Go for a massage, attend a yoga class, or try out a new fitness activity to de-stress this month!
Winding down from the hectic recruitment season? Or perhaps looking for ways to help manage stress and anxiety during the upcoming exam season? Ultra Vires has put together a guide to help you regain tranquility with some de-stressing activities downtown and near campus!
MASSAGE
Alleviate your anxieties by reducing muscle tension with a massage.
Step Up Clinic (53 Hayden Street)
Step Up Clinic’s registered massage therapy, hot stone massage therapy, and aromatherapy appear reasonably priced compared to the locations below. A 30-minute massage starts at $80, and you can use your U of T health insurance benefit to cover a significant amount. However, Step Up Clinic feels more like a walk-in clinic, so this may not be the place for you if you’re looking for a spa-like ambiance. The receptionist does offer you some water and slippers after checking-in, the massage rooms are dim, relaxing music plays in the background, and you enter a space of peace and tranquility. You can also choose your Registered Massage Therapist through the online portal which provides complete comfort.
Touch Massage Bar (451 King Street West)
Touch Massage Bar offers a relaxing spa atmosphere for a relatively reasonable price, with a curated massage menu for every need, a café-bar, and a retail boutique with wellness products. A full body signature massage is 25 minutes and runs you $95. Plus, they have add-ons to your massage, such as their “Lend a Hand” 10-minute $30 add-on, which offers a hand and arm reflexology experience so you can release your typing tension after exam season!
Elmwood Spa (18 Elm Street)
If you’re looking for a short massage, this is not the place for you. Elmwood Spa offers full spa days—4.5 or even six hours—and multiple services, including facials, manicures, water therapy, and numerous types of massages, including Swedish, hot stone, reflexology, and deep tissue. Elmwood Spa is a clear winner in variety compared to Touch Massage Bar and Step Up.
The shortest and most affordable massage is a 50-minute reflexology massage, which will cost you $172. Quite pricey, but you’re in for the most tranquil 50 minutes of your life.
YOGA
Put your mind at ease by stretching your body and learning to breathe deeply. While tossing on a YouTube video to learn yoga in your downtown 300-square-foot apartment is an effective way to stretch and clear your mind, you might want to try a yoga studio to enhance your experience. We’ve reviewed some places in the downtown core for you.
Yoga Tree (123 Dundas Street West)
Yoga Tree offers guided yoga classes for people at all different stages of yoga knowledge and fitness levels. The Level 1 classes support you as you work on your flexibility and flow. Remember to bring your own yoga mat and clothing to allow for a full range of motion! Yoga Tree has flexible class times and pretty affordable plans. A single class goes for $30, but a student bi-weekly membership offers unlimited in-studio classes for $45!
IAM Yoga (680 Yonge Street)
At Yonge and Bloor, sweat out some stress with IAM Yoga’s hot yoga. A single class is $29, and this location offers mat rentals for $2, making it an ideal spot for any beginner looking to try something new without making any commitments! IAM Yoga’s intro package is $69 for new students, which gives you access to unlimited classes for 14 days.
U of T Law Yoga on Campus (Flavelle House, Basement Student Lounge)
In collaboration with Hart House Athletics, the law school hosts weekly yoga classes at the law school on Wednesdays from 1-1:45pm. There is no registration required—classes run on a drop-in, first come, first serve basis.
Students are invited to bring their own mats. Students with all levels of experience are welcome. Location: Flavelle Basement Student Lounge (across the hall from the Quiet Space / down the hall from the student kitchen).
FITNESS
Try a new fitness activity this month to get those endorphins pumping!
Fitness Classes
Sweat & Tonic (225 Yonge Street)
If you love all kinds of fitness classes like yoga, HIIT (high-intensity interval training), and spin—and would love the convenience of going to one studio—then Sweat & Tonic may be the gym for you. They have multiple classes running from 6am–9pm weekdays and 8am–6pm on weekends, which allows you to squeeze in a workout whenever you’re free.
Full membership is a hefty sum of $250 per month, but this price includes access to their co-working space, saunas, and meditation pods. You could fit a workout, study, and sauna session in one day and at one location.
Dance Classes
Underground Dance (224 Richmond Street West)
Dance away your anxious energy with ballet, K-pop, jazz, or hip-hop classes! A one-class-per-week membership is $28, which you can cancel anytime.
Indoor Cycling
SpinCo (129 Spadina Avenue)
As the weather gets colder and you have no desire to step foot outdoors—let alone hop on a bike—spin offers a great way to get your cardio in and endorphins pumping. Not only is it great cardio, but it also makes cardio fun with catchy tunes, club-esque lights, and positive vibes.
SpinCo offers competitive rates for new riders—$50 for two weeks of unlimited rides. They often have themed playlist classes like 2000s bangers or Bieber Fever Friday.
Swimming
Hart House (7 Hart House Circle)
U of T students who are enrolled in the term and paying incidental fees have full and free access to the Hart House facilities, which include a 25-yard pool, an indoor track, and scheduled drop-in activities taking place weekly, like Zumba classes!
Varsity Pool (55 Harbord St)
The Varsity Pool is an Olympic-sized, 50-metre pool with eight lanes. If you’re tired of exercising your brain muscles and pen strokes, take a dip, tone up your body muscles, and work on that breaststroke.
Bouldering / Rock Climbing
Basecamp Climbing Bloor West (677 Bloor Street West)
Improve your flexibility and coordination while strengthening your cardiovascular health with a few hours of rock climbing! Hop on Line 2 and head West to Christie station for 7,000 square feet of climbing walls with over 100 different climbing routes available for climbers of all levels of experience. Although climbing shoes and harness rentals are added costs, you can buy a day pass for only $25.
DE-STRESS ANYWHERE!
Too anxious and crunched for time to enjoy the other activities? Take five minutes to meditate with Headspace.
Headspace is a mindfulness and meditation app that offers guided meditations for focus, sleep, stress, and more. As one of the most popular guided meditation apps on the market, Headspace aims to easily integrate meditation into a user’s day, which is known to help individuals reduce stress and sleep better.
The app is free to download. Some features require a paid subscription, but students get a discount.
Good2talk offers free, confidential support to post-secondary students in Ontario 24/7.
Mental Health Resources:
- Supporting a student in distress: studentlife.utoronto.ca/service/faculty-support-for-responding-to-distressed-students/
- U of T MySSP is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via telephone, video, or chat in multiple languages
Students can contact:
- The Health and Wellness Centre (M–F, 9am to 4:30pm): 416-978-8030, or visit the Student Mental Health Portal online
- CAMH 24/7 Psychiatric Emergency Department: 1051 Queen St. W, or call 416-535-8501
- Talk Suicide Canada helpline: 1-833-456-4566
- See also: ontario.cmha.ca/documents/are-you-in-crisis/; camh.ca/en/suicide-prevention/get-help
