martial arts classes

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Yoