Welcome, I'm Jill Lynch...
My approach to yoga is centered around functional mobility and exploring different muscle activations within poses. I do not so much ascribe to achieving a shape for the sake of a shape - I am more concerned with whether you are activating the muscles that would eventually bring you into the shape, whether or not your body was meant to express the traditional form itself. I want you to own the shapes you put your body in with strength, and breath, and grace. I seek to empower you, strengthen you, and develop in you a deep sense of gratitude and compassion for your body.
"To be awake, observe, heed, attend, learn, become aware of, and be conscious again."
- Budhi
I have a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, and while I don't use that degree for work anymore, my engineering mind is always at work in my teaching of yoga. I love to deconstruct poses and figure out how to bring action into the body that encourages functional mobility and strength through your full range rather than just passive mobility. I was a rugby player in my younger years, and played for the USA in the 2002 World Cup, so my athlete's mind also influences my teaching. I teach a strong practice so that you can strengthen your resilience in the face of challenge. My philosophy is to try everything with a sense of curiosity and humor. Failure can be a great teacher, if we embrace it with humility and curiosity.
I have undergone multiple surgeries and have a unique depth of knowledge in pain management, strengthening the body in ways that might make surgeries avoidable, as preparation for surgery and as rehabilitation back to a full movement practice after a surgery or joint replacement.
In September 2019, I had a bilateral hip replacements. In 2023, I had lumbar fusion surgery. In 2025 I had to have one of the hip replacements revised because the bone never fully adhered to the prosthetic on one side, then a few months later I had to have my right shoulder bicep tendon and rotator cuff repaired.
People ask me often if it was the rugby or the yoga that caused all of these injuries. But it's not as clear cut as that. There are lots of people who have done much less activity than I who end up needing surgery. There are lots of people in the world who have done WAY more grueling activities and never need any of these types of surgery. Genetics handed me some dysfunctional hips, an oddly shifted vertebra, and some connective tissues that became weak despite me doing all the right things to keep everything strong and mobile.
