Rachel Ishiguro Yoga

Rachel Ishiguro Yoga Rachel (she/her) is a certified yoga therapist (C-IAYT) in San Diego. She teaches people with chroni

I'm a C-IAYT certified yoga therapist who supports people with chronic pain and other health conditions to reduce symptoms and thrive. My work focuses on improving movement patterns, building mindful awareness and a loving (re)connection to the body, and nurturing rest. I support my clients to:
- Reduce chronic pain and tension
- Become more responsive and resilient under stress
- Recover from or

adapt to illness or injury
- Get more restful sleep
- Return to activities that are important to them
- Improve their strength, stability, and ease of movement
- Improve their energy and wellbeing

For more information, visit rachelishiguroyoga.com or book your free online consultation at rachelishiguroyoga.as.me/FREEconsultation.

August has a way of feeling both full and fleeting. Before the season slips by, take an hour each week to slow down and ...
08/05/2026

August has a way of feeling both full and fleeting. Before the season slips by, take an hour each week to slow down and reconnect with yourself.

Join me on Wednesdays for a gentle, supportive practice that includes mindful movement, breathwork, meditation, and restorative poses to help you feel more grounded and refreshed.

🗓 Wednesdays in August
⏰ 10:00–11:00am PT on Zoom
✨ Recordings included

No experience is needed. Come as you are, move at your own pace, and leave feeling restored.

👉 Registration link in bio.

If you've heard anything about Ayurveda, the "science of life" and yoga's companion health science, you've probably hear...
08/04/2026

If you've heard anything about Ayurveda, the "science of life" and yoga's companion health science, you've probably heard about the doshas.

Doshas are often presented almost like a personality quiz in Western yoga culture, but they're more nuanced than that. If you've been following me for a while, you may remember that we talked about gunas or qualities a few months ago. One way to think about doshas is that they represent clusters of these qualities that can go out of balance together.

As a tool for managing health, doshas give us one of many possible maps to understand how & why we can get "unbalanced" and develop disease symptoms. Importantly, they can also help us create balance to improve health and wellbeing!

The 3 doshas are Vata, Pitta, and Kapha.

✨ Doshas are made up of basic elements: Vata is air & ether; Pitta is water & fire; Kapha is water & earth.

✨ In terms of gunas, or qualities:
Vata is cold, light, dry, rough, subtle, mobile, and clear.
Pitta is hot, sharp, oily, light, liquid, spreading, and flesh-smelling.
Kapha is heavy, slow, cold, oily, smooth, soft, stable, obvious, and cloudy.

✨ Doshas can convey both strengths and weaknesses. They are neither good nor bad, they just describe tendencies. When out of balance, they can create unpleasant symptoms and eventually disease.

✨ Doshas are part of our innate nature (prakriti). Each of us is born with a unique blend of all 3 doshas.

✨ Doshas also are affected by changing factors throughout our lives (vikriti), which means that your unique mix of doshas is going to be constantly in flux. This can be influenced by factors such as time (of day, year, life), weather, food, sleep, activities, and other life circumstances.

Including an understanding of Ayurveda in our therapeutic yoga practice can help us understand how to move towards balance. I'll be sharing more information about doshas from a yoga therapy perspective all month.

07/31/2026

Struggling to sit comfortably for meditation? You're not alone! 🧘‍♀️

Yoga isn't just about fancy poses - it's about preparing your body and mind for stillness. In this practice, we'll move through gentle stretches and hip openers to help you find comfort in seated meditation.

The Sanskrit word "asana" literally means "seat" - because postural yoga was always meant to support your meditation practice.

Click the link in bio to watch the full floor-based practice and discover poses that work for YOUR unique needs.

Knee pain can be a major impediment to getting your movement in.For my clients who come to me with persistent pain, they...
07/29/2026

Knee pain can be a major impediment to getting your movement in.

For my clients who come to me with persistent pain, they're often in a place where they can't seem to get started on a movement practice without causing a flare-up.

