titusville

Instructors

Carol, Donna, and Pat after class

Carol Crain-

Carol, a native of Lake Mary, Fl., began her professional career as a ballerina in 1979, with the then Southern Ballet Theater (currently Orlando Ballet.) She has enjoyed teaching for over 30 years in gymnastics, ballet, and as an aerobic, step, and indoor cycling instructor, along with weight training classes.

By 35, she suffered crippling arthritis in her feet from the overtraining in ballet, and found it hard to walk. She also incurred chronic knee and back pain from cycling. In 2005, Carol moved to Los Angeles where she took her first Bikram Yoga Class, finding the studio by accident. Carol says, “The practice found me, not the other way around. That first class was as challenging as anything that I had ever done, including dancing on my toes! I could not even stand on one leg for 60 seconds because of the pain in my feet, and I thought that I would die from the heat. It took every bit of discipline to get through that first class, and I knew then that I was hooked.”

Carol attended Bikram’s Teacher Training in Spring 2006, and hopes to bring her diverse performing, training, and teaching knowledge to her students and peers. “No two classes are ever the same; no two bodies are ever the same. Our bodies change every day and so does our mental and emotional state.”

Today Carol, is free of any foot, knee, and back pain, and takes no medications.

The joy of seeing her students’ progress on a daily basis is what drives her. “My motivation to push my students comes from the look on their faces when they grasp that they have just gone beyond “their limits” to realize that they have no limits. To have someone come to you after class and tell you that today was the first day they locked their knee, touched their forehead to floor, or experienced something for the first time is truly rewarding.”

Carol took over the Bikram Yoga Studio in July of 2007, as Director, and wants to see this practice become a way of life for Titusville residents.

Pat Ray-

Pat attended Bikram’s Teacher Training in the fall of 2003, and has been teaching ever since. She has a full schedule of teaching (5) times per week, but also maintaining her practice (5) times a week. This is impressive and encouraging to others because Pat celebrated her sixtieth birthday in July of 2007.

Pat likes teaching Bikram Yoga because of the “sense of peace that you feel when you have completed a class…watching the students grow mentally and physically.” Pat became director of a Bikram Yoga studio in Ormond Beach, Fl, and is also a past director of Bikram Yoga Titusville.

Before she started teaching and practicing Bikram Yoga Pat suffered from high cholesterol, arthritis, sciatic nerve pain, and she was overweight. Now, Pat asserts that “the sciatic pain is gone, as is most of the arthritis, the cholesterol is lower, and I have lost 30lbs.!”

She enjoys teaching Bikram Yoga because “I was happy with what yoga did for me and I wanted to share the experience with others.”

Donna Trantham-

Donna has a long and distinguished history in physically teaching and practicing many diverse forms of exercise and yoga. In 1984 she began her teaching career with aerobics, step aerobics, and many other popular “gym” classes such as body pump, kick boxing, and slide. Other recreational activities include other forms of yoga, running, and roller blading.

She discovered Bikram Yoga in 2000 and knew from her first class that “This is what I had been looking for in my past exercises. Mentally, physically, and emotionally, I feel like Bikram Yoga has made me a better person, all around.” Donna attended the Spring 2001 Teacher Training, and came back to open Bikram Yoga Titusville, in 2002.

As with many of us, Donna suffered a lot of pain and discomfort from these other types of exercises and an accident that took a long time to heal. “It felt worse before it got better,” she says, “but one by one, (and in their own time), I feel like I am healing every party of myself that needs it.”

She is completely off of all medications since practicing Bikram Yoga and motivates herself and her loyal students with these thoughts: “Trust this process. Yoga has been around for almost 6,000 years. Bikram’s series of postures are from the original postures dating back to this time. Bikram and Rajashree, Bikram’s wife, were both taught by their gurus in India. You can’t get a more safe and pure from of yoga in this country. Stick with it, push through and get yourself in the best health!”

“Yoga means….Precision of intent, efficiency of execution, maximum expression, point of stillness”
– Emmy Cleaves, senior teacher at Bikram Yoga College of India, Los Angeles, Ca