Martina Philips

Martina was born and raised in Prague, Czech Republic. She began her Iyengar Yoga practice by sheer chance, just four hours after landing in Berkeley, CA, in 1991. Since then, yoga has become a way of life for her—a constant source of inspiration and knowledge. After moving to Portland in 2009, she studied with Julie Lawrence and has been teaching at Jewel Yoga since 2017. Martina is a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher, Level 2. Following a trip to Nepal, she deepened her practice by studying Universal Yoga, internal practices, and meditation. Recently, she completed Level 3 Universal Yoga teacher training with Andrey Lappa. She also holds an RYT-500 certification from Yoga Alliance with over 1,000 hours of training.

When she’s not standing on her head, Martina is tending to her beehives, studying yoga philosophy, traveling the world (especially India), and raising two precocious daughters. She teaches alignment-based yoga classes with clear anatomical cues, a mix of curiosity, and humor.