Yoga provides us with the unique opportunity for growth and exploration. Yoga Humans seeks to aid that exploration by providing knowledge and tools tailored specifically to new teachers and advancing practitioners.
We invite you to explore learnings from our teaching experiences, build our mini-flows into your classes or home practice, flow to our curated playlists and reach out with any ideas on how we can grow with one another in practice.
Our Story
Yoga Humans began in 2020 and was founded by Izzy Martens and Kyle Shrivastava. On their first date, Izzy and Kyle quickly jumped into a conversation about yoga. This shared passion became a bedrock of their relationship. As new yoga teachers when they first met, Izzy and Kyle often found themselves discussing and wishing that there were more resources specifically designed to meet the needs of new and developing teachers. Soon after, Yoga Humans was born.
Yoga Humans is based on the belief that the beauty of yoga (like humans) is not one-size-fits-all. On this website, we offer a variety of resources to help aide in your teaching or your practice, and inspire you to think of creative movements or look at something in a new way.
So, welcome to our online community. A place designed for yoga practitioners and teachers. Where having all the answers is less important than simply being open to the questions that come up along the way.
Yoga Humans is a space for creativity, exploration and conversation about what yoga is. Whether that means the artistry and creative expression that comes with building a sequence, or the knowledge and history that drives the practice. Yoga Humans is a place for questions, for wonderment, for experiments, for connection and, of course, for practice.
So, welcome, humans.
Whether you are a yoga-teaching-human, a yoga-practicing-human, or just a curious-human – you’ve come to the right place.
JOIN THE YOGA HUMANS COMMUNITY
We hope that this website will be less about content and more about collaboration. We know that to be a great yoga teacher, you need a community around you that can help support you. People who you can ask questions, seek feedback from, and connect with. We hope that Yoga Humans can be that place. Below you have the option to sign-up to be a member of this website. Your free membership allows you to access all of our downloadable content, leave comments on posts, and interact with others in the community, and will give you access to special offers like free yoga classes.
All humans are welcome here.
Izzy Martens
Izzy fell in love with yoga as a sixteen-year-old who was just trying to figure out how to feel good in her own skin. Over a decade of practice later and Izzy still looks to yoga for help with any and all of life's challenges.
As a yoga teacher, Izzy loves to create interesting sequences and link storytelling into her classes. She encourages her students to embrace the physicality of the practice, while remembering the heart and history of the practice, too.
Izzy works as a consultant and facilitator at a leadership development firm in Washington, D.C.. She has a background in creative nonfiction and posts her writing on the website Joke Life. Izzy tries to connect her other passions back to yoga, by leading mindfulness exercises in the corporate environments she works in or combining writing and yoga in workshops. Izzy is the author of Holding Space: A Guide to Mindful Facilitation.
Izzy fundamentally believes in yoga's ability to create a healthy mind, spirit and heart.
Kyle Shrivastava
Kyle was first introduced to yoga while visiting family in India as child. As he grew up, yoga remained in the background of his other athletic pursuits such as soccer and martial arts. It wasn’t until joining the Peace Corps in Senegal, where yoga provided a profoundly needed physical and mental retreat, that his practice came center stage.
In the following years, Kyle continued to study and grow, mainly with Hatha styles such as Power Yoga and vinyasa flow. Kyle did his yoga teacher training with Yoga District in Washington D.C., and hasn't stopped looking for new ways to learn about the practice since.
Outside of the studio, Kyle is a program manager in the international peace building community. He has successfully facilitated dialogues and trainings around the world from West Africa to South East Asia, enabled by the same conflict sensitive and culturally informed communication techniques he sees as central to yoga teaching. He believes yoga is complimentary to (if not part of) peace building, due to its power to bring people together while promoting self-awareness and acceptance. Kyle holds a M.S. in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution from Columbia University and recently published his first book, Feral: Returning to the Wild, which ties together learnings from his experiences to provide a path towards community and self-discovery.
Creativity
Ingenuity
Humility
Empathy
Growth
We value...
Our Mission
Yoga Humans seeks to create an empowering community of yoga practitioners that connects, informs and inspires.
We hope you’ll engage with our community by joining our monthly newsletter, where we’ll send you specialized content that will be a gift to receive in your inbox, following us on Instagram and TikTok so you can see our flows and tips in action, and by posting comments / asking your questions on the website.
We’re so glad you’re here.
Meet Moose and Meeko
Two cats.
Moose and Meeko are the real masterminds behind Yoga Humans. With inscrutable eyes for design and a "don't-hold-back" approach towards giving feedback, they are crucial members of the Yoga Humans team.
Moose and Meeko often look on in wonderment as their humans roll out their mats and move around in (sometimes frightening) postures. They consider themselves masters of the yogic tradition and have perfected the "down dog" pose, though they resent the name and think the yoga community should consider changing it. Perhaps all poses could be cat-themed?
