Leslie Howard
Join Leslie Howard
at Circle Yoga!
Wed, Sept 16, 2026
in person and online
We're excited to welcome Oakland-based yoga teacher, Leslie Howard, back to Circle Yoga for two special workshops on Wednesday, September 16. Join in person in Washington, DC, or sign up for livestream access. All registrants will have access to workshop recordings for 30 days.
Save 10% when you register for both workshops!
Connected Core: Yoga for Pelvic Floor Health, Intimacy & Healthy Aging
Wed Sept 16 | 1:30-4:30 PM
The pelvic floor is the foundation of your core, influencing balance, posture, breathing, bladder control, organ support, and sexual function. While it's among the most important muscle groups in the body, it remains one of the least understood. This gap in understanding often becomes most apparent as we age, when it's common to experience changes in pelvic floor function that can affect continence, stability, comfort, and intimacy. While these changes are often dismissed as "just part of getting older," they don't have to define your future. Yoga offers a holistic, evidence-based approach to restoring strength, mobility, awareness, and confidence.
Drawing from her groundbreaking research at the University of California—San Francisco demonstrating significant improvements in urinary incontinence through yoga, Leslie Howard shares practices that go far beyond Kegels. You'll learn how the pelvic floor works as part of an integrated core system, coordinating with the breath, diaphragm, abdominal muscles, and hips to support the entire body.
We'll also explore how hormonal changes, aging, and pelvic floor health influence sexual well-being. Together we'll discuss common concerns—including vaginal dryness, discomfort with intimacy, changes in desire, and pelvic floor tension—and discover practical yoga-based strategies that can help women maintain comfort, pleasure, and connection throughout every stage of life.
You'll learn:
- How the pelvic floor functions as the foundation of a connected core
- Evidence-based yoga practices to improve bladder control, strength, and stability
- Why the pelvic floor plays a key role in sexual health and intimacy
- How aging and hormonal changes affect pelvic floor function—and what you can do about it
- Practical tools to support lifelong pelvic health, vitality, and overall well-being
Whether your goal is prevention, healing, or simply understanding your body more deeply, you'll leave with practical tools and a renewed appreciation for the remarkable role your pelvic floor plays in every aspect of your life.
This workshop qualifies for Yoga Alliance CEUs.
This session will be recorded and available to registrants for 30 days.
Fees
$75 — CYC members
$90 — CYC non-members
Save 10% when you register for both workshops. Use promo code LESLIE10 at checkout.
Smart Ass, Dumb Ass: Yoga for the Glutes
Wed Sept 16 | 6:00-8:00 PM
Are you a chronic butt-clencher in yoga and daily movement? Or do you have a "lazy ass" that's quietly letting other muscles do all the work? Maybe you spend your days sitting at a computer, leaving you with sleepy glutes that have forgotten how to fire when you need them. Whether your glutes are working overtime or sleeping on the job, this imbalance can shift stress into your knees, hips, and low back.
Developed as an extension of her pioneering work with the pelvic floor, this workshop with Leslie Howard grew out of her years of teaching and observing how most people—even experienced yogis—misunderstand the role of the glutes. These powerful muscles do far more than shape your backside. They stabilize the pelvis, support the sacroiliac joints, influence the position of the femur in the hip socket, protect the knees and low back, and affect how you stand, balance, walk, and move through yoga poses and your daily life.
In this lively, anatomy-rich session, you’ll learn when your glutes should work, when they should soften, how to find a balanced amount of effort instead of gripping or collapsing, and how to wake up glutes weakened by too much sitting. Through standing poses, hip openers, balance work, and simple movement explorations, you'll discover how to recruit—and relax—your glutes to cultivate more stability, strength, ease, and freedom of movement. And you'll leave with practical tools you can immediately apply to your yoga practice and to everyday life.
Suitable for yoga practitioners of all levels, teachers, movement professionals, and anyone interested in healthier glutes and hips and a more intelligent yoga practice.
This workshop qualifies for Yoga Alliance CEUs.
This session will be recorded and available to registrants for 30 days.
Fees
$50 — CYC members
$60 — CYC non-members
Save 10% when you register for both workshops. Use promo code LESLIE10 at checkout.
Scholarships
If you would like to join either of these workshops with Leslie but are experiencing financial hardship, please apply for a scholarship. Learn more and apply.
About Leslie Howard
Leslie Howard has taught yoga for over 26 years, specializing in the use of yoga for hip and pelvic floor challenges. After healing her own hypertonic pelvic syndrome through Iyengar-influenced yoga and breath work, she developed a therapeutic approach she calls Pelvic Floor Yoga™. Her methodology, used to design two University of California—San Francisco clinical studies, showed a 70% reduction in incontinence symptoms and a 42% reduction in pelvic pain. For 20 years, she has taught this approach through small groups, public workshops, and international conferences, and offers a 20-hour Pelvic Floor Yoga Teacher Training. She is a certified Yoga Therapist through IAYT, co-director of the Nest Yoga 200-Hour Teacher Training, and has studied intensively in the Iyengar tradition with teachers including Ramanand Patel, Tony Briggs, Patricia Walden, Manouso Manos, Peter Thompson and others. Leslie has also trained as a Death Doula, running Death Cafes and hospice volunteer work at Kaiser Oakland.
Refund Policy
If you need to cancel your registration for one or both of these workshops, submit your request in writing here at least one week in advance, and your registration fee will be refunded minus a 20% administrative fee. No refunds will be given for cancellations made within less than one week of Leslie's visit.