Welcome back to the Pop 5, where each week we crown our favorite everything in SF. As Summer approaches, we've got fitness on the brain (and the abs) so on the heels of last week's best fitness classes, we're reaching into the yoga world this week. It's hardly a stretch to say we San Franciscans love our yoga, so if you really want a treat, take yourself to these Pop 5 favorite yoga spots.

  1. The Pad (1690 Union St., 415-929-1690) This Union Street studio offers high-energy, music-filled daily power yoga classes open to all levels, with a rotation of skilled instructors helping you through your vinyasa flow sequence. Founded by Leila Burrows, who earned her chops in guest services at LA-based luxury developer Kor Hotel Group, The Pad's fresh, clean, and stylish green and white interiors alone offer an instant sense of balance and restoration.
  2. Urban Flow Yoga (1543 Mission St., 415-355-9642) Founded by Rusty Wells, Urban Flow Yoga specializes in Bhakti flow, a mind-blowing balance between heart-centered devotional elements and Vinyasa flow poses. Taught in a warm but not super-hot room, classes are livened up by hip music on a state of the art sound system and tempered with meditative chanting and relaxation.

  3. California Yoga Company (2410 California St., Suite 3, 415-775-0570) This totally unpretentious studio offers just one class, Beginning Hot Yoga, and lives by the slogan "no scene, no stress, simply yoga." Taught in a warm room, it moves through the same 40 to 45 poses each class but never feels monotonous and leaves you feeling totally unwound.
  4. Aha Yoga (1892 Union St., 2nd Floor, 415-440-9642) This light-filled Union Street space just screams San Francisco, and the dynamic classes — from Forrest to power to hot yoga— are accessible and addictive.
  5. Planet Granite (924 Mason St., 415-692-3434) The yoga studio here is one of the city's best kept secrets. For $70 a month, you get access to climbing areas, cardio and weights, and yoga classes. Says FitSugar's Michele: "Many of the teachers are regular instructors at places like Aha Yoga, Yoga Tree, and EHS Pilates; a few even own their own studios and have trained under yoga-greats like Ana Forrest and Rusty Wells."