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About Vicki Forman & Becky Webb

About Vicki Forman RYT500

Vicki Forman is a certified Yoga Alliance 200 ERYT Yoga instructor through Yoga Fit International. She also holds an advanced certification with Yoga Alliance E-RYT500 with Integrative Yoga Therapy from Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Massachusetts. Vicki earned a certification in Balance Body Reformer from a Master Reformer teacher, Tom Cook in Northern California.

For 8 years, she has taught Yoga for Health classes and Mat Pilate’s classes for Allan Hancock College. For the last 18 years, Vicki has taught at a variety of health facilities in the Santa Barbara area teaching both Yoga and Mat Pilates classes and private sessions. Vicki has hosted many sucessful Yoga Retreats all around California and Costa Rica.

In 2011, Vicki opened a Yoga studio called Yoga 4 Mankind in Orcutt, California.  This studio was nominated “Best Yoga Studio” in northern California for 8 years.  The Yoga 4 Mankind  studio supported a caring Yoga community which in turn created a highly successful studio until its closing in 2020.

Vicki has a popular Youtube Channel called Yoga4Man which was created in 2007 and has over 3,000 subscribers.  Vicki has over 30 years of teaching both Yoga. Pilates Reformer and Mat Pilates. To learn more – please read “My story might be Yours” below.

About Becky Webb RYT500

It all started in 2005 when Becky discovered and started enjoying the benefits of Pilates. In 2010 she decided she wanted to share her passion for Pilates and health and fitness with others and earned her Group Fitness Instructor certification from ACE.

She earned her 200-hour certificate in 2011 and completed her 500-hour certificate in 2018, both through Yoga Alliance. Along her path she has also received her certificate of completion in Mat I, 2, Barre and Reformer I from Balanced Body. 2014 brought her Children’s Yoga certificate (95 hours) at HiYoga with Kelly Wood and most recently she completed 60 hours of training with Yoga For First Responders.

She knows yoga can benefit everyone and uses a fun and playful approach with children, a strong, more direct approach with First Responders and an interactive, open approach with everyone. She prides herself on meeting the student where they are at and hopes that they will take yoga (and most importantly breath) with them wherever they go

My Story…that might be yours!

There is a connection with your birth name and how your name reflects your life’s journey. My birth name, Victoria means victory or victorious. As a child, I had this driving force to succeed. I knew in my life, I would struggle through many attempts and failures. School was always challenging for me because I have Adult Attention deficit disorder and dyslexia. I kept pushing my way through high school, and on to graduating from college. I spent more than 30 years in the field of Information Systems.   The Information Systems field was certainly a far cry from my calling, but at the time it provided a decent working wage for women.  The work was really stressful and challenging since technology is always changing at a rapid pace.

The back-end story to all of this is that while I worked as a System Administrator,  I was also teaching Yoga after hours.  Yoga was an important aspect of my life.  While the daily work was stressful, I was able to calm myself down and find clarity with difficult situations with Yoga.  It allowed me to take the intense situations in the work place and draw them back with a positive perspective.

I was teaching Yoga classes during my lunch hour and directly after work.  My poor husband thought I was insane, but he knew Yoga made me calm and less crazy.  My Yoga practice came at a time when I desperately needed help.  My body was breaking down from the wear and tear of my job and the hectic pace of being a working mother.  My anxiety was taking its toll on me mentally and physically.  My anxiety and stress levels where at an all time high.  Stress related injuries like carpal tunnel, lower back issues and being overweight was overbearing. I was in fear of losing my job because of the ever growing pain and debilitation of my carpal tunnel and tendonitis. Surgery was the next step, but I was unwilling to go there.  I decided to seek different ways to heal my body and my anxious mind. With a combination of therapies, like massage therapy, physical therapy and yoga, I was able to heal my arms and back.

I became a certified Yoga teacher in 2000.  Unlike most people, I started my Yoga practice very late in life.  My children were in junior high and high school.  Unlike most Yoga teachers who are naturally flexible, I was born with little flexibility and was pretty stiff. My Yoga practice helped me increase my flexibility, but it took time. I have never been slim or slender.  In fact I am rather short and stocky. We all have our starting points, and I believe that we need to do the best we can to take care of our bodies.

My determination of becoming a Yoga teacher was strong.  My first yoga master was very surprised to see me return for my next level of training.  He told me that he didn’t think I was going to make it.  But, I knew in my heart that I was getting better both physically and mentally every day.  I found myself smiling all throughout my Yoga practice.  I felt relaxed and happy even after teaching a Yoga class.  I realized that I was changing slowly in my thoughts and in my body.

One day, one of m coworkers suggested that I tape my Yoga classes and put it on cable TV.  My Yoga students were happy about my 30 minute Yoga show.  With the success of the Yoga Stretch & Strength program, I decided to take it to the next level and put it on YouTube.  My yoga videos were one of the first to be uploaded onto Youtube.  There was just a handful of us in 2000, and it was fun to read the comments from people all over the world.  At first, I was just selling my Yoga DVDs – made on the computer.  But that became tedious and not always resulting in the best product for the clients.  It has been a uphill battle to get my Yoga videos on the digital platform.  I have finally gotten here, but as with my yoga practice, it took time, and many attempts.

I know you will enjoy these videos, because they have come from my experience of teaching thousands of new Yoga and Baby Boomer students.  You will see more videos coming online in the next few months, so please come back and check it out. Thanks for hanging in here with me… I am eternally grateful.

Namaste

~ Vicki