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Bikram yoga students perform a pose during a class at Brick Canvas in Lehi on Friday, Oct. 26, 2012. JAMES ROH/Daily Herald

James Roh

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Kim Richins, Valerie Seolas, and Rebecca Miller, from left, practice bikram yoga at Brick Canvas in Lehi on Friday, Oct. 26, 2012. JAMES ROH/Daily Herald

James Roh

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LEHI — Brick Canvas awaits you.

Hidden within the display gardens and courtyards of Thanksgiving Point’s plaza west of the Emporium and Water Tower is a building created to benefit the health and well being of its guests.

Six businesses are housed within the Brick Canvas building, to help patrons achieve enhanced body strength and increased confidence, while rejuvenating them within the beauty of the esoteric brick structure.

“You are your own canvas, you can become whatever you want to become. You can accomplish whatever your goals are in the building,” said Jason Hoopiiaina, Brick Canvas director.

“The purpose of Brick Canvas — there are two main goals — doesn’t matter what you do, when you leave the building, we want you to leave feeling better and we want you to have a desire to come back,” he said.

Brick Canvas owner Shelli Gardner, who also is CEO and co-founder of Stampin’ Up, brought Bikram Yoga, Fraiche, Lyceum, Sage Leaf Spa, The Loft and Vivesque together for the center. Partnering with Thanksgiving Point planners to make Brick Canvas happen, Gardner’s goal was to provide an inviting and motivating environment for guests and promote health, fitness and relaxation needs. They announced the grand opening of Brick Canvas on Oct. 23.

“What we do changes lives,” Hoopiiaina said of the whole Brick Canvas experience. “Because when people feel better, they are better.”

Bikram Yoga

The new state-of-the-art Bikram Yoga studio is the only one open in Utah County. Set in a 2,800-square-foot hot and humid room on the main level of Brick Canvas, instructors lead students through a set of 26 yoga poses in a 90-minute class. The temperature is set at 104 degrees and the humidity is maintained at 40 percent. Classes are Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.

“The heat helps with a whole bunch of things,” Hoopiiaina said. “It elevates your heart rate, it warms your muscles. Bikram Yoga is beautiful for people who have been injured — whether they have blown out a knee or thrown out a shoulder, the heat helps to repair your movement.”

Rahn Miralles is one of five certified Bikram Yoga instructors. Each has gone through extensive training, although Miralles has one of the more inspiring stories about the effects Bikram Yoga has had on his health.

“At one point, I was at four-and-a-quarter. The scale maxed out at 395 but I coasted well beyond that,” Miralles said. “I always struggled with my weight early on. I tried everything, I mean everything.”

He said he couldn’t even tie his shoes and that he had tried medication, programs, doctors. He was finally able to lose 50 pounds after a lap band surgery and then plateaued. Miralles said one day his wife said she wanted to try yoga and decided on Bikram Yoga.

“I thought I was going to be supportive and go with her and she stopped going and I continued on. It just clicked. It was incredible,” Miralles said. “When I first started I could barely do any of this, but I was wearing my heart monitor and I realized I was burning about 600 calories laying in the room.”

Three years and 900 classes later, he weighs nearly 200 pounds less than when he started and he can tie his shoes. Not only that, he has greatly increased his strength, health and flexibility. Miralles teaches a couple of times a week at the studio as does Eric Schanz.

Schanz was encouraged to try yoga by his sister to help calm his anxieties several years ago.

“I had really bad anxiety,” he said. He found Bikram Yoga helped through teaching him how to breathe correctly.

“Learning how to breathe properly helps calm you down, it calms your nervous system down so you actually can be relaxed and calm,” Schanz said.

“Just show up. Everything else kind of falls into place if you just show up,” Miralles said.

Fraiche

Pronounced “fresh,” Fraiche is a relaxing French café setting with a juice bar. Its kitchen also offers granola snacks, sandwiches and soups. Fraiche will open in mid-November and is on the main level.

Not an ordinary trendy restaurant, the cafe is unique in that it will offer real green drinks and homemade light refreshment made with fresh, home-grown foods.

“They grow a lot of their own food on site. They take it from the farm, if you will, to the table as fast as they can,” Hoopiiaina said.

Lyceum

This fitness and nutritional wellness studio located on the courtyard level customizes workout routines using the TRX suspension training system, and creates nutritional plans for each individual to gain physical results.

“When you go down there you will see this beautiful open courtyard and there is tons of natural light,” Hoopiiaina said.

A personal training studio, they customize solutions to meet individual needs and goals.

“Our approach is different, we begin by identifying where you are at and what you are trying to accomplish and where you want to go. Do you want to lose weight, sculpt your body, do you want to prepare for a race, for an event, whatever it is,” said Jesse Allen, Lyceum co-owner.

