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Madeleine Lohman took up yoga on a lark. It was the ‘90s, everyone in Seattle was doing it and the instructor was really cute. So why not?

What started out as a crush, however, unfolded into a drive to excel and, eventually, she says, a lasting and mindful exploration of the connection between physical health and emotional well-being.

“I stayed with yoga because I have a competitive nature, and I wasn’t very good at it. I wanted to get better,” said Lohman. “Then, after I moved to Sacramento, I had the good fortune to have a great teacher at the Y. I started doing [yoga] three times a week and found that I was feeling good. I was more relaxed, more focused.”

Lohman, at the time working a 9-to-5 desk job, eventually decided to go deeper into her practice and enrolled in a teacher-training program.

But teaching, as it turns out, can be tricky.

“It’s challenging and exciting, [and] one of the mistakes you make is thinking that teaching beginners will be easier,” Lohman said. “[Teaching] poses is easier, [but] with new students, they’re not sure why they’re there. There’s an element of, ’Why should I do yoga? Prove this to me.’”

There is too, she added, the intimidation factor.

“The students are not sure they’re in the right place, they’re scared they’re out of shape or that they’re too injured or too old.”

Enter Lohman’s Yoga Basic workshop. The weekly class, packaged in a series of A, B or C levels that alternate monthly, is designed to give novices a primer on fundamental poses—as well as the confidence to actually strike them.

Lohman, who also teaches all-level classes at It’s All Yoga, as well as private classes, says no two workshops are the same. Accordingly, she structures the first session of each monthly series to include an informal getting-to-know-you class chat. Throughout each session, Lohman also makes a point to check in with students, gently correcting poses or offering encouragement.

In the end, she said, it’s not about executing a perfect sun salutation, downward-facing dog or bridge pose—it’s about self-care.

“Yoga isn’t just physical training: It’s mental and it’s kindness training,” Lohman said. “[Doing yoga] helps you be kind to yourself—and that, in turn, allows you to be kinder to everyone else in your life.” 2405 21st Street, (916) 501-4692, www.itsallyoga.com; www.madyoga.org.