Ashtanga workshop Madrid, Saturday May 20th & Sunday May 21st

Hosted by: Ashtanga School Madrid and Myoga Shala

SATURDAY MAY 20TH

8.00 am – 10.00 am: Mysore Practice

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.

This session will be a practical exposition of how the more profound work in what we are doing relates to compression. This is the ability to balance opposing forces in your own body rather than only pushing your body in one direction. Using compression is more likely to keep you injury free. It’s also a more effective method to make real and sustainable progress.

In Adam’s Mysore class:

• Everyone will be treated as an individual.
• Everyone will be given ways to move forward without being stopped because they can’t yet achieve a specific expression of a particular pose.
• Everyone, regardless of level or ability, will be given equal time and attention.

10.30 am-noon: The Five Fundamentals of An Effective Practice

Learn the basic techniques to establish visible, safe, and sustainable progress in your practice. In this workshop, Adam will lay out the following principles using demonstration and partner work to make sure everyone leaves with a thorough understanding of how to incorporate the following principles into their practice.

• The stretch through breath-based action
• Find opposing forces in the body to build strength alongside flexibility
• Pulling across the body: the medial stretch for scapula stability
• Developing an understanding of Bandha as the activation of diaphragmatic breathing

12.00 am – 1.00 pm: Philosophy Chat & Q&A

Yoga philosophy can often come across as either dull or preachy. In this chat, we shall consider the fundamental ideas expressed in the Bhagavad Gita in a way that is modern and accessible.

SUNDAY MAY 21ST

8.00 am – 10.00 am: Mysore Practice

As on Saturday

10.30 am-noon: Jump Through & Jump Back – Lighter Lifts

Are you completely lost on how to begin lifting your bodyweight halfway there or able to do it but feel like it could be done more efficiently? You will benefit from this workshop that lays out a unique and transparent framework for developing, finessing and sustaining the famous jump-through & jump back.

The emphasis is on understanding diaphragmatic control as the basis of this most elusive movement. The work is different from where we think it lies. It is not so hard physically, but rather a question of developing our awareness of our bodies and the seat of our power in breathing with the diaphragm.

So, come and unlock your latent potential at your current stage. This workshop is for everyone; no one has too short arms or not enough core strength to make progress to building up to success here. Instruction will be given clearly in stages with an emphasis on practical explanation and the power of visualisations (use of the mind), and each person will be given individual attention.

About Adam

Adam Keen completed the Advanced A sequence of Ashtanga yoga in 2013 with Sharathji in Mysore (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.

When not practising yoga, Adam likes to cook – in his earlier years, he was a chef at a Buddhist centre and worked, whilst studying yoga, running yoga-retreat kitchens. This took him to Purple Valley Yoga, where he met his wife Theresa and then boss 15 years ago.

Still a philosophy student at heart, Adam shares his thoughts and experience daily on social media, where you can find him discussing many of the questions that come to our minds but we’re afraid or not sure how to ask. He is also the host of the Keen on Yoga Podcast.