Weight Training for Yoga
Weight Training for Yoga is designed for yoga teachers and long-time students of yoga who are interested in learning the fundamentals of weight training—including programming, rationale, and equipment options—in a small group environment.
This in-person class series is a programmed and collaboratively led by a group of veteran yoga teachers and teacher trainers, dancers, performers and actors, turned strength coaches and physical therapists.
Lisa Jill Anderson, Caitlin Casella, Emily Giovine, Macklen Mayse, and Giulia Pline draw from many decades collective experience with embodied, contemplative, athletic, and therapeutic modalities.
WHO IS THIS CLASS SERIES FOR?
If you're an embodied mover seeking long-term strategies for keeping your body feeling strong and mobile, building muscle and bone, and maintaining independence as you age, you're in the right place.
- We welcome those who are completely new to weight training, and those who already have a foundation in the basics and want more options and understanding of the rationale behind making various choices based on your specific goals.
- While these classes are welcoming to all ages and genders, most participants are women ages 40-65.
- Our coaches draw from their personal, professional, and clinical experience working with common tendon and joint pain complaints in those who are nearing menopause, in peri-menopause, or post-menopausal, and have engaged in bodyweight modalities like yoga, Pilates, and walking for decades.
WHAT WILL YOU LEARN?
You’ll gain experiential understanding of how resistance exercise can be a powerful tool for...
- Enhancing sensory feedback
- Improving proprioception and motor control
- Building confidence and familiarity with forces acting on sensitive body regions to decrease pain
- Relieving pain and sensitivity in the glutes and lateral hip areas and shoulder rotator cuff related discomfort
- Gradually increasing load on tissues for building muscle and bone
These classes are about more than how to perform exercises or simply getting in your weekly strength session.
Beyond form, resistance, sets and reps, we'll help you understand how to train yourself for weeks, months, and years to come.
You’ll learn…
- How to achieve similar strength gains across a variety of equipment, so you’ll have more options at the gym and at home.
- Strategies for monitoring your response to workouts and making sense of new sensations.
- Tools for managing exercise intensity levels throughout the week and a better understanding of rest and recovery.
- How to focus your weight training methods on improving specific qualities that balance your time spent enjoying yoga asana and other embodied movement modalities.
CLASS SIZE & LOCATION
SIZE: All sections are limited to only 6 participants to allow for individualized feedback and support
LOCATION: In-person at Practice Human, 28 W 27th St, Room 704, New York City (between 6th Ave and Broadway)
Practice Human is proudly serving New York City's Nomad, Flatiron, and Chelsea neighborhoods. Conveniently located near the following train stations:
- R/W subway at 28th St and Broadway
- 1 subway at 28th St and 7th Ave
- F/M subway at 23rd St and 6th Ave
- 6 subway at 28th St and Park Ave South
- PATH train at 33rd St and 6th Ave
Coming up next in 2026
LEG DAY!
With Lisa Jill Anderson & Macklen Mayse
- Strengthen your legs with more than your body weight
- Classes will progressively increase resistance for the major muscle groups of the lower body (and lower core)
- Build muscle mass and crucial bone density at your hips
- Improve: Single leg balance, walking speed and endurance, power and comfort going up and down stairs
- Decrease common hip, knee, and ankle joint and tendon irritation
Mondays
5:30-6:30pm
8-week series: Feb 2, 9, (skips 16th for holiday), 23, March 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
This series will be programed and taught as a collaboration between Lisa Jill Anderson and Macklen Mayse.
THREE SPOTS LEFT
SPRINGY FEET & ANKLES
With Giulia Pline & Caitlin Casella
- Bounce, hop, jump, bound, prance and dance with us this spring!
- Improve lower leg and foot strength and durability through slow loading and progressive plyometrics
- Learn strategies for treating and preventing common foot and ankle pain conditions and tendon irritation
- Improve walking comfort and speed, and decrease fall risk by training quick responsive balance and force production
- Improve coordination, mobility, and fluidity in all of the joints of your lower body
- This series is a non-negotiable for both beginner and seasoned runners looking to mitigate the risk of lower leg injuries
- You’ll begin where you are and increase intensity gradually–variations will be offered for all levels including non-impact exercises
- Recommendations will be provided for training between our weekly classes together and beyond
Tuesdays
4:30-5:30pm
6-week series: March 31, April 7, 14, 21, 28, May 5
This series will be programed and taught as a collaboration between Giulia Pline & Caitlin Casella.
