Directors and Owners Kyle and Bridget Baxter
Kyle and Bridget met at Bikram's seminar July of 2006 in Denver, CO. We were married in July of 2007. Our son Corbin Roe Baxter was born December 3, 2007. We own and run Bikram's Yoga Greeley and Bikram's Yoga Old Town in Fort Collins.
Bridget Baxter
I took my first Bikram Yoga class January 1999 in Las Vegas, Nevada. After a friend recommended I try Bikram Yoga for all the sciatic pain I was having. I just finished a Cross Country and Track running career with University of Northwestern in Natchitoches, LA. My feet were numb and I had cramps in my calves for most of the day. After about 3 months I felt my relief and after 6 months I had feeling in my toes again. That is all it took for me believe. Since then I have practiced in Honolulu HI and went to Teacher Trainning Fall 2005. September 2006 I bought the Bikram Yoga Old Town studio in Fort Collins. Being a Colorado native (Pueblo, CO) I was happy to be back in Colorado. At the same time I started to date my husband Kyle Baxter. My life is now complete... In May of 2009 I was inducted into my High School Hall of Fame for Track; 1992 I was a state Champion in the 800 meters with a record time.
Danielle Michael
I took my first Bikram Yoga class in Madison, Wisconsin in 1998. At that time, I was working in a stressful Corporate job and I noticed immediate improvements. I felt less tension in my body and an elevated mood after just one class. I started taking class 2 times per week, then 3, then 4, then 7! The more that I took class, the better I felt and I started functioning better at work and in my personal life. I attended the Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in Spring 2003 so that I could pass on the emotional and physical benefits to others. Since 2003, I have taught in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Chanhassen, Toronto, Greeley, Longmont, Boulder, Mexico, Salt Lake City and Fort Collins. I have also traveled to India with Bikram and visited his home studio, Ghosh's Physical College of India, in Calcutta, India. My husband, Tom, recently became a certified teacher and we are both excited to be teaching together in Fort Collins, CO.
My goal as a teacher is to continue to deepen my knowledge and practice through on-going study so that I can further encourage others towards ultimate health and fulfillment. I hope that someday yoga will be practiced by the majority of the global population. What a wonderful world it would be!
Lisa Wennerth
Lisa began practicing Bikram yoga in 2003 because she wanted to “see what all the 105 degree hype was about”. And so, very inopportunely she sweated through her first class donned in a thick cotton t and a pair of overly smelly running shorts. And, although she found the instructor extremely chatty for a “yoga” class and the seemingly collective intuition of the students bewildering (how did these people all know the postures before the instructor called it out!?), she was hooked after her first experience. A year later she found herself at the teacher training with Bikram in Los Angles.
Prior to this training she spent four weeks at a yoga ashram in the Bahamas learning about the four paths of yoga and reading Vedanta philosophy. Since her very first experience with hatha yoga in 1996, Lisa immediately connected, not only to the physical health and well being that comes from practicing yoga, but more so, the mental and spiritual health. Since then, the process of yoga has become a way of life, not simply a part of life.
In addition to teaching yoga, Lisa also teaches English at Windsor High School. She is happy to be teaching both yoga and English. She is quoted as saying: "Teaching is probably the greatest occupation on earth, unless of course you consider some of the very coolest jobs like, for example, a photographer for National Geographic, but come on, nobody does that." And there it is, folks
Adam Armstrong
Adam has been teaching yoga since the fall of '07 and is currently teaching yoga full time. Adam has been practicing for over 3 years and continues to be amazed at how much more there is to learn about each posture and the series as a whole. Adam holds two degrees, one in Philosophy, the other in Music and has performed around the world with his former college vocal jazz group VoicesIowa. Along with deepening his own practice and helping others to become healthy and flexible in their lives, one of the reasons Adam decided to become a yoga instructor was for the opportunity it provides him to travel. Adam has taught in many studios around the country and in Europe including London, Germany, Austria and Hungary. Adam is also an avid participant in the Yoga Asana Championship. For the past two years he has been selected to represent Colorado in the national level competition and is looking forward to competing for Colorado again in February in LA.
Rachel Donovan
A student of Bikram Yoga for nearly 4 years, Rachel’s teaching style can be described as energetic and motivational. Her classes are always fun with clear dialogue encouraging students of all abilities to challenge themselves while honoring and working with their limitations. After one class with Rachel you will see that she loves to share this great practice that has so profoundly enriched her own life.
Having been a health and fitness enthusiast her whole life, Rachel began practicing yoga as a holistic, low-impact alternative to traditional exercises due to chronic knee pain. She could have never envisioned the tremendous impact that yoga would have on all aspects of her life. As a result, Rachel attended the 9 week Bikram Yoga College of India Intensive Teacher Training Program in the fall of 2007 where she received her teaching certification.
Along with teaching yoga, Rachel also enjoys hiking, cycling, painting, running, and kayaking. When she’s not at the studio teaching or taking class, you’re likely to see her and her husband out on the local trails or in the dog park with their black lab Bijou. She is watched over from above by her beautiful son and guardian angel Kale.
