Michele Trufant, a yoga instructor at Yoga Time Studio in Purcellville, VA, recently won the Senior Women's Division of the 2014-15 National Yoga Asana Championship in downtown Binghamton, NY, on May 1-3. To qualify, the competitor must have won a previous competition and been invited by the USA Yoga Organization to the event. USA Yoga is a non-profit organization formed for the purpose of developing and promoting yoga asana (yoga postures) as a sport. According to statistics quoted on its web site, more than 22 million people in the US today practice yoga.

Michele had previously won the regional competition for Washington, Virginia, and Maryland and made it through the qualifying rounds at the National Yoga Asana Championship on Thursday, April 30, and Friday, May 1. The top five competitors who made it through those qualifying rounds competed on Sunday, May 3. Michele says, " These postures needed to cover traction/splits, lifts, inversions, forward bends and backbends, and then 2 postures of our choosing. The entire experience was totally fun. Imagine spending a weekend with fellow competitors who only want you to do your best! It was one of the most relaxed and exciting experiences of my life, and I competed on horses for 20 years! I know excitement."

Competitors at the National Asana Championship were required to demonstrate before judges 7 postures in 3 minutes, with 4 compulsory postures and 3 optional. Strength, balance, and flexibility were judged. Out of the top five competitors in the Senior Women's Division (women 50 years and older), Michele won with a score of 44.70.

Mindy Beach, owner of Yoga Time Studio in Purcellville, commented, "Yoga Time Studio is very proud of Michele and her incredible accomplishment! We always knew she had it in her. Michele has been an instructor at YTS for over two years. She brings a wonderful balance of humility and creative energy to each one of her amazing classes."

Michele Trufant has been practicing yoga for over seven years. She took her first yoga classes in Austria and Hungary while on vacation. She had been training horses for twenty years previously. According to Trufant, "Practicing yoga is an evolutionary process and never boring. It changes and grows all of the time."

Michele now qualifies for the international competition.

To learn more about Yoga Time Studio in Purcellville, and the classes Michele Trufant and other yoga instructors offer, please visit yogatimestudio.com.