John Schumacher has practiced yoga for over five decades. In 1979, he founded Unity Woods Yoga Center, the Washington area’s first full time yoga studio. For 33 years, he studied in India regularly with B.K.S. Iyengar, who personally certified him as an Advanced Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher (CIYT).
John’s clear, precise style and his engaging sense of humor have made him one of America’s leading yoga teachers. In 2015, Yoga Journal awarded him its prestigious Good Karma Award for spending “40-plus years sharing [his] practice to help authenticate yoga in America today”. John has written for a variety of publications, has appeared in numerous local and national media, and speaks about the practice and benefits of yoga across the country. In 2007, he was a keynote speaker at the first NIH conference on alternative health. He currently writes the On Pranayama column in The Light, the digital magazine of the Iyengar Yoga National Association (IYNAUS)