"If you can breathe, you can do yoga."
- T. Krishnamacharya"
ALEXA
Alexa Kho-Hinkson has been developing her personal practice in the Art of Yoga for nineteen years, and teaching for fifteen. Always inspired by her Grandmother's Yoga practice, she first stepped onto the mat while studying for her degree at Brunel University, and soon realised when starting full-time work in London that a regular practice was the best thing for her. Having suffered from bouts of anxiety and depression, Yoga gave her the sense of peace that she had always been searching for and she wanted to share this with as many people as she could. Leaving a stressful hedge fund working environment, she decided she wanted to learn to teach Yoga.
So she ventured to Vrindavan, India for her first teacher-training course in February 2008 where Alexa was named “Ambika” by her teachers, during the 200 Hour Sivananda Yoga Teacher Training course that she successfully completed. Ambika means "the sweet mother of the universe", and with this name she was further inspired to create ‘Ambika Yoga’.
Alexa has been teaching Yoga Retreats across the globe for many years and is highly experienced in offering tailor-made programmes and services to suit and adhere to your needs whether it be a week-long Retreat, or shorter weekend Retreats. Her retreat events can therefore be found at beautiful locations in intimate settings with a sure feel of luxury, delicious cuisine and world-class massage therapists and guests.
Alexa has also created beautiful Private Yoga programmes for those who are in need of expert 1-1 tuition for chronic, minor and everyday health issues. She has a team of excellent, fully qualified and insured yoga teachers who teach classes across London, and she mentors each teacher individually to ensure that all classes are delivered to the highest possible standard.
Alexa is fully accredited with Yoga Alliance Professionals as a Senior Yoga Teacher and Yoga Teacher Trainer training teachers from across the UK to learn and understand the application of teaching Therapeutic Yoga. Alexa's training imparts highly in depth, intelligent and experienced knowledge into how health conditions, injuries and mental disorders can be managed through teaching Yoga Therapy to students from all walks of life, and ultimately positively changing the outlook of their lives.
Alexa is a registered Senior Yoga Teacher and RYT500 Teacher with Yoga Alliance Professionals which continues to be at the forefront of Yoga Professionals by independently regulating Yoga within the UK. She has been given awards during her time of teaching for improving NHS Corporate workplaces having taught regularly at the NHS Confederation offices and the NHS Confederation Annual Conference & Exhibition in June 2009 at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, as well as the NHS Employers Annual Conference & Exhibition in 2010 at the ICC in Birmingham. Alexa remains an NHS Approved Practitioner and continues to teach Corporate Yoga classes for NHS Providers since September 2012, in Westminster, Central London and continues virtually during the current Coronavirus pandemic.
Alexa has also gained recognition as ‘Yoga Teacher of the Month’, for OM Yoga & Lifestyle magazine and she is also pleased to announce that she is an Ambassador for Luxury Yoga brand M Life UK. In 2016 she had been invited to join the team of practitioners at Health & Wellness Company iamYiam, and is a leading senior teacher in Therapeutic Yoga. Alexa has also written informative articles on the benefits of yoga for Natural Health Magazine.
Alexa has taught a number of Charity Yoga events and classes over the years to raise crucial funds for those who have suffered loss of lives, families, homes and belongings. These include the DEC Earthquake Appeal for Nepal in 2016, Grenfell Tower Fire Fundraising in London, 2017 and a Special Charity Yoga Class for the Australia Bushfires in January 2020, where all classes took place at Yogabase in Islington, London, UK. Alexa also recently in June 2021 on International Yoga Day, led a virtually Charity Yoga Class for India to support those who have suffered throughout the Coronavirus crisis, where she jointly worked with Yoga Alliance Professionals to offer a wonderful chakra based class via Kuula TV. All funds were donated to ActionAid India and for their work on the ground there in India. Alexa also offered a very special online charity yoga class in for Ukraine British Red Cross in March 2022 and raised a large amount of funds for those in need of shelter, clothing, food and water.
After having had her first child, Alexa has also offered further Specialised Therapeutic Yoga Teacher Training Workshops and Courses and traveled in the UK in 2019 to offer these trainings to reach more teachers. You can find more information about this specialist training on the Yoga Therapy Courses page, and further upcoming CPD trainings taking place in the UK and London in Autumn 2022.
Alexa is based in North London, and teaches in different areas in London including Mayfair, Marble Arch, Chelsea, Kensington, the City and Westminster, Islington, Canary Wharf, Hampstead, Finchley, Camden, Kentish Town, Tufnell Park, Archway, Highgate and Barnet. Alexa has also taught in many exotic locations abroad including Ibiza, Sri Lanka, India, Morocco, Singapore, St Lucia, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and France.
