Lynn Crimando
Lynn Crimando BFA, MA, RYT-500 strives to create experiences that empower each student or client to adapt practices to suit their individual needs, abilities, and stage of life, all with safety and a sense of play.
In addition to Yoga for Fibromyalgia and Arthritis Exercises classes at The Breathing Project, she currently teaches private, semi-private and group classes at various locations in Manhattan and Riverdale, and throughout the city on behalf of the Arthritis Foundation. Her group classes serve students of all ages and abilities, ranging from able-bodied adults to elderly people living with advanced Alzheimer’s. Privately she works with clients with a number of challenges, including structural issues of the spine, physiological conditions, such as MS, Parkinson's, Cancer, Stroke recovery, and psychological issues, such as anxiety, depression and insomnia.
Having studied vigorous forms of Vinyasa and Ashtanga for years under gifted and wonderful instructors, Lynn thought that she knew a thing or two about yoga in 1997. As a busy, Type-A publishing executive, a challenging asana practice seemed to fit her life perfectly. Mastering difficult postures, longer holds and daring balances helped her to feel strong, accomplished and in control. That's when she encountered her greatest teacher: A steep descent down a mountain road into a sharp blind curve that ended in an unceremonious "face-plant" off a bicycle. The fall took place in a flash, but left her with a permanently altered physical structure, debilitating chronic pain, and a recovery effort that continues today. This is how her true study of Yoga was born.
In the years since the accident, Asana practice has helped Lynn restore function and manage its lingering physical effects, including the numerous symptoms of Post-Traumatic Fibromyalgia. But her exploration of the powerful practices of pranayama, meditation and self-study proved to be even more valuable to her recovery, helping with everything from feelings of loss and grief, to chronic pain and insomnia.
Committed to working with people who, like herself, might benefit from tapping into Yoga's healing and restorative powers, Lynn undertook her 200-hour teacher training in 2001 in the Anusara tradition. She was later fortunate to have Rudy Pierce as her mentor in her 500-hour program at Kripalu. Her earliest teaching experiences were at All Souls Church in New York City, where she created a class for people dealing with the after-effects of 9/11, and The Mercy Center, a women's resource center in one of the five poorest congressional districts in the US. Throughout her ongoing relationship with the Mercy Center, Lynn has worked with women of every age, many of whom are survivors of trauma and domestic violence.
Lynn's desire to delve deeper into the therapeutic aspects of Yoga led her first to The Breathing Project, where she completed the Advanced Studies Program under Leslie Kaminoff in 2009, and then to Gary Kraftsow and the American Viniyoga Institute where she completed her training as a certified Viniyoga Therapist in April 2011.
Before leaving her publishing career behind to commit herself full-time to Yoga in 2007, Lynn held top management roles at Sports Illustrated, Money Magazine, ESPN The Magazine, ESPN.com and the ESPN New Enterprises division. She is an NYU-certified executive coach and is blessed to benefit from the wisdom gained in all of these experiences in her current work.