For many of them, this leads to a habit of constantly pushing through pain. That leads to the pain getting worse... and all of it can develop into a sense of desperation or hopelessness.

Knees are excellent teachers of "how much is too much".

There's no single answer to that question, but one thing is for sure. Your body will let you know.

It's humbling. But if you're willing to show up with what is and trust what your body is telling you, things can get better.

For some people this means a lot of rest, and then building things up very gradually. For others, it's more about changing what movements you're doing. It might be about finding ranges of motion or proper support so that you're not increasing pain, and then working on other parts of the body (feet and hips?) that impact your knees.

It's about learning what the quality of sensation means, and paying attention to what makes things worse (and for how long).

This is the nuance that underlies that trite phrase "listen to your body".

It's not something you're supposed to innately know how to do, but it's something you can learn.

Need help figuring it out? I love guiding people through the process of learning "how much is just enough".

Three ways to get started:
🩵 Comment on this post
🩵 Send me a DM
🩵 Use the link in my bio to book a free consultation call

Let's talk about what this journey can look like.

07/27/2026

Knee pain in standing poses?

Using a chair to support some of your body weight can sometimes help these poses feel more comfortable. The intention here is to manage the load on the knees while still doing a lot of the actions of the pose.

In these variations, I'm getting a lot of the range of motion of the standing version while still supporting my weight on the chair. To your tolerance, you can still press your feet down and work in the pose if you like.

There are lots of additional ways to adapt these poses, so if these variations don't work for you, feel free to play—or seek support from a knowledgeable teacher or yoga therapist who can help you find a variation that works better.

Questions? Please ask them in the comments.

These variations can feel great even if you don't have knee pain and enjoy the standing versions. I invite you to give them a try and let me know which one was your favorite.

If you go to a yoga class, you might hear that our knees are vulnerable and need protecting. The truth is more nuanced. ...
07/22/2026

If you go to a yoga class, you might hear that our knees are vulnerable and need protecting. The truth is more nuanced. Your knees are actually awesome and may not need as much protection as we think.

Pay attention to how your knees feel during practice and adjust if uncomfortable. Important: this is educational, not medical advice. If a doctor or therapist gave you different recommendations, follow their guidance.

Common knee cues explained:
🦵🏽 Stack your knees above your ankles.
Not necessary if the pose feels good. Knees go forward of ankles regularly (like stairs). Varied strength building is helpful.

🦵🏽 Microbend to prevent hyperextension.
Hyperextension isn't bad. It's normal human variation. If uncomfortable, try other strategies. You don't need to do it for knee protection.

🦵🏽 Don't rest your foot on your knee in Tree Pose.
If it feels unsafe, skip it. Otherwise, your knee handles this pressure well and it's often the best placement.

🦵🏽 Keep your knee tracking toward your middle toes.

A useful cue for pain reduction and hip awareness, not necessarily for safety. You're unlikely to damage your knee if you don't.
Do any of these myths surprise you?

So much of the work of yoga therapy is in cultivating mindful presence.You may have noticed, it's hard for humans to be ...
07/20/2026

So much of the work of yoga therapy is in cultivating mindful presence.

You may have noticed, it's hard for humans to be present. We have these minds, which have the job of thinking, all the time, about everything. And we're wired for things like habituation, which makes us stop noticing things that we're around regularly so that we can save our energy for the stimuli that really require our attention.

Being reminded to be more present reveals all kinds of things that we've missed in the present moment, some of which can be quite wonderful. Also, some of the information that's below your current level of awareness can also be really useful if you're working to change your habitual patterns or want to change your symptoms.

I love this William Stafford poem, which always reminds me to pause and look around with fresh eyes. You can read the full poem below.

Then, pause and look around. What do you want to remember? Please share what you notice in the comments!

➖

You Reading This, Be Ready
by William Stafford

Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?

When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life –

What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?

