Only licensed DDP instructor in Tri-State

CHESAPEAKE –– It ain’t your mama’s yoga.

That’s the motto for DDP Yoga, named after retired professional wrestler Diamond Dallas Page, who developed the workout while injured and looking at losing his career in wrestling from years of injuries from high-impact sports. It combines yoga, traditional fitness calisthenics, sports therapy and dynamic resistance and has minimal joint impact.

Bringing DDP Yoga to the Tri-State is Mary Callicoat, who said she got into DDP yoga after having neck and back problems.

“I started the program for my own health in January 2014,” Callicoat said. “I started the certification process in November of 2014, became certified as of Feb. 24, 2015, and started at the Chesapeake Community Center around March of last year.”

Callicoat is the only certified DDP yoga instructor in West Virginia and one of only a few in Kentucky and Ohio, making her the only one in the Tri-State. She has also attended several DDP Yoga workshops with Page, including ones in Illinois, Michigan and Tennessee.

“It’s an awesome low-impact, high-cardio workout that anyone can do,” Callicoat said. “People with injuries or people who can’t do a lot of activity can’t get the recommended amounts of exercise and cardio. But everyone can do this and it’s an awesome way to build flexibility, muscle tone and protect and heal the body.”

Callicoat said she wanted to become a DDP yoga instructor to help other people after using the program to help herself. She added that she was looking at a second neck surgery at the time she started DDP yoga, which also helped her get off her medications.

“I wanted to take to others what I had done,” she said. “I wanted to show people that you aren’t stuck. You can change and you can rebuild. I needed to do this to take it back to other people.”

Callicoat’s DDP Yoga classes are available from 6-7 p.m. at the Chesapeake Community Center on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays for $5 a class or $30 a month, although she said the first class is free. Callicoat will also host a special workshop at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 13, at Le Vita Sana in Huntington.

For more information on DDP Yoga, visit www.ddpyoga.com.