Robin is not a real yoga teacher yet, but the picture is so compelling that he felt the need to write a fake bio. Robin spent most of the first 22 years of his life studying every day and jogging every other day. Finally, when he graduated from college, his body couldn’t put up with it any longer. Back pain and knee problems led him to physical therapy, and he feared that the rest of his life would be filled with boring-as-heck rubber-band exercises. Then a yoga teacher offered to give classes once a week in Robin’s apartment building, which was too convenient to pass up. This teacher turned out to be the most caring, knowledgeable, inspiring, and hilarious person one could ever hope to meet. She helped Robin understand which muscles were overcompensating for which others, and she showed him how to practice yoga to improve core strength, flexibility, and alignment. There was also a bunch of other crazy stuff like hand stands, lion roars, and words like “supdebodikanasana” and “artichandrasana,” which overall kept things interesting.
Ever since that fateful day, Robin has been studying less and doing yoga more. He believes deeply in living a balanced life — his yoga practice allows him to pound his knees during runs and crush his hips all day in front of the computer. Over the years, he has taken yoga classes from dozens of instructors in Boston, Seattle, and elsewhere. There was the teacher who reminded everyone to “mmmm-breathhhhe.” The classes where you sweat so much you should have just used a towel as your mat. Classes like in the movies with beautiful 20-somethings checking each other out, and classes with plenty of rounder shapes. Because Robin came to yoga to heal his battered body, he was always especially mindful of the ways in which yoga poses can be designed to strengthen what is weak and loosen what is strong. Yoga has roots going back millenia, but very few people in ancient India spent all day sitting at a desk. Robin applies a healthy skepticism to the traditions and picks out (or makes up) the practices that are relevant specifically to the modern ways in which humans injure themselves for fun.