ABOUT YOGA MATRIKA

6520 WILKINS AVENUE PITTSBURGH 15217

LOCATION & DIRECTIONS

YOGA MATRIKA only has ONE LOCATION–it is on the border of Squirrel Hill and Point Breeze neighborhoods. If you are familiar with the “downtown” Squirrel Hill area, then it is easy to walk or drive to Yoga Matrika—-just go up Murray Avenue until it dead ends at Wilkins Avenue. Make a right onto Wilkins and YOGA MATRIKA is 2.5 blocks down Wilkins on your right side.

The closest major intersection is Beechwood and Wilkins and we are next door to Wheel Deliver. The 74A and all ofthe #67 busses from downtown and Oakland stop within one block on Wilkins and the 64A stops two-blocks away on the corner of Wilkins and Shady Avenues. There is free street parking, but please be careful about alternate side parking when you come in the morning and afternoon to avoid a ticket from April through November.

What is special about Yoga Matrika?

NON-COMPETITIVE environment. We are real people with real bodies coming together to practice yoga and meditation to improve our health, well-being and the quality of our lives.
INTIMATE group classes where you will receive personal attention and care. You aren’t just a number at Yoga Matrika! Your instructors will get to know you and provide personalized attention during class.
UNIQUE workshops to inspire your practice and provide opportunities for deep study.
Home of PRENATAL YOGA PITTSBURGH a comprehensive program for expectant & new mothers
Fully-equipped studio with bolsters, cork blocks, straps and everything you need to have a safe, deep and comfortable practice.
A variety of yoga styles and levels offered—from Yin Yoga, to Chinese Yoga and Core Challenge Flow, we have a class for EVERYONE.

YOGA is not a CLASS. YOGA is a CHOICE.

A choice to find new ways to move, breathe and live in and with the body you find yourself in today. Flexibility is a state of mind and health is a jewel to be treasured. Come as you are! Everyone is welcome. In every class you will learn skills that you can take into your everyday life. With regular practice, you will find that you get sick less often, experience less aches and pains, have less sports injuries, lose weight and feel stronger, more confident and happier. Read more about the benefits of yoga.

WHAT is a MATRIKA?

MATRIKA is not any particular style of yoga. MATRIKA is our inspiration. The MATRIKAS are the “little mothers” and they inspire us to an intelligent, compassionate, fierce and delicious practice. In Vedic literature, the Matrikas were the warrior spirit that guided the male deitites. MATRIKA SHAKTI is also the powerful energy vibrations of the sounds that make up our internal truth. Classes at Yoga Matrika are for both men and women and we have students of all ages and experience levels in all classes.

Who can do yoga?

Seriously, you can do this. The hardest part of any class is getting there. When you arrive, you will put down your mat. Class will start and you will breathe. You will stretch and move your body in new ways, but nothing tricky, advanced, weird or unusual. After you breathe and move and stretch some more, you will rest. You will lie on your mat and, for five of the most beautiful minutes of your day, you will just BE. I wish that it was more exciting, but this is it. YOU CAN DO IT! What is most amazing is how open, tall, light and happy you will feel after class. Truly, it is amazing that some breathing and stretching and relaxation can make you feel SO FABULOUS. These benefits are available to everyone who even tries a class and does their best. You don’t have to be flexible, to be able to stand on your head while whistling Dixie and you don’t have to be a size 0. You just have to show up.

What are the Benefits of Yoga?

Research suggests that yoga might:

Improve mood and sense of well-being
Counteract stress
Reduce heart rate and blood pressure
Increase lung capacity
Improve muscle relaxation and body composition
Help with conditions such as anxiety, depression, and insomnia
Improve overall physical fitness, strength, and flexibility
Positively affect levels of certain brain or blood chemicals.

By changing ones relationship to the body, Yoga offers exercises and poses to assist practioners in their own healing. Yoga can increase circulation, relieve pain, enhance respiration, stimulate adrenal and immune function and maintain muscle and body mass. Yoga provides a means of self-discipline, helping practioners understand how to respond to stress and recognize the causes and consequences of their actions, which in turn instills self-empowerment.

Yoga is an affordable, community-oriented, energizing and self-affirming discipline that anyone can learn regardless of physical limitations, age, or religious background.

