MINT Yoga Instructor Kate Rivard combines 10 years of teaching experience, a passion for wellness, and a background in pain management to make her classes unique.

She’s practiced yoga since high school and has always loved fitness. She was a gymnast as a child and a psychology major in college. For her senior thesis, she studied how yoga can help in the treatment of disordered eating.

After college, she moved to a small town and started frequenting a local yoga studio. Eventually, the owner asked if she wanted to try teaching, and before long she began training.

She also worked at the Pain Management and Brain Injury Clinics at Womack Army Medical Center for several years and incorporates that experience with traditional Ashtanga yoga to create inclusive and interesting classes. She often teaches with a theme in which the whole class leads up to an arm balance or inversion, while offering plenty of modifications and alternatives along the way.

Her favorite yoga type to teach is Flow to Yin, which begins with vinyasa to warm up the body. The second half is all long-held deep poses (like pigeon for four minutes) to work deeper into the myofascial tissue. She’s also found this method to be very meditative especially during the pandemic.

Outside of MINT, she loves taking her road bike on the Anacostia River Trail to Kenilworth Gardens or enjoying a vegetarian meal at Shouk or Pow Pow. She is also a licensed massage therapist! 

You can check out her weekly wellness, mobility, massage, breathing, and recipe tips on her Instagram (@wellbeing_dc) or blog (www.katerivard.com/wellbeing).