Notes
Kevin M.: Mixing
It Up With The Fitness Community is a podcast created by Fit Mix that
introduces you to local health and fitness individuals, along with their
stories.
Kevin M.: Episode
11, Kendra Rickert and Ben Kramer with Nirguna Yoga. They give us insight into their personal
journeys along with how Nirguna Yoga Studio came to be.
Kevin M.: Hey,
Ben. Hey, Kendra, thank you both for joining the podcast today. I really
appreciate it.
Ben K.: Hi Kevin.
Thank you so much.
Kevin M.: No
problem.So you both are from the Nirguna Yoga. So why don't you tell us a
little bit about your yoga studio?
Kendra R.: Well,
we've been open for about almost a year. We opened last April and we really
were super duper excited to have our one year little anniversary mark until we
kept his little COVID hit. I feel like a lot of yoga studios are either
traditional or athletic. A lot of studios teach, what I guess I'd call like
fitness yoga. And actually, that's kind of where I started. I started with
Bikram yoga in L.A. about 20 years ago. And I guess I would call that very much
fitness yoga just really hardcore. In other studios tend to be a little bit
more. I don't. I guess you can call it traditional, although I'd say that some
hardcore yogas are also traditional, Ashtanga and Bikram. I guess the studios
that would call themselves traditional, don't necessarily sometimes seem to
challenge the student, you know, physically. And so I would say that we really
aim to do both. Our training is very traditional, but we feel strongly that
it's important to, In my experience, to be pushed, you know? I want to be able
to do a practice and I want to be able to see that change in myself. You know,
I want to feel like I'm actually accomplishing something. So I would say that
we aim to do both of those things.
Ben K.: The other
thing I would say is that we're so proud of the teachers that we have at our
studio. And we're picky about who teaches at our studio. And we're not... We
are traditional in a sense, but we're not we're not married to any one yoga
tradition, per say. But we do really believe in the beauty of yoga traditions.
And we just we just like to have bad ass teachers and some of the best. We have
teachers with, you know, it's very normal for a teacher at our studio to have
20 years of experience teaching. And then we you know, and it doesn't matter in
some sense if they have enough experience from their tradition. Then we know
that we can kind of stay out of their way. We don't have to micromanage as
studio owners. We just get to highlight the superstars to teach the students
that come to us.
Kevin M.: That's
awesome. So do the teachers just set their own set schedule and their own style
and then the way they're going to do their classes versus kind of collaborating
with you guys and what you want them to do?
Kendra R.: Well,
I guess it's a little bit of both. We have a morning class, three days a week
that we call yoga for life. And that's for people who would like to focus a
little bit more on, what tends to be an older crowd. Like poses that a lot of
people come who have a lot of injuries and those things tend to be a little bit
more like alignment based. So I had those teachers who I wanted to teach those
classes specifically. And so we kind of collaborated with those classes would
be like. And then the early morning class, I teach the 26&2 series, five
days a week at nine thirty. And then you're Vinyasa class at noon.
Ben K.: So it
depends on the teacher. You know, some of them are more consistent than others.
But yeah, for the most part, the teacher decides what they're going to teach if
they advertise a 26&2 class. There's kind of a famous 26 posture's and 2
breathing exercises that was made famous by the Bikram tradition. And when
that's taught at our studio, we teach it in a very traditional way. And if
that's written on the schedule, that's what the teacher is going to do. But for
the most part, yeah. Teachers get a lot of their own say. And it's nice because
you want to... I as a teacher, I want to watch the students. I don't know how a
class is going to go until I see who came to class and what the students are up
to and how the students feel. And it's nice to be guided by what's appropriate
for who showed up that day.
Kevin M.: That's
nice. So you can kind of find out who there and based on their immediate
feedback, kind of guide the class based on their needs.
Ben K.: Yeah,
yeah. Just watching their bodies.
Kendra R.: And I
think that's a hard skill to have in your first learning to teach yoga. But I
feel like all of our teachers, they have that skill to where they can see
somebodies body and know what they need and know how to choreograph the class
to that person, whether it's like a group of people who came to the class and
one person's like maybe more advanced, the other person is maybe not. And so
they can they can work with both people.
Kevin M.: Interesting.
And so in the last year, what would you say is the most exciting or most
interesting experience you've had owning a studio?
Ben K.: Boy, a, I
don't know, in the last year... I mean, it's this is our first year. So it's
exciting to get to highlight teachers that we're proud of. It's exciting to get
to cultivate our own students and to watch students grow. It's so exciting to
see someone get... It's such an honor to get people excited about themselves.
Right. To see someone not, you know, not just get excited about yoga, but get
excited about, oh, my goodness, look what I can do. I didn't know that I had that
in me. I didn't know I had that capacity. Maybe I saw this or that. And I
thought never me. And you see people start to... They start to stand
differently in their everyday life that you just see their bodies change. You
see this excitement about who they are, how they are, how they can be, what
they can do. That's extremely rewarding.
