Ashtanga Vinyasa Fundamentals
Building a strong foundation is essential to progressing in Yoga in a healthy, concentrated and intelligent manner! Our Fundamentals of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga is open to those new to yoga and those who wish to refine their understandings of the foundations.
Each week, classes will have a slightly different focus. It’s an opportunity to take a close look at technique, movement, breath, sequencing and other tools that are the essence of Ashtanga Vinyasa. The class will lay the foundations to move into more advanced levels of either Ashtanga or Vinyasa.
During the one-hour classes, we teach fundamental principles of yoga and break down the different elements of the sun salutations. We find the essence of every single pose within the sun salutations because when these are taught with awareness from the beginning, the yoga practitioner develops a strong foundation to build upon over the months and years of practice to come.
After the sun salutations, a portion of standing poses are taught. This is an important part of the Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga system. They give us strength and endurance in the body, which allows us the freedom to find flexibility from a place of stability.
All the classes end with sitting poses to concentrate on the breath and cool the body before a deep final relaxation.
We encourage the yoga practitioner to listen and connect with their body and we give different modifications to make the practice suitable for the individual.
How many classes one will need to take before moving on is completely individual. Once one feels they have achieved a certain capability to follow the class without feeling rushed or out of breath and can follow the most important alignment cues it is probably time to move on. If you are unsure just ask a teacher to keep an eye on you during the class and tell you after class if he/she thinks you can approach the next level. You are also more than welcome to come back to those classes to revisit the fundamentals! It’s always a good practice to go back to the basics and focus on a particular aspect of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. Those classes are meant to give a strong foundation to the physical practice, and as any foundations, they need to be refined and worked on over time.
We also have Yin Restorative and Postural Yoga classes which are open to all levels of practitioners, including beginners.
To go further, you can continue with the next level of guided classes (Ashtanga 1, Vinyasa 1) or start transitioning towards Mysore practice.
Focus of each class
A new theme is introduced each week! Once week 12 wraps up, we circle back to week 1, providing participants the flexibility to join the class at any time during the year. Attending a class from all 12 weeks ensures exposure to all themes.
Specific dates for each week will be displayed at the studio.
