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Liformers are a bunch of dedicated, joyful go-getters who inspire us daily
with their creativity, honesty, and love of yoga. Our "Meet the Liformer"
series gives you the chance to get to know them a little better, find out how they practice, and catch their enthusiasm.
Irene Pappas, who you may know as Fit Queen Irene, is known for her powerful hand-balancing practice. A lover of movement, she has studied many styles of yoga, as well as circus arts and contortionism, and is also a certified personal trainer and holistic health coach. She currently teaches online, hosts retreats, and helps run The Assassin Academy, which brings together fantasy books, fitness, and community.
Featured Yoga Mat: Magic Galaxy in Gold & Silver
Where are you from/where do you live?
I am originally from Maryland, but I now live in Manistee, Michigan.
How did yoga come into your life? When did you realize you were hooked?
Even though my mom is a yoga teacher, I didn’t find my own path to yoga until I was 22. I was at a point in my life where I was working out constantly, convinced if I could work out enough to get the “perfect” body I would finally be happy.
One day I walked into the gym, and I saw a man doing Crow Pose to Handstand, and I was enamored by it. He asked if I wanted to take the yoga class he was about to teach, and that is where my yoga path started.
The same teacher also taught at a yoga studio, so I figured I would try that out next. I was in for a bit of a shock, as the gym classes were freezing cold and an hour long, while the classes at the studio were 90+ degrees and sometimes 2 hours long. After the first class at the studio, it took me a month to recover and make my way back. But after that initial shock wore off, I was hooked.
I started practicing almost every day, sometimes twice a day. I was young and had a lot of both mental and physical energy thrumming within me, so these practices were a great way to get out of my head and into my body in a way that felt more soothing and intentional than working out in the gym.
My practice has evolved so much over the years. For the first decade of my practice, I spent a lot of time working on challenging poses, driven by the need to do MORE. This also led me to shift my teaching from yoga asana classes into strength and flexibility/ contortion classes, as I realized a lot of my students had physical goals similar to my own.
Of course, yoga can be extremely physically demanding, and any reason is a good reason to practice, but I found that it was helpful to separate the physical goals from the yoga practice and allow yoga to be more about a place to both connect and free the body and the mind.
These days I teach a mix of strength and flexibility classes as well as yoga, and while I still have love for challenging yoga classes, the majority of the classes I now teach are slow and relaxing to complement my other practices and teaching.
Why do you practice? Why do you teach?
The reason why I continue to practice and teach are one in the same. Yoga was one of the first places I truly felt at peace with my body and home in my mind. I became softer, focused, and grounded in a way I had never felt before.
Though I don’t teach many traditional yoga classes these days, I try to carry these elements and lessons into every class I teach, hoping that my students can also use their bodies as a tool to find more ease in their day to day lives.
What’s your favourite yoga pose?
My favorite pose without a doubt is Handstand because it is the original pose that made me fall in love with yoga. It is a pose that challenged me in so many ways and taught me how important single pointed focus is, because if you lose your focus you will fall.
It took me years of practice to be able to balance on my hands, which made me love it more. The hard work it took taught me how to believe in myself and never give up. My second favorite pose is Savasana, though it took me years to appreciate that one!
What are you reading?
I LOVE to read and have been making a conscious effort to spend less time on social media and more time reading these days. I just finished Daggermouth by HM Wolfe, and generally love romantic fantasy as a way to dive into a different world. Plus, the badass female main characters help inspire the way I train.
What’s your favourite Liforme Mat?
I am so lucky and grateful to have a collection of Liforme mats and love all the fun colors and designs. My current favorite is the Magic Galaxy mat. The design is subtle and beautiful plus it reminds me of my favorite fantasy books.
Aside from yoga, what do you love to do?
I have a rotating list of hobbies that vary from season to season because being outside makes me happy. In the winter, my partner and I cross-country ski, and in the warmer weather I trail run while he mountain bikes. I love spending time with my cats, staying cozy with a book or drawing, and I have recently been enjoying expanding my cooking repertoire.
