Ashtanga innovation
/Dear Yogis,
I know! Friday Email on a Saturday. However, that allows me to say that tomorrow is my first ever Yoga-for-Strength class. This is how Sunday starts from now on. It’s Ashtanga with added extra!
‘Extra’ is what modern yoga has always looked out for. Sadly, when we adopt one kind of yoga, we are somehow encouraged home in on one style without recognising how many different practices existed all over India before Krishnamacharya and his student Pattabhi Jois invented modern yoga.
They were the great innovators of the intense, dynamic style of Ashtanga, giving strong, repetitive sequences. Modern yoga has continued to innovate for people who have different mental, physical and spiritual needs. This is how we ended up with Yin Yoga, which draws on the Chinese concepts of yin and yang. Restorative yoga took resting and releasing to another level.
The first time I came across ‘Yoga Sculpt’ must have been at the Om Yoga Show and I think I must have been a bit snooty about it. (The less you know about yoga, the more likely this reaction!). Yoga with weights! Are you joking! What a misunderstanding of yoga, I must have thought. Add a few years and now I know that the body needs weights as much as it needs yoga!
If you've ever heard someone say 'I need something more challenging than yoga', send them to me! Tomorrow, Sunday, 8.30-10.00.
Classes
Next Friday brings a proper Friday evening unwind-from-the-week Restorative class. It will be a 90-minute class, which will make it properly worth your while to give the body and nervous system time to dial down. To begin with, let’s do once a month. Class numbers are so small at the moment – people are in summertime mode, despite the current weather.
Mon, Tues & Wed evenings = Stretchy yoga at 7.00-8.00pm – this is the popular one.
Friday morning = Ashtanga at 8.30-9.30am – this is the one that pushes you.
Friday evening = Long Restorative Yoga – 6.30-8.00pm – A proper unwind
Saturday morning = Ashtanga at 8.30 – 10.00am – this is the longer one that pushes you.
Sunday morning = Yoga-For-Strength at 8.30 – 10.00am – this is Ashtanga with extra.
And, by the way, you can post a google review of my classes here.
Yoga in the News
Open Magazine has: Why the Lincoln Memorial Has Been Chosen for International Day of Yoga 2026. "Yoga is the pause button that humanity needs to breathe, balance, and become whole again," said Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (‘Soft power’ at play!)
The South China Morning Post has: How this 68-year-old Hong Kong man overcame ‘end-stage’ knee arthritis. “What changed was the system around the joint – neuromuscular coordination improved, and load was redistributed more efficiently. Iyengar yoga did not fix my knee; it gave me the conditions to listen to it.”
