Yoga Gal offers outdoor classes at new PHR Rec Center

Carmel Valley resident Janice Sherman has brought her Yoga Gal classes to the new Pacific Highlands Ranch Recreation Center.

Sherman teaches an outdoor, personalized yoga and fitness class where everyone is welcome to go at their own pace and skill level. She now offers two 45-minute classes in Pacific Highlands Ranch, Sundays at 10:30 a.m. and Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m. Drop-in classes are $10.

The Yoga Gal has been teaching for eight years, starting at the Carmel Valley Recreation Center as well as offering outdoor classes at Torrey Highlands Park. She still teaches yoga four times a week in Carmel Valley.

“I picked the name Yoga Gal because it’s approachable,” Sherman said. “My classes are super casual.”

Sherman said many of her students come to her as beginners who have never taken a yoga class before—she remembers the feeling of being a newbie once herself.

“When I started I didn’t even like yoga,” said Sherman, who first started practicing when a friend was diagnosed with breast cancer and she trained to do the Susan G. Komen 3 Day Walk. The life-changing experience led her to take her health and fitness more seriously and she pursued a yoga certification. In 2012, she was certified in yoga sculpt, restorative, vinyasa and yin/hatha yoga and she started teaching in Carmel Valley in 2013.

Sherman believes her best talent as a teacher is making the yoga fit to the student, making it fun, inclusive and accessible to all ages and abilities.

“My focus is on the mental health aspect of yoga and making space for everyone,” said Sherman. “You don’t have to do it exactly right, just do what’s right for you and be yourself.”

She is grateful for the experiences she has had through teaching, to see transformations both emotionally and physically. She loves bringing all different kinds of people together for a class, realizing that people have more in common than that which divides them.

For more information, visit yogagal.net or contact Janice Sherman at (858) 735-6166.

The rec center is so new that it does not have a website up and running yet. Other fitness offerings in Pacific Highlands Ranch include:

• Leslie Siegel’s Stretch and Strength classes on Mondays at 9:15 a.m. Single classes are $6. To learn more, email lsiegel123@gmail.com

• Lena Gelland’s Pilates mat classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. Drop-ins are $15 a class. To learn more, visit studio56pilates.com.