She’s more farm girl than urban housewife, more jock than yogi. Throw in artist and entrepreneur and you have Jana Webb.
Notable as the star of the Slice Network TV show Real Housewives of Toronto, Webb is truly making her name as creator of a hybrid yoga practice dubbed Joga — jocks doing yoga.
An athlete growing up in rural Bentley, Alta., Webb took up yoga to help with rehab after a car accident. She became more intrigued by her yoga practice and travelled to Japan to study Ishta yoga. Then Webb took yoga’s movements and breathing and blended them with her athletic training to create her personalized practice.
Webb soon ended up becoming the yoga teacher for the Canadian Football League’s Calgary Stampeders and found that Joga beat out yoga. “I had 55 football players looking at me, saying ‘Are we really doing this?’” says Webb. “Big athletes’ bodies move differently and I learned very quickly they needed something conducive to how they train.”
It seemed to work. The Stampeders won the Grey Cup that year with quarterback Henry Burris one of Joga’s biggest boosters. A few years later, after moving to Toronto, Webb taught Joga to the CFL Argos. They won the championship, too.
“I keep the tools proven in yoga, such as breathing and postures and combine it with the biomechanics of sport,” says Webb. “I can never see a football player stop in the middle of a game and do tree posture, but you might see them reaching up with one arm and balancing on one leg to catch a ball.”
Webb has trained about 350 Joga instructors across North America and recently opened Joga House in Toronto, where plans are in place to train another 100 teachers this year to help spread the Jospel.
“We just want to make everyone better,” says Webb. “For anyone who does fitness they just want to do it as long as they can. If you cycle or do triathlons, Joga helps teach your body how to move properly so you can do what you do better and injury free for a longer time.”
View Jana’s article: 5 Joga Moves for Joint Strength
