We caught up with Andrea Haywood and Jill Johnson, founders of Cheshire Yoga in Altrincham, Manchester. Both passionate Iyengar Yoga students and teachers, Andrea and Jill have known each other for 23 years, having started in an Iyengar Yoga class together and now owning a business together, Cheshire Yoga.

Tell us a bit about yourselves…

Jill: I have been a student of Iynegar yoga for over 25 years, and teaching since 2007. I am a Level 3 teacher, a mentor for all levels of teacher training, and an assessor and registered Yoga Therapist. So yoga life was already very busy – and then along came Cheshire Yoga.

I’m married to Tim and we have two grown up children, so we only share our home with a cat and a dog now. I’m also a grandmother twice over; looking after my grandson once a week keeps me running around away from my yoga mat, but he already does a fantastic dog down.

Andrea: I am a mum of 3 (it’s A Levels and GCSEs in our house at the moment), I’m married to Mark, and our family is completed by Echo, the 10 year old Black Lab. In a past life I was a solicitor but for the last 10 years I have been an Iyengar Yoga teacher in South Manchester. I am now a Level 2 teacher and I am lucky enough to share and teach yoga to an amazing group of students at the studio. I am now also officially a small business owner – we have just paid our business rates and filed our first tax return !!

Cheshire Yoga: After lockdown, during which Jill and I had both taught on Zoom, we just felt that we wanted our own studio space where students could come, be together and practice their yoga. And so came Cheshire Yoga. Particularly after the isolation of lockdown, the importance of being in the room together, having a teacher that could observe and correct your poses and sharing yoga, couldn’t be over-stated. So in September 2021, having leased the most wonderful space from one of our students and turned it into a yoga studio, we launched Cheshire Yoga in Altrincham.

Where did your yoga journey begin and what inspired you to become a yoga teacher?

Andrea: I fell in love with Iynegar Yoga when I started classes whilst still practising law. I found that it was the only time in the week when I thought of nothing else and could focus entirely on the Yoga. Having had a background in high impact sport, I had suffered a nasty injury which had resulted in a number of foot and ankle operations and I needed a different outlet, I found it in Iyengar Yoga. From the first class, my teacher was adapting the poses to enable me to enjoy the benefits, notwithstanding my injuries.

I looked forward to class so much and I attended class every week whilst working and through each of my 3 pregnancies, practising right up to 41 weeks with all 3. My teacher made all the necessary adaptions throughout and my fellow students were fantastic and supportive. Jill qualified as a teacher and was set up a class locally and I went along to the first class which Jill ever taught, and I was her very first student.

Jill encouraged me to train as a teacher. An opportunity to further my knowledge of Iyengar yoga and to be able to share my passion with others, were what sold it to me. After 2 years of hard work, I qualified as a Beginners’ teacher and began teaching locally.

Once I started teaching and got to know and understand my students’ bodies I really started to understand the enormity of Iyengar Yoga. Adapting poses, seeing the progression, understanding the need for the rigour, the precision, the alignment, creating strong foundations on which to build – it all became clearer seeing it through my students.

After more rigorous training, I did my Level 2 in 2019 and as my practice has grown so has that of my students. I have been lucky enough to have fabulous people come along to my classes and it is an honour that they put their faith in me and my teaching. And they are wonderful at making new students feel welcome and part of the class, something which Jill and I are passionate about. How often are people discouraged from coming to a class because they feel intimidated or nervous ? We pride ourselves on seeking to create a warm and encouraging environment at the studio.

Jill: I was almost 40 when I started yoga, it was recommended to me after I suffered an injury that prevented me from joining my running buddies on our twice weekly excursions around Altrincham, and after the first class I was hooked. I was working in Manchester at the time and my children were still at school, but I enjoyed the classes so much that I went from once a week to twice and sometimes three classes – as much time as I could spare was spent doing yoga.

In 2005 I began my teacher training, decided to stop my “paid” job and when I qualified in 2007 I started teaching immediately – Andrea was the first and only student at my very first class. Initially I thought my teacher training would let me delve more deeply into all the aspects of yoga, which it did, but it also inspired me to want to share this knowledge and enthusiasm with other students.

I spent the next 10 years studying more and qualifying to teach all levels of Iyengar yoga, as well as spending three years studying to teach yoga therapy. As my first career was in nursing this is an area in which I am particularly interested.

I have been to the Iyengar Institute in Pune many times, and have had the privilege of being taught by the Iyengar family, including Mr Iyengar and his daughter Geeta. More recently I have attended classes and intensives with Abhijata Iyengar and her uncle Prashant, so the lineage is continuing.

One of things I love about Iyengar Yoga is the world wide community of students – Iyengar Yoga is the most practiced school of yoga in the world, so this means that there are teachers in many parts of the world, and I love it when students return from their travels and tell me they attended a class far away, but it still felt like home!

It is this welcome and sense of community that we are nurturing at Cheshire Yoga – we want all our to students feel at home and comfortable with our teachers and with exploring how yoga can help them.

What’s a typical day in your life?