Sources:

http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstracts/ma?f=102250803.html

http://nccam.nih.gov/health/yoga/introduction.htm#status

LEADERSHIP & INSTRUCTOR TEAM

Sharon Fennimore Rudyk: Owner & Director

Since I’m not much of a bagel maker, Yoga Matrika is my way of bringing a slice of New York to Pittsburgh. I was introduced to yoga over ten years ago when, as a graduate student in Philadelphia, I stumbled upon a pamphlet advertising a local yoga school that asked, “Are you stressed?” I took my first class that evening and I haven’t stopped exploring yoga since. I have been blessed with brilliant guidance from my teachers and it is my great joy to share my practice with my students. I am excited to add a focus on supporting women and families to the growing yoga community in Pittsburgh. There is a song in my heart for my most generous teacher Jill Satterfield and for all of the teachers who have been a source of wisdom and inspiration, especially Mark Chandlee Taylor, KK Ledford, Douglas Ridings, Schuyler Grant, Alison (Novie) Sinatra, Cate Bruce-Low and Joel Pier. Most of all, I am grateful to my students who make my life on earth a paradise and honor me with their teachings. Please visit my personal website at: http://www.sharonrudykyoga.info.

INSTRUCTOR TEAM

Elsie Escobar
Mondays at 6:00pm

I’ve been studying yoga since 1994 and got hit by the yoga bug in 1997, at which time I did everything possible to learn as much as I could, with as many teachers as I could. I finally stepped into the perfect fit for me, Anusara Yoga. I have been practicing and studying Anusara since 2000 and every day I find it to be ever more inspiring. I was an affiliated Anusara teacher for a long time, now an Anusara Inspired Teacher. I will be a certified Anusara teacher very soon! Students can expect to step deeper into their practice, through the Anusara Principles of Alignment, where we get an opportunity to re discover our bodies, mind and heart and of course, sprinkled with giggles, smiles, and laughter.

Kristie Lindblom
WEDNESDAY PRENATAL YOGA 9:30 am

Kristie began her Yoga journey in 1994. After receiving her BFA in Dance from Point Park University in 2003 along with a BA in Education, her dance career ended abruptly due to medical reasons. She found her daily practice a sustaining constant that carried her through that life altering experience. As she rediscovered the benefits of Yoga during her two pregnancies, she was drawn to sharing the gifts Yoga offers. In addition to teaching Yoga, Kristie works as a Teaching Artist for Gateway to the Arts and enjoys empowering women through breastfeeding as a La Leche League Leader. Kristie was certified as a Dynamic Pregnancy Prenatal Yoga Instructor in the summer of 2009 and focuses on breath, alignment, and awakening the practitioners’ inquisitive nature in their bodies and their world.

Julika Lomas
TUESDAYS at 8:15 am & SUNDAYS at 7:30pm

After an inspiring journey in various mind and body arts (e.g., fencing, progressive muscle relaxation and M.A. in psychology), I have started my vigorous yoga practice in 2008. Wonderful teachers like Gerhard Gessner, Jeanie Carlstead and Amanda McCarroll inspired my spiritual and physical growth in a beautiful San Diego studio. In 2009, I became a registered yoga teacher at Prana Yoga Center. The same year I experienced the beauty of my pregnant body in various asanas. Yoga is opening my heart for this world every day. My teaching is honoring styles such as Vinyasa flow and Anusara-inspired yoga. I believe in paying attention to details, such as enhancing a student’s pose with hands-on adjustments or paralleling breath and movement. In my classes, I will present students at all skill levels a rigorous and restoring yoga experience. Each class includes meditation and pranayama to frame the yoga practice into a holistic experience.

Anna Gilbert
WEDNESDAYS at 8:00 pm

Anna Gilbert, RYT, was introduced to yoga in 2005 by Chrissy Carter, who continues to be her primary teacher. She completed her 500 hour training through YogaWorks and spent several years teaching in New York and Los Angeles before life brought her to Pittsburgh. She is grateful to have studied with Natasha Rizopoulos, Lisa Walford, Julie Kleinman, and Annie Carpenter, among others, and finds constant inspiration seeing the strength, steadiness, and compassion we learn on the mat become tools that we can access off the mat as well. Her classes are influenced by the precision and alignment of Iyengar, the dynamic flow of Ashtanga and a personal commitment to infuse
playfulness and joy into the practice.

Lauren Goldstein
SUNDAYS at 10:45 am

Lauren has been practicing Hatha Yoga since 1999, when she took her first class with S. Florida yoga teacher, Gary Gopal Bello. In the years to follow, she immersed herself in study of the physical body, the mind, nutrition, yoga and meditation. Lauren’s love of Yoga led to her becoming an instructor in 2004. She teaches a non-strenuous style of Hatha Yoga, focusing on the needs of the individual student, while emphasizing proper breathing and safe alignment. Students are able to improve strength, flexibility and balance in a way that suits their own body and personality. Lauren’s approach to yoga is designed to develop the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of the individual. You will leave her class feeling relaxed and energized! All levels of experience are welcome!