07/17/2026

Your hips and knees will thank you for this one. Props make a huge difference in Chair Pose. They help you build stability and control from the ground up. The important thing to remember here, is that this isn't just about holding the pose, but rather it's about learning to move with more ease in your every day life.

Watch the full practice on my YouTube channel. Link in bio.

In January 2024, I was running, got distracted by a dog on an unrestricted flexi-lead, tripped on an uneven sidewalk, an...
07/15/2026

In January 2024, I was running, got distracted by a dog on an unrestricted flexi-lead, tripped on an uneven sidewalk, and went over the curb.

I thought I pulled a calf muscle but within hours my right knee was huge and could barely bend.

There was good news & bad news. On the negative side, it took me quite a while to fully rehab that knee.

The good news was that after the swelling went down, running didn't bother it at all. So though it took time to get my squat back, I was able to return to running within a couple of weeks and completed a half marathon that April.

First PLEASE do not take this anecdote as medical advice. Every case is different; you should definitely get evaluated & treated for your specific situation if you have an injury.

However, I wanted to tell this story for a reason.I worked hard not to fear my knee injury. I rested, but I also paid attention to what I was feeling, and I stayed curious about what I could do. I was cautious re-introducing activities, but I didn't baby my knee when it was feeling good. This helped me get back to sport relatively quickly.

Whether you have an acute injury or a chronic condition, it's important to listen to your body and not overdo activity, especially if you notice it worsens your symptoms.

But being fearful of movement can also get in the way of your healing. This is why extensive, long-term rest is no longer recommended for most injuries.

As a yoga therapist, I don't treat medical conditions, but I do help people notice what emotional reactions are present when they move their bodies. I also help people tune into and respond to physical sensation as they move. This is really helpful as you learn to navigate the space between lying on the couch and sending yourself into a pain flare.

If you're hurting AND you're curious about what's possible, yoga therapy could be a really good fit for you. To learn more, comment "curious" or send me a DM.

Pain is always a messenger.If you have pain, your body is trying to get your attention to tell you something. At its cor...
07/13/2026

Pain is always a messenger.

If you have pain, your body is trying to get your attention to tell you something. At its core, pain is about protection; it's your body doing its best to keep you safe.

At times, it's overreacting, but who doesn't?

Here are some of the things knee pain could be trying to tell you. (This isn't an exhaustive list.)

🦵🏼 You have damaged tissue in your knee. This could be an acute injury or it could be something more chronic like osteoarthritis, but it isn't the only cause of knee pain.

🦵🏼 You have fluid or inflammation in your knee.

🦵🏼 You're using your knee more than it's prepared for, or you increased the work your knee is doing too fast.

🦵🏼 Your foot/ ankle/ hip aren't moving well. This might also mean there's muscle weakness or other issues that affect how your leg moves.

What to do?

If your pain is severe and ongoing, or if there is an acute injury, get a diagnosis. Find out what your knee can and can't do, and start treatment.

If your discomfort is minor and occasional, you may be getting that message in time! Some things you can try:

✔️ Moving in a variety of ways is helpful in most cases, but be careful to introduce new things slowly, listen to your body, and don't overdo.

✔️ Strengthening your hips, legs, and feet.

✔️ Walking forwards, and backwards. Backwards walking uses muscles differently and can be really helpful for knees!

✔️ Improving movement patterns, including coordination and control, in your hips and feet especially.

✔️ Be curious, not fearful, if you can. Fear tends to reduce our movement, increase our stress, and is associated with worse outcomes.

The "early warning" type knee pain may sometimes arise and go away very quickly. Sometimes it doesn't mean much at all, but it's always helpful to be curious about our body's whispers. It's much easier to shift things when you're not dealing with an actual injury yet. (I've learned this one the hard way.)

Address

3517 Del Rey Street, Suite 108
San Diego, CA
92109

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 3pm
5:30pm - 7pm
Tuesday 9am - 3pm
Wednesday 9am - 3pm
5:30pm - 7pm
Sunday 9am - 3pm

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