Karen is a recovering perfectionist, a quiet introvert, and 2-time Olympic medalist with a desire to stay healthy and fit.
She started practicing yoga as an academic endeavor while concurrently pursuing a Master’s degree in physiology and a PhD in biomechanics. She wanted to study the human body outside of a lab, and yoga seemed an intriguing angle. It also proved helpful in healing the litany of maladies she had accrued in being a rower for over a decade. The benefits of yoga quickly surpassed the academic endeavor, and Karen saw the obvious results in more flexibility, mobility, and stability. What surprised her was what came next.
Karen found yoga to be a fountain of gifts, so she pursued a 200 hour teacher training program in 2002, and continued to learn about the miracles of the human body and our ability to heal. She has been teaching yoga for 22 years in various styles and in various formats and has received her 500 hour teacher certification.
Karen also coached women’s rowing at UW Madison for 6 years and, with the Women’s Team, earned a BigTen Championship as well as Central Region Coach of the Year in 2010. In addition to teaching yoga, she also currently coaches a small group strength and fitness class at Functional Integrated Training on the south side of Madison.
And while she loves coaching, teaching yoga is her passion project because of all the merits of a habitual yoga practice. The self-evident benefits of mobility, flexibility, and stability are just the beginning. The longer (and more regularly) one practices yoga, the less tangible (and more desirable) the gifts become.
For Karen,
Progress became more important than perfection.
Connection became more significant than solitude.
Health became more about how she felt and how she thought than how she looked.
Fitness shifted to wellness.
Whatever it is that you are seeking from a yoga class, practice, or one-on-one session, Karen will design a sequence of yoga postures that could improve your mobility, flexibility, and stability - or all of the above. Your goals could be to improve strength or balance, to learn breath work or to feel safe in your body and prevent injury. Like life, yoga will give you back what you invest… and then some. Karen can work with you on your sport, your fitness endeavor, your particular movement patterns that may or may not be compensatory, and your strengths, (which will give us information about your challenges). You will absolutely see, (and more importantly, feel), an increase in performance. But (and here's the first bonus), you will actually start to enjoy the endeavor more– not just the racing– but the preparing, the training, and the ‘practicing.’
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust
Another change you might notice (or you might not because you're so focused on enjoying the practice) is your ability to quiet all the voices (or at least a few) in your head. You might find that you can pay attention to the same task for more than nine seconds at a time.
“Take charge of your thoughts. You can do what you will with them.” - Plato
A third bonus is that you start to notice with whom you want to connect. You become more in touch with what kind of souls are bellows for your energy and which souls drain you, and you make better choices about how you spend your time.
“Who you spend time with is who you become. Accept the challenge by surrounding yourself with people who hold themselves to high standards.” - Tony Robbins
We could go on and on about more benefits of a yoga practice, but if you’d like to
enjoy being somatic (breath and sensation focused), rather than cerebral (pulled into your thoughts and current narrative),
keep your mind engaged in 1 thing at a time, and
connect with souls that are pursuing the same ideals,
Check out Karen’s teaching schedule.
Join her for a class at either Inner Fire Yoga West or Harbor Athletic Club Wellness.
Currently, you can find her at
Inner Fire on Monday mornings at 8:30am for a 75 minute Hot Flow
Inner Fire on Tuesday afternoons at 4:30pm for a 75 minute Hot Flow
Harbor on Friday mornings at 8:30am for a 60 minute Warm Slow Flow
Inner Fire on Friday mornings at 10:30am for a 60 minute Warm Slow Flow
Inner Fire on Saturday mornings at 7am for a 75 minute Hot Flow
Confirm via the website of either Inner Fire or Harbor that Karen is teaching the day you’d like to explore a class. Pre-registration is required at both sites.
Drop-ins are available at Harbor for $20.
Drop-ins are available for Karen’s classes at Inner Fire for $40.
Occasionally, each business has promotions including deep discounts for first -time students. Reach out to Karen or check on the Inner Fire or Harbor website.
If you are interested in a one-on-one session, you can reach Karen at kkr.kokoroyoga@gmail.com and/or 608.239.5369.
Rates for private sessions:
$100/hr for 1-2 people.
If you are interested in a prescriptive yoga video with a personalized sequence of yoga postures strung together for your goals, there is an additional fee of $100. This video will be prepared and sent to you electronically within a week of your one-on-one session.
The locations for these sessions can be determined depending on time/season and goals. Karen lives and works on the West side of Madison.
