I absolutely loved the intro course. Judi was an excellent teacher and so welcoming, helpful and taught the course really well…couldn’t ask for more.

The Introduction to Ashtanga is a great place to start, it makes this form of yoga, that people are apprehensive about, manageable. I’d say how insightful the first session on philosophy is, and that the optional homework is great if you really want to develop your practice.

I started REALLY doing yoga when I was a distance runner at university (some kind of daily practice), I couldn’t sit in lectures for more than 30 mins without having shooting sciatic pain down my legs because my hamstrings were so tight! Nowadays, I can indeed touch my toes, but the practice is much more about mental well being than physical.

I went to a yoga class cos my pal was going and said it was good, and I had long since stopped enjoying the fitness classes I usually went to. So off I trotted sheep-like, and found myself going back every week (long after my pal stopped!) Then some years later I trained as a teacher, which as all teachers know is just the first rung on a lifelong ladder! Why do I do yoga? I can’t really see how I would live my life if I didn’t. It teaches me to pause for thought, to breath, to accept change. And I have made some terrific friends along the way!

A friend was going and even though she cancelled last minute, I still went. I had chronic lower back pain and insomnia; there was an almost instantaneous benefit from that very first class, enough to make me go back almost every week.

I’m very happy with how my yoga has advanced and I think that is because I feel free to fail and know I won’t be judged. I’m doing moves now I never thought possible at the beginning.

I do yoga for how it brings me peace and that’s down to Judi just as much as the yoga itself. She creates a safe space for us all and that’s why we keep coming back – lockdown couldn’t even keep me away and her online classes have kept me going!

Merchant City Yoga has such a lovely practice space, but it’s so much more than that.  It’s a really friendly and down to earth studio with a great community and great teachers.  We are all really supportive and encouraging of each other and always happy to welcome new people into the studio.

My good friend Michael encouraged (almost dragged) me along to my first Mysore style class and I thought I wouldn’t be good enough. But duh! It wasn’t like that at all. Little did I know that practising in that room would be my now wonderful teacher Rose Ann and long time yoga buddies.

MCY is about community, the people and I quickly felt part of that yoga family.

One of the things I love most about MCY is I’m not the most dedicated practitioner, my practice ebbs and flows with life, and yet I am always met where I am without judgment. I can go to a Mysore style class and be slowly working through the Ashtanga half primary series alongside people doing 3rd series (who knew those things were even possible?!) and still feel comfortable and accepted, which is something I really appreciate.

Merchant City Yoga has been my saving grace. Life comes with its health challenges and the classes and Judi in particular have helped me heal both on and off the mat. I feel stronger and more energised.

The studio is a community where you’ll find a great group of teachers and a warm friendly environment where no-one judges you, even when you can’t quite manage that jump through. It’s a joy to practise there.

When Coronavirus hit Judi made the transition to online so smoothly and the classes have never lost their high quality of teaching and care. I’ve even managed to make vast improvements with certain asanas in this time, which I think speaks to how great the teaching is at MCY that you don’t even have to be in the same room as the teacher to achieve this.