Kendra R.: And I
think to just like watching that, the relationships that have been budding in
the studio, you know, like when we're first there, it's like we're just pretty
new. So it's like we're like holding the conversations. But we're able to just
see all these little relationships developing and people going and hanging out
after class and and creating a little community. And it's just been really,
really lovely to see.
Kendra R.: Yeah,
yeah. And for somebody that wants to experience what you guys just talked about
but are a little nervous when it comes to trying yoga. What would you tell
them?
Ben K.: I mean,
one of the things I would say is you don't know until you try what your
capacity is. Everyone has. Well, I don't know what I call freak poses, but I
sort of on both sides. Like, everyone has weird, freaky things they can do that
they didn't know they could do. And actually, many of us have weird, freaky
things we can't do, like for whatever reason. I have a hard time touching my
toes, but there are other some things that I can do it for. I don't know what
reason I was touched with the ability to do certain things that I've. I can
just do. And everyone has those. And you don't know until you show up these
weird little tricks that you have hidden so far up your sleeve, you can't even
see them.
Kendra R.: And I
think that's maybe one of the coolest things about being a yoga teacher, for me
anyway, is getting to inspire that in other people. Getting people to see that
they can do so much more that they they thought they could do. And just like
watching that little spark and the light shining in their eyes and they're
like, wow, I'm actually pretty damn good, you know. Even like my old dad, who
doesn't seem like he can do anything with any comes, you know, and I get to
play with him a little bit. It's like Dad. You're doing pretty good. You know,
you're doing pretty good and having them see that about themselves. I think
it's a really, really precious.
Kevin M.: Definitely.
And what about you guys? How did that spark get into you and make you guys into
yoga?
Kendra R.: Well,
we've been. I mean, we've been blessed to have incredible yoga teachers. I've
been doing this for like 20 years, teaching yoga and practicing yoga. I feel
like my teachers were some of the best in the country. And I feel like the way
that they saw me holding that vision of me that they had helped me reach the potential that I felt like they saw
in me. And I felt like that was one of the best trainings I had in terms of how
I want to be as a yoga teacher. I want to hold that potential for others.
Ben K.: And we
met practicing together. We met at a school for yoga, philosophy, ancient
languages, meditation. And we we lived there ten years. It was all we did for
ten years. At the end, we spent three years of that in silence and isolation.
So no contact with the world, no computers. No nothing. Just practicing
everything that our teachers had poured into us. And with the hope that one day
we could come out and and build a community where we could share those things.
So, yeah, again, like you know, what's the last year been like? We're getting
that opportunity now to start to share that. And it's just really exciting. And
to see people get excited is uh... It's an incredible honor.
Kevin M.: That's
so interesting. So three years of silence.
Kendra R.: Yeah.
Yeah. And we prepared for it for like seven years beforehand to be like one
month long meditation retreats by ourselves without each other. And then we
went in and did that together. We built a little straw bale cabin off grid with
an outhouse and it was all on solar and no technology in terms and cell phone
and computers. And we didn't even talk to each other for three years. We were
just in total silence and trying to embody the teachings that we had been
taught in a way that wasn't just theoretical as more experiential.
Kevin M.: That is
so impressive. I can't go an hour without looking down at my phone, much less a
day or months or years. That's so impressive.
Ben K.: It's hard
to go an hour without looking at your phone. I think we rarely do now either.
And we're really lucky that we had the opportunity to get to do that. And we
had a lot of support and doing that. A lot of people helped us. We had a lot of
people helping us to make room for us to be able to do that. It is hard, but
you can't bring your phone into yoga class with you, Kevin. And so at least for
that hour, we won't let you use the phone. And that is it's like a little taste
of that. You come into the room and, you know, when we went away for three
years, we didn't. It was the plan was never to live there. It was so that we
could come back and be of greater service to our family, to our friends, to the
people that we love and come into contact with. And the same is true when you,
I like to say in yoga class sometimes. Right? You are more available to your
friends and family because you left your phone in the locker room for an hour.
Kevin M.: That
such a good way of looking at it. I mean, it's really a time to focus on
yourself, focus on others, but just connecting at the same time.
Kendra R.: It's
just like taking care of yourself for that hour and a half hour, hour or
however long it's going to be. You're focusing on your health, you know, your
heart and your well-being, your joy. And then and then you're a little bit
freer in the day to be able to, like, focus on other people, the people, our
lives, who need our attention, you know, because we just took care of
ourselves. And I did what I had to do for myself. And now I can be available to
you.
Kevin M.: Definitely.
What would be a misconception that people have about when they think about it?
