100 Hour - Hot Yoga YTT with Roberta McGinley

My name is Roberta and I love Yoga, hot yoga, all things yoga and baking too...

I found yoga in the late 90's when I was graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, a dream that I had from when I was a young girl. 

I found myself in a Power Yoga Class in a temple in NJ that just had me struggling, and crying at the same time. I found a new thing that touched my heart.

During the time I was working as a Head Baker's assistant and then a Baker in NJ I continued to find yoga classes and attend regularly. After a long physical day of baking which also was a bit stressful at times, I couldn't wait to get to yoga class. I practiced most every day. My practice started with a very strong Ashtanga daily practice for a long time. I loved the challenge of it physically and mentally. 

I found myself in a Bikram class ( which I had heard was a bit scary) and WOW... it changed my life! I was happy that I had already had a very strong Ashtanga practice taught by a very strong woman straight from Patabi Jois lineage, or else I may have been in over my head :). I felt so amazing that I kept going day after day. Understanding the sequence as I stayed with it, and sometimes it was super hard on many levels, but I knew that the results of getting to my mat always rewarded me with a feeling of accomplishment and it somehow affected how my mind felt.

I attended Jimmy Barkan's charter 200 hour training in Ft Lauderdale in October of 2002. I spent a month in an intensive Teacher Training which then, followed  with Jimmy's level 2, where we were taught Jimmy's Hot Vinyasa which gave me 500 hour certification. 

My intention was not to teach, but I had an opportunity to teach at Gold's Gym here in Fishkill and Wappingers at the time. I turned the heat on and people LOVED it! 

I then had an opportunity to open a space to offer Hot 26 to the people in the Hudson Valley. In 2008 I opened Tadasana Yoga Studio. It was the first Hot Yoga studio in the area. Actually there weren't many yoga studios at that time at all... I took a chance because I honestly believed in this practice and wanted to share it. 

I, along with an amazing group of teachers hosted three Hot TT's and from those came some amazing teachers. It's been since 2017 that I did my last TT, and I am ready to guide another Hot TT here at Rooted Yoga starting in January of 2026. 

And so the story goes...  We have a wonderful community and it continues to grow