SIX SPOTS LEFT
BONE & MUSCLE BUILDING FOR HIPS & SPINE
With Emily Giovine & Giulia Pline
- Develop strength, power, and resilience through the hips and spine (alternatives will be offered for those who are not jumping)
- Learn how to safely and progressively load the body with additional (heavy!) weight
- Develop confidence working with weights and various types of gym equipment
- Learn strategies for building bone density and muscle mass to support longevity in your yoga practice
- Improve lumbopelvic coordination and control to promote efficient force transmission on and off the mat
Fridays
1:30-2:30pm
6-week series: April 10, 17, 24, May 1, 8, 15
This series will be programed and taught as a collaboration between Emily Giovine & Giulia Pline.
FIVE SPOTS LEFT
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
One time investment for 8-week series: $640
6-week series: $480
If you are unsure and would like to discuss your current activity baseline and goals before signing up, please reach out via email to hello@practicehuman.com or schedule a free 15 minute discovery call.
Cancellation and refund policy: Full refund (less $50 processing fee) when canceled 7 days or more before your class series start date. After this time, no refunds.
Meet Your Coaches
Lisa Jill Anderson
Lisa is a movement educator with over a decade of experience teaching yoga. Five years ago, she ventured into strength training and has since experienced significant benefits, including increased energy, reduced joint pain, and a newfound sense of physical resilience and empowerment. This journey has inspired her mission to introduce strength training to longtime yoga practitioners like herself.
Lisa enjoys sharing how yoga and strength training complement each other and helps her clients incorporate both practices into their routines consistently. In addition to teaching yoga and strength, she is currently completing prerequisite classes for physical therapy school. Lisa values the community at Practice Human and looks forward to working with you!
Find out more about Lisa at www.ljayoga.com.
Caitlin Casella
After a 14 year career teaching yoga and mentoring yoga teachers, Caitlin transitioned into other systems of holistic movement, somatics, strength and conditioning. Through this evolution, she experienced firsthand how beneficial strength training and cardio conditioning can be—not only on a physical level—but mentally, for emotional stability, pain management, and a confidence boost that extends beyond physical endeavors.
Caitlin helps women over 40 prevent and treat osteopenia, osteoporosis, joint pain, and tendon irritation with resistance exercise. Most of her services are geared towards those who’ve been underloaded over a lifetime of bodyweight practices like yoga, dance, Pilates, barre, and walking.
At Practice Human we’re thrilled to bring together a diverse group of therapists, teachers, trainers, and coaches to work together and SUPPORT YOU through a continuum of care.
Find out more about Caitlin’s work at practicehuman.com, and be sure to follow her on instagram @practicehuman.
Emily Giovine
Emily Giovine spent over a decade dancing professionally and teaching yoga in New York City before earning her Doctoral degree in Physical Therapy from Hunter College.
Her experience as a performer and movement educator laid the foundation for an embodied approach to healing. She integrates her diverse movement background into a holistic, patient-centered approach to support recovery, resilience, and long-term wellness.
Emily believes that healing is most effective when people feel empowered and adaptable in their bodies. Whether working one-on-one or teaching movement, her goal is to help individuals return to doing what matters to them most with greater ease, awareness, and confidence.
Macklen Mayse
Macklen is a strong believer that every woman should lift heavy things. That's why she specializes in weight lifting and mobility for women.
She was born and raised in a woodland area of Kansas City. Fell in love with fitness during graduate school while making durational performance art, video art and kinetic sculpture. Macklen compressed her body into metal sculptures, held awkward body shapes while scaling walls, and flung herself at pillars for cold hugs. It was all quite weird and fun.
Her focus then morphed into learning and teaching about the body. She started as a Yoga Teacher and eventually became a Personal Trainer. She offers both in-person personal training sessions, and customized training programs you can do in your own time.
Find out more about Macklen's work at macklenmayse.com, and be sure to follow her on instagram @macklenmayse.
Giulia Pline
Giulia’s path has evolved from a career as a professional dancer to an educator of movement and now a Doctoral student of Physical Therapy. Her experiences and several injuries pushed her to pursue extensive studies in anatomy, physiology, kinesiology, and biomechanics, and the years she spent healing and recovering from injury have provided her with invaluable tools and a unique skill set that informs how she treats and cares for others on their own physical rehab path.
Giulia’s mission is to provide empathetic, intelligent, thoughtful, and thorough movement education and treatment through a science backed, integrative, and multidisciplinary approach. Her offerings are geared toward helping students and clients unravel the web of the body in an anatomically holistic way, creating space for discernment, discovery, learning, and healing.
Find out more about Giulia’s work at giuliapline.com, and be sure to follow her on instagram @giuliapline.
