Restorative Yoga
Non-heated, Semi-Private Class
Wednesdays 1:00 - 1:50p
Rowena Mittal Yoga, 1605 Church St, San Francisco, CA (map)
The only day-time restorative yoga class in the San Francisco/Bay Area
A floor-based, semi-private class blending pranayama (breathwork), somatic movement, myofascial release, and yoga asana (postures) with props for deep recovery. Each approach offers a distinct physiological mechanism to explore the mind-body system and develop interoception.
Class includes multiple asana approaches: postures requiring gentle effort (sometimes repackaged as “yin yoga”) and fully prop-supported postures requiring no effort (restorative yoga). Both paths slow the pace, lengthen breath, and create space for stillness, allowing profound recovery and a return to the body's natural rhythms including ashunya — a non-sleep state of rest or deep meditation where thoughts, feelings, and body fall away.
For each class attended, students gain points toward an optional, free 1:1 mentorship session to support their path to parenthood with yoga and sister science ayurveda.
HSA & FSA Payments Accepted
Use your pre-tax Health Savings Account or Flexible Spending Account funds toward your yoga sessions. Your wellness practice may be more affordable than you think.
Class Description
A floor-based, semi-private class blending pranayama, somatic movement, myofascial release, and yoga asana with props for deep recovery. Each approach offers a distinct physiological mechanism to explore the mind-body system and develop interoception.
Class includes two paths of asana: postures requiring gentle effort (sometimes repackcaged as “yin yoga”) and fully prop-supported postures requiring no effort (restorative yoga). Both paths slow the pace, lengthen breath, and create space for stillness, allowing profound recovery and a return to the body's natural rhythms including ashunya — a non-sleep state of rest or deep meditation where thoughts, feelings, and body fall away.
Class Benefits
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Parasympathetic nervous system activation supporting digestion, immunity, sleep, and hormone regulation
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Musculoskeletal recovery and deep mobility for athletes or stiff desk workers
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Profound rest and restoration for the stressed and exhausted
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Individual guidance on props stup and modifications
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Myofascial release (Roll Model Method) to ease tention, improve range of motion, develop proprioception, and support nervous system regulation
Class draws on the full arc of yogic tools: community (sangha), yamas (restraints), niyamas (observances), asana (posture), pranayama (breath, life force), pratyahara (sense withdrawal), dharana (concentration), and dhyana (meditation).
Preparation
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Wear comfortable clothes, layers if you run cold
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Bring a yoga mat (if you forget, we have some to borrow), water bottle
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Ground floor studio, bathroom, indoor lounge, outdoor deck/patio
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Register ahead, class package available, drop-ins welcome
Who Should Attend?
All levels of experience and stages of life. This class is beneficial for students seeking to,
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Decrease the accumulation of stress or experience quiet retreat from daily intensity
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Support long-term hormonal health, chronic pain or fatigue management
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Add a recovery component to an active routine (weight lifting, running, cycling, or other athletic practice)
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Support menstruation, perimenopause, prenatal, postpartum, or fertility journeys
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Practice in community with individual attention
Actively pursuing fertility treatments (IVF, IUI, egg retrieval, embryo transfer)? Book Yoga for Fertility Care classes or privates instead. Cannot sit on the floor? Book chair yoga.
More questions?
Text or call 628-400-6592. Alternatively, you may book a 10-min complimentary consultation here.
Class Location
Rowena Mittal Yoga is located at 1605 Church Street, San Francisco, CA 94131 (map). Mobu has served the Noe Valley, Dolores, Mission, Glen Park, Bernal Heights, Miraloma communities and more for 25 years and counting. Located in a historical district at a J Muni train stop that connects to downtown SF, a short walk from the 24, 49, 14 Muni lines, and between the 24th Street and Glen Park Bart stations, it is easy to join a class. Free and metered street parking available.
Located near Martha's Coffee, Mitchell's Ice Cream, Church Produce, Omnivore Books, and many spas, holistic care centers, and restaurants including Chloe's Cafe, Noe Cafe, Damansara Co, Front Porch, and La Ciccia -- practicing yoga can be integrated into routine self-care, work, errands, and dates with friends, family, or partners.
Class Schedule
Practicing in community on Wednesdays 1pm offers the following benefits compared to yoga classes offered in the morning or evening:
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No rush hour traffic
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No conflicts with timed morning or evening routines
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A break from work or sedentary lifestyle with a walk outdoors: access to fresh air, rest for the eyes, increased circulation to periphery, balanced stress hormones
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Exposure to year-round daylight before and after class and natural Vitamin D
Policies
All drop-ins may be rescheduled or canceled online no later than 24 hours in advance to maintain a balance. Memberships do not rollover unused sessions. Students can cancel and restart their membership anytime through their online account. Memberships can also be suspended for vacation. In all other cases, such as late cancel or no show, sessions are paid in full, non-transferrable, non-exchangeable, and non-refundable.
Keywords: Chronic pain management, yin yoga, restorative yoga, myofascial release therapy, Tune Up Fitness, Roll Model Method, anatomy trains, fascia, rest and digest, qi energy, jing energy, meditation, prana, Women’s health, Men's Health, Menstruation, Heavy menstrual bleeding, Cycle syncing, Menorrhagia, Menstrual pain, Dysmenorrhea, Bloating, Water retention, Circulation, Stress management, Cortisol, holistic healthcare, spiritual practice
About the Instructor
Rowena Mittal, MS, PhD, CYT
Dr. Rowena Mittal blends her passion for healthcare and her Indian & Chinese heritage with her deep understanding of human physiology and her experience building 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.
After Yoga Tree closed its San Francisco studios, midday practice that meets us where we are energetically and hormonally from both a western and eastern perspective disappeared entirely. There was no where to go for midday calming practices. Rowena heard this loss of midday practice echoed by yoga teachers, therapists, caretakers, and stress managers — a deep desire to rest in the middle of the day to restore and renew.
In Ayurvedic terms (Ayurveda is the sister science of yoga), most commercial studios offer only rajasic (heating, effortful) practices during daytime hours such as vinyasa, scheduling their yin or restorative classes late in the evening when the circadian rhythm is already moving toward sleep and commuting disrupts wind-down routines. Midday falls into the pitta window: the body's natural peak for digestion and integration, not more combustion. What serves this window is cooling, grounding, sattvic practice: hatha, floor-based Iyengar, yin, restorative. And, a restorative yoga practice in the middle of the day or week can change everything that comes afterwards.
And thus, mid-week midday Restorative Yoga was born. Where commercial studios often center practices shaped by obsession with external performance, this class turns attention inward: cultivating awareness of internal needs, honoring the body's natural rhythms, and drawing on the full 8-limbed yoga tradition. Class fosters whole-self wellness, supporting the quiet, unglamorous work of managing a stressed nervous system and physical body in daily life.
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, and systemic inflammation.
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 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, Iyengar, hatha, yin, restorative, accessible, chair/seated, and prenatal/postnatal yoga asana; injury prevention, pranayama, meditation, ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine, pelvic physical therapy, yoga tune up therapy ball myofascial release, non-violent communication, and the art of physical assisting. Learn more about 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 education 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.
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.
