Beryl Bender, an environmental and animal activist since the early 70’s, as well as a renowned yogi and meditation teacher, is the best-selling author of four books on yoga. Her first book, Power Yoga, was published in 1995 and sold nearly 300,000 copies. She has since then written 3 more books, Beyond Power Yoga (the philosophy of the 8 limbed yoga path), Boomer Yoga (practice for the "baby boomers"), and Yoga for Warriors (written for veterans and men and women in active duty military) .

A former biofeedback researcher with a degree in English and philosophy from Syracuse University, Beryl has been an avid student of classical yoga, meditation, and Buddhism since l971. In l974 she traveled to India in l974 with her teacher, Munishree Chitrabhanu, to further her studies, and began teaching in Winter Park, Colorado shortly after she returned to the US.

She pioneered the introduction of yoga into the athletic community in 1980, when she became the Wellness Director of the New York Road Runners Club. She continued in that position until 2002, teaching yoga classes in New York City to over 100,000 students in that 22 year period of time. She coined the term “power yoga” and her Power Yoga classes in New York (and workshops all over the country) were the first and original “power” yoga program. Based on the astanga sequences (Beryl’s personal practice since l979), Beryl adapted the power practice for athletes of all sports, ages, and abilities, which is one of the reasons the program rocketed to success.

She is the co-founder and board chair emeritus of The Give Back Yoga Foundation and the Director of The Hard & The Soft Yoga Institute (TH&TSYI). From l980 through 2020 her school offered one of the top 10 yoga teacher training programs in the country and certified hundreds of yoga & meditation teachers, spread throughout the world, who now are sharing the methodology of the yoga path in all corners of our communities.