Yoga at Rainier Health and Fitness

In the Spring, I read an old article in a magazine while waiting in a doctor's office to have a mysterious pain in my hip attended to. The hip pain is pretty much gone now, thanks to the folks at UW Sports Medicine Clinic. But the article changed things for me, and I'm hoping it will change things for some important folks in the South Seattle area. 

Rainier Health and Fitness has a mission: healthy bodies and a safe facility free from gang activity and power salesmanship in an area that doesn't have a fitness facility to the public for 15 miles. Supported and funded in part by a Baptist church, they have a small crew of committed volunteers, a clean facility made up of portable rooms, and fitness machines and childcare that makes their space viable to working women, minorities, and a variety of people in this neighborhood that need a place to work out their bodies or succumb to the wave of obesity and illness that has been sweeping our nation. 

I read about their dreams, their desire to build a permanent fitness gymnasium, and their urgent need for qualified instructors to offer classes to their unique population. After meeting with their outreach coordinator, I contacted my peeps at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lennox, Massachusettes, and applied for their Teaching for Diversity Grants for 2008-2009. 

Kripalu is helping both of our dreams to come true. I get to teach 10 classes in a population that otherwise wouldn't get yoga there because of the lack of funding to bring it there, and Rainier Health and Fitness peeps get 10 weeks of Gentle Kripalu Yoga, a beautiful adjunct to any health and fitness regimin, for all ages and lifestyles. The Board gets an instructor sensitive to their spiritual concerns, and I get to do what I love -- teach people to live healthy for a  lifetime. 

If you are an instructor wishing to teach the most enthusiastic crowd you've ever had, you need to talk to these people. My first class was a dream: people coming a little early to set up, so full we had to turn people away (sorry). Many were brand new to yoga.  They are hiring for a yoga instructor in January 2009. The pay is not the going rate, but it's understandable on the budget; give it time, and it will grow. 

If you are in the South Seattle area, Rainier Health and Fitness is on Rainier Ave. South, just a few blocks south of S. Myrtle Street. Memberships start at just $11 a month (no kidding)!