Marine veteran is building a ‘misfit’ yoga community in Ashland

ASHLAND — Nothing about Shane Hutcheson and his nondescript yoga studio off U.S. 42 in Milton Township fits the mold. 

Hutcheson, 40, drinks from a bright C4 Energy can sitting conspicuously next to his yoga mat during a midweek evening session. 

The retired Marine’s pronounced, inked muscles distracts the eyes from his average height, and his booming voice usurps the unusual tunes pumping through the speaker.

The Offspring’s 1994 hit “Self Esteem” ironically taunts “That’s OK man ’cause I like the abuse” as Hutcheson leads his all-female class into a series of advanced lunges.

Hutcheson likes to turn up the heat, literally. This particular studio, one of two in the place, has five heaters that can get the room to a sizzling 120 degrees Fahrenheit. This is known as hot yoga, a form of the exercise that seeks to replicate the heat and humidity of India, where the practice originated.

Sweat beads off the women’s faces. Several of them take unguided breaks to sop up the salty liquid dripping into their eyes and mouths.

The atmosphere is intense, yet at times playful, as he leads the class in various poses. Chaturanga. Down Dog. Up Dog. Extended Mountain. Chair pose.

“Your other right, Britni,” he pokes, prompting laughter from others.

Even the smell of incense hits you with an ferocity bordering on indulgence. One can detect sandalwood and patchouli essences from the parking lot. 

Yoga literally means “yoke” or “to unite,” in Sanskrit. And that’s Hutcheson’s aim — to bring together the commotion of life and crush it with the calming effect that follows an intense session of what he calls “good yoga.” 

Hutcheson’s military-grade outer shell at first glance seems asymmetrical with the woo-woo spiritual stereotypes associated with yoga. But he adopts it all.

Take, for instance, Hutcheson’s meditative, rhythmic language at the opening of a session. 

“Let the oxygen from your breath find the aches, to find the pains. Bring all of your awareness into the breath,” he says, then, he encourages his underlings to perform a “full body scan” with deep inhalation, followed by prolonged exhalation. 

It’s exactly Hutcheson’s unorthodox approach to yoga that keeps Christine Thompson, 46, coming back five days a week.

Before, Thompson would treat yoga as an obligation. 

“I’d go once a week and be done,” she said.

At Peace in Power, the “hard” music, Hutcheson’s booming voice, the jokes, and his push to challenge oneself all played into Thompson’s paradigm shift.

“I carry yoga with me all the time now. I feel what my body needs and I’ll just do a quick stretch. It’s a lifestyle change for me,” she said.

Thompson’s been attending Peace in Power’s yoga classes for six months. She started coming following a recovery from ovarian cancer. In May, surgeons removed a “very large tumor” from her abdomen and she spent the summer recovering. 

On June 30, she decided to give Hutcheson’s yoga a try, as a way to ease back into her active lifestyle of lifting weights and running.

But the juxtaposition of the welcoming vibes and Hutcheson’s push for excellence in his students totally replaced all her other gym-related activities. Yoga at Peace in Power is her way to achieve what she calls “inner quietness” and a challenging, full-body workout.

“I like that there’s always somewhere else you can go with the poses. I was never taught advanced poses in other classes. It’s exciting for me,” she said.

‘A group of misfit toys’

Hutcheson fully adopts his yoga studio’s misfit aura.

“We’re a little bit different from your stereotypical yoga studio … we’re just a group of misfit toys,” he said, chuckling.

He said this likely stems from his past as a mortarman in the U.S. Marine Corps. He chose the Marines “because they’re the best,” but it was done on a whim one day. 

A few months after graduating from Madison High School in 2004, Hutcheson decided to talk to an Air Force recruiter. One day, though, Hutcheson’s dad ran into Cody Mager, who had just signed up to be a Marine. Mager was Hutcheson’s best friend through high school. 

“Cody called me and we went out there that day and I signed up,” he said with a laugh.

Hutcheson served for 7.5 years and deployed to Afghanistan once. While there, he saw combat through small arms fire and improvised explosive devices. 

When he got out, he struggled with readjusting to civilian life. He battled alcoholism and received a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder.

At 32, he got sober and soon got back into physical fitness through the gentle nudging of his AA sponsor. He had always been a fit guy, and now it served as a way to cope with issues — both mental and physical (he was injured while serving.)

“As I would run and lift, I’d have to take a week or two off when my shoulder would hurt or whatever,” he said. “So I’d see some gains, take some time off, see some gains, take time off.” 

And then a friend suggested yoga. Hutcheson’s knee-jerk reaction was to scoff and laugh him off.

But yoga kept creeping into his life, through interactions with people and through listening to podcasts. So he took them as signs and went to his first class. 

“And she kicked the crap out of me,” Hutcheson said, adding that he was fit at the time. Running upwards to 20 miles a week and lifting regularly. “Yoga exposed where I had a lot of holes in my fitness.” 

He liked it, but only used it for the first couple years as a way to fix short-term fitness hurdles. His shoulder would hurt, so he’d go through the motions. His back would be sore, so he’d go through the motions. 

Finally, something clicked. 

“I kinda, you know, finally said ‘this is kinda stupid.’ I keep using it to heal myself but wouldn’t give it full credit,” Hutcheson said.

So he went full tilt with yoga, joining Flex Yoga‘s teacher training course in Wooster.

Opening up his own studio was always a distant thought, but he never saw it as an obtainable goal to pursue.

But then the stars started aligning, he said. Similar to what got him to his first yoga class, he began seeing the signs. His neighbor asking him if he’d sell his house, for example. Or driving by the small, nondescript space along U.S. Route 42 open up for lease. Also, another friend encouraged him to consider it.

So he did. He sold his house in Richland County to his neighbor. He rented a space and cleaned it up. His goal soon became to open up Peace in Power by mid-November in 2024. 

That’s what happened. And two weeks after opening, a downtown Ashland yoga studio, Rise Studio, shuttered. Another sign, he said. 

‘Yoga is for everybody’

Hutcheson never went to college. The Marine veteran now works as a support specialist at Richland Newhope Industries, a nonprofit that helps developmentally disabled adults find and keep work.

In many ways, he’s unqualified to run a business, he said. And sure, he’s rough around the edges. He’s not a “skinny treehugger,” as one of his students lovingly said. 

“Yoga is for everybody,” said Kerry Hart-Stiffer, an Ashland resident who works at University Hospitals in pulmonary medicine. She’s done yoga for 10 years and comes to his studio four times a week.

“I love the people that are there,” she said. “Sure, we’re rough around the edges and we don’t have the lotus flower and the mantras and chanting and stuff like that. We’re blasting blink 182 and cuss words. That might not be for everybody, but it is for everybody.”

Hutcheson looks back at the decision to open Peace in Power and likens it to having kids. (He has two children, each in high school.)

“If you wait until you’re ready to have kids, you’re probably never gonna have kids. You’re never gonna be ready,” he said.

Since then, the studio has seen modest growth, attracting around 35 regulars. He’s also built a team of five instructors.

He’s happy with where the studio is at the moment. The Marine veteran wants growth, but more than that he wants to keep offering “good yoga.” He calls it the AA approach.

“You’ll never see a billboard for Alcoholics Anonymous. They say ‘attraction’ rather than promotion,” he said. “I would rather it be the students leaving here with a far better energy that they want to spread to others.”