Ben K.: I think,
you know, one big thing that comes to mind is that people have some very weird
ideas that yoga is like some kind of ancient religious thing. And it's... The
word yoga. Right? It's a Sanskrit word, which is an ancient Indian language
that is related to English. So, like we have the words yoke or unite or join
are all related to the word yoga. And it means to, in a sense, it means union,
but it means like union in the mind or concentration or meditation to join
yourself with what you want to, whatever you want to in life, you see. And so
people have used that for religious practices in history. And it's and it's
beautiful and it's beautiful to use meditation in that way and to build your
spiritual path around that. But this is up to you. If you use these techniques
because you want to have yoga butt or yoga abs, whatever, that's it's there for
you. And if you use it because you want to be stronger or smarter or more
intelligent. If you use it because you want to be a more loving person, a more
compassionate person. If you use it because you want from top to body, inside
and out to be someone who just has the ability because they're mind is sharp
and their body is strong to take care of people. You see, then these sorts of
ancient tools have been handed down for millennia to help you become the best
you that you can be. Whoever that is, not to decide who you're going to be, but
to give you the ability to decide for yourself who you're going to be. And
that's really what yoga is about.
Kevin M.: It's
really just about you making it yours. What works for you more than fitting
into somebody else's construct.
Ben K.: And it
always has been and always has been for thousands of years and always has been.
You know, it's the idea that there are techniques to being a happier, healthier,
emotionally stable, strong person. You see that you can it's not accidental,
right? There are things you can do. Tasks you can repeat day after day that
create healthy habits and a healthy body. And that idea for, you know,
thousands of years was called yoga.
Kendra R.: And it
should be, you know, like Ben said, you know, it should support anybody's
belief, you know. Whatever religion you are and it should make that faith even
stronger.
Kevin M.: Totally.
Well, I think we're getting towards the end. So before we end, though, I have a
couple of last questions. Where can our listeners connect with you guys?
Kendra R.: You
can find us on our Website, which is NirgunaYoga.com. And we're starting to
post our classes online. Our free online videos. And you can find that, too, at
the very top of the Website where says free online classes. And we are excited
to... We're going to be releasing a podcast of our own here pretty soon. And
that'll be on the Website.
Ben K.: We've got
a teacher training coming up. You know, we hope, that that, you know, assuming
that that works with the world. We're partnering with Hot Yoga Downtown. We've
partnered with them in the past. And so we'll be working with them again this
year to do our 200 hour teacher training. Any of these things you can sign up
for the mailing list on our Website. I think you get like a free coconut water
or something for signing up for the mailing list. But the point is that you get
the mailing list for signing up for the mailing list and we'll tell you about
all the cool things we do. Many of which are free. Again, those online videos,
we just want people, especially now we want to be able to do things to release
the practice that will be free. The podcast will be free. The teacher training
is not free.
Kendra R.: We
mentioned the 200 hour. But we're also partnering with Beryl Bender Birch for a
300 hour in November. She's a world renowned yoga. She coined the term
"Power Yoga" back in the 70s. And she's going to be coming in on
co-leading a 300 hour teacher training with us in November.
Ben K.: We also
hold a lot of classes pretty often about the history and philosophy of yoga and
meditation. In addition to our regular yoga Asana classes, which I think are
some of the very best and toughest around. They're not all tough, but yeah,
NirgunaYoga.com. Goc heck it out.
Kevin M.: Awesome.
Thank you. And then what are both of you guys as favorite movement.
Kendra R.: Movement
or I mean, I love dancing. I love yoga. I love. I just for me, I'm just like an
athlete in that regard. And I just I love Vinyasa. I love the 26&2 series
muscle. Some of my favorite poses are inversions and backward bends. Inversions
are really super duper important because all day long it's like gravity is
pulling you down to the ground. The blood is like pulling down, gravity's
pulling you down. And so just going upside down, you can find in ancient text
like the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, where it talks about like the importance of
doing inversions. They say that even like fights against our old age or
sickness or death even, which is kind of a cold thought, which is going upside
down, doing a headstand, doing it and doing a shoulder stand, doing any sort of
thing where even just Foward folding, it's like that same benefit.
Ben K.: You know,
backbends also. I mean, I think that one of the things that keeps us going to
yoga and makes us scared to go to yoga is bending backwards. And I think that
we get such profound benefit from those moments. And and there's something
about yoga where people wonder, like, I don't know, like something weird can
happen in yoga or something exciting can happen in yoga. And it I think it
happens as you learn to bend backwards. As you learn to face the other way, as
you learn to reverse things. Something happens at the heart and you feel those
moments and those moments in the yoga class are where things get, I don't know,
from scary to good to even almost trippy or like beautiful and fantastic. So
that and Kendra, by the way, also on the free yoga video section on our
website, just did a free class that's available to you on Backbends and
inversions.
Kevin M.: Thank
you, Ben and Kendra. I really appreciate you guys taking the time to talk with
me.
Ben K.: It's
wonderful.
Kendra R.: We
appreciate it so much too. Thank you. And thank you for all you guys are doing.
It's been really inspiring.
Ben K.: It's
really nice.
Kevin M.: Yeah,
I'm happy to do it.
Ben K.: It's
beautiful Kevin. It's a beautiful thing to do.
Kevin M.: Thank
you.
Kevin M.: Thanks
for listening. If you enjoyed the Mixing It Up With The Fitness Community
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Kevin M.: Next
week, Sara talks with the owners of Conquer Fitness Preps, Alicia and Jonathan
Montoya. Tune in to find out why they started Conquer Fitness Preps and how far they've come since.