Maria Graziani
SUNDAYS PRENATAL YOGA at 4:00 pm (starts February 2010)
VITAL PREGNANCY WORKSHOPS

Maria Graziani is Certified Prenatal Yoga Instructor [Kripalu trained, IYA insured], who offers a unique blend of childbirth education support paired with breathwork, meditation and birth-preparation postures in all of her prenatal yoga classes and workshops. A cerfitified Birth and Post-partum Doula, lactation counselor and herbalist, Maria brings a holistic approach to wombmen care during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum. Maria is also a Kundalini Yoga student and brings to all of her classes, the depth of yoga knowledge and its relation to not only a healthy pregnancy but a positive and healthy lifestyle.

Amy Kreger-Boynton
SUNDAYS at 5:45 pm

Amy Kreger-Boynton has been teaching yoga in and around the city of Pittsburgh for the past 10 years. She began studying Iyengar yoga 22 years ago and has explored many forms since that time including kundalini, ashtanga and jivamukti yoga. Her passion for the transformative power of movement has led her to pursue her Master’s Degree in Exercise Science at the University of Pittsburgh.

Jesse Bueno
THURSDAYS at 7:30pm

Jesse is a fabulous instructor new to the Pittsburgh area from LA. He provides a class with a focus on energy and alignment for a great workout and an inspiring way to end the day. He has a very gentle and clear communication style that is effective for both beginners and more experienced students. Jesse is a well-loved instructor at Yoga Matrika and he also offers private lessons. You can find out more about Jesse and contact him about personalized private instruction at http://www.yogawithjesse.com

Alana DeLoge
MONDAYS 8:15pm

Alana teaches an energetic flow-style class on Monday nights at 8:15 pm. This beautiful practice will warm your body, ease tension from your shoulders and hips and create a sense of ease that is sure to support a most magnificent night of sleep. Alana also happens to be an Anthropologist and we LOVE Anthropologists at Yoga Matrika!

Aimee Horn
PILATES on WEDNESDAYS at 4:45pm

REGULAR SUBSTITUTE INSTRUCTORS

ANITA ALFONSI, RYT 200

Is a registered Kripalu Yoga Teacher. She is currently continuing her yoga studies at the Rivertown Center for Yoga & Health in the 500 hour training and loves practicing, studying and teaching. “The practice is really what keeps drawing my awareness to the present moment.” Anita appreciates being shown the way to living a more balanced, compassionate life through the practice of yoga and meditation and believes that yoga is for everybody and every body.

Anna Dubrovsky

I’ve been a student of yoga since 2001, which means I’m still a beginner. Nevertheless, I’ve begun teaching what I know about this ancient system. Much of what I know I learned at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram in India. I received my teacher training at Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Yoga Institute and am a Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) at the 500-hour level. If you’d like to know more about my yoga journey, check out this Just Breathe interview.

Apple Knisley…. Certified Integral Yoga® Teacher

Apple Knisley is a certified Integral Yoga® teacher. Based upon the teaching of her Gurudev, Sri Swami Satchidananda, Apple is motivated to teach Yoga with a new perspective and has a desire to offer the light of Yoga to people from all walks of life in various settings. Besides teaching Yoga, Apple also teaches Thai cooking classes and workshops in the Pittsburgh areas. To find out more about Apple Knisley, please visit www.applethaistudio.com.

Bethany Sansing

After completing a hatha yoga class in college, I became addicted to the yogic practice of connecting movement with breath. After many years of practicing yoga off and on, I became certified (while pregnant) in the power vinyasa flow style of yoga. My pre-natal classes focus on tuning in to the breath and using it to stay connected with the body. All movements and stretches are done with the focus on making room for the baby - in your body and in your life. My flow classes combine the breath with powerful asanas to keep you moving and help you focus on the present moment. I strive to make my flow classes a form of moving meditation.

