Ravinder
After taking her first hot yoga class, Ravinder was shaking. She had just survived 90 minutes of sweating and holding poses that must have looked so easy from outside the room. She couldn’t wait to do it again. And again. From her practice grew a passion….a passion to share this healing practice with her local community. She sent out on a quest to build her practice, become a certified teacher, built up hours upon hours of teaching experience at Bikram Headquarters, Encino and Studio City, honed in her skills and deepened her knowledge and understanding, and built and opened Hot For Yoga in Santa Clarita, CA.
She’s completed trainings/certifications in Bikram Yoga, Inferno Hot Pilates, 500hr YTT (Vinyasa, Prenatal, Restorative, Subtle Bodies, Trauma Informed Yoga, Yin Yoga, Yoga Nidra, Adaptive Yoga) and is a Reiki 1 and 2 practitioner.
Olivia
Michelle M.
Yoga is my absolute medicine. I started practicing yoga 10 years ago and was completely hooked.
I was going through a rough time, and yoga opened up a door of healing and presence that I so deeply needed in my life at that time. I knew that it was going to become apart of my everyday life and it did. I started doing free youtube yoga videos and meditating and immediately started to feel the positive effects. I would attend classes and go to the only studio that was really open out here in Santa Clarita and local gyms and continue to deepen my practice. I started to feel the call to teach and would hold impromptu yoga sessions for friends and family and felt so aligned doing it. I knew I wanted to become certified and teach officially!
In 2019 I completed my 200 hr ytt in Thailand in vinyasa style yoga and was so excited to share this practice back home. I started to teach private lessons, and kid yoga at a local preschool and felt so embodied in my purpose. After that I landed in Brazil and was teaching at a Surf Hostel while also practicing daily to again dive deeper and learn more about yoga as a way of life. Coming back to the US, I started to teach more private lessons and then eventually landed at my first studio job! I am so happy to be in studio spaces mainly now as my way of offering yoga to my community.
I teach Vinyasa and Hatha style, but also love intuitive movement and listening to what the body needs. Maybe that’s a power flow one day and slow juicy hip and heart openers the next day! I am merely a guide to help you feel empowered in your asanas and breath, and hope to hold space for you to find your greatest strength and awareness. ♥️
I am forever grateful to have this beautiful philosophy in my life and even more grateful that I get to help others receive it’s teachings as well.
Michelle W.
Immersed in the art of movement and the healing practices from a very early age–athletics, the martial arts and meditation were family traditions for Michelle Wong.
A natural love of dance and a competitive spirit lead to a career in figure skating, whereas as a teenager Michelle trained for a spot on the United States Olympic team while living in her native Los Angeles, California.
After suffering a serious spinal injury in a car accident as a young adult, Michelle embraced yoga and pilates as a piece of a holistic rehabilitation method that also included nutrition, meditation, muscular resistance training, and Chinese medicine. After more than two decades and over 25,000 hours of seasoning, Michelle practices and teaches life-enhancing techniques, and fitness remains her primary devotion. Currently, Michelle is also enhancing her life studying to become an MFT (Marriage Family Therapist).
With a teaching resume that includes some of Montreal’s and Los Angeles’ premier fitness Clubs and studios, Michelle puts her experience into practice with expertise in “hatha yoga” and the practice in ashtanga style in yoga.
Janna
To be honest, I never had experienced any physical body issues before trying Hot Yoga. I was an avid treadmill runner, I took tons of cardio, step, and weight lifting classes, and I also danced on stage professionally. I considered myself to be quite fit. But, until I tried hot yoga, I’ll admit, I got bored at the gym. I often tried to pass the time watching TV while running on the treadmill. I felt like I was just biding my time in cardio class because my body got so conditioned to the movement, and weight lifting tended to make my arms look bulky, not lean.
I tried Hot Yoga in 2008 for the first time in the Philippines. I was doing a show in Manila and the Hotel gym was very small and uninspiring. My first Hot Yoga class, I was completely hooked! It was extremely difficult, even though I was pretty flexible and had decent coordination. The heat was beyond anything I had ever experienced and I had to focus so intently on my breath that it forced me to stay completely present. Even though the class was so intense, after class I felt euphoric. I continued to go to class and felt so renewed it made me giddy, like I had discovered a secret that know one else knew about.
I continued taking class throughout my travels and when I came back home, I knew that yoga was something I would do for the rest of my life. I also wanted to share my passion by becoming a teacher.
