Meet Professor Jen McDonald, the most recently certified graduate of Teaching Yoga to Athletes.
Jen took my in-person Teaching Yoga to Athletes training at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health before she was even a yoga teacher. In fact, she reached out beforehand to be sure she would fit in. Did she ever! She blew the class away with her practice teaching, where her clear knowledge of runners’ bodies and minds shone through. As soon as she finished, we all insisted she sign up for a full yoga teacher training.
Jen lives way upstate in New York, where she is a professor of physical therapy and a running coach. Her running brought her to yoga, and of course her skill with anatomy and kinesiology is the perfect complement to her skillset as a teacher and coach. She’s also an Army veteran, and her commitment to service and self-discipline underpins all the work she does.
Jen says:
I feel strongly in the power of the melding of body, mind, and spirit that yoga provides, particularly as it benefits athletes and students. The ability of an athlete to learn to listen to their body and to take the time to find restoration is enhanced through yoga. In physical therapy we work with patients to reeducate their muscles and retrain movement patterns that have become dysfunctional either through injury or chronic misuse. I see yoga as a method of developing and maintaining functional, comfortable, healthy movement patterns through encouraging students to become more aware of how they are moving. This concept melds beautifully with the movement reeducation skill of the PT.
Jen also says, as “a mom to two collegiate athletes, and a teacher of college students, I see the pressures that students face and recognize the benefits that yoga practice can have on their physical and mental wellbeing.” She shared this screenshot with her son as evidence of the benefits of yoga for college athletes.
Jen’s experience as a teacher includes leading gymnasts training for the U.S. Men’s National Team at the USA Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. She teaches at Trillium Wellness in Potsdam, NY. You’d be well served to connect with her!
To follow in Jen’s footsteps and up your game as a teacher of yoga for athletes, register for Teaching Yoga to Athletes here, then add the optional upgrade to certification.