Kyle Larson
After years of playing in bands and living the rock n’ roll lifestyle (chain smoking, too little sleep, too much whiskey) I decided to give up my vices and take my body back. Jogging, I concluded, was the best way to do this. I hated jogging. However, afraid giving it up would cause a lapse back into self-abuse, I continued on – despite my loathing of the task. One night (while jogging) I heard Bridget on the radio offering 60 free days at Bikram Yoga to the first two callers who could correctly define the word “yoga”. I have never won anything, and while my motivation was to win something rather than actually step foot into the Bikram studio, I called in and gave it a whirl. I
answered correctly.
I had done various types of yoga for the previous 10 years and seriously doubted that just by doing it in a hot room would the purported benefits be realized. Skeptical though I was, I was equally desperate to never jog again, so I stepped up and came in for my first class – in pants and a long sleeve t-shirt. I strongly disliked my first class, but my back felt great afterward, and I didn’t have any desire whatsoever to smoke; so I decided to take a second, and a third, and…
At first, I kept coming because the physical benefits were immediately obvious. I felt great. I lost weight. I slept better. As time progressed, an increasingly difficult personal life started making apparent the emotional and spiritual benefits as well. The studio became (and remains) my sanctuary. Outside of the hot room, the community is unconditionally supportive, and inside that room, in the postures, being with my breath and body, I was able to transcend the overwhelming emotional and personal issues that bore down on me at home. What’s more, I was able to take that peace and concentration out into the real world; allowing me more space, more calm, more focus in my every day life.
After personally benefiting from Bikram Yoga, I wanted to help others do the same thing. I consider it my karmic duty to help people gain both the physical and emotional benefits of Bikram’s genius system. After all, yoga means “to unite”, and the inseparable link between body and mind, the subtle and the gross, is easily realized in each class. As students come to me with issues ranging from physical to personal, I feel uniquely adapted to listen and guide. What I have overcome with the help of Bikram Yoga, and the Ft. Collins and Greeley Bikram Yoga community, allows me to relate to nearly everyone; traditional and nontraditional yoga students alike. I love my work, and look forward to sharing this profound and amazing yoga with the world.
Wendy woods
I walked in to a Bikram yoga studio in San Francisco in September of 2000. I had no idea what to expect, and when I finished the first class, I thought "I am never going back there!" It was hot, I felt awkward, I couldn't breathe, everyone else seemed so flexible. It was very intimidating. However, even just a few short hours after class, I started to feel a difference in how my body felt. I went because of a lower back issue I was having and a friend recommended I try bikram yoga. I had gone to see a doctor and he told me I would need to start taking vitamins, as the older I get, the less ability my body has to get all of the nutrients it needs from food. I thought, at the time, I am only 32 years old. What happens when I am 42, 52, and so on? I will be 42 next year, and I feel better now than I ever have.
I went to teacher training in the spring of '03. I moved to Vail after training and taught for 2 years, before moving to Fort Collins in '05. I love the beautiful Rocky Mountains and living in Northern Colorado. Bikram yoga has made a tremendous impact on my life and I enjoy talking to others about what a difference it has made in my life. Give it a try!
Tom Chermack
I started practicing Bikram yoga in October, 2002, in Minneapolis, MN. I was hooked after the first class. In 2007, my wife (Danielle) and I moved to Fort Collins, CO. We were immediately excited about the Bikram yoga community that Bridget and Kyle had created in Old Town, and have made
many close friends through the studio. I graduated from the Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in June, 2009 and have been teaching in Fort Collins and Greeley ever since. Kyle Larson and I were roommates and I'm sure we'll be lifelong friends. I do my best to teach classes the way Bikram taught me to. That means I pour my heart into my classes and give them everything I have.
Karen Alvarez
Karen began practicing yoga more than a few years ago looking for some relief from the negativity, stress and tension of her life, but It was not until she stepped back onto a mat at Bikram Yoga Fort Collins in Old Town with a messed up mind and body that she realized how much she really needed and wanted this yoga… not just any yoga… Bikram yoga! Within 3 weeks of starting practice again her pain and immobility from an old shoulder injury was completely gone and she was already weaning herself off of her anti-depressants.
In the summer of 2009 Karen decided the next step in her journey was to go to teacher training. So, she thought about it, talked it over with her husband, then made up her mind and she was off to Las Vegas for the Fall 2009 Bikram Yoga Teacher Training session. She has been teaching since December 2009 and has loved every minute of it. She says every class she teaches is an absolute honor, pleasure and joy.
Yoga has helped guide Karen on her life journey by enabling her to recognize her authentic self as well as the immense importance of balancing the mind, body, and spirit. More than anything, Karen would like to inspire others so that they too can feel the same bliss she feels upon completion of a Bikram yoga class. She does her best to teach her classes with the knowledge she gained at teacher training, from the senior teachers that ran the training as well as from Bikram himself. Karen hopes that everyone that she has the opportunity to teach leaves with a new union and sense of self. That they may have greater balance, strength, and flexibility not only while on the mat, but in every aspect of their lives.
Outside of practicing and teaching yoga, Karen works part time with her husband in the field of Real Estate Investing and Property Management, and enjoys many hobbies including, but not limited to traveling, reading, hiking, biking, and spending time with her friends and family. J