Ashtanga Workshop Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam with Adam Keen

Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th March, 2023

Adam is delighted to be returning to Ho Chi Minh City at Mandala Wellness for this Ashtanga workshop.

Friday March 3rd

7.00 – 9.00: Mysore

There is a way to give yoga assists that are safe, non-intrusive and don’t involve being pushed into postures. The method uses energetic pointers and resistance stretches so everyone can progress naturally and safely as their bodies dictate.

Using compression is more likely to keep you injury free. It’s also a more effective method to make real and sustainable progress.

9.30 – 11.00: Jump Through & Jump Back

Are you completely lost on how to lift your body weight? Or are you halfway there but getting stuck? Or, perhaps, you are generally able to complete the movement, but doubt the sustainability for your shoulders in the long run?

If any of these relates to you, this workshop may provide some answers, or, at least, a clearer idea of your path forward. The basis of this workshop will be on understanding diaphragmatic control as the foundation of developing the strength to hold your weight in your hands.

Be prepared to discover that the work is not exactly where we think it lies – in stronger abs or arm muscles. The technique is not so hard physically, but more mentally; in working with body awareness and the epicentre of this as the elusive muscle of the diaphragm.

In this workshop we will discuss it along these lines:

• As a point of energetic awareness
• The creation of pressure through the very careful use of breath and the diaphragm
• As engendering a whole-body connection coming together in one movement.

Saturday 4th

7.00 – 9.00: Led Intermediate For All

In the early years in Mysore stuents went through the primary and intermediate series within a few months. Backbends and some harder postures came afterwards. This is news to many current students.

Intermediate is not only an anatomical equaliser for the primary series, it is also an energetic one. The only way you can learn and develop these very different movements is to have the opportunity to try them and practice them.

In this session, we will go through the series and break down some of the most challenging postures so everyone can have a go. You will get the feeling and inspiration for the work that needs to be done to build your version of each asana.

All that is necessary to attend is interest and enthusiasm. You will find that when broken down, many of the postures are not actually as hard or unavailable as you might have imagined.

9.00 – 10.15: Philosophy & Practice Talk / Q&A

A discussion on the philosophy of The Bhagavad Gita and what it has to do with yoga asana. We might find its’ principles re-affirmed in our physical yoga practice, and how the work of the yoga practice is there to be continued in a particular method when we step off the mat in daily life.

The Bhagavad Gita is a science of the emotions in action, just as The Yoga Sutras is often referred to as a science of the mind. An immensely practical book if you read behind the obvious injunction to simply follow your dharma, to inquire as to what, exactly, this might look like for us in the current age we live within; The BG is far from a dusty old medieval battle in a far-away land.

This will be an opportunity to ask Adam questions related to practice, philosophy, yoga lifestyle and more.

Sunday March 5th

8.00 – 10.00: Mysore (same as Friday)

10.30 – 12.00: Intelligent Back Bends

The actual translation of urdhva dhanurasana, the ‘back bend’ at the end of the Primary Series is ‘inverted bow’. Taking this as our starting place, we can develop a fresh understanding of what to aim for to make it effective.

Whatever your feelings about backbends, with a fresh understanding of the technique of these movements, a new approach is highly likely to occur. In other words, bowing the body as opposed to what often happens in simply pushing into the lower back,. One in which the posture flows naturally, without force, and, most importantly, without causing back pain for the rest of the day!

About Adam Keen

Adam Keen completed the Advanced A sequence of Ashtanga yoga in 2013 with Sharathji in Mysore and was authorised level 2 in 2012. He has been a yoga practitioner since 1999, starting with hatha yoga while studying philosophy at university.

Adam has taught internationally and spent over ten years running a Mysore program in his native London, UK. His style is open, non-dogmatic and eclectic while remaining rooted in an appreciation of the tradition as taught in Mysore. He has a unique way of making everyone welcome and meeting students where they are with humour and kindness.

When not practising yoga, Adam likes to cook. In his earlier years, he was a retreat chef for Buddhist and yoga centres. This took him to Purple Valley in Goa, where he was employed as the chef and met his wife Theresa.

Adam is co-founder of Keen on Yoga, an online platform hosting yoga classes, workshops and events, as well as the host of the Keen on Yoga Podcast and YouTube channels. In this capacity, he has interviewed most of the top Ashtanga teachers and philosophy academics leading to a unique overview of the modern yoga world and teaching approaches.

He shares his thoughts and experience daily on social media. You can find him discussing many of the questions that come to our minds, but we’re often afraid or unsure how to ask. @adam_keen_ashtanga