Sitting on the ground with her legs straight out in front of her, yoga instructor Annie Carlin demonstrated her problem with seated forward bend. Its not an issue of flexibility Carlin has the bend part down pat. Its that the size of her thighs makes it physically impossible to keep her feet together.

So she prefers to keep them hip-distance apart, as she explained to the students enrolled in her four-week Yoga for Larger Bodies workshop series at Petworths Golden Heart Yoga, which began this month.

Vicky Hallett

Writes for the MisFits column.

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(Amanda Voisard/For The Washington Post) - Golden Heart yoga teacher Annie Carlin: Ive lost 100 pounds and gained it back. For a really long time, I was angry. All these moves, I couldnt do them anymore.

The other thing we can do is move our butt flesh out of the way, she added, noting with a grin that yoga teaching is the only time I get to say butt flesh.

Other teachers can say it, but most of them dont actually have much of it. And thats what can prevent people who look like Carlin and her students from feeling as if they belong in a yoga class even though they derive the same benefits from stretching, strengthening and breathing deeply as everyone else.

I stand out no matter what I do, says Carlin, 31, who admits that even shes wary whenever she walks into a new studio. But with certain modifications and props, Carlin can be comfortable in any class, and thats her goal for her students, too.

Every person brings something different to the yoga mat, Carlin says, and its not always visible. In her case, its a decade of practice that started when she fell for yoga while studying at New York University. Over time, she experienced changes in her career which brought her to Washington in 2007 as well as her body.

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Yoga for larger bodies