About Us
The Yoga Mat is a yoga studio in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. We draw on a combination of Hatha yoga and Iyengar-style yoga to guide students toward a greater understanding of the inner body. Our approach emphasizes basic principles of movement and alignment. Through regular practice with our highly trained and experienced teachers, individuals can develop flexibility and strength, relieve stress, and calm the mind.
The emphasis at the Mat is not on achieving the perfect pose, but on expanding the ability to live in our bodies with wisdom and appreciation.
Iyengar-style yoga makes use of supports and props, such as belts, blocks and chairs, to assist in deepening students’ practice. All this equipment is supplied by the studio.
Our teachers are well-trained and experienced
All the teachers at the Mat have many years of experience and rigorous training in yoga, in terms of both practical application and the philosophical and spiritual aspects of the asanas. You can attend classes with any of our teachers, secure in the knowledge that the instruction will come from this solid foundation. We require our teachers to advance their expertise through intensive continuing education: taking classes and workshops, and through further self-study.
We use “seeing and understanding” bodies as a primary teaching tool
“Seeing and understanding bodies” is the ability to comprehend what is happening in a student’s body by observing skin color, quality and balance of muscle activity, footwork, gravity lines, subtle body energy and more. We place tremendous emphasis on this skill in our teachers because there’s so much more going on in a pose than simply keeping your alignment. For example, you could have your knee above your ankle in Warrior II pose, but HOW you’re doing that could affect the quality of your life in the years to come. With skill in seeing and understanding bodies, our teachers help you to go deeper in your understanding of yourself and how you embody your yoga practice. We take the time in class to teach these skills to our students, so that they can recognize for themselves what they need to address in their practice outside of class and in everyday life.
We emphasize the important role of sequencing in yoga practice
An often neglected but very important part of asana practice is the subtle art of sequencing the poses. By carefully choosing which poses to do in succession, and what to feature in those poses, you can open your body into poses and experiences you never thought possible. Our teachers have countless hours of training and experience in yoga sequencing. This helps you move into new spaces inside yourself and plays a vital role in preparing your body to move into the more challenging poses safely.
We encourage you to become your own yoga authority
At the Yoga Mat, we help our students expand their working knowledge of inner-body sensations. With an internal feedback system based upon sensation and movement, our students gradually learn how to come into a safe and vibrant pose on their own. We encourage this method of self-assessment and adjustment to empower our students to be their own authority in what is right for them. How marvelous it is to know from your own inner sensations whether or not you’re in a healthy alignment. How exquisite to delve deeper into subtlety of sensation, to embody your poses with even more lightness, ease, and peace.
We encourage questions and class participation
We encourage questions in class. We want to know if you are unclear about any aspect of a given pose, and we encourage students to let us know about any challenges they are facing as the practice unfolds.