They will create meal plans if necessary, or provide nutritional guidance — they teach exercise classes, so they might slide a client into a class — or provide a custom workout for that individual to get them to whatever their goals are.

“Because there is more than just exercise to it, there is a nutritional component to it, there is a fitness component, there is a mind connection to everything you are trying to do. So we identify what the client is trying to do and then we map out a program for them to get there,” Allen said. Hoopiiaina knows firsthand what four of the six businesses have to offer at Brick Canvas.

“My personal goal when I started working out at Lyceum was that when I brushed my teeth I didn’t want to see my belly jiggle,” he said.

He has not only lost 40 pounds while doing so, but feels better.

“Lyceum has not only changed my life and that is in the best way. And now not only my life but in my wife’s life,” Hoopiiaina said. Now we fight about who gets to go to Lyceum in the morning. If she gets to go, I get to stay home and watch the kids. If I get to go, she has to stay home and watch the kids.”

Sage Leaf Spa

This full-service spa offers guests an amazing experience. Located on the main level, therapists will deliver treatments customized for each guest. Enjoy traditional Swedish, deep tissue, sports and hot stone massage, or a luxurious Ashiatsu massage or Vichy shower. Sage Leaf Spa estheticians offer personalized skin care, including facials, waxing and body treatments featuring the Eminence Organic Skin Care Line.

“It’s more than what you are used to getting, but you are not going to pay anything more for it,” Hoopiiaina said.

They offer anything from a half-an-hour massage to a two-hour massage using several different types of massage: hot stone, aroma touch, Thai, Ashiatsu. The spa also offers body treatments, facials and waxing.

“And when I say one-hour massage, the clock doesn’t start until the therapist actually starts doing your massage,” Hoopiiaina said. “And then we have different types of massages, some that are really hard to find.”

One of those is the Vichy shower full body massage, which incorporates hydrotherapy with the massage.

“Vichy treatments have been around but not a lot of spas utilize them,” said Char Olenik, Sage Leaf Spa manager. “It is somewhat of an expensive tool to incorporate, they use a lot of water, but the benefits outweigh it.”

The Loft

Brick Canvas has two areas on its upper level for receptions, meetings and other gatherings. Expansive — as large as 4,500 square feet — with views of the garden plaza from its windows, The Loft was designed as a place for celebration, education and reunion. Thanksgiving Point can cater events at the facility and arranges for each room’s rental. Reservations can be made or information about The Loft can be found at www.brickcanvas.com/the-loft or by calling (801) 768.4947.

Vivesque

This salon located on the upper level not only uses top hair and nail artistry leaders, but also is one of the only licensed retailers in Utah to sell both Kérastase and Shu Uemura hair products.

“Again you are going to get more than what you are used to but you are not going to spend anything more for it,” Hoopiiaina said. Beyond the luxurious and rich reception area stands a shiny black baby grand piano where a pianist will play relaxing upbeat music. Every guest gets complimentary drinks and snacks.

“Every guest gets a pressure point and scalp massage, and with a cut and color that is no additional charge, that is just part of the service,” Hoopiiaina said.

Each room is designed for relaxation and care with light, open space, beauty and music for the mind and body. Walking from one room to the next, the music can change from a cheerful, faster-paced beat to slower-paced relaxation music.

“This is almost a spa feel inside of a salon,” Hoopiiaina said of the wash room where stylists clean the hair, condition and then massage the scalp.

Artistic stylist Nicholas Hansen was adding color for Lehi resident Marie Neilson’s hair. On her third visit, she said preferred Vivesque.

“The stylists are all great, you get pampered as soon as you walk in, they give you refreshments and snacks throughout your session, and I’m confident that they know what they are doing so I want to come back,” Neilson said. “They are the only salon that I know that regularly educates their stylists as a full salon and that gives me confidence when I walk in no matter who it is that I go to that they will do a great job on my hair.”

Brick Canvas

2455 Executive Parkway, Lehi

www.brickcanvas.com

(801) 407-8620

Bikram Yoga

www.bikramyogabrickcanvas.com

(801) 407-8640

Fraiche

www.brickcanvas.com/fraiche

(801) 407-8635

Lyceum

www.lyceumbrickcanvas.com

(801) 407-8650

Sage Leaf Spa

sageleafspa.com

(801) 407-8530

The Loft

www.brickcanvas.com/the-loft

(801) 768-4947

Vivesque

vivesquebrickcanvas.com

(801) 407-8655

Thanksgiving Point

3003 Thanksgiving Way, Lehi

www.thanksgivingpoint.org

(801) 768-2300

Shelli Gardner

Facebook: www.facebook.com/shelligardner

Blog: http://soshelli.com

Company: www.stampinup.com