Best Yoga Studio - Erie's Choice Awards - Three Years In A Row

The Class Schedule is near the bottom of the page. The Winter and Spring sessions are now posted.     

I was honored and excited to be accepted as a presenter at the first Yoga Alliance Leadership Conference for Teachers. Several hundred teachers applied and I was the only teacher from PA to present. Over 400 teachers attended. 

I am now a member of the Yoga Alliance’s House of Delegates. The House of Delegates is a group of representatives from the U.S. states and territories that is selected by the president of Yoga Alliance to represent each state caucus. The House of Delegates will meet at this year’s annual Leadership Conference to discuss issues facing the Yoga Community and make recommendations to the Board of Directors of Yoga Alliance. Some issues being discussed include more Yoga Standards, Distance Learning, Continuing Education Requirements, Compliance with the Standards, and State Regulation of teacher trainings. I am excited about this new Dharma to support and serve teachers in PA.

Yoga Alliance (YA) is the national education and support organization for Yoga in the United States. They have created minimum standards of training for Yoga teachers. They recently added a standard of a minimum of 85 hours of training to be registered as a prenatal yoga teacher (RPYT). Some certifications/trainings are only 20 hours. I attended a 130 hour training in 1998 and have taught several hundred hours of prenatal yoga. I am the only teacher in the area who is registered as a prenatal yoga teacher with YA.

I have taught over 9,000 classes yet still feel as passionate about teaching as I did the first time. Yoga this summer at the Yurt, the Beach or the Park surrounded by the sights, sounds and smells of nature! It doesn't get any better.

Classes are held at Plasha Yoga and Life Coaching Center, 4508 Zuck Road. Directions are below the class schedule and registration details. The Yoga Yurt studio was featured in the Erie Times on Dec. 8. Watch an audio slide show about it at www.goerieblogs.com/news/photo/ . It was posted on Dec. 8, 2009.

The Yurt Yoga Studio is one of the few green studios in the country. Want to reduce your dependency on oil and gas and practice aparigraha (non-greed) then practice at Plasha Yoga!

Free Introductory Classes  

To learn about the benefits of yoga and if yoga is right for you, Plasha Yoga Studio is offering free introductory yoga classes for new students from:

Feb. 18 10:00 to 11:15 am
March 14 7:15 to 8:30pm   
(New students to Yoga who can't make these still get the first class free!)
Please call 864-1114 to register.

I offered over 500 no-strings attached free yoga and meditation classes in my home from 1980 to 1992 when I was the co-leader of the Kensho Meditation and Siddha Yoga Meditation Centers. The tradition continues. What type of yoga is right for you? Find out. If I can't teach it, I will refer you to another teacher. I have trained or mentored over 12 teachers in the Erie area. I can recommend one of them.

"Eighty percent of success is showing up." -Woody Allen

The Class Schedule is below the testimonials and general information.

At Plasha Yoga, you will find the only integration of internationally recognized schools of Hatha Yoga (Integral, Iyengar, Ashtanga, Kripalu and Viniyoga) with Classical Yoga , Meditation and Ayurveda in Erie, and my guest teachers offer additional diversity! You will receive a deep inner workout as well as an outer workout!



Want to practice at home? My double CD set Raja Yoga for Beginners was reviewed by Yoga Journal and others. See the reviews at www.plashayoga.com/audio.html. It is $20.

Enjoy Yoga on the Beach this Summer


Turn off your mind, relax
and float down stream
It is not dying
It is not dying

Lay down all thought
Surrender to the void
It is shining
It is shining

That you may see
The meaning of within
It is being
It is being

That love is all
And love is everyone
It is knowing
It is knowing

John Lennon

The Winter and Spring schedules are below. If you are new to yoga my pre-requisite is that you are open to Self-growth, wellness, spiritual aspirations and relaxation.You do not have to be flexible! Come join us for an abundance of fun yoga inspired by my many teachers and schools. Every class will feature a different mind-body-spirit theme. Practice deep static postures and therapeutic flows with precise verbal cueing. Learn effective ways to develop a strong healthy back, open shoulders and hips and increase flexibility without straining while rooting out the source of stress - the mind - with sophisticated breathwork, relaxation and meditation practices based on over 30 years of experience. Learn how to free yourself from the mentally conditioned mind and ego to open fully into the eternal now. Learn how to heal and release from the past to be more conscious in each moment. Access your wisdom and compassion and enjoy an awakened heart and mind! Directions to the studio are below the schedule and the registration information.

