentionally slower-paced classes, with some invigorating flow and fiery Pilates sprinkled in for those looking for more demanding classes.
“Lately, I've been saying in my classes, slow down to find the work,” says Mandy. “Often, when our body is moving so quickly, it's skipping out of doing the effort and slower is actually typically harder.” Mandy says changing our pace makes more work for the body, changing our muscle and nervous systems.
It’s that blend of science and soul that defines The Practice. “We blend modern biomechanics with traditional and authentic yoga and pilates to reduce stress, improve flexibility and build strength from the inside out,” Mandy says.
She loves watching students surprise themselves.
“I love helping people discover awareness in their body that they didn’t have before,” says Mandy. “Proving to people that they can do something they didn’t think they could do is really awesome.”