Sandbach's Ashtanga Cheshire Studios crowned county's best yoga studio

Sandbach has a new reason to feel proud. Ashtanga Cheshire Studios, based in the market town, was named Best Yoga / Pilates Studio at the 2025 Cheshire Muddy Stilettos Awards, beating a strong field from across the county.

The Muddy Stilettos Awards are voted for by local residents and set out to celebrate independent lifestyle businesses, which makes the win all the more meaningful. This is a title earned through the loyalty of the people who turn up to class week after week.

The competition was stiff. The shortlist in the category featured five studios, with Ashtanga Cheshire Studios up against Satya Sanctuary in Knutsford, Soul Reformer in Knutsford and Hale, The Farm Club in Pickmere and Yoga On the Edge in Alderley Edge. That so many of the county's finest studios were in contention says much about Cheshire's thriving wellbeing scene.

As its name suggests, the studio's focus is Ashtanga vinyasa yoga, the dynamic, breath-led style in which practitioners move through a set sequence of postures. It is a practice valued for its structure and rhythm, and one that rewards regular attendance.

Co-founder Calum Thomson is a 500-hour Ashtanga vinyasa yoga teacher, and the studio teaches classes both in person and online, serving students in and around Cheshire and Manchester. That blend means regulars can keep up their practice even on days when they cannot make it to the mat in person.

For anyone who has been meaning to try yoga, an award-winning studio on the doorstep is about as good an invitation as it gets. And for Sandbach, the win is a welcome boost for the town's independent business scene.

Part of Ashtanga's appeal is its sense of progression. Because the sequence stays the same, students can see their practice develop over weeks and months, and teachers can offer guidance tailored to where each person is on that journey. It is a style that suits those who like structure, and a studio devoted to it can offer real depth. Cheshire's yoga scene has grown enormously in recent years, with studios popping up in market towns and villages as well as the bigger centres. Against that backdrop, being singled out by local voters is no small achievement, and it suggests Ashtanga Cheshire Studios has built a genuinely loyal community.

Details of in-studio and online classes are available at ashtangacheshire.co.uk.