María Ásmundsdóttir Shanko trained in Stott Pilates in 2005, both in Iceland and in Boston, and taught at Hreyfing in 2005–2006. In 2011 she took the playful yoga course "Childplay" with Gurudass Kaur, and in 2013 she graduated as a Kundalini yoga teacher at Jógasetrið. She studied pregnancy and mom & baby yoga with Andartak in the winter of 2014–2015 and is now in hatha yoga teacher training (2020–2021) with Ásta Arnardóttir at Yogavin. María taught yoga in East Iceland from 2016 to 2018, has taught playful yoga at Askja preschool since 2018 and has covered classes at Jógasetrið. She has worked as a primary school class teacher, a childminder, principal of a preschool and primary school, and a group leader at Askja preschool. She has experience teaching yoga at every level of education. María is also a trained upper secondary teacher of Latin and Greek, with an MA in translation studies. Besides yoga, she loves dancing Argentine tango, traveling, singing and the outdoors.

María teaches kids yoga for ages 3–4 with their parents.