Rose Sanders: From Gym to Studio

Suffering from severe anxiety as a kid, Rose Sanders (class of 2020) began gymnastics at a very young age as a way to cope with her emotional tension and immediately fell in love with the sport. She continued competing in gymnastics for many years, and as she grew older and more skilled, the competition became fiercer and the gym occupied more of her time. Being a naturally athletic-minded person and a talented gymnast, Rose embraced the increasing intensity as a seemingly fitting progression of her relationship with the sport. However, there was a clear breaking point.

At 13 years old, she had reached gymnastics level seven. Of the 10 levels of gymnastics, the seventh level is widely considered to be the pivotal point that separates those who want to pursue gymnastics competitively and those who don’t. When Rose had reached this elite level, every other level seven gymnast at her gym had started homeschooling to open up more time for training. She was already practicing five days every week for four hours each day, and leaving her normal school life behind just to practice even more was completely unappealing to her. “They told me that I was either prepping for the Junior Olympics or I was out,” she told me. “[It felt] like my life was the gym. . . . I loved gymnastics but it was my sport, not my life.”

After quitting gymnastics, Rose tried several different sports including cross country, track, basketball, and dance, but none of them could adequately replace her passion for gymnastics. It wasn’t until she started yoga that she truly felt at home with her sport.

Rose is currently working part-time at a hot yoga studio. Her job mostly involves checking people into classes and cleaning, but she also gets a lot of alone time in the studio, allowing her to spend much of her free time practicing. Additionally, Rose is currently working on becoming a certified yoga instructor, a 200-hour process that can take anywhere from one month to an entire year to complete. While yoga is usually pictured as a slow and relaxed form of exercise, the style of yoga taught at her studio is far more physically demanding, which is a large part of why Rose loves it so much.

“Coming from gymnastics, I needed something intense,” she said. “Yoga gives me that intensity while [allowing me] to have a life outside the studio.”

By Jaden Ellman