Athletes Collection
Yoga and tai chi for strength, mobility, balance, and recovery
This collection gives both professional and recreational athletes the foundations for moving better, avoiding injury, and recovering faster, through a carefully-designed set of yoga and tai chi practices.
Led by Strala founders Tara Stiles and Mike Taylor, you'll develop a coordinated ability to move your whole body in harmony, in a way that doesn't deplete and defeat one part of you at a time.
This means moving much more easily through any level of challenge. It also means having more energy for when things get really tough. You'll power up your usable strength, mobility, and agility, steer clear of common injuries, and heal far faster when injuries do happen.
This isn't just cross-training. It's a foundation for being better at what you love to do.
And of course if you're pregnant, and for everyone, please always check with your doctor first. It's helpful to get advice from a qualified professional who knows your particular history.
“Strala is an elegantly simple and sophisticated way to move our breath, our body, and our whole self into the state we need, to create who we want to be: the optimal expression of ourselves.”
– Dr. Rudolph Tanzi – Chair of Neurology at Harvard and Director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital
About Strala
Strala combines the movement and healing wisdom of tai chi with the form vocabularies of yoga, tai chi, qigong, and Traditional Chinese Medicine, to help people release stress, heal, and move easily through all kinds of challenge.
It begins with a mindset, that says our best way to get where we’re going is to feel good along the way. It also works miracles for whole health, helping us find ease in our bodies and minds, and create the right conditions both for healing and optimal performance.
In our Strala Trainings, you learn to shape your destiny on every level that counts, from your psychology, chemistry and neurology, to your chromosomes and even gene expression. The unique set of skills you develop – for connecting with yourself and others, unblocking your energy, healing what needs healing and accomplishing challenge with ease – uncovers your ability to create the life you want, and be an inspiring leader to the people around you.
About the Founders
Strala was created by Tara Stiles, drawing on her background in classical ballet and choreography, as well as her long-time personal practice in yoga. Tara trained with Paul Taylor Dance Company choreographer and dancer Eileen Cropley, and began her yoga study in the 1990s with her ballet teacher, Rory Foster of American Ballet Theater.
The science and movement of Strala is also guided by Strala co-founder Mike Taylor. Mike studied mind-body medicine at Harvard, and complementary medicine at Oxford. His record in hundreds of martial competitions established the strength of applying taiji foundations for movement, in a world dominated by rigid rules and techniques. Mike has practiced Eastern movement and healing, including tai chi and qi gong, for more than 30 years.
Our program is backed by mind-body medicine pioneer Dr. Deepak Chopra, and Chair of Neurology at Harvard and Director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Rudolph Tanzi.
Your Instructor
Tara Stiles is the founder of Strala. Strala is practiced in more than 100 countries, and thousands of people are leading Strala in studios, gyms, and schools worldwide. Even more Strala training graduates bring what they learn to their office, team, healing practice, and across all of life. The mission we share is to help people accomplish far more, through softening and connecting with our creativity and purpose.
Tara has authored several best-selling books including Slim Calm Sexy Yoga, Yoga Cures, Make Your Own Rules Diet, Strala Yoga, and Guiding Strala, all translated and published in several languages. She has been profiled by The New York Times, Times of India, The Times (UK), and featured in most major national and international magazines. Harvard profiled Tara‘s work in a case study, and she has spoken with students at Harvard and New York University about her experience, and approaches to creativity and leadership.
Tara supports The Alliance for a Healthier Generation and the American Heart Association initiative to combat childhood obesity, as well as BOKS, which together are bringing Strala classes to more than 30,000 schools around the United States and Canada.
Tara studied classical dance with ABT Principal Rory Foster, and choreography with Paul Taylor original member and world renowned master Eileen Cropley. She is married to Strala co-founder Mike Taylor.
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Mike Taylor is the resident healer and co-founder of Strala. Named “Best Mover” by MindBodyGreen, he’s practiced Eastern movement and healing techniques, including tai chi, qigong, and shiatsu, for more than three decades.
In his younger years, Mike challenged centuries of reasonable and well-tested martial traditions in hundreds of competitions, by applying unruly imagination to a world where rules were unbreakable. As he got older, he continued on to medical applications of the mind-body connection in university. Mike studied mind-body medicine at Harvard, and alternative medicine and psychology at Oxford. After running into walls with standard medical practice in the U.S. and England, Mike left his healthcare roots. He worked at a steel mill for a while, joined a web company, then founded biotech software company.
Now Mike has found his way back to health care done right, helping people let go of stress in their bodies and minds, and become their own best caregivers. Mike climbs a few mountains in his spare time, and is married to Strala co-founder Tara Stiles.