May 15, 2017

Meet Shana Meyerson of YOGAthletica in Brentwood

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shana Meyerson.

Shana, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Yoga blind-sided me. I discovered it on accident…sort of literally. I was a hardcore gym rat/cross-trainer my whole life. For years, a friend kept telling me I had to try yoga…I HAD to try yoga. The very notion was absurd to me at the time. But one day, I was walking around my apartment, ran into a cabinet and broke my pinkie toe. That may not seem like such a trauma, but it was probably my most profound life-changing event.

I couldn’t run, bike, or really do much of anything very physical. As my toe was healing–but still too broken to put in a shoe–I reluctantly conceded to my friend, “Fine. I’ll try this yoga thing.” And it was everything I ever needed in life. It was physical, and mental, and spiritual, and it spoke to me on such a visceral level. When I discovered yoga, I was established in my corporate life and getting my MBA at UCLA. It was just a few months after my first class when I quit my professional life and Business School and decided to become a yoga instructor. I didn’t know if I would ever earn another dollar, but I did know it was what I needed to do.

That was March 2002. I started teaching yoga and also founded one of the first children’s yoga programs in America (mini yogis yoga for kids). Fifteen years later, I teach at an elite level all over the world and absolutely love every minute of it.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I have been very blessed that my private clientele and travels came very quickly to me and have always been strong. However, I never really built a following in the Los Angeles studio system. That is something I definitely regret.

My public classes have always been extremely challenging. Anyone with the right attitude can do them (regardless of experience), but the intensity definitely scares most people away.

In the last few years, I have maintained one or two public classes, but my dance card is really filled with privates, as that is where I thrive. To me, the one-on-one connection changes everything. It makes yoga personal and personalized. It truly changes lives.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about YOGAthletica – what should we know?
My YOGAthletica program is fun, funky, hardcore yoga. I specialize in demystifying the poses people never think they could ever do. Arm balances and inversions (particularly handstands) are my favorite postures and mostly what I teach when I am on travel.

Because of my work with children, I have special skills at really breaking concepts down into small, manageable chunks to help people achieve their goals. And it’s important to me that people are always laughing, always enjoying themselves in the process.

YOGAthletica is about the intelligence, logic and architecture of the yoga poses. I am well-known for getting students into postures that no other teacher could get them into. This is a huge point of pride for me. Every workshop I teach–no matter where I am in the world–students always come up to me afterwards and tell me that they learned more from my workshop than from the workshops of much more famous yogi/nis than I. I am a teacher who shows how instead of shows off.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Sincerity.

I am your basic WYSIWYG. I don’t put on airs or attitudes.I am just here to teach. And I will put everything I have into the student who is just here to really, really learn.

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