I have been a certified Hot Yoga Instructor since Spring of 2012, and I absolutely love teaching. I’ve dealt with personal injuries myself and I feel it has improved my teaching. I experience painful arthritis in my knees, and have bulging discs in my lumbar spine. Because of these injuries, I’ve had to find ways to modify postures and be patient with my body. The act of having to listen to my own body has made me more sensitive and aware with my students. Even though I’m committed to the accuracy and technicality of the yoga postures, I also thrive on creative ways to explore yoga posture modifications so that all students can know that any body type is capable of doing yoga.
I teach the traditional Bikram 90. My class is for everyone at any level in their yoga journey. I can promise you two things if you take my class…you will have fun and you will feel better than you did after completing my class. I can’t wait to see you in the Hot Room!!
Malory
In 2017 she studied the hatha yoga tradition of the 84 asanas in Costa Rica, which included the hot yoga tradition of the 26&2 with Esak and Radah Garcia in Boulder, Colorado.
Raven
Before practicing yoga, I had a much smaller faith in myself, in the universe, in the true power that the human engine holds within its dormant crevices. I went through a muscle tension/inflammatory condition so severe that for about a year and a half, I was for the most part mute. It taxed and exhausted my throat muscles to talk, so much so that the pain from talking, laughing, and singing was too painful to bare, so I simply chose not to talk for the most part.
Fast forward to now, I can say that I have restored the ease within my body by a great quantity. No longer do I get debilitating aches in my shoulders, jaw, neck, and throat muscles. I see now how out of alignment my spine was, therefore my entire path of life was misaligned as well. I’ve experienced what it’s like to be in debilitating pain every day, what it’s like to feel like a victim, to feel hopeless, to be disconnected from my body and to be scared of expansion.
I can now gloriously proclaim now that with self mastery, you can heal yourself. In my personal experience, a regular yoga and breath practice, especially combined with a living plant foods diet, has shifted my mindset to that of empowerment.
The human body: a vessel of the spirit waiting to be explored through the breath, through movement. By facing and breathing through the uncomfortable, we find and build within and without us flexibility, and, at the same time, strength. We learn to relax into strength.
I want to share with others the incredible medicine that is nowhere to be found outside of ourselves – it is found in the incredible refuge within. Ultimately my greatest mission is to learn how I can find and share the secrets to cultivating the most vitalized, inspired, and expressed versions of ourselves.
In combination with my passion for yoga is my passion for breath (aka consciousness) awareness. I will be teaching what I have learned and am continuing to learn on the breath. Breath is the fuel of any and all of our practices and endeavors in life, yoga, of course not being excluded from this.
If you would love to deepen your intimacy with your body, mind, spirit, then I urge you to join us in the exploration of the breath, and discover a transformation you’d just have to experience for yourself to truly innerstand.
Jeff
Jeff Pilson is probably most known as the bass player, songwriter and background vocalist for the legendary band Dokken. He’s also had stints with the bands Dio, MSG and his own band War and Peace. Currently he is with the classic rock band Foreigner, where he not only serves as bassist and musical director but also as the band’s producer on many of their CD releases since 2005.
What people likely DON’T know about Pilson is his passion and commitment to the study and practice of yoga.
Pilson’s yoga journey began in 1978 following a debilitating back injury. Soon after, he was studying hatha yoga and meditation with yoga legend Richard Hittleman who is best known for his PBS television series Yoga for Health in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Through his TV series, books and videos, Hittleman is widely credited for bringing the practice of yoga to more people in the west than anyone before or since. Since Hittleman’s passing in 1991 Pilson has studied extensively with Yogi Michaeline Kiss in both New York and San Francisco.
Pilson credits yoga postures and meditation as the vital tools to keep him “sane and healthy” in a vigorous road life that often entails travelling 10 months of the year. His teaching of yoga meditation and mild postures is designed to introduce students to several time tested ancient meditation techniques and then allow them to naturally adapt to whichever one or ones best suits them.
There is no such thing as too old to start a successful yoga practice, and meditation often proves to be a life changing experience that has no equal.
“The Self Realized state is the natural state. All one need do is remove the obstruction of the mind.” –Ramana Maharshi/ Guru to Richard Hittleman
Ana
LEXY
Lexy is a bit of a gypsy. Born in Texas, and on her journey through life has called Colorado, New York and California home as well. She loves to go on adventures, connecting to nature, living holistically, hugging, laughing and being in the moment.
Yoga Journey
Having discovered yoga over 30 years ago, Lexy would find herself going in and out of her practice over the years. Moving away from it in times that she needed it most. For her, yoga represents a safe and peaceful place, where she allows herself to explore and find stillness. It’s like connecting to a source of energy that fills her up and allows for her to move through life with more grace and confidence.
When she got pregnant in 2011, she made a promise to herself to always keep connected to her practice. After becoming a mama, yoga became even more important to her and she had to make conscious efforts to not let her mama gig pull her away. In 2019 she decided to take teacher training at her local studio as a way to carve out time for herself and deepen her practice. That led to her to becoming a yoga teacher and eventually managing a yoga studio.
