Classical Hatha
Heal and unite your body, mind and soul with the age-old, proven yoga: Hatha—the yoga second to none!
Interest in yoga is at an all-time high, and with good reason too. Not only can’t Hatha Yoga be replaced by any other system of exercise, but it outmatches them all. Most exercise systems are nothing but the inferior yogas done wrong. Also, the emphasis is placed on the muscular system, while the endocrine, nervous, gastrointestinal, and circulatory systems are badly neglected. But what’s even worse, 60-70% of the “yogas” thought in the world today are not yoga at all (some big brand names included!). They are hijacking yoga in a manner so alarming, corrupted, and disgusting, somebody’s got to expose them.
Yoga “raises the dead”
It’s banal, but true: yoga makes you healthy, happy, and whole. We could go on and on listing the benefits of yoga, but you know them all—flexibility, health, beauty, energy, strength, stamina, enthusiasm, happiness, calm, focus, balance... —don’t you? Be it as it may, yoga “raises the dead.”
Exercising glands and organs
There are differences in the way Hatha Yoga is taught, and there are definite differences in the results achieved. When done correctly, yoga not only stretches, massages, supples, strengthens, and shapes the body, but also repairs and revitalizes malfunctioning tissues and organs, regulates the glandular system, relieves pain, tension and stiffness, releases energy trapped in the tense areas, and calms the mind.
Moving slowly, holding for a while
In Hatha Yoga the body is moved slowly under tension, which builds long, lean muscles. We go only as far as we can without straining, regardless of where it may be, and then hold. Holding the postures for more than half a minute not only imparts the elasticity to endure strain and get into the most extreme positions, but also squeezes the slow-moving venous blood from fat and muscle. During rest—after every posture—when the muscles are relaxed, the arterial blood charged with oxygen and prana (life energy)—from deep, connected breathing—flows deep into the tissues, replaces this slow-moving blood, removes toxins and lactic acid (if any), and picks up fat to be used for energy. No fatigue, no stiff or sore muscles ever again! Since your breathing is deep, connected, and together with the movement, and you relax within the effort, even by going in and out of postures vigorously and repeatedly, without holding, you won’t experience the burn of the lactic acid buildup. Moreover, after yoga you feel elevated and revitalized, not drained. Remember, all movements and positions in yoga are natural and intensely pleasurable.
Mere exercise ain’t yoga
Without correct breathing (to regulate brainwaves, among other things), as well as energy locks and muscular contractions (to stimulate, direct, and control the energy flows created by postures and breathing), yoga is merely another form of exercise, though still superior to others. What’s more, you don’t run away from bodily sensations: you feel the stretching, the stimulation, the energy release, the relaxation. In other words, you focus your full attention on how you feel, and you listen to what your body is telling you. If your attention wanders, gently but firmly you bring it back to what you’re doing.
Measuring progress
A yoga instructor got hurt while exercising. Nonsense. You can be goddamn sure she wasn’t doing yoga. Don’t confuse the amount of exercise with the type of exercise. Progress in yoga is measured not by how many strange poses you manage to get your body into, nor by how far to the extreme you can go, but by, first, how relaxed, at one you are in them, and second, how long can you hold them without effort or strain.
Lose weight without dieting
You tried dieting. You managed to take off some weight, just to put it right back on again. In Hatha Yoga, postures increase the blood circulation into the fat areas, thus removing fat from the body without dieting. For unless you improve the blood flow to the fat areas, you may starve yourself to death and still not take off the fat.
Yoga should be part of every fitness program
As one of our teachers said, “Yoga should be part of every fitness program!” And now, with our accelerated “Hatha Yoga Simplified” method of instruction, you can not only learn but also execute all the main Hatha Yoga postures—in their final forms—in a matter of weeks, provided you practice once or twice a day, every day, for about 20-30 minutes.
A thought or two (actually four) to ponder upon: “You are as young as your spine is flexible,” “Breath is life. He who half breathes, half lives,” “Tension is a squeezing occurring at the point of discomfort,” “Stretching is the means to relieving tension and releasing energy.”
Disjoined and tense? Been practicing wrong? Try our Youthful with Yoga class, and get your yoga right!
