I’m very pleased to announce that David Keil will be back in the UK in July teaching his great yoga anatomy workshop followed by 5 days Mysore practice at Stillpoint Yoga London.

David is one of those gems in the yoga world who combines a dedicated practice with loads of useful anatomical knowledge that will inform and inspire your own yoga practice. I first met David back in May 2011 when I did his yoga anatomy workshop and 5 days of morning Mysore practice in Ware with Denise in Ware.

He’s an experienced practitioner and teacher trainer who’s maintained both his passion and sense of humour. He’s recently created a brilliant new DVD on the art of adjusting called hands-on adjustments. If you sign up for the workshop you also get 20% off the DVD when you purchase it through Yoga Matters!

Check out our workshops page to read more details and to book online. Early bird tickets are only available until the end of May. You can also book and read more on the Stillpoint Yoga London website.

Joey Miles is returning to Brighton for another weekend workshop in Brighton. It’ll be held over the weekend of Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th of April. This time we’ll be hosting it at Ralli Hall in Hove. Limited early bird tickets went on sale on Monday 28th January. For more details and to book an early-bird ticket visit the workshops page.

Here’s what we did at Joey’s last workshop in September 2012.

You can also read a review from his previous workshop in Brighton here.

You can book early bird tickets now.

2012: the highlights

Here are some of the highlights from the Ashtanga Blog in 2012:

• Dylan Bernstein Brighton workshop review
• Joey Miles Brighton weekend workshop – Saturday workshop review, Sunday workshop review.
• Coming up to standing
• Teaching at Exmoor Yogafest
• Jess and Laura get authorised

2013: the year ahead

• We’re going to Mysore in March – Yay!
• Joey is returning to Brighton for a weekend workshop in April (keep an eye on the blog)

Get inspired to practice

If you’d like some encouragement to make that commitment to daily practice then check out my blog post: an invitation to daily practice.

Wishing you a great new year on and off the mat!

Hebden Bridge October 2012

I met Joey and Donna about 5 years ago at Santosha yoga camp near Glastonbury where he was teaching.

For those who don’t know, Joey is one of the most advanced Ashtanga practitioners in the UK. Wow, sounds impressive doesn’t it? What’s even more impressive is that it’s not gone to his head – yet!

Over the last two years he’s come down to Brighton to teach two very successful weekend workshops. Check out these interesting posts written by attendees of his Brighton workshops:

• Saturday workshop Oct 2012 – written by Kathryn
• Sunday workshop Oct 2012 – written by Davy
• Weekend workshop Mar 2011 – by Monica

Both he and is lovely wife Donna have level 2 authorisation to teach by the KPJAYI. Joey is also virtually certifiable – in the Ashtanga sense that is. A lot of people are authorised but only a handful have what it takes to be certified. The only teachers in England who are certified are Hamish and Phillipa. Having worked with Joey before I was expecting the weekend to contain some intense asana practice, yoga philosophy, chanting and technique work – and I wasn’t disappointed!

I was rather pleasantly surprised by how good the train connection from Euston to Manchester is – less than 2 hours!

Ashtanga Yoga in Hebden Bridge

Hebden Bridge is a stunningly pretty middle English town – perhaps they all look like this? It’s been my first exploration of middle England so I have no idea. I’m not sure if there is such a term as middle England but there you go! The workshop was held at the Calderdale Yoga Centre. The practice space was also really nice – a dedicated yoga studio with nice high ceilings, wooden beams, loads of natural light and a wooden floor. Having a nice practice space makes such a difference and set the tone for the weekend nicely. The workshop was sold out with a over 20 practitioners with a wide ranging levels of experience which made for a balanced group.

Saturday morning

The morning session was a Sanskrit counted led primary class with a twist. Did you get the play on words there? Ah well never mind, I couldn’t resist! We held the postures much longer and also Joey’s instructions led us to exploring and accessing parts of our bodies even we (practitioners) didn’t know existed. The emphasis was on the standing postures and maintaining action in the legs. I’m sure you’ve all heard the instructions in the standing poses ‘lift up on your kneecaps’ or ‘engage your quadriceps’ or ‘keep your legs engaged’. This was similar to that but focused on the insides of the legs, feet and the buttocks. It was really hard work and fascinating to discover apparently ‘dead’ or ‘dormant’ areas of the legs and feet.

