Social Workout

My Body

Jessica Gordon on Collapsing Into Good Hands

Jessica Gordon is the founder of Yada Yada Yoga, which offers mobile holistic fitness, including yoga, kickboxing, and massage, in New York and L.A.

I discovered yoga when I was a Division One tennis player. I had lots of injuries, and I was going to the chiropractor, things like that, but then I met a yoga instructor. I kept putting off sessions with her because of a back injury, but she finally said just come, and in twenty minutes she did more for my back than I’d done in a month with a chiropractor.

My mother is a physical therapist, and my father is a physician. Especially because of my mother, I’ve always been interested in massage, and the difference between a good massage therapist and a bad one was always clear to me. One of the first masseuses we ever interviewed for Yada Yada Yoga, she kept telling me to relax so she could work into a particular area, but it wasn't working. Finally, she said some particular thing to me, and I felt my body collapse. I knew she was good because no one else had gotten me to do that before. I want everyone to have that sort of experience. It was the first time someone made me feel okay being vulnerable. 

In New York, anything can be delivered. We really embrace that. And yoga instructors or massage therapists — those are really important relationships. We’re so selective. We had an opening for yoga instructors in New York. I got 500 resumes, I interviewed eight people, and I hired one. We work with people and try out as many teachers as they need to find the perfect match. We help people take their health into their own hands.