Michael Plasha is now certified by the American Institute of Vedic Studies as an Ayurveda and Yoga teacher. He is one of only 24 teachers in the world certified by Dr. David Frawley to teach Ayurveda and Yoga! His training consisted of 80 classroom hours (2 weeks) and six months of long distance learning. The exam was based on the classes, 5 books and a 400 page manual. He is now giving Ayurveda and Yoga teacher trainings and workshops.

Ayurveda and Yoga Privates

Call 864-1114 or write rhadeya@plashayoga.com to arrange a private consultation to determine the most effective and safest yoga and meditation practices for your current dosha(stress body type) state to experience optimum mental, physical and spiritual health and to avoid disturbing your mind, body and spirit with incorrect practices and lifestyle habits for you.

Entering the state-of-the-art yurt.

"Michael's wisdom and skillful teachings are the key reason yoga has become an essential part of my daily life.  His deep commitment to quality and authenticity, to living his practice and teachings, and to constantly continue his education make him a master teacher.  He strives to create classes to encompass all levels of students.  He consistently gives options to rest/relax or deepen a pose/find your personal edge, or gives modifications to the pose so that benefit is still gained.  Michael's ability to guide a class into challenging poses in a non-harmful way with clear, precise, sequential steps is unsurpassed.  And he does all this with compassion and a sprinkle of humor and laughter. 

Yoga fits in throughout my daily life, be it through breathing, practicing postures, meditating, remembering a bit of philosophy, repeating mantras, or reciting catchy phrases; but mostly I look forward to my class with Michael where I can listen - focus - do - just be - with a smile on my face and in my heart.  Michael has the ability to make me feel inspired and more in touch with my inner self.  It's what keeps me coming back!" - Joyce Zuck , Plasha Yoga student of the decade (started in Jan. 1998)!

See what other students have said about Plasha Yoga. Go to the blog and click on testimonials. Discover what thousands already know. Start a safe new practice or take your practice to the next level with the most trained and experienced yoga teacher in Erie at Erie's first yoga studio! If you can breathe, you can do yoga. " Plasha has mastered Raja and Hatha Yoga." - Yoga Journal


CONSUMER ALERT...

Did you know that 13,000 Americans were injured in the last three years according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (Oct. 2007).  Nearly 4,500 people ended up in the emergency room after yoga injuries in 2006, slightly fewer than the year before but still up 18 percent since 2004, according to the Commission (which tracks sports injuries even when they don't include equipment). Most often, the damage includes strained muscles, rotator cuff tears in the shoulders, exacerbated carpal tunnel syndrome in the wrists, torn cartilage in the knees, and lower-back and neck injuries such as herniated disks. "In my practice, I've seen a significant increase in yoga injuries in the past five years," says orthopedic surgeon Jeffrey Halbrecht, M.D., medical director for the Institute for Arthroscopy and Sports Medicine in San Francisco and a specialist in knee and hip problems.

"Yoga is marketed as such an innocuous thing," says Loren Fishman, M.D., assistant clinical professor of rehabilitation medicine at Columbia University in New York City. "But without care, injuries can absolutely happen."
Dr. Fishman recently conducted a worldwide survey of more than 33,000 yoga teachers and therapists to investigate the most common injuries and their causes. He found that among the major reasons for injuries are inexperienced teachers and "egotistical," competitive students who push themselves too hard.

The main reasons cited by the Commission were minimally trained teachers who began leading classes after a weekend training, open classes in a fitness setting, "hybrid" styles like power-flow yoga or yogalates, "hot yoga"(Dr. Robert Gotlin, director of orthopedic and sports rehabilitation at Beth Israel Medical Center in NYC, says that he sees up to five Bikram-related injuries a week) and non-certified teachers teaching specialty classes like yoga for pregnancy, yoga for cancer and yoga for heart disease and forceful hands-on adjustments. Several injuries have been reported to me from yoga classes in the Erie area from adjustments given by teachers with only 200 hours of training or less.  Most senior teachers agree adjustments should only be given by teachers with at least 500 hours of training and 5 years of experience teaching. And they should ask permission before touching you and you can say NO.