We did a full counted primary with back bends and drop backs too. In my experience this is rare for a workshop – but I’m assuming it was right for the level of the group.

Saturday afternoon

The afternoon session was Sanskrit chanting of the first pada of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. Chanting has been part of my practice since the early days so I always enjoy these sessions. Joey added a brief commentary to some of the sutras but the main focus was on making the sounds and chanting together as a group.

Saturday evening

On Saturday evening we headed out to a local pub in Hebden Bridge which was having an Indian night – the tali was great! Beer, wine and cider flowed freely. I got into a rather interesting discussion with Marie and Joey about the role of fathers and relationships between fathers and sons. More on that another time!

Sunday morning

On Sunday morning we worked on handstands and arm balances which again are great fun for me – I was pretty tired from Saturday’s marathon led class but I don’t spend any time exploring handstands or much in the way of arm balances in my daily practice so I really enjoyed this too. We did a few preparatory postures and then it was off to the wall to fling ourselves up against it. We also did some partner work too which was fun as it helped to break the ice between practitioners – always a good thing.

Sunday afternoon

Sunday afternoon was a nice long restorative session with loads of bolsters, blocks and blankets – I really enjoyed this after the previous intense sessions of asana practice and it balanced the workshop out nicely. It also meant that I could still walk on Monday which is always nice. One of the things I like most about Joey as a teacher is that he’s not scared to work deeply and do intense work and he also balances this out nicely with other aspects of practice like the chanting and restorative poses. His depth of experience as both practitioner and teacher is really appreciated.

What next?

We’re planning on a doing a couple more workshops in Brighton next year and there will also be some yoga holidays in warmer climes with Joey that will be worth checking out too.

To find out more about what Joey and Donna are up to you can visit www.ashtangayogaleeds.com or like their Facebook page.

If you fancy reading more about Joey’s Brighton workshops here are those links again:

• Saturday workshop Oct 2012 – written by Kathryn
• Sunday workshop Oct 2012 – written by Davy
• Weekend workshop Mar 2011 – by Monica

At the beginning of September Joey Miles visited Brighton to teach a weekend workshop:

Joey is a very good teacher. He is knowledgeable, clear, funny and humble. Too many yoga teachers, especially in the Ashtanga tradition, think they know it all and that their job is to pass this on in an unquestioning fashion. Joey isn’t like that. He has been to Mysore. He has practised with the best. He gives them due respect. But he also makes clear his preparedness to be more pragmatic. And he is willing to share his own yoga journey – how he has changed, the mistakes he has made. He gives you confidence that he has been through the same issues/concerns that you have and come through the other side. He seeks questions and answers them honestly and with good insight. He demystifies Ashtanga and talks common sense!

We could only make the second day of the workshop due to other commitments. The first half was a led “count through in Sanskrit” practice. Joey spent some time explaining the value of the counting method for focusing attention on the breath, for slowing the breath down and for keeping the collective breath/movement together. We have done “counted” classes before and this was fun. We both have some reservations about the method though – we felt that the complexities and inconsistencies of the counting system (which Joey freely admitted and joked about) sometimes militated against the meditative focus it is designed to induce. His adjustments were firm and safe. The packed room got very hot and sweaty ! The long Savasana was delicious !

After lunch, we focused on inversions which Joey rightly pointed out rarely get the attention they deserve in Ashtanga. The preparatory sequence he proposed (Down Dog and Standing Forward Bend) which stretches the upper body was very helpful. Neither of us are confident in Handstand but he got us up there ! And his emphasis on alignment was good. Similarly in Headstand, where his technique with narrower elbows, less clutching of the back of the head with the hands and lengthening out of the waist, made the pose feel lighter and easier to maintain. Towards the end of the afternoon, we focused on the Shoulderstand sequence and the importance of not holding the weight on C7 in the neck. This was very interesting, as research suggests that Shoulderstand is one of the yoga poses most likely to lead to injury. His preparation work for shoulderstand was very good and both of us got higher and more comfortable in Setu Bandhasana than ever before. Throughout, this session was interactive, sometimes working with a partner, and Joey’s approachable and informative style excelled.

Sometimes you go to workshops and don’t feel you have learned much really. This was different. We would have no hesitation in recommending Joey’s workshops.