Leslie Wright

Tirzah DeCaria

GUEST INSTRUCTORS

Dana Killmeyer

Linda Meacci

Mark Chandlee Taylor

Richard Gartner

KK Ledford

Jill Satterfield

North Hills Childbirth: Julie and Edie are talented educators and have a full schedule of ongoing childbirth preparation courses taught in the North Hills.
Knit One: The most welcoming and sensually magnificent yarn shop.
Urban Mommies: Urban Mommies is the city’s premier mom’s outing program that takes you on exclusive, privately-led museum tours, historical neighborhood and gallery walks and other cultural adventures throughout Pittsburgh — along with your baby.
KPFdigital Web Design: KPFdigital creates modern, easy-to-use websites for small businesses. You’re looking at one right now.

Looking for Pregnancy & Family Resources? Please check out Yoga Matrika’s online community site at: http://prenatalyogapittsburgh.com/

Here is a link to the Pittsburgh Buddhist Center:
http://www.pittsburghbuddhistcenter.org

Are you looking for prenatal and postnatal yoga classes outside of the city of Pittsburgh and more convenient to where you live?

In Sewickley, you can find these classes at iYoga: http://www.iyogainc.com

In Dormont, you can find these classes at Sterling Yoga: http://www.sterlingyoga.com

In Robinson, you can find prenatal classes at Yoga H’Om: http://www.yogahom.com

In Oakland, you can find prenatal classes on Monday nights at Magee Women’s Hospital and a posnatal series called Life with Baby (all by registration only): http://www.magee.edu/hec/Classes.asp

Are you interested in an alternative to disposable diapers? Pittsburgh is very fortunate to have Pittsburgh Cloth Diapers as a great resource for learning about the many different cloth diapering options that are available. You can check out their website and order online at: http://www.pittsburghclothdiapers.com or you can call to make an appointment for a free consultation at (412) 670-6205.

RESOURCES:

Lamaze classes at Magee Womens Hospital: Yoga Matrika gives the highest recommendation to Judy Jones at Magee. She’s a wonderful teacher! If you are going to register for a childbirth education class at Magee Hospital, you can’t register for a specific teacher’s class over the internet, but you can if you CALL. Phone: 412-802-8299.

Hypnobirthing with Diane E. Palmer is the Yoga Matrika recommended HypnoBirthing instructor. She will work with you and your birth partner in the privacy of your own home AND she organizes group classes at Yoga Matrika. Please call Diane directly to inquire (412) 225-1780 or send her an e-mail to: DianeEPalmer@comcast.net.

Doula: We highly recommend Amy Farr of Blessed Arrivals http://blessedarrivals.com/about.asp. Amy is a great birth doula under any circumstances, but she also has special training in supporting couples who are intending to use hypnobirthing! In addition, Jan Mallak of Hearts and Hands is nothing short of inspirational and amazing—–a great birth educator, supporter of women and offers both birth doulas and postpartum doulas http://heartandhandsdoula.com/. Joanna Elsas is an independent post-partum doula (DONA certified) and a babywearing expert. She can assist with transitions with a new baby and make sure that you look and feel great in that snazzy new sling or infant carrier you have. You can see her website at http://www.fourthtrimesterdoula.com or give her a call at (412) 973-1847.

For FERTILITY SUPPORT:

Massage Therapy: Laurie Pickens. To make an appointment with Laurie, please call her directly at (412) 320-9322

Fertility Support Yoga/Private Sessions with Sharon Rudyk: Sharon teaches a unique series of yoga poses to release tension in the body, increase circulation in the pelvis and breathing and meditation techniques. Please call Sharon at (412) 855-5692 to schedule an appointment.

Fertility Counselor: Diane E. Palmer. Diane works with women who are experiencing “unexplained” fertility challenges and can also provide hypnosis and guided visualization therapies to women who have scheduled fertility treatments. Please call Diane directly to schedule an appointment: (412) 225-1780.

Acupuncture: Dr. Maureen Tighe specializes in acupuncture treatments for optimum fertility. She is a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine and a Licensed Acupuncturist and can design a whole health plan to support your creative efforts. She can be reached at Trillium Natural Medicine (412) 571-9355. Her website is http://www.trilliumnatural.com.

Lisa Wang, LAc comes highly recommended. She can be found at the Chinese Acupuncture Wellness Center in Bridgeville, 1025 Washington Pike, Bridgeville, PA 15017. You can reach Lisa Wang by calling (412) 221-2773. She specializes in pain management and infertility.

For Chiropractic Care, especially during pregnancy and for assistance in turning a breech presentation (but also for cranky shoulders, twisted hips, painful knees, headaches……EVERYTHING) we recommend Dr. Kathy Roth http://www.health-horizons.com/Doctors.aspx#Kathy%20R of Health Horizons http://www.health-horizons.com/Contact.aspx in Oakmont.