MacInerney Charles F

Charles is just an absolutely fantastic instructor. I first met him years ago when he was teaching a meditation class for UT (and I still meditate now, based on what he taught us!), and then have taken a couple of retreats with him, and classes here and there. When people need an instructor, he is the first I recommend. He can teach to all levels, beginner to way advanced, and I simply think the world of him. Seriously, he’ll change your life.

Charles is my mentor through the Living Yoga Program where I completed my 200 hour yoga teacher certification. An amazing program if your interested. Charles radiates energy and a light within him that makes people flock to him. When teaching asanas he looks at the pose holistically. Of coarse there is the technical way to get your body into alignment of the pose but then there is the moving within the pose in order to get the most out of it. He teaches how to listen to your body and how to teach others to listen to their bodies, that is what yoga is all about in my perspective. I couldn’t speak to Charles’ abilities and qualities without mentioning he is a master in the essence of breathe. How it moves through your body and what it does for you when engaging in a variety of pranayama techniques. Simply put Charles is amazing and I am so lucky to have found him.

I can’t say it any better than the other two reviews — Charles is the best — totally sweet, calm and funny — all at the same time!
The full moon yoga classes are great — and free… but don’t judge his regular classes by the full moon class. It is outside on hard ground which pretty much precludes much except standing poses. The shavasana at the end of his regular class just knocks me out. His voice is like «butta» He has made a CD full of meditations that is excellent — check it out.
He also has weekend retreats — some local and some to exotic places. I have only been on the weekend retreats and they are a great way to relax and get away from the rat race.

Full disclosure: I knew this guy a little bit before I took any of his yoga classes. It wasn’t until I had heard good things about him both from Sasha C and other people who didn’t know him outside of the yoga context that I considered taking a class with him.
First, I checked out Full Moon Yoga — the yoga event he hosts every full moon on top of Mt. Bonnell that is totally free and open to the public. Although I had liked my experiences at Yoga Yoga, I could tell that Charles’ approach was a cut above the instruction elsewhere. First of all, he took more time to explain some of the theory of his approach, and spent more time walking around making sure folks were doing the poses correctly.
I then checked out his classes at Café Dance, in which he gives even more personalized attention. I am a big girl, and not an experienced yogi, and he was able to give me suggestions that accomodate my weight so i don’t put too much weight on my shins, for instance, and how to maneuver my position so my gut doesn’t get in the way and I can get a better stretch. Other instructors haven’t seemed as sensitive to the need for weight accommodations, even the friendly and heavier ones. He also helps everyone make their individualized accomodations, too. I ran into a friend as his class who I knew from a completely different context than the one I knew Charles from, and he said he’d been going to Charles for years, which is quite an endorsement from a guy who’s particular and kind of cheap. After seeing how Charles teaches, I don’t want to go to anyone else.

Seriously this guy is one of the best Yoga teachers in Austin. It really begins with the happy go lucky non competitive vibe that he exudes over each and every class. He knows you are there to feel better and do better whatever better may be. At every class he seems prepared for many body types and many moods. Ever patient, he will teach not only a pose, but the joy of moving into the pose. Although serious abotu his practice, he makes space for a good joke or two. Indeed I feel more relaxed in his yoga classes than I do in my own home.