“Wow! That was different!”

Taya R’s comment at the end of her first class.

 

Only Edmonton studio to offer this unique yoga method for the joints.

What is Radiant Well-Being Yoga?

Radiant Well-Being Yoga is a user-friendly method of stretching and strengthening that rehabilitates and increases mobility in the joints. It is based in traditional yoga but is very different from “regular” yoga because rather than focusing on stretching muscles, it focuses on getting the joints moving in their full range of motion. Very consciously developed class plans take students from one pose to another, with each pose preparing the body for what is coming next.

Anyone can do RWB Yoga because poses are done only as each body is able. When a pose is difficult for a student, it is modified so the student can benefit from the variation while remaining safe. Forcing the body and ideas like “no pain, no gain” have absolutely no place in RWB Yoga. There is also no such thing as a “perfect pose”. Each student’s restrictions are respected, and time in each pose gives the nervous system time to feel safe, relax into the pose, release restrictions, and create new patterns.

RWB Yoga is excellent for inflexible, hyper flexible and aging bodies; it is especially user-friendly for men who think they can’t do yoga, and it has proven surprisingly enjoyable for people who say they “don’t like yoga”.

Who created the method used by Radiant Well-Being Yoga?

Radiant Well-Being Yoga is based on the work of Francisco Kaiut, a Brazilian chiropractor who developed Kaiut Yoga as he searched for ways to relieve his own chronic pain. His search led him to study a number of alternative healing modalities and many different types of yoga. His combined learning led him to develop Kaiut Yoga, which has been taught in Brazil for over fifteen years and is now being introduced to North America and Europe.

RWB Yoga also draws on the work of Brazilian physiotherapist, Cristiane Sprengel, who worked with Francisco Kaiut for ten years. Cris taught Kaiut Yoga to upwards of 500 students per week, she helped to develop Kaiut Yoga’s teacher manuals, and she assisted at the teacher trainings that were held in Brazil. In 2015, Cris opened her own studio – Yoga Mais – where she teaches the same method but in her own way. She develops her own class plans and has begun offering teacher trainings in North America.

Designed to work through chronic pain, injuries, general aches, and stiffness.

Why is Radiant Well-Being Yoga important?

Our modern age has made us a “sitting society” – we sit at computers, sit in the car, sit in front of the TV, etc; this is detrimental to joint function, particularly the hips. Limited movement and/or repetitive movements also go counter to the mobility our bodies were designed for and when mobility is limited, all body functions are affected. 

Radiant Well-Being Yoga helps the joints to regain their full range of motion by increasing circulation, releasing soft tissue restrictions, and stimulating the body’s repair systems. It also creates new patterns in the brain so the body can move the way it was designed to rather than the way the brain thinks it’s limited to.

Who can benefit from Radiant Well-Being Yoga?

Radiant Well-Being Yoga is for every body. Young or old, inflexible or flexible, RWB Yoga is a method everyone can practice. It can help people with chronic pain, injuries, stiffness, aches and pains, and even conditions such as MS, fibromyalgia, lyme disease, and others. RWB Yoga is both gentle and demanding while always respecting the limitations of each individual body.

Some of the possible benefits of Radiant Well-Being Yoga

  • Increased mobility and flexibility
  • Pain relief
  • Improved circulation
  • Healing of the joints
  • Accelerated healing from injuries
  • Stimulation of the lymphatic system
  • Muscle strengthening
  • Weight reduction
  • Calming the nervous system
  • Reduced stress
  • Improved sleep
  • Reduced anxiety and depression

 

About me

I never would have imagined I would become a yoga teacher. I taught Junior High for ten years, opened and worked at a Sudbury model school for six years, worked as a homeschool facilitator for six years, and always shared with my friends and family the discoveries I made as I took courses in personal development, health, and relationships. I wrote two books for teens, spent a few years developing a screenplay, did a fair bit of public speaking, and played with a few website projects.

But teach yoga?

I have not done much yoga in my life – a class here and there, some home videos… It always felt good but I tended to prefer Pilates because it incorporated both stretching and strengthening. So how did I become a yoga teacher?

In January 2017, I started having problems with my S.I. joints. No matter how often I went to the chiropractor, the pain persisted so I decided to get back to Pilates and do some yoga to see if that would help. It did – a little bit.

Then a friend invited me to a weekend workshop she was offering that included Kaiut Yoga – something I had never heard of. I wasn’t available to attend but asked if she was teaching any Kaiut Yoga classes. She was, and invited me to join the classes she was teaching at her home.