Along her journey she discovered a true passion in teaching Restorative and Yin Yoga. She went on to study with Judith Hanson Lasater and Paul Grilley. She is also a Sound Healer, Master Reiki Practitioner, Tea Ceremonialist, Herbalist in training with School Sacred Wild, and Founded EARTH MAMA HEALING
What should you expect from a class with Lexy?
It’s Lexy’s hope that from the moment you enter her class you feel a warm and welcoming vibe. Her classes are accessible to all, meeting you right where you are. Being a Restorative and Yin Yoga Teacher, you can expect her classes to remind each person to honor where they are as she gently guides you offering variations and encouraging you to discover the beauty of using props and exploring.
FUN FACTS
If Lexy were to give her practice on word, what would it be?
Kind
What is Lexy’s Favorite yoga pose and why?
Tree~ during tree I find true balance and expansion.
Pigeon/Sleeping Swan ~ I find myself melting into the earth and a calm feeling always flows through me.
Dancers Pose~ Demands my presence, full focus, consciously connects me to my energy flow and allows me to challenge myself.
What is Lexy’s Super power?
Always finding her path.
What song can Lexy hear on repeat?
Colorado by Milky Chance
What is Lexy’s favorite snack?
Coconut yogurt with honey
Olives and pickles
When Lexy is not teaching yoga, where can you find her?
In her Kitchen aka Apothecary creating goodness for her family, in her my garden conversing with plant spirits and sipping tea, homeschooling her son, sharing sound healing vibes and most evenings cuddling with her boys and kitties.
Bailey
Bailey is not only the official greeter and protector of Hot For Yoga, she also successfully completed obedience training at a very young age. She is a master at savasana and downward dog. She loves to hike, and would love for you to join her on a guided tour. She’ll show you all the best smelling places along the trail and also the best places to rest and take a sip of water!
Keep an eye out for pop-up hikes on the schedule, and please join her…feel free to bring your friends, family and hiking dogs!
Gloria
At the age of fifteen, Gloria received a Certified Title as a dance instructor from the prestigious Conservatorio Alvistur in Buenos Aires, Argentina. At that early age she formed her own Dance Troupe and started to teach children of all ages how to dance folklore Argentino (Gauchos) and tango. Gloria has worked as a professional dancer alongside the stars in Argentine Tango, sharing the stage with the most international renowned artists. She has toured receiving accolades throughout Asia, Europe, South America and the United States. Her passion and advocacy for the arts, education and wellness has led her to create a different approach of teaching, thus creating different programs to meet the needs of each individual person. Gloria has created a tango dance program for the blind at the Braille Institute in Los Angeles, where she has volunteered for several years.
Gloria is a certified kids and teens Yoga instructor. She combines Yoga, meditation and mindfulness in her classes, bringing a greater health, happiness and well-being into the children’s lives. She has created an Art, Science, Technology and Mindfulness educational program called Kids of Tomorrow. Her vision is to help and guide children around the world to embody their infinite potential in ways that are healthy and positive for their physical and emotional well-being. Helping kids to discover and actualize their talents, gifts and life purpose. Gloria believes that more than ever, young people need to find hope, direction, and passion to live healthy and inspired lives.
Gloria is a natural born healer and mentor. On her passionate quest to help others, she became a Reiki Master, Past Life Regression Therapist (QHHT), Sound Healer and Akashic Records Practitioner. She helps and guides people awake to their missions and life purpose as well as to make positive changes in their lives and achieve a healthy balance of body, mind and spirit.
As a Sound Healer she has created a music album called “Creation to Ascension”. In this album she combines binaural sounds with healing energy, helping people to relax, meditate and reach an optimal health. Her music can be found in Spotify, Apple Music, ITunes and Pandora.
Gloria shares her wisdom and knowledge with us at Hot For Yoga during monthly Sound Baths with Reiki.
Angela
I’m a Hypnotherapist, Motivational Speaker, Sound Facilitator, and Reiki Master. I found my calling as a vessel to help others help themselves. I recognize that everyone is unique, so I use my abilities to help others see what they cannot see within themselves.
I am passionate about sharing and planting seeds of knowledge. I give you the opportunity to release the limiting beliefs, the limiting mindset, the self-sabotage. I will show you how to believe in yourself and grow with a new mindset, create new beginnings, and an overall sense of well-being. I help you cultivate and see with all of your senses, making you self-aware.
Angela shares her gifts with us at Hot For Yoga during monthly Sound Baths with Reiki.
I always say, “Change your mind and you will change your life.”
