About Rowena Mittal, MS, PhD

Dr. Rowena Mittal blends her passion for healthcare, dance, weight lifting, and music with her Indian & Chinese heritage, deep understanding of human physiology, and her experience building biomedical devices and biotechnology to share the wisdom of yoga in tangible language. To Rowena, yoga is a life practice that changes our lives and the lives that we serve off the mat for the better.

 

Rowena has been teaching yoga since 2014 across San Francisco through public classes, workshops, private lessons, corporate wellness programs, yoga teacher trainings, and yoga teacher mentorships. While her first exposure to yoga was in the 1990s, Rowena’s regular yoga practice began in 2008 at the suggestion of her physicians and physical therapist amid a struggle with chronic back pain, pelvic floor dysfunction, systemic inflammation, and shallow breath.

 

Rowena truly discovered yoga thanks to the welcoming teachers at Yoga Flow, Pittsburgh, PA who spoke her language. A practice that she formerly associated with painful and egotistical poses became pain-free and philosophy-based. Within a few weeks, Rowena noticed nodes between her physical therapy sessions and yoga classes from the term "fascia," to diaphragmatic breathing exercises, to modifications of physical postures for each body's unique range of motion. Both her yoga teachers and physical therapist noted that not all yoga poses or practices are for all bodies. After months of practice, Rowena noticed my mind shift towards equanimity. She started processing challenges on and off the mat with ease, calm, breath and grace.

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In 2014, Rowena enrolled in yoga teacher training with long-time teacher Rusty Wells at Urban Flow in San Francisco, CA to demystify the practice while honoring its eastern roots. At this training, she finally learned that yoga is not solely a physical practice, but rather an 8-limbed practice that includes philosophy. She got to study with Jason Crandell, Wah!, Amanda Moran, and more. Rowena completed continuing education with Rusty Wells, Stephanie Snyder, Nichol Chase, Susannah Freedman, and Charisse Balance, DPT, as well as mentorship with Stephanie Snyder and Neil Wadhawan. In 2023, Rowena completed prenatal and postnatal yoga teacher training with renowned yoga teacher and former midwife, doula, and childbirth educator Jane Austin.

 

Rowena’s 20 years of training, continuing education, and experience includes bhakti flow, vinyasa, ashtanga, rocket, Iyengar, hatha, yin, restorative, power, alignment, accessible, chair/seated, yoga for seniors, preconception, fertility, IVF, prenatal, postnatal, postpartum, perimenopause, menopause; injury prevention, injury management, pranayama, meditation, ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine, physical therapy, yoga tune up therapy ball myofascial release, non-violent communication, and the art of physical assisting. Learn more about some of Rowena's yoga teachers and mentors here. Today, she applies her decades of experience to mentor and coach teachers, corporate leaders, and life-long students of yoga.

 

In addition to over RYT-500 hours of Yoga Alliance certified yoga teacher training, Rowena obtained her BS in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a minor in Biological/Biomedical Engineering and two humanities concentrations in Women & Gender Studies and French Language & Studies. She has her MS and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Rowena supplements her yoga training with certification in International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT)-accredited anatomy and myofascial release therapy with Tune Up Fitness and training in somatic and mindfulness-based practice for recovery stage of trauma, chronic pain, and stress reduction with the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health.

 

At MIT, Rowena was a dancer and exec member of the performance group, MIT Dance Troupe. At CMU, she was part of a performance dance group, Dancer's Symposium, where she had the pleasure of dancing with and for professional dancer and choreographer Raymond Ejiofor. In addition to DS, she was a dancer, exec member, and choreographer of a competitive South Asian dance troupe, Tanah, fusing Bharatanatyam and other Indian dance genres with western dance styles.

 

With over 20 years experience developing products in biotechnology, diagnostics, and medical devices and over 10 years teaching yoga, Rowena's career goals on and off the mat are to address unmet healthcare needs inside and outside the clinic -- closing gaps in health diagnostics, accessibility, lifestyle management, injury management, women's health, menstruation, reproductive health, preconception fertility care, endometriosis, prenatal/postnatal care, perimenopause, menopause, mental health and stress management needs. An author of multiple scientific, peer-reviewed publications and speaker at scientific conferences, you can learn more about Rowena's academic honors and corporate career in healthcare at Linkedin.

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Rowena's teachings seamlessly blend physical, meditative, and spiritual practices, delivered in English and Sanskrit (the language of yoga), with a focus on pranayama (breath practice), alignment, meditation, bhakti (devotion), optional hands-on assists, sutra (philosophy) and a step-wise approach to developing mind-body equanimity or building new asanas (postures). Students share that through her class structure, music, and voice, they leave her classes feeling stronger and energized, restored and at ease – empowered with knowledge that extends far beyond the four walls of the studio.