Alexa loves to deliver high level, informative yoga sessions at popular events in London including leading online sessions at the London Wellbeing Festival in 2021, and in Spring 2022 at Olympia Exhibition Centre in Kensington, London. Alexa is also excited to announce that she is going to delve back into her studies so that she can develop further high level courses to teachers and trainees worldwide, by embarking on a Masters Degree programme in the Traditions of Yoga and Meditation at the prestigious SOAS University of London based in Central London, from September 2022 for the next two years on a part-time basis. She will continue to teach her classes and clients at the same time as deepening her knowledge and training in the history, philosophy and yoga as a therapeutic tool in the modern world.
As an established Yoga Trainer, Ambika Yoga offers and in-depth and intelligently designed 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training Course with a great team of Senior Yoga Instructors including dear friend Katie Sheikh, Founder of Yoga Team a very successful Private Yoga business based in London, UK. Jaina Mistry-Patel is also joining the team for our Spring 2024 course offering expert teaching on alignment and meditation within the practice of yoga.. Alexa is excited to have the opportunity to share her amazing knowledge and expertise, as an internationally renowned Yoga Instructor and Yoga Therapist, and the next course is scheduled for 2024.
SENIOR YOGA INSTRUCTORS
Yoga Team founder and teacher Katie specialises in creating private yoga programmes. Having built an on-demand booking platform and a team of Top Tier Teachers, she now oversees the delivery of 100s of bespoke classes. Her clients include large corporations, well known brands, HNW individuals, celebrities and royalty.
By offering a boutique agency approach, which incorporates consultation with clients on each and every programme to advise on specific teacher placements, Katie and her team ensure that clients can enjoy private classes that offer the benefits of both convenience and targeted expertise.
A huge advocator of personalised sequencing, which is both responsive and developmentally focused, Katie’s expertise centres on crafting capsule practices.
A hidden yogi in part and more often in heels than Yoga gear, she's all about time efficient practices, utilising the space of the practice to optimise for everything else we do in life.
Jaina is a senior yoga, meditation and pregnancy yoga teacher who started practicing yoga to manage her health in her early teens. Yoga soon became more than a physical practice when she discovered the power of meditation.
With her developing awareness of the body, mind and soul she trained to become a yoga teacher realising that she wanted to share her love and passion for yoga with others who can benefit from this age old tradition.
Yoga has given Jaina the tools to live life with a sense of understanding and awareness of herself, her heritage and how she would like the future to be going forward.
As a mum of two yoga provides her with the foundation to navigate the journey of motherhood. This in turn allows Jaina to offer her daughters the ground they need to explore and understand who they are and why their existence (and why we all exist) is so pivotal to the world as a whole.
Jaina offers classes, workshops and events and she also blogs regularly about her inner experiences and her journey of practicing yoga as a way of life.
RYAN KAI CALDERON
Ryan Kai is the Founder of Alpha Om and Senior Yoga Teacher. He was born and raised in London, United Kingdom and began his training at the age of seven in the Martial Arts, studying various art forms throughout the years.
He is a thirty-fourth Generation Shaolin Disciple under Shifu Shi Yanzi and Yan Lei of the Shaolin Temple China. In his early twenties he became intrigued by the similarities, historical connections and healing elements of the Yoga & Martial arts, and ventured to deepen his studies.
In pursuit of further knowledge, his journey presented a number of great opportunities to train with many world leader’s, represent various established organisations, and thus obtaining distinguished recognition from the media. In 2006 (until 2017) he became the UK Director and European supervisor for Budokon University.
During this period he gained the position of Master Trainer or Instructor level at Nike Worldwide, as well as Martial Arts school Shaolin Temple UK and Tai Chi UK. He further became a lead instructor for high-end Health Clubs across London including Third Space, Gymbox, Reebok, Equinox and Ultimate Fighting Champions. He also offered a number of specialist programmes within his own community to Haringey Council in London, supporting Youth Offenders and various other organisations in this field. While teaching at a number of clubs and studios abroad in the art of Yoga, Martial Arts and Health and Well-being, he has taught on a number of Yoga Teacher Training Courses for ‘Teach Yoga’, based in London, UK.
His extensive teaching experience and popularity has gained him print and TV media recognition such as the Evening standard, Daily mail, Metro Newspaper, Health and Fitness, Channel 5, OmYoga, How to spend it, Canary Wharf and a number of other health and lifestyle platforms. With a truly unique passion and presence within his work, Ryan offers classes that are rooting and playful, yet athletic and challenging, with sweat and smiles in abundance.
Over the years Ryan’s therapeutic application of yoga and the arts has resulted in his collaboration with an established UK surgeon to provide pre or post-operation training to clients in order to prevent surgery, or help aid in recovery. Here, he continually adds to the offering and syllabus for clients, and students.
With over 25 years of experience in the arts and 14 years teaching, he has grown to become an international teacher with a broad range of clientele. Now an established Yoga Trainer, Alpha Om has offered his expertise on the Ambika Yoga 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training Course with dear friend and colleague Alexa Kho-Hinkson. Ryan is excited to have the opportunity to share his amazing knowledge and expertise, as an internationally renowned Yoga and Martial Arts Instructor with aspiring Yoga Teachers.