This 71-Year-Old Yoga Teacher Turned Her Driveway Into a Yoga Studio

For the last eight summers, neighbors along a quiet cul-de-sac in South Bend, Indiana, have slowly emerged from their homes each Sunday evening, waving hello to one another and making their way to a single driveway. They’ve set down their chairs and yoga blocks so they can see 71-year-old Marian Hall, a part-time yoga teacher and stay-at-home mom who raised five kids, who leads them through driveway yoga.

“It just brings people together,” says Hall. “They talk before class, hang around afterward, maybe even have a glass of wine. You get to know people in a way you wouldn’t otherwise.”

Her summer driveway yoga sessions have brought movement and connection to her neighbors, many of whom are in their 70s and 80s. Classes are typically a blend of seated and standing poses, with chairs and even the occasional garage door used as support for standing poses. Her only rule? Show up exactly as you are.

Taking Yoga Teacher Training in Her 50s

Hall never imagined herself as a yoga teacher. When she first began practicing, it was simply a way to cope. Her daughter Emily was seriously ill throughout middle school, and in between doctor appointments and long days at home helping her recover, Hall began checking out yoga DVDs from the library, one after another. Eventually, a neighbor joined her basement yoga sessions, and the routine stuck.

It wasn’t until she was in her 50s that her five children surprised her with a gift: enrollment in a yoga teacher training program. “I had kind of talked about it,” she says. “I was just kind of curious. But I probably would not have made the move had they not done it. Just time and money, and South Bend was not the yoga mecca, I would say, at that time.”

Hall explains that the training, an intensive two-week program, was the hardest thing she’s ever done. Most of the other trainees were Notre Dame grad students in their 20s. “I came home and cried every night,” she says. “I was the oldest one by far. They had a whole lot more experience than I did, and understood all of the yoga terminology. But I tried to keep up.”

She made it through. Though Hall had long wanted to train as a teacher, her children gifting her the YTT helped her find the courage to pursue it. After graduating from training, Hall began to build a yoga teaching career based on making yoga versatile and accessible to everyone she encountered, whether she was volunteering at community events or subbing at senior centers.

“I appreciate that you can teach veterans, you can teach people in chairs, you can teach people against a garage door. You can teach five-year-olds,” she says. “I think there’s a lot to be said for that.”

At some point, neighbors who knew she taught elsewhere began asking if she’d offer classes closer to home. She agreed, and as quickly as they decided upon driveway yoga and created a class schedule, they shared it in the neighborhood email newsletter and along with other class announcements. Thus began the Sunday evening driveway yoga gatherings. Individuals brought their own chairs and stayed after class to chat. Word of the classes quickly grew by word of mouth.

A Teacher for Every Body

Hall’s approach to yoga is simple, enthusiastic, and inclusive. The yoga she leads in her driveway is mostly chair-based, with some supported standing poses for those who feel comfortable. And there’s room to modify everything.

In her driveway classes, she often returns to Tree Pose. “It helps with balance, which is vital as we get older,” she says. She also encourages students to engage with the poses they find most challenging. “I asked everyone to tell me which yoga poses they liked the least. Then, we focused on those tough poses because trying the hard things helps us grow. I wanted everyone to know that doing your best is what really matters, not being perfect.”

Although for Hall, movement is only part of the point. She appreciates that the connection and belonging people feel when practicing yoga spills over into conversation and laughter once class has ended.

“I used to think yoga was just about feeling good afterward,” says Hall. “Now, I know it’s so much more than that. It’s about who you meet, the people you bring together, the ways it becomes part of your life.”

These days, Hall isn’t teaching in the driveway. She’s busy recovering from hip replacement surgery and being grandma to six grandchildren, a role she cherishes. “I love spending time with them,” she says. After five surgeries in recent years, her yoga practice is slower and more restorative. “I’m just grateful for what I can do and taking small steps to get stronger,” she says. “My yoga is gentle and slow now, and I’m happy with that.”