Optimal Movement
Classes Designed for ANY BodyExcellent for All Levels of Experience!
Optimal Movement* means that you are appropriately challenged for your level of experience. That’s why so many appreciate practicing at downtown desert yoga so much.
“ddy has the variety for me to stay engaged with my practice and learn new approaches to yoga.”
As an educator and researcher, there are many opportunities for stress to pervade my consciousness. Coming to ddy, has been a safe, re-energizing space for me to return to my yoga practice. After taking weekly classes for several months, in the fall of 2018, I decided to do yoga daily. ddy has the variety for me to stay engaged with my practice and learn new approaches to yoga. It was through my trust in ddy’s yoga community that I began to feel comfortable with expanding beyond Vinyasa. Some days I want an intense class like Cardiyo or Hot 26, and others I want to slow down with Hatha, Yin or Warm Slow Flow. I also appreciate ddy’s focus on Functional Movement so that I can be connected to my body and focus on what is needed in that given moment. I am grateful I have also been able to build a yoga community while living in Las Cruces.
A word from Colleen
"Optimal Movement is a term we coined at ddy that sprang from our Functional Movement training philosophy. We want to get our students curious about how their body moves and then have them move in a way that feels right to them." ~ Colleen
dDY has a different philosophy:
While many yoga studios emphasize achieving a particular “shape” or more gymnastics-Influenced movements, our emphasis is on moving the body in a way that is suitable and appropriately challenging for you, to increase your strength, balance, range of movement and flexibility.
Many of the instructors at ddy have completed their 500 hour teacher training, including 300 hours in Therapeutic Yoga Essentials with internationally known Yoga Therapist Shawn Cornelison (Boston, MA). His teacher training and our’s has a focus on Functional Movement and Therapeutic Essentials. We refer to our approach as Optimal Movement*(*OM).
Shawn completed his IAYT Yoga Therapy certification with Susi Hately (author of Anatomy and Asana, 2004 and founder of Functional Synergy). Susi believes that “the nervous system can catalyze powerful healing when it is in a relaxed, non-wired, non-tired state”.
“…no tennis for me without yoga…”
Click on the video to hear what Stew has to say about his yoga practice at ddy.
“…I feel like I’ve come home….it is a safe place for me….”
Click on the video to hear what Cyndi has to say about her yoga practice at ddy.