I can’t explain it, but right from my first class, I was hooked. There was something about Kaiut Yoga that my body loved, and it calmed my nervous system in a way nothing else ever had. I attended my friend’s classes twice per week until she went traveling, at which time she offered me recordings of some of the classes we had done together which allowed me to continue doing Kaiut Yoga on my own.

In the meantime, I started talking to the few yoga teachers I knew, hoping to interest them in Kaiut Yoga so they would take the teacher training and start teaching in Edmonton. None seemed interested so I hummed and hawed about taking the training myself. But me? A yoga teacher? It seemed the weirdest idea!

Here I am a few years later, having taken multiple teacher trainings, totally free of back pain, and LOVING teaching Radiant Well-Being Yoga! I’m continually amazed at how quickly it helps my students, and I love how the practice feels for me as I continue to go through the sequences myself. I love that RWB Yoga “is for every body”: students can be rigid as a board or flexible as putty. They can be 12 or 92. They can have tried everything under the sun – yoga, Pilates, boot camps, martial arts etc – or never have sat on an exercise mat in their life. There’s also no such thing as a “perfect pose”; there’s only being with the body exactly as it is. Though not always easy, Radiant Well-Being yoga is a gentle method that gets amazing results, and I am extremely excited to be introducing it to Edmonton!

Small classes = Personalized instruction

About me

I never would have imagined I would become a yoga teacher. I taught Junior High for ten years, opened and worked at a Sudbury model school for six years, worked as a homeschool facilitator for six years, and always shared with my friends and family the discoveries I made as I took courses in personal development, health, and relationships. I wrote two books for teens, spent a few years developing a screenplay, did a fair bit of public speaking, and played with a few website projects.

But teach yoga?

I have not done much yoga in my life – a class here and there, some home videos… It always felt good but I tended to prefer Pilates because it incorporated both stretching and strengthening. So how did I become a yoga teacher?

In January 2017, I started having problems with my S.I. joints. No matter how often I went to the chiropractor, the pain persisted so I decided to get back to Pilates and do some yoga to see if that would help. It did – a little bit.

Then a friend invited me to a weekend workshop she was offering that included Kaiut Yoga – something I had never heard of. I wasn’t available to attend but asked if she was teaching any Kaiut Yoga classes. She was, and invited me to join the classes she was teaching at her home.

I can’t explain it, but right from my first class, I was hooked. There was something about Kaiut Yoga that my body loved, and it calmed my nervous system in a way nothing else ever had. I attended my friend’s classes twice per week until she went traveling, at which time she offered me recordings of some of the classes we had done together which allowed me to continue doing Kaiut Yoga on my own.

In the meantime, I started talking to the few yoga teachers I knew, hoping to interest them in Kaiut Yoga so they would take the teacher training and start teaching in Edmonton. None seemed interested so I hummed and hawed about taking the training myself. But me? A yoga teacher? It seemed the weirdest idea!

Here I am a few years later, having taken multiple teacher trainings, totally free of back pain, and LOVING teaching Radiant Well-Being Yoga! I’m continually amazed at how quickly it helps my students, and I love how the practice feels for me as I continue to go through the sequences myself. I love that RWB Yoga “is for every body”: students can be rigid as a board or flexible as putty. They can be 12 or 92. They can have tried everything under the sun – traditional yoga, Pilates, boot camps, martial arts etc, or never have sat on an exercise mat in their life. There’s also no such thing as a “perfect pose”; there’s only being with the body exactly as it is. Though not always easy, Radiant Well-Being Yoga is a gentle method that gets amazing results, and I am excited to be introducing it to Edmonton!

CLASS TIMES
Mondays & Thursdays 5:45 – 6:45 PM and 7:15 – 8:15 PM
Wednesdays & Saturdays 10:00 – 11:00 AM

“My husband and I have been attending classes at Radiant Well-Being for over a year now, and both of us have noticed improvements with our range of motion and chronic pain conditions. Nicolette has provided us with adaptations to the poses as necessary, and over time, we have gradually developed the flexibility and strength needed to move out of those adaptations. She is very intuitive and responsive to her students’ needs, and has created a warm, welcoming environment – especially for those of us who might otherwise feel intimidated by even trying yoga in the first place. Highly recommend!”
– Cynthia Carels

User-friendly for people who think they can’t do yoga!