FRIDAY 25 – TEACHERS INTENSIVE: SAFE AND EFFECTIVE PHYSICAL ASSISTANCE

Whether you’re a teacher or a student, learning how to assist others helps you understand what you’re doing in your own practice. We will explore how to give assistance based on anatomical principles that is safe and effective and that don’t push a body past its natural limitations, rather affirms the individual’s body AS IT IS and works from there.

There is a way of approaching giving physical assistance that it not about ‘adjusting’ at all, rather using minimal pressure to guide an individual to feeling more space, stability and comfort in their bodies. This class is not based on giving one size fits all physical assists, rather looking at the individual and working from there. 

7.00 – 9.00: MYSORE SELF-PRACTICE

This practice is based on individual exploration, kindness, and fun. Adam gives yoga assistance in a safe and non-intrusive way. He does not believe in forcing people into postures, rather, he uses verbal and light physical touch to open new directions for you to follow if you wish.  All are welcome to the Mysore class. Adam is happy if you need practice sheets, but you should have memorised at least the sun salutations A and B and some of the standing sequence.

9.30 – 11.00: SESSION 1 SAFE AND EFFECTIVE PHYSICAL ASSISTANCE

Whether you’re a teacher or a student, learning how to assist others helps you understand what you’re doing in your own practice. This doesn’t mean ‘adjustments’; pushing bodies further than they can naturally go, rather, a way of helping and individual, safely and non-intrusively, to connect more deeply and effectively to their own unique body as it is. Come and find out how we can use ‘physical assistance’ rather than adjustments to affect a more potent change than the outmoded ‘adjustment’.

11.00 – 12.00 Break

12.00 – 13.30: SESSION 2 SAFE AND EFFECTIVE PHYSICAL ASSISTANCE

13.30 – 15.00: HOW TO CREATE AND TEACH SHORT PRACTICES FOR ALL LEVELS

Not all of us have the time, energy, or, even, motivation, to do our whole practice every day. But we still want to do a practice. However, it’s hard to how to structure a shorter practice that’s effective. So, here, we shall consider the fundamental principles of how to do so. Simple idea that, once grasped, will give you the sense of confidence to experiment with using the short practice format as and when you need or want to.

SATURDAY & SUNDAY: THE ESSENCE OF ASHTANGA

Many people take Ashtanga to be a series of postures with rules around them, but it is so much less and more than that. Yoga is a way of connecting to Self, an experience we've all had in practice, but it often doesn’t go that far as we lack any reference points to bring practice into effective relationship to modern life and its challenges.

This workshop will focus then on providing more context around what we are doing, which will both invigorate your practice, giving you a lot to go away with, but, also, hopefully allow you to make further in roads in terms of what it really means to 'live a yoga lifestyle' as opposed to simply practicing yoga asana.

SATURDAY 26

8.00 AM: ASHTANGA SELF-PRACTICE

A self-practice class following the traditional Ashtanga sequences with verbal instruction and light physical assistance. Adam does not believe in forcing people into postures and focuses on safe and non-intrusive assistance, he offers directions for you to experience asanas in a comfortable and stable way. All physical abilities are welcome, however please have the sun salutations and first few standing asanas memorised.

10.30 – 12.00: BREATHING FOR YOGA

The difference between abdominal and thoracic breathing and the role of the diaphragm is the key to understanding an asana practice. We will explore these techniques and the asanas that you can most easily access them.

13.00 – 14.30: REVELATIONS IN THE FUNDAMENTALS

Paschimottanasana the ‘forward fold’ is known as is literally translated as ‘westward faced back-stretch’. With yoga traditionally practiced facing east, meaning this is a way to stretch the backwards. This changes everything about our approach to the Primary Series. Now the series can be used to help unlock the deep muscles of the back, while avoiding the common problems encountered in these series to do with stretching forward - overstretched hamstrings and a sore lower back.

SUNDAY 27

8.00 AM: ASHTANGA SELF-PRACTICE

A self-practice class following the traditional Ashtanga sequences with verbal instruction and light physical assistance. Adam does not believe in forcing people into postures and focuses on safe and non-intrusive assistance, he offers directions for you to experience asanas in a comfortable and stable way. All physical abilities are welcome, however please have the sun salutations and first few standing asanas memorised.

10.30 – 12.00: OPENING THE HIPS

The real ‘hip opening’ is of the lower back and sacrum area. It’s not simply about how wide you can stretch your legs, or how easily your knees go to the floor in baddha konasana (‘butterlfy’). Having looked at the more subtle dimension of hip release in the asanas from Primary and Intermediate series, we shall go through a short example of an extra-curricular hip opening sequence, because, unfortunately, if your hips aren’t open enough already, simply squashing ourselves into the ashtanga postures probably isn’t going to do this for us.

13.00 – 14.30: MODERN YOGA DEVELOPMENT IN THE 20^TH CENTURY.

Whether we like it or not, modern yoga practice is, indeed, modern. On the other hand, it does have deep roots. They’re just not literally traceable from what we do now back 2000 years. But this doesn’t mean they aren’t still the foundational principles of what we’re doing now. Find out how key yoga teachers of the early 20^th century; Krishnamacharya, Yogendra, Yogananada, Vivekananda to name a few, interpreted the ancient practice of yoga to fit into the modern context.

Bookings are taken and managed by Marije at Yoga Point, click below for more info and to book