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Yoga champion Emily Avery lifts herself up and readies to straighten her legs into the firefly pose during her training for the 2014 USA Yoga National Championship at Bikram Yoga in Portsmouth on Saturday.Ioanna Raptis/iraptis@seacoastonline.com

STRATHAM Crow. Peacock. Cat. Fish. Crocodile. Downward facing dog.

These are all members of Stratham resident Emily Avery's yoga menagerie. Each time she steps onto her mat, she employs all of them into an ancient spiritual practice.

But come March, Avery's animal ark will be working double duty as she represents New Hampshire in the 2014 USA Yoga National Championship.

"My favorite part about doing yoga is the fact that you can never be perfect at it," Avery said. "There's always something you can keep working on and that just means there's always a reason for me to come back to class."

Avery, a 2013 Exeter High School graduate, began practicing yoga in 2010 after her father recommended she try it.

"He came back and he said, 'Emily, this is so hard,' and he told me about the class, and it just sounded like a cool thing to try," Avery said. "So I just wanted to try it on a whim, and I went and it was really hard and I didn't expect yoga to ever be that difficult. So I kept going back and practicing, and now I go all the time."

Avery practices Bikram yoga, which is typically known as "hot yoga." The practice involves a set series of 26 postures, all performed in 90 minutes and in a heated room. The idea is the heat helps the person practicing be more flexible. When she started yoga, Avery was 16 and attended classes at a Bikram yoga studio in Portsmouth.

After six months of attending class regularly, Avery's yoga teacher approached her about possibly getting involved in regional and possibly national yoga competitions.

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Stratham's Emily Avery to compete for national yoga title