Big stretch for yoga teacher

Thursday 04 September 2014

There’s a new town hub for yogis in Jersey which is giving Islanders as young as six weeks old a chance to get some practice in.

Calli De La Haye wanted to provide a one-stop shop for all kinds of different yoga and encourage more people to try it and that’s what she hopes to do in her new Yoga Box studio in West Centre.

Calli has been practicing yoga since she was 16 which she took up to help her get over a number of injuries she’d been suffering with after years spent training as a gymnast.

It helped her and four years ago she went to the UK to train with Julian Daizan Skinner Roshi, a Buddhist monk who taught her how to teach hatha - traditional yoga that focuses on posture, movement, breathing and relaxation.

She said: “I teach yoga to support every single person in my class, people who are coming for the first time to people who are advanced in their practice, I want them to be able to tune in to my class and make yoga suitable and accessible to everyone.

“It’s the whole cycle of yoga, I love teaching pregnancy yoga and I run post-natal and baby yoga – mother and baby yoga – I go through lots of poses and practices with the mum that they can take with them and do at home – and we incorporate song and movement for babies – from six weeks old.

“Babies are so flexible, if you can use that flexibility to improve their range of movement, if they use their joints throughout their childhood they’ll be more flexible throughout their life. We help build strength in their back and legs that they can use when they are crawling and walking. We build suspense, get them used to a drop or a fall, give them a bit of self awareness and confidence and it’s very relaxing and soothing for them, we do breathing exercises, gentle strokes and movement with their mum which is relaxing and really, really fun.”

Calli is building up a team of yoga teachers who will all be working out of the studio, offering different classes before and after work, at lunchtimes and at the weekend. She also offers one-to-one sessions and yoga for corporate events.

You can find out more at www.yoga-box.co.uk