Andrea: I made a fundamental miscalculation when Jill and I started Cheshire Yoga. I thought that setting up our studio would mean that we had a beautiful, well-equipped, purpose built studio to practise and teach in. So far, so correct – what I hadn’t factored in was being a small business owner. It has been a steep learning curve.

So a typical day will involve getting kids off to school, heading to the studio before class to whip round with the broom, tidy the equipment and do my own practice before greeting the students arriving for morning class. That time in the morning at the studio when it is quiet and I can just enjoy being in the space which we have created and doing what I love best is very special.

After class we are lucky enough to have a fantastic coffee shop on site and so we often head over there for a coffee and a chat ( it is almost as important as the class – as it really enables us to connect and make friends and create a yoga community)

My afternoon is spent in a whir of class preparation and all the back office work, so workshop schedules, organising retreats, updating the website, as well as a bit of social media. As someone that didn’t know one end of a computer or social media from the other at the beginning of this, I have had to learn quickly.

And don’t forget the dog, who needs walking. A lovely time to walk and take stock. I have my best ideas when I am out walking. Once in a while we do a Yoga Dog walk (dog not mandatory) and we just go for a ramble, lunch and a chat.

Once a week I teach an evening class but otherwise the back end of the day becomes the time when I put on my household hat with the kids and all that life involves.

Jill: I like to do some yoga practice first thing – whether this is asana or pranayama – it sets me up for the day and means that I can then spend time teaching and of course spend lots of time doing all those jobs that come with a small business – thank goodness there are two of us otherwise no teaching would get done!

For five years – 2016-21 I was at the helm of Iyengar Yoga UK – the organization that looks after all Iyengar teachers in the UK. This was very hard work, but there is a great team of volunteers and paid employees and we are always supported by Abhijata and her team in Pune. When I came to the end of my term I swapped Iyengar Yoga UK for Cheshire Yoga – completely different but still challenging.

I teach five classes each week, as well as weekend workshops, retreats and yoga holidays. I love all my classes but I think my favourite is the Easy and Gentle class that has been running since 2008 – with many of the same students. This class is predominately for older students, or those returning to class after an injury or illness. The students have created a lovely atmosphere, they all work really hard and then they go to our on site café for a coffee afterwards.

My day also includes making sure that my trainee teachers, and mentees (those qualified teachers who are working towards their next level of teaching certificate) are feeling supported and happy with their studying, oh and then there is the paperwork to do!

What do you need to know about Iyengar Yoga ?

When asked what is the difference between Iyengar Yoga and other yogas, the answers would probably involve the words: alignment, precision, props.

The Iyengar method was borne out of an in-depth study of each pose and then their therapeutic properties by Mr Iyengar. From this he developed a systematic breakdown of the poses and how they should be practised. This requires adherence to the alignment in each pose and the use of props to achieve that alignment. This level of detail allows the body to move and open as it should and protects it against injury.

By learning to work the muscles correctly to achieve the alignment, everyone can access the poses as opposed to just the fit and healthy. For those that need them, props are available to help work in a pose, under the guidance of an Iyengar teacher. And for those that don’t need any props, the ability to control their work is its own unique challenge. Controlling flexible hamstrings so as not to damage knees is, by way of example, often harder than having tight hamstrings and using blocks to help lengthen them.

So in summary – Iyengar yoga is suitable for EVERYONE.

Tell us about teacher training…

Teaching yoga is a commitment and a responsibility; it is the process by which knowledge and wisdom can be given from teacher to student. Before beginning the formal process of studying to become a teacher of Iyengar yoga a student will have spent at least three years attending regular classes, and getting to know the subject well. Mr Iyengar has said in the past that it isn’t possible to know if one wants to teach a subject without having undertaken a certain level of study first. Training to be a teacher is predominately done under the guidance of a mentor, a senior teacher who has taught for many years, and is qualified to a higher level. To start with beginners study the asana syllabus, learning about each pose, how to teach it and most importantly, how to adapt it for those who are struggling or those that need to extend their practice. The student will also study the philosophy of yoga and basic anatomy and physiology. The assessment is a collaborative process run over a weekend working with the assessors and students to ensure that the trainee has sufficient proficiency and knowledge to become a teacher.

Further training, studying and assessments are required to teach at higher levels – so it is a long process!

To quote Mr Iyengar:

“One who has not learnt the subject thoroughly cannot teach. If one attempts to do so, he or she is going to harm; harm the society, the subject and oneself”.

This process does ensure that wherever you are in the world, if you are taught by an Iyengar Yoga teacher, you can be assured of the quality and depth of their training and knowledge.

Tell us about Therapy classes and training…

Running therapy classes is a wonderful experience – In Iyengar Yoga this is taken very seriously so that students with physical or psychological challenges are not harmed in any way. Each student has a personal programme of poses and pranayama worked out for them; students come with all sorts of problems such as shoulder damage, neurological illnesses like MS or Parkinsons’s disease, recovering after a hip replacement, and more recently we have had many students suffering from Long Covid.

Jill has helped at the therapy classes in Pune on many occasions, under the watchful eyes of Geeta and Abhijata, as well undertaking three years of study. Iyengar Yoga teachers need to study with a therapy teacher before they can move to Level 3, the most senior level. The safety, comfort and security of the students is always paramount.