"Some of today's yoga teachers have been recruited from the vast army of the unemployed, the kind of people who used to become waiters and waitresses while figuring out what to do with the rest of their life," says Dr. Fishman, who was once an expert witness in the lawsuit of a yogi who could no longer walk up stairs after she tore the cartilage in her knee doing a Hero pose. "That includes people who are eager to do the right thing but don't have the anatomical knowledge, physiological understanding, caring attitude and experience to be able to teach."

No certification or specific training is required before a person is allowed to teach yoga. Yoga Alliance recommends teachers get a bare minimum of 200 hours of training and has built a registry of teachers and schools that meet its standards. But participation is voluntary; teachers can just as easily get certified in weekend or online courses. "If you are a Spinning teacher and you want to tack on yoga, then you can take a two-day training," Terri
Kennedy, chairwoman of the board of Yoga Alliance, a national organization that sets standards for yoga teaching says, "You may think you are qualified, but that has its challenges."

To avoid injuries you want to find a registered or certified yoga teacher(RYT or CYT) at the appropriate level for what they are teaching. There is RYT 200(beginners), RYT 500(intermediates) and E-RYT 500(advanced and Yoga Therapy). CYT can mean 12 hours to over 200 hours of training. To learn more about what RYT and CYT really means go to my Welcome page. I am E-RYT 500, the highest level registry mark the Yoga Alliance designates which means I had to document 5,000 hours of teaching experience in addition to earning over 500 hours from an approved school. As of 2011, I have over 1,000 hours of training, taught over 8,000 classes and have 12,000 hours of teaching experience. Find the right teacher who is qualified and experienced to meet your needs and interests and enjoy your practice of Yoga!

Yogic Wisdom 

"Asana is but an initial step in Yoga for internalizing the mind. It is not the goal of Yoga, nor its essence. If we put too much emphasis on Asana practice, there is the danger that Asana will become a means not of transcending body  consciousness, which is its real goal, but only another means on increasing attachment to the body. This is particularly true of movement oriented Asanas that increase the quality of Rajas (activity) in the mind and body." -Dr. David Frawley, Director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies

Erie's Choice Best Yoga Studio Three Years In A Row!

I would like to thank you from the fullness of my heart for choosing Plasha Yoga once again as the Erie's Choice for Best Yoga Studio! I am honored that you considered me and apparently appreciate my aspirations to integrate the classical yoga of Ayurveda, Bhakti, Jnana, Raja, Tantric and Karma Yoga with the internationally respected Hatha schools of Integral, Iyengar, Kripalu, Viniyoga and Ashtanga. I try to choose from these yoga's-in any given class-by intuiting what might be most helpful to you. Over forty years of study(over 300 books), many trainings and practice have gone into this approach. If you are curious about the extent of my background, please go to www.plashayoga.com/about.html for specific details. To some degree this is a popularity contest-who can get out the most votes-but I hope it also reflects the quality and authenticity of my approach. Peaceful mind...loving heart...healthy and fit body...soaring spirit...positive vibrations...that's Plasha Yoga! Thanks for joining me on this fascinating journey.

The amazing sky dome.

Michael Plasha assisting in the Flow Yoga Studio 2009 teacher training. Flow was named best yoga studio in DC.  

"Asanas (postures) are part of a sacred science that comprehends all aspects of consciousness. They are a preparation for pranayama and meditation. Asana as exercise should not be confused with the role of asana in classical yoga, which goes beyond this. Yoga should not be reduced to asana, which is only a fraction of the greater system. The time we put into asana should not substitute for that spent in deeper practices of pranayama, mantra and meditation. The true teacher of asana does so through awakening the prana of the student, not simply by teaching how to put the body into different poses." Dr. David Frawley

"Success in yoga comes from practicing for a long time, with regularity and enthusiasm." - Patanjali

Are You Ready To Go 

Deeper?

