Stratham's Emily Avery to compete for national yoga title - Seacoastonline.com

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Yoga champion Emily Avery lifts herself up and readies to straighten her legs into the firefly pose during her training for the 2014 USA Yoga National Championship at Bikram Yoga in Portsmouth on Saturday.Ioanna Raptis/iraptis@seacoastonline.com

STRATHAM — Crow. Peacock. Cat. Fish. Crocodile. Downward facing dog.

These are all members of Stratham resident Emily Avery's yoga menagerie. Each time she steps onto her mat, she employs all of them into an ancient spiritual practice.

But come March, Avery's animal ark will be working double duty as she represents New Hampshire in the 2014 USA Yoga National Championship.

"My favorite part about doing yoga is the fact that you can never be perfect at it," Avery said. "There's always something you can keep working on and that just means there's always a reason for me to come back to class."

Avery, a 2013 Exeter High School graduate, began practicing yoga in 2010 after her father recommended she try it.

"He came back and he said, 'Emily, this is so hard,' and he told me about the class, and it just sounded like a cool thing to try," Avery said. "So I just wanted to try it on a whim, and I went and it was really hard and I didn't expect yoga to ever be that difficult. So I kept going back and practicing, and now I go all the time."

Avery practices Bikram yoga, which is typically known as "hot yoga." The practice involves a set series of 26 postures, all performed in 90 minutes and in a heated room. The idea is the heat helps the person practicing be more flexible. When she started yoga, Avery was 16 and attended classes at a Bikram yoga studio in Portsmouth.

After six months of attending class regularly, Avery's yoga teacher approached her about possibly getting involved in regional — and possibly national — yoga competitions.

"I was like, 'that sounds crazy, a yoga competition,' so I watched the yoga (competition videos) online and then (my teacher and I) talked about it and (my teacher) suggested I should give the competition a try, and at that point I was in the youth division, and I didn't really know what to expect," Avery said. "So I just said, 'Yes, sure, I'll try it,' and it ended up being really fun and really cool."

Sanctioned yoga competitions involve contestants performing a series of five poses. The poses are determined by the competition and are known as "compulsory" poses. Each contestant, therefore, completes the same series of motions. However, each contestant also has the opportunity to complete two optional poses after the five mandatory ones. The extra poses are what allow each yogi to strut their stuff and separate themselves from their competition.

In her time competing in the youth division, Avery placed first in the New Hampshire Yoga Asana Championship, first in the U.S. Yoga Asana Championship and third in the International Yoga Asana Championship.

Starting last year, Avery began competing in the adult division. In the fall, she won first place in the adult division of the New Hampshire Yoga Asana Championship. This means she will represent New Hampshire this year at the U.S. Yoga Asana Championship in San Antonio, Texas.

"I'm just really, really excited for this competition," Avery said.

To prepare, Avery has been running through her routine a couple times each day. In the fall, she began attending Princeton University, where she is a member of the school's ballet team. Avery is a lifelong ballet dancer, something that has helped build her yoga skills.

"I'm a ballet dancer and I still am, I've been doing ballet much longer than yoga," she said. "It's funny, I think of myself as better at ballet than I am at yoga. It really helps me keep up with my flexibility. And then when it comes to yoga competitions, the grace aspect is definitely improved by my doing ballet."

Being in New Jersey for school makes her yoga practice a little more tricky, Avery said, because she can't practice in the studio where she is most comfortable. However, while home on break from school, Avery has begun kicking her training into high gear.

"I really start practicing when I'm about two months out, so right now, I'm really getting into it," she said. "That's when you really have to start kicking into the training. I try not to worry about things too far in advance, more than four months or so. I just want to give myself a break."

While athletic ability, flexibility and diligence in practice are all important in yoga competitions, Avery said it comes down more to who can keep it cool in the spotlight.

"Yoga competitions are more about who can keep it together under pressure rather than who can do certain postures because everyone who is there is super amazing," Avery said. "The pressure affects people differently."

While her mind is focused on March, Avery said her eventual goal is to compete at the international yoga championships in Los Angeles in the adult division.

"That's an ultimate goal, to go there as an adult," Avery said. "That would be amazing and that may be years away."

But through the competitions, the training, and whether she's winning or losing, Avery always remembers why she started her yoga journey to begin with.

"I guess no matter how I do, it won't change how much I love to practice yoga," she said.

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