After years of weightlifting — and enduring the tight shoulders, back pain and slouching that resulted — I was cornered, flogged and dragged by a friend to my first yoga class with the incomparable Maureen Maguire of Yale University. My experience was so profound, so monumental and so cathartic that people could have cursed, spit in my face and thrown rotten tomatoes at me in the street, and I would have opened my arms and said, “I love you, man!” Since then, I tossed (or rather gently put down) the dumbbells and never looked back. Ten years, three mats and thousands of downward-facing dogs later, I felt it was time to share my love of yoga with the world and became a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200) with the Yoga Alliance through Black Dog Yoga in Los Angeles, California. My training is influenced by Anusara as well as Ashtanga Vinyasa flow, and I marry these two styles into a class that is dynamic, invigorating and downright fun. Using an eclectic mix of world and alternative music — and lots of breath, sweat and creative sequencing — my classes are supportive, physically challenging and spiritually inspiring. I currently teach group classes at Black Dog Yoga, Equinox and The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) in Los Angeles, and I offer private sessions throughout the southern California area.