Ashtanga Workshop Milan with Adam Keen

June 9-11 at Milano Ashtanga Yoga

Have you found yourself on a plateau in your practice? Or, perhaps, you’ve been suffering from an injury that doesn’t seem to be going away? Maybe you’re simply questioning the constant chasing of postures, going from one to the next without ever arriving at the feeling you’d hoped for in your yoga.

If any of this is the case for you, this workshop will provide some answers. All levels are welcome and will benefit from every session.  Overall, the aim is that everyone will leave having a clearer idea of the following:

• How to practice sustainably and avoid unnecessary risk of injury
• What effective technique means; how breath and bandha work together as a profoundly transformative tool.
• An individual approach to practice; a discussion of the original teaching approach and why the generalised way we often found the method taught was never meant to be the case.

FRIDAY

6.00 pm – 7.30 pm: Yoga Philosophy & Practice Chat, Q&A

Yoga philosophy can often seem irrelevant to daily life and our asana practice. However, it is just as valuable as ever, especially in these challenging times of change. This talk will present a fresh approach to The Bhagavad Gita, taking in our modern lifestyle and interests with practice in an honest and humourful discussion.

Adam has a background in philosophy as well as a uniquely open and honest approach to how he has used the ideas of yoga philosophy to overcome his challenges in life. This is a great way to start the weekend, setting the context and attitude to our practice. There will be time for Q&A.

SATURDAY

8.00 – 10.00 Mysore

Adam gives yoga assists that are safe, and non-intrusive, he does not believe in forcing people into postures. He uses energetic pointers and resistance stretches so everyone can progress naturally and safely as their bodies dictate. The class is based on an exploration of how you can find profound work in what you are doing.

10.30 – 12.00: The Five Fundamentals of An Effective Practice

Learn the basic techniques to establish safe and sustainable progress. Through the following principles, using demonstration and partner work, you will be able to incorporate these into your practice:

• Stretch safely through breath-based action
• Strength building by use of opposing forces in your body.
• Stability, the importance of the medial stretch for scapula strength and mobility.
• Bandha as a tool to engineer diaphragmatic breathing
• Alignment, a more effective approach.

13.00- 2.30:  A new definition of backbends

Urdhva dhanurasana literally translated means ‘inverted bow’.  By bowing the body as opposed to simply pushing into the lower back, a new approach is highly likely to occur. You can develop a fresh understanding of the back bend and what you are aiming at to be safe and effective.

The class will focus on these techniques:

• Stretching across the body to give the spine space to lengthen
• The importance of the legs in backbends.
• Where to try to bend from – how to promote bending in the thoracic spine whilst protecting the lumbar spine.

SUNDAY

8.00 am to 10.00 am Mysore

Adam gives yoga assists that are safe, and non-intrusive, he does not believe in forcing people into postures. He uses energetic pointers and resistance stretches so everyone can progress naturally and safely as their bodies dictate. The class is based on an exploration of how you can find profound work in what you are doing.

10.30 to 12.00 pm Jump Through & Jump Back - Lighter Lifts

Are you completely lost on how to lift your body weight? Or are you halfway there but getting stuck? Or you can generally 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.  This workshop will focus 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 abbs or arm muscles. Indeed, 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.

Cost: €25 per session

To book click here

Bio:

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.

He 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.

Adam is also the host of the Keen on Yoga Podcast and YouTube channels and co-founder of Keen on Yoga, an online yoga platform.

When not practising yoga, Adam likes to cook, in his earlier years, he was a vegetarian chef at Buddhist centres and yoga retreats to support himself while studying yoga. This took him to Purple Valley Yoga, where he was employed as the chef and met his wife, Theresa.

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 often afraid or unsure how to ask. Find him on Instagram @adam_keen_ashtanga