The koi fish pond

A totem pole blesses all who enter the grounds.

Note: Basic and Beyond is for new beginners or experienced beginners who like to review the fundamentals. Safe alignment and modifications are emphasized while holding postures. Gentle Beginners is a gentle appproach to beginner level yoga with a review of Basics and it includes some restorative poses.   Beyond Beginners is for experienced beginners and includes holding postures and multi-level moderate flows. Multi-Level Flow is for experienced beginners who like longer and more challenging flows. Restorative and Mindfulness Yoga use props to support the body so it can release deeply held tension. Gentle and Restorative are ideal for new or experienced students who prefer a gentle class. For a description of Prenatal Yoga, please read below. All classes integrate several schools of Hatha Yoga as well as Raja, Bhakti, Mantra and Jnana Yoga, Mindfulness and Ayurveda. All classes include deep relaxation, pranayama and meditation. All classes awaken the essence of who you are: peace, love and joy!

                        Fees/Registration Information

Unless otherwise noted, fees are for one class per week, during a session.

Registration fee of $110 by Jan. 2 for Winter Session and March 12 for Spring Session.  Open registration afterwards.

Payment plans are available. Pro-rating anytime for $11-12 per class depending on the number of weeks you can do.  Open registration after Jan. 2 and March 19 for pro-rating or drop-ins.

Married couples or partners: $190 either session

The Full Yogi: $190 by Jan. 2 for Both Sessions (one class per week). Married couples or partners: $375

Special Discount: Take two classes a week: $160 either session or pro-rate later. Only $8 per class! 

Drop-in class (please call ahead): $15

Private Ayurveda and Yoga Therapy consults (call for appt.): $100/hr. Fast-forward your practice and optimize the benefits of yoga by creating an individualized approach. A lower rate is available for regular privates.

To register, click on the registration form above and mail it with your check (made payable to Plasha Yoga) to: Michael Plasha 1285 Ponderosa Drive, Erie, PA 16509. Your check will guarantee you a space if we receive it before the start of each session and before the class fills. IMPORTANT: Please write the day/time of your class(es) somewhere on the check. Do not register by phone. Only call if you don’t know what to take. If you need to cancel, please notify me as soon as possible.Missed classes are non-refundable and may be made up during the registered session only if there is room in another class of your level.   Those interested in making up a missed class must notify me to reserve a spot.  Late registrations for sessions are accepted on a pro-rated basis, space allowing.  You will be notified if your class has filled and your check will be cancelled. If you would like to receive on-line mailings in the future, please write your e-mail address on the check or on the attached form.

If you can breathe, you can do yoga. What are you waiting for?  Plasha Yoga Studio and Life Coaching Center is located in a beautiful natural setting with woods, gardens, a labyrinth and a Koi fish pond. It is a sacred space for the practice of classical yoga in Erie with an ambiance that provides a unique yoga sanctuary in the Erie area. Come and feel the difference.  Plasha Yoga and Life Coaching Center is at 4508 Zuck Road about 50 feet north of Topics Salon across from Zuck Park. It is 1.2 miles from the I-79/Interchange Rd intersection (the Kearsarge exit) taking Zimmerly Rd to Zuck(turn right).  Taking 1-90 to 1-79 to the property, it is only 14 minutes from downtown Fairview, 15 from Harborcreek, 18 from Edinboro and 20 minutes from North East.  It is less than 10 minutes from most places in Erie and Millcreek.  The zip code is 16506 if you want to do a map quest locater.  There is ample parking at the site and additional parking across the street at Zuck Park. There are several security cameras on the property insuring that only students of Plasha Yoga, clients of Allison Parr-Plasha, Life Coach and Massage Therapist Danielle Almendinger are there. New students or students who need a refresher must take Basic. Remember to avoid eating up to two hours before yoga classes.  Please arrive a few minutes early to get settled before class begins.  Avoid coming after class has started.  Wear loose, comfortable clothing.  Please choose the class that is appropriate for your practice level instead of a time that is most convenient.  Evening classes fill quickly; register as soon as possible for these classes.

