Kim Manfredi began studying yoga and meditation in 1988 to facilitate healing from a severe fall that resulted in four broken vertebrae. Although she found limited mobility in her spine and permanent damage to her right leg, the benefits of yoga were apparent to her even with her first class. Louis Delmar, Kim's first teacher, always encouraged her to seek more than asana from the practice. Kim began practicing meditation right from the start.The healing resulting from yoga and meditation was so miraculous that she become a teacher five years later to share the practice with others.

Kim has studied under many teachers in several traditions including Astanga with Patabhi Jois in Mysore, India: Kripalu Yoga; Pandit Rajmani Tinguait, Spiritual leader of the Himalayan Institute; Shiva Rea; Beryl Bender Birch; Baron Baptiste; Bikram; Doug Swenson; and Rod Stryker. Kim is an experienced breath practitioner and has examined and used breath as a therapuetic tool for enabling practitioners to live a radically alive life. Kim is committed to the eight limbs of yoga as a path to enlightenment.

In 2001, in partnership with her husband Chris Blades, Kim opened Midtown Yoga Center. She began with a couple of classes a week in a converted space above her decorative painting studios and a few space heaters. Baltimore's citizens were very supportive of the town's first Hot yoga studio. The classes started to fill and as word spread classes began to overflow into the hall, which is where Chris and Katie Thorworth (now one of our teachers) did their practice. No one was ever turned away and the city's understanding and appreciation for the practice began to spread. Within a year, the number of students became overwhelming.

As a result, Kim began to train teachers so the studio could increase the number of daily hot yoga classes. Teaching took her understanding of the practice to the next level. Kim's teaching methodology emphasizes the eight limbs of Patanjali's yoga. By making sure the teachers at the studio have a holistic approach to the practice has allowed Midtown to continue and develop its universal appeal. Kim is commited to training teachers to be conduits of their own authentic relationship to the lifelong practice of yoga.

By 2003, it was necessary to open a second yoga studio at Midtown. This allowed the Center to invite teachers from a variety of traditions to begin to share their teachings. Some of those traditions have included astanga, sivananda, Iyengar, and more. Kim feels strongly that there really is a yoga for everyone, and she feels an important part of her own growth as a yogini is her increasing awareness of the infinite number of paths to enlightenment.

As her fame spread, in 2004, Kim became the yoga teacher to the Baltimore Ravens NFL team, where she taught several seasons of hatha yoga to the players. This was a great experience. Much ado and great seats at the games !!! Kim enjoyed seeing such incredible atheletes respond to the practice. They have a terrific body - mind connection and understand the principles of body, mind, and spirit as one entity. Kim continues to work with athletes privately whenever they call.

Further recognition occurred in 2004 when Midtown was voted the Best Yoga Studio in Baltimore by the City Paper. The award read: “Ninety minutes of torture, 90 years of healthy life.” Not the sort of thing you are likely to hear from your average yoga instructor. (Did she say torture?) But then again, this is not your average yoga instructor – or studio, for that matter. Kim Manfredi Blades, the proprietor and lead practitioner at Midtown Yoga, practices a strenuous and demanding brand of yoga that delivers on the first of her aforementioned promises –  and you leave believing with every ounce of your being that the second will come true. This is hot yoga where the studio is heated up to a muscle-melting 100-plus degrees. The diminutive Kim – who boasts what appears to be less than 1 percent body fat – fills her hearth of a studio with an infectious jovial spirit while working every joint and muscle in your body with a relentless series of postures – most performed twice. Kim tests your will – are you laughing because its funny? – while finding the equilibrium between balance, strength, and flexibility, reciting the bon mot, “No one is born with all three.”

Yes, there is a purple elephant on the door. Yes, waves of incense fill the air. Yes, the chanting of Krishna Das is in heavy rotation on the sound system. But make no mistake, this is not flaky stuff. Macho men like a local sports-talk impresario and the son of a prominent sports team owner are regulars at Midtown Yoga. Arrive early: the classes are almost always packed, yoga mats filling every inch of the floor. Bring a towel and some water. You’ll need both. 90 minutes (and 90 years) later, you’ll thank us.

Kim registered her yoga teacher training with Yoga Alliance, and the teachers are recognized by this governing organization as trained to the highest standards. This registration provides students trained at Charm City to teach in any venue and collect CEUs for workshops completed at the Center.

In 2005, the Midtown Center won Baltimore Best for a second time with the City Paper. Encouraged by many of our students and our teachers, Kim and Chris opened a second center in Fells Point to accommodate the increasing yoga community. With two studios opened in different parts of town, the name was changed to Charm City Yoga. Kim encourages other teachers to bring their vision of the practice and to the schedule as well.

More awards followed in 2006, with both the Baltimore Magazine and the City Paper recognizing Charm City Yoga as the Best of Balltimore. The Baltimore magazine wrote: There are many great studios in Baltimore - Ojas, Susquehanna, and the Yoga Center of Columbia are particularly strong - but we’ve got to give our love to Charm City Yoga, 901 Fell Street, 410-276-YOGA. First of all, the two locations (the other is Midtown at 107 East Preston Street) are seriously convenient. Secondly, they are not as rigidly indoctrinated as some of the other studios-in other words, they offer all different styles of yoga (including hot yoga) and are very accommodating to beginners. And finally, owner Kim Manfredi, who studied yoga in India, brings a peaceful, communal vibe to her centers that we find very conducive to our downward-facing dog.

In the autumn 2007, Kim joined the two year graduate painting program at the Hoffberger School of painting, Maryland Institute College of Art. Her work can be seen here. In early 2008 she started teaching her first 500 hour Advanced Teacher Training program. Kim and Chris opened a third Studio in April 2008, this time in Towson, at 7 Allegheny Avenue. Kim teaches in her own unique and ecletic style at our Midtown location on Mondays and Wednesdays at 6:30pm, and teaches the occasional beginner series at our various studios. She holds two Teacher Training programs every year, a 200 hour program each autumn and a 500 hour advanced program each spring.