Alexandra DeSiato

After being a runner for many years, I discovered Pilates and yoga while recovering from a running injury. Yoga and Pilates make me feel strong and confident in my body in a way that nothing else ever has. Since core strength, good posture, flexibility, and alignment are crucially needed not just by runners but by everyone as they age in life, teaching was the next obvious step.

I found my first body movement mentor in Leigh Johnson, a massage therapist and movement specialist in Saxapahaw. I've also studied yoga extensively Mira Shani and Carson Efird Westerlund. My yoga mentor (and current partner on the blog Yoga for Aging Athletes) is Sage Rountree, an expert on yoga for athletes, and the author of several books on the subject, including The Athlete's Guide to Yoga.
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I am registered with Yoga Alliance as an E-RYT 200 and RYT 500 instructor.

Yoga for Healthy Aging
The longer I teach movement, the more I feel like my primary teaching message is something like "just get on your mat and squirm around!" That's good advice, though, and when you join me for a class, you'll find that I encourage my students to figure out what feels right for them. That piece--listening to our bodies--is especially important for healthy aging. Thinking about how yoga can help us with aging has become my focus in the past few years. When I was pregnant with my daughter, my yoga practice shifted as my body changed. This got me thinking a lot about what I wanted my body to be able to do in the long-term. I want to be running and hiking until my last days on earth, and I know that my yoga practice can help me.

Currently, I teach two classes weekly that focus on aging and yoga: Yoga for Healthy Aging, Sunday evenings at 5:00 at The Bridge at Rivermill in Saxapahaw, NC and Yoga for Aging Athletes, Thursday afternoons at Carrboro Yoga Company in Carrboro, NC. I also teach Pilates Mondays at 4:30 at Carrboro Yoga. You can also stream my classes from YogaVibes.

I also write a blog with Sage Rountree: Yoga for Aging Athletes. There you can find videos, tutorials, and discussions about how yoga can be helpful for our active, aging bodies.

Classes
In addition to Yoga for Healthy Aging and Yoga for Aging Athletes, I regularly teach Pilates and core, a 6-week introduction to yoga series, restorative yoga workshops, core workshops, and glutes workshops. I enjoy working with athletes, and I have had the privilege of teaching yoga to varsity athletic teams at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, including the varsity football team, men's varsity basketball team, and women's rowing team. I've also offered Yoga for Athletes workshops at Yogaville and assisted Sage Rountree with her Yoga for Athletes intensive at Kripalu.