Hi, I'm Melanie.

Founder of Chunky Yoga, 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher, and someone who believes yoga is for Every Body.

My yoga journey began while searching for a way to navigate anxiety and depression. Like many people, I didn't walk into my first yoga class feeling confident. Living in a rural community made finding accessible classes even more challenging, so online yoga became a lifeline—and it continues to be an important part of my own practice today.

But I also discovered something I couldn't find through a screen alone: the quiet connection that comes from practicing with other people. That experience inspired me to create Chunky Yoga.

I created Chunky Yoga to offer the kind of yoga experience I had been searching for—a welcoming, accessible community where every person feels they belong. Whether we practice together in person or online, every class is designed to be a place where you can move at your own pace, breathe a little deeper, and leave feeling more connected to yourself than when you arrived.

Why Chunky Yoga?

For a long time, I thought everyone else had received the instruction manual for yoga... except me.

I walked into classes feeling like everyone else knew exactly what they were doing while I was trying to figure out where to put my feet. I didn't know the names of the poses, I wasn't always sure if I was doing them correctly, and I often worried that everyone else could tell I was new.

Looking around the room, I didn't always see people who looked like me or moved like me. It was easy to believe that yoga was something you had to be good at before you were allowed to belong.

Over time, I realized something important.

Yoga was never asking me to be more flexible, more experienced, or more confident before I showed up. It was simply asking me to show up as I was.

That realization changed everything.

It's also the reason I created Chunky Yoga.

I wanted to build the kind of space I had been searching for—a place where beginners don't have to apologize for being beginners, where questions are encouraged, where modifications are celebrated, and where every person is reminded that yoga is a practice, not a performance.

Because everyone deserves a place where they can breathe, move, learn, and belong.

Life Off the Mat

When I'm not teaching, you'll usually find me outside.

Whether I'm hiking a trail, kayaking on the lake, snowshoeing through fresh snow, casting a fishing line, tending my garden, or simply sitting around a campfire, being in nature is where I feel most at home.

Home is also wherever I get to spend time with my husband, Dave, our sons, Samuel and Oliver, our dog Goose, and our cats, Montgomery and George.

I'm also a lifelong student of yoga. Even as a teacher, I continue to roll out my own mat and learn from incredible teachers. I believe we're always growing, and that's one of the things I love most about this practice.

Those simple moments—time in nature, time with family, and time to slow down—inspire me to create the same feeling in every Chunky Yoga class.

Yoga for Every Body.

Where Every Body Belongs.