HOT YOGA STUDENT TESTIMONIALS

"I believe my hot yoga practice has taught  me to be patient, yet work hard. To accept where I am now, yet set realistic goals."               - Marie Mencia

Nancy Weir, pictured here, holds the record for coming to the most classes in a row: 60 classes in 60 days!

After her first 30 days she said: I feel 10 years younger today than I did when I started!

After completing her 60th day in a row she said: Today I feel 20 years younger than when I started!

Terry in a beautiful Locust Pose and Marilyn in her Toe Stand during her 30th class in 30 days!

Please watch our student videos to see how committing to a yoga practice has transformed their lives!

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Last summer I was consumed with doctors’ visits, MRIs, splints on my feet and hands, debilitating headaches and sciatica.  I was in PT for bulging discs in my neck.  I was unable to do much housework or gardening. I was afraid that I would feel this way for the rest of my life.
 
Then I began hot yoga with Lara and Chad.  I needlessly feared that I would not be able to tolerate the intense heat, that it would aggravate my hot flashes. I was unable to concentrate or balance.  I needed to hang on to the wall just to keep from toppling over!   But I persevered! After a few weeks, I noticed that I needed less pain relievers.  I began to feel stronger.  Soon I looked forward to going to practice, knowing that it was making an impact in my quality of life.
 
I knew that the changes were significant when others began to see that I was transforming.  After just a few months I was getting compliments on how fit and strong I looked.  At the same time, I was almost completely pain free, never needing any medications. My husband was introducing me as his trophy wife.  Even my kids were shocked at my six-pack abs!
 
Last summer is just a faint memory now.  I went away for a few weeks in the spring and missed practicing yoga.  My old symptoms started to creep back.  My husband asked me if I remembered when I was a “cripple”!!  Boy, did I get right back to class!!! 

In addition to feeling and looking well, I have developed the most wonderful relationships.  My new yoga friends, interesting and diverse, come from all over northeast PA.  After class, my husband always asks me, “Who was at yoga today?”  Then he has to listen to everyone’s news: travels, health, holidays, diets, new puppies, surgeries, businesses, children, etc.!!!  We even notice each other’s absences…. “And where were you last week?”

Hot yoga is HOT!!!!  It takes a lot of discipline and endurance.  Progress can be slow.  (I still need to hang onto the wall at times).  Some classes are better than others.  But it is worth the effort:  I just worked all day in my garden, without any pain.  I never thought I would be able to do that again.

Thank you Lara and Chad, for giving me my life back!!!

                            Lyn Blewitt

I had been urged by friends to try Hot Yoga for about a year. My feelings were, “right, not in this lifetime”. I just did not see myself chanting and meditating while in some  contorted position. After all I belonged to a gym where all you heard was the clank of free weights and the grunts of the power lifters. Not until I was dared and my masculinity challenged did I agree to go.

   My first session was a near death experience. I had to sit out at least half of the poses. I would have walked out as I was extremely nauseous but I was so light headed I couldn’t make it to the door. I didn’t eat for a day and a half afterward. I don’t know why, probably residual cerebral anoxia, but I tried a second session and upon completion signed up for three months.

   After a month I can honestly say I really enjoy the sessions and actually look forward to going. I’m to the point now that with the book and a vivid imagination you can guess what pose I am trying to approximate. The point is I’m having fun all the while noticing a real change in how I feel and my ability to move and perform routine tasks. Old age does not come on suddenly nor does it come alone. You lose flexibility and balance so gradually that you don’t know it’s gone until one day you wake up and it’s too late. Even with my short time at SHY I feel I have started to actively regain that which has been taken from me by the advancing years.

    One other and equally important aspect of the SHY experience has been the quality of the instructional staff. The instructors have the ability to take a wide variety of first timers and guide them through what might be a completely foreign and daunting physical endeavor. Through their gentle but rather firm guidance you can see the results of your efforts. 

     For the future I see myself continuing my sessions and hopefully improving my ability to perform the poses. Who knows, I may even investigate the more meditative aspect of yoga.
                                                                                                            -Mike Friel

I think your wonderful Lara!! This class felt like exactly what I needed in my life at almost exactly the right time! I needed to learn how to quiet my mindin to see clearly the directions I needed to go in. I felt like the meditation and the lectures, accompanied by the movement and also very much the yoga was what it took to put me on the path that I needed to follow at this time in my life. I hope to continue evolving with the Chi Gong and the yoga in all sorts of wonderful ways. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

-Kathleen Aikman, Hot Yoga Student and Master's Path Chi Gong Student

Here is a review of our Medical Chi Gong Workshops:

A weekend of classes under the expert guidance of Master Teacher Jason Campbell left me feeling both grateful and challenged.  Often in our lives we sit in classes where every hour or so, a worthwhile nugget of information is passed along and retained.  From Master Campbell they flow like water....following his classes you are left to contemplate so many profound concepts as well as so many specfic ways to improve your health, your inner and outer strength, your outlook and appreciation of life, even your self-image.  Both he and our wonderful studio director Lara Rubin have such a simple yet powerful way of imparting ancient practices in language we can all understand, using both humor and universal truths to make their points.

In meeting with Master Campbell one-on-one after class he had two words for me:  GET STRONGER.  Not a request...and much in keeping with his personal style of challenging rather than coaxing his students.  TELL your body to heal, COMMAND and control your breathing and your movements, DO the hard work and you will have the ultimate reward of a strong, disciplined body, a clear, focused mind, and a grateful and open spirit.  From the combination of the three classes I attended - Medical Chi Gong, Taoist Tantra, and The 7 Chakras, I gained an appreciation for the depth of these practices while having an excellent starting place and specific guidelines to begin doing the work.  Fortunately for all of us who benefitted from these classes, Lara has several offerings in the upcoming months for those interested in pursuing these ancient practices and philosophies in greater detail and depth.

So....thank you both Master Campbell and Lara Rubin for such a worthwhile glimpse into a life-altering world of physical, emotional, and spiritual health, realized through daily walking of these time-honored and proven healing paths.

Peace,
Kathy MacNamara