Studio Bondi The Hague

DATE

28 January 2025

TEXT

Annerieke Simeone

IMAGE

Brian Mul

Studio Bondi introduces Reformer Pilates to Bankastraat

Sometimes you have to push yourself to the limits of exhaustion before achieving complete relaxation. That is something Daniel van den Heuvel (1984) and Els Metten (1985), owners of Studio Bondi, the boutique studio for modern yoga and Pilates, found out for themselves.

DATE

28 January 2025

TEXT

Annerieke Simeone

IMAGE

Brian Mul

Studio Bondi introduces Reformer Pilates to Bankastraat

Sometimes you have to push yourself to the limits of exhaustion before achieving complete relaxation. That is something Daniel van den Heuvel (1984) and Els Metten (1985), owners of Studio Bondi, the boutique studio for modern yoga and Pilates, found out for themselves.

As project manager of major marketing campaigns for brands such as Heineken and Sony, Daniel was under great stress for years. “At a certain point, I was grinding my teeth in bed at night, and I would wake up with a sense of panic in the morning.” 

His wife Els, a candidate notary in the Zuidas in Amsterdam, experienced something similar. “I often worked overtime and went to all the parties at the weekends. I became completely exhausted.” Both yearned for a change in their lives. One day, Els found out about Yin yoga. “I had no idea what to expect, but it was so relaxing. After the class, all I did was cry. I was just so happy that I didn’t have to do anything for a while.”

Relaxed

Els then took a Yin yoga teacher training course and her employer and founder of Rockstart, an investment company for start-ups, allowed her to give classes to the - mostly male - coworkers. Seeing an increasingly relaxed woman plopping down on the sofa next to him, Daniel wanted to experience it for himself. But it was disappointing. “At one studio, there was a wishy-washy atmosphere and it smelled of sweat. At another, the bar was so high that as a beginner you thought, what am I doing here?” Els comments, “We increasingly wondered why there was no aesthetically pleasing, yet low-threshold yoga studio where men also felt at home. There was nothing that met our needs in either Amsterdam or The Hague.”

After moving from the capital to The Hague, Daniel was “pretty fed up with commuting”. “I come from an entrepreneurial family, so starting my own business had been in the back of my mind for a while. One day I said to Els, why don’t we start our own yoga studio?” Within a day, everything was on paper: it was going to be a yoga studio with the look of a design hotel: dark walls, wooden floors, a good sound system. They had also come up with the name: Studio Bondi, one of the most famous beaches in Sydney, Australia. “We felt so good there. We wanted that quality, that deep level of relaxation for our studio too,” Els says.


Reformer pilates will make you strong fast.

Rockstart’s CFO, who looked over the finances, gave his blessing. Flyers were handed out, they used online advertising, posters hung in the windows. But a week before the opening of their first location at Valeriusstraat 40, fear set in. Would people actually come? Daniel chuckles. “We opened on a Saturday and there was a queue at the door. And although women are still in the majority, Studio Bondi has attracted a loyal fan base of men over the past five years. Classes are usually full, often with waiting lists. Pilates, an effective workout that strengthens as well as stretches muscle groups to get a strong yet supple body, is especially popular.”

Reformer pilates

The two had had the desire to expand Studio Bondi for some time, with a Reformer Pilates studio high on the wish list. A studio manager tipped them off to a property on Bankastraat opposite the Vlaams Broodhuys. Els says, “Bankastraat 93A ticks all the boxes.” “Reformer Pilates is a global trend,” Daniel is aware. “Even the players at Manchester United are doing it.” On TikTok, we find the video of their workout with the text: “Never underestimate the power of Pilates.” With their naked torsos, the muscular footballers can be seen exerting themselves. “It’s a perfect combination of strength, flexibility and balance, not to mention the serious ab gains,” it says underneath. Daniel chuckles. “Yes, it’s serious business. You can slow down a bit more on the mat, but the reformer is harder because of the resistance it offers your body. Moreover, the groups are smaller and you’re coached intensively. You get strong faster. I’m definitely going to do it too.”


“The teeth grinding has stopped”

Since the two owners started Studio Bondi, they have also become Mum and Dad to two boys. But stress? Daniel answers, “There is healthy tension when opening a new business. But, and Els can attest, the teeth grinding has stopped. That’s partly thanks to yoga.” Els glances with satisfaction at her husband. “Nowadays, we only do things that make us feel good.”

www.studio-bondi.com