"The important thing to bear in mind here is that the practice of Yoga should be carried out in a private place, in safety, with plentiful supplies of water and pure and fresh air, amidst pleasant surroundings and sheltered from curious and importunate eyes." Gheranda Samhita (classic text on hatha yoga)

 

If you have questions, call me at 864-1114 or email me at rhadeya@plashayoga.com

"Repetition of mantra is the best means for the alleviation of diseases." Karmathaguru

Remember it is not how good you look in asana practice but how much the asana practice helps you to forget yourself and reconnect you to your higher Self. - Michael

Basic and Beyond (Learning Hatha 1)
For new beginners or those who need a refresher. A thorough and safe introduction into yoga including modifications, adaptations and contraindications.

Michael and Sadhu in Vishnu Temple, Tamil Nadu

Gentle Beginners and Restorative
A gentle version of hatha 1 suitable for new beginners; a review of basic methodology with easier postures! A few restorative poses will be included for deep relaxation and breathing practices.

Beyond Beginners (Hatha 1 & 2)
For experienced beginners. Please check with me if you are not sure. Familiarity with contraindications, stages and modifications is necessary related to beginner level (hatha 1)postures and introduction or review of new hatha 2 practices like chanting, mantras, more advanced pranayama and asanas. Multi-level moderate flows are included. The Multi-level flow class if for those who like to move more and it includes more challenging poses and transitions.

Vigorous Flow (Hatha 2 & 3)
Vigorous yoga includes physically challenging vinyasa flows based in Ashtanga and Iyengar Hatha Yoga and assumes you have a strong regular yoga practice. If not, you will be more comfortable in the Beyond Beginners course. Check out my About page to learn about all of the great Ashtanga and Iyengar teachers I have studied with and others like Erich Schiffman! This class has been described by many as the most physically, mentally and spiritually challenging yoga class in the Erie area. Are you ready to go deeper?

Prenatal Yoga
Those interested in Prenatal are advised to seek physician clearance before registration and usually begin prenatal yoga in their second trimester. Over 12 years of teaching experience, 130 hours of certified training and the life experience of raising 7 children inform these classes! There are over 350 yoga babies in Erie from these classes. Read some of their mom's testimonials on my Blog. I am now registered as a Prenatal Yoga Teacher with the Yoga Alliance - RPYT.

Gentle Restorative and Mindfulness Yoga
The yoga of non-doing, restorative yoga, focuses on effortlessness and ease. When the body is fully supported with bolsters and blankets, it releases deeply held tensions. It is for any student who is not pregnant and without serious back conditions. It can be excellent for students recovering from injuries and managing chronic diseases. Michael Plasha is the only teacher in Erie certified to teach Yoga of the Heart for heart disease and cancer! I was trained in restorative yoga from Integrated Yoga Therapy, Integral Yoga and Iyengar Yoga teachers. I also integrate Mindfulness based healing and stress reduction practices that come from my many years of study and practice of Zen and Vipassana meditation, and retreats at the Rochester Zen Center, Zen Mountain Monastery and the Bhavana Society. Together they offer a very healing and rejuvenative experience.

Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Private Lessons/ Yoga Parties Bridal Parties and Events
I am available for private Ayurveda and Yoga Therapy consultations for $100 an hour. A lower rate is available for regular privates. An assessment of your practice, specific practices to meet your personal goals and identification of your predominant body type (dosha) will be determined to optimize your experience of yoga. Fast-forward your practice and optimize the benefits of yoga by creating an individualized Ayurvedic approach. Call for an appointment. House visits can be made for your convenience. I am also available for single event yoga parties and private classes at a special group rate!

"Yoga is severing the connection with that which causes suffering. Yoga should be practiced with insight and with an unperturbed heart." Bhagavad Gita VI. 23

4508 Zuck Road Erie, PA 16506

Erie's Choice Award - Best Yoga Studio 2007, 2008 and 2009

Erie's Yoga Studio - Honoring the tradition of classical yoga with the highest level of training and experience available locally.
Feel the Difference Experience Makes!