Meet Dawn Adams, a member of our teaching team who leads weekly Beginning/Intermediate Yoga classes, Yoga Tune Up® classes and weekend workshops on a variety of topics in the Bay Area.
How did you discover Yoga Tune Up® and why did you decide to become a teacher?
I discovered YTU in 2011 when I was researching low back pain relief. I wanted to find a way to more effectively help my students who suffered from this condition. My search led me to Jill’s QuickFix Rx videos, which I found absolutely brilliant. I took the first training I could (The Roll Model® Method: The Science of Rolling) and fell in love. Since 2011, I have taken every YTU training and immersion that I could (some of them twice), which has completely changed the way that I teach.
What advice would you give a new student just starting a YTU practice?
It may sound trite, but to really take to heart that every pose is an assessment pose. YTU is not necessarily about doing everything “right”; it’s more about your journey of self-discovery so that you can design your own personal practice. Ultimately you want to address your particular issues to help you regain flexibility, strength, and awareness, not just on the mat, but also in daily life.
The Yoga Tune Up motto is “Live better in your body”. What does that mean to you?
First of all, I believe that we all need to first be in the bodies that we have, and the YTU approach helps us to identify our unique strengths and our personal blind spots rather than emphasizing the achievement of a classical asana shape. Only by knowing what our issues are, can we begin to resolve them, so that we start to undo years of compensation patterns. Second, the YTU focus on self-care has empowered me to be my own health care provider — I have the tools and body knowledge that I need to be able to soothe almost all of my aches and pains, and then I can share those discoveries with my classes and help them toward being more at ease in their bodies.
If you could only choose one YTU movement or therapy ball technique to take with you on a desert island, what would it be?
That is a nearly impossible question to answer, because there is so much variety in the YTU repertoire. For a static pose, Leg Stretch #3; for a dynamic pose, Half Happy Baby Minivini; for a therapy ball technique, Coregeous ball abdominal massage or the ALPHA ball infraspinatus massage.
Here’s a video of Jill demonstrating the Half Happy Baby Minivini
More information on Dawn Adams and her teaching schedule can be found here.
Thank you for your beautiful sharing! I didn’t know what I was really getting myself into but it literally changed my life! Yes, every pose is an assessment pose, great reminder!! This is journey of self-discovery, who better to get to know than yourself and your magical body. I love how you stated that self-care empowers us to be our own health care provider. I have the tools and body knowledge I gained in the training to explore and soothe the aches and pains I feel too! Amazing and healing! I am excited about this life-long journey of discovery. I appreciate your words.
Hi Dawn,
I had fell in love with RMM after just few weeks of taking twice a week class regularly at Yogatree.
Taking RMM training had been on my mind for a while, but after finishing Yoga Tune Up Level 1 training, I was so overwhelmed.
But now I am so glad that I had taken YTU Level 1 training just few weeks before RMM, It really made sense to learn in that order.
I can appreciate both methods working and helping each other in such way.
Your teaching style is nurturing and so supportive. Thank you very much for making the training so much fun and enjoyable with tons of information, but not too much pressure.
You have such a wonderful teaching style, obviously knowledgeable but not pedantic. In fact, your humor is so delightful– laughing with you takes away some of the stress of the packed Yoga Tune-up days. Your empathetic style is empowering.
Thank you Dawn! I really enjoy your teaching style and look forward to transforming my own.
You will always be my first YTU experience! I loved that workshop in Oakland in May and am
absorbing all I can in Level 1. Mahalo!
Dawn,
I am so glad you found Yoga Tune Up and dove right in. My first exposure to it was through you and it has transformed my personal practice and my teaching. Thank you!