This article was originally published in the Bodies issue of Kaleidoscope. Read it in its original printing here or pick up a magazine at UAB Student Media’s office.
When Nancy Rhodes enrolled in her first yoga class, she was looking to make a lifestyle change. She’d battled an eating disorder for most of her life, struggled with her mental health, and had begun a weight loss journey.
But when she first rolled out the mat back in 2009, the class looked vastly different from the yoga DVDs she’d practiced with at home. Routines designed for beginners were often too hard, and when Rhodes looked around the class to the thinner bodies in stretchy yoga pants, she noticed very few students looked like herself.
“What I was starting to see was middle-aged women, who maybe didn’t have the most thin and flexible bodies, needed somebody who looked like them to show them [yoga]is still a practice that is available to them,” Rhodes said. “But maybe we have to do it a little bit differently.”
So she became an instructor, and started teaching her own classes. Rhodes began by practicing her skills with friends and coworkers —, encouraging modifications for difficult poses. Soon, what was once an inside joke about going to their “fat girl yoga” classes together, quickly became reality.
“How do I make this accessible to people who are like me, and have bodies shaped more like mine? What can we do differently that they’re not going to get out of a class from a thin, flexible, athletic man?” Rhodes said.
The answer turned out to be Abundance Yoga, her studio located on Highway 280 in Hoover. The business offers many services from Pilates to therapeutic massages, but most notably, it’s a safe haven for abundant bodies to practice yoga. As part of the mission to make the practice more accessible to everyone, Abundance Yoga has a “Fat Girl Yoga” class, classes for Black women, BIPOC and other specialized classes. Yet, while the students at the studio have certainly appreciated the space, the concept is still controversial for others.
Even as Rhodes began to embrace the word “fat” to describe herself, and her class, the studio experienced pushback from onlookers who found the description derogatory. At one point, she faced disapproval from representatives of a local eating disorder clinic, and further still, judgement came from parts of the yoga community.
“The people who were saying it was wrong were the people who already felt like they had a space. They were already part of that community. They were already welcomed,” Rhodes said.
“What I was trying to make space for was the people who felt like they didn’t belong. The people who felt like they were too fat to go to a yoga class.”
Even with the added pressure, Rhodes persisted. She expanded the studio to offer classes to other marginalized groups, and hiring a diverse group of teachers to fill the gaps where she couldn’t herself.
“I told my trainer, I don’t see anyone my size doing yoga, let alone Black people doing yoga,” said La-Shonda Spencer, an Abundance Yoga instructor.
When Spencer isn’t working as a doula, she’s teaching and sometimes leading the “Restorative Yoga for Black Women” class. She began practicing 6 years ago after a fitness trainer suggested yoga would help her prepare to run a 5K.
Spencer was skeptical, but once she experienced the mental clarity that came along with practicing, she worked to bring some of that peace back to the students at the studio.
“As a Black woman, we are on the go every single time. We are constantly moving and we don’t know how to slow down,” Spencer said.
As a former student, Spencer said she understands why Black women may feel intimidated to come to the mat, but the benefits ultimately outweigh the fear.
“We as Black women pour out so much into everyone that we don’t have anything else for ourselves,” Spencer said. “So the restorative [class]helps you pour back into yourself.”
Together, Rhodes, Spencer and several other teachers have worked to create a safe space for women like Rhonda Heffner —, an Abundance Yoga student of 6 months.
“Yoga has felt so exclusive for a long time. What you typically see in the yoga ads and commercials and the crowd it appeals to, isn’t me,” Heffner said. “I’m not thin. I’m not young. I’m a 59 year old — not fat, but slightly chubby — Muslim chick.”
Between tending to her farm and working as a kitchen designer, Heffner visits the studio 5 times a week. She began practicing yoga at Railroad Park after a cancer scare 3 years ago. At some point, she just stopped going.
But once she found Abundance Yoga, Heffner said she found a new home.
“There’s no body shaming. They’re just proud of anything you do. Every little accomplishment you make. Holding a pose that you haven’t been able to hold before,” Heffner said. “Everything’s kind of celebrated. And it makes you feel good.”
For Nancy Rhodes, Abundance Yoga is but a baby with limitless potential. She hopes to expand to classes that are taught in Spanish. Classes for the hearing impaired. Classes for disabled bodies.
And she has advice for those searching for safe place to practice.
“If [you]walk into a space that doesn’t feel welcoming, feel free to turn around and leave” she said. “Sometimes we have to speak up for ourselves and we get really uncomfortable doing that.”
And if it’s just too difficult, there’s always space at Abundance Yoga.
“Hopefully people will come in that have abundant bodies. We’ll have people that maybe don’t as well and that’s completely fine because this is a welcoming space for everybody,” Rhodes said. “It’s where we can grow our abundance.”
