New Class: Strength & Conditioning

Dear Yogis,

Christmas, eh! How were the presents? Did you get blocks and bolsters? Is your New Year Resolution up and running?

I saw this quote about the meaning of Christmas from A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens.

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”

I hope you had a good Christmas. I hope you weren’t lonely.

I’m starting a new class from next Monday – 15th January. I’ve never done a 1.00 lunchtime class before here in my lucky home studio, neither have I done a Strength & Conditioning class but I’ve been teaching a 45-minute class at Eden Gym as a cover teacher and… I love it. I’ve been collecting weights from charity shops and Facebook Marketplace and I have enough equipment for five places. It’s an in-person class but if you’re interested in joining online, pop me a line and I’ll tell you what equipment I have.

Classes

Classes were slow in the first week of January. They’re picking up now, including the 90-minute Saturday morning Ashtanga. I still have recently vacated space for a couple of corporate classes so let me know if you want to introduce yoga into your company.

Here’s a round-up of all classes: Monday = Strength & Conditioning Lunchtime Class 1.00-2.00, Monday and Tuesday = stretchy class at 7.00pm, Wednesday = Ashtanga at 7.00pm, Friday morning = Ashtanga at 8.30am and Saturday morning = Ashtanga at 8.30 – 10.00am. You can book here.

Yoga in The News

The Yoga Journal has: Willem Dafoe on the Intersection of Yoga and Acting. “He cited his long-standing regular Ashtanga yoga practice as one of the secrets to contributing to that acceptance and to navigating everyday life. “It probably saves me,” he said.” “Although he’s no longer pushing himself so hard. “Ashtanga tends to attract type A people!” he quipped. And yet his practice has allowed him to understand the futility of this.”

The Telegraph has:  I'm just as bendy at 82 - here are my yoga secrets. “No one had heard of yoga back then (1971), but I was so stiff, tired and stressed that I was happy to give a local class a go. “I left an hour later walking on air. I knew immediately that yoga was for me. I started to practise regularly and became so pleased with my new yoga-toned shape, energy and positive attitude that I wanted to share the benefits – so I trained to be a teacher.”

The New York Times has: Why Yoga Teachers Are Learning to Dissect Cadavers. ‘The two-day dissection was led by Fauna Moore, an Ashtanga yoga instructor and massage therapist who began attending, studying and then teaching dissections after being disappointed with the anatomy instruction she received during training.