My name is Jacqui Macquisten.
I started out as a gymnast at the age of 9 and competed up until the age of 17. Stretching for me was therefore something that became a natural part of my life. I was 18 when I went along to my first yoga class. The teacher was in her 70’s and I was amazed by her. She told me back then that I should teach yoga as I would be good at it and that always stuck in my mind.
At the time though I had just started teaching Aerobics and I wanted to do that for the time being. A few years later I had my two sons. I had always done cross country running when I was young and had kept it up as it had become one of my main passions in life. What helped me with this was my dedication to stretching. It was not long before I started adding weight training to my weekly exercise regime as well as cycling and rowing. Being competitive, I began to do gym competitions and won the Health Club games two years in a row as well as being given the title Britain’s Fittest Woman in 2005
I have now been a personal trainer for over 20 years and have helped many people to lose weight and gain an active healthy lifestyle. However, even though I still regularly exercised and stretched, I began to notice the signs of age. A few aches and pains in my back and neck needed more attention than normal and I had to start taking more notice of my posture. As I got older, I realised that I had to change what I was doing. Yoga was always in the back of my mind and I slowly adapted my exercise routine to include more Yoga.
I was always a lot more relaxed and calmer after doing Yoga and this drew me on to do it even more. Yoga has helped me to stay injury free with my running, cycling and my weight training and it has also helped me avoid any more back or neck pain or posture problems. I feel a lot more balanced physically and mentally from doing my practice.
Yoga had helped me so much that I wanted to start sharing it with others so I decided to become a Yoga teacher. I have now qualified with a level 3 diploma in teaching Hatha yoga and one of my goals is to be able to teach yoga in my 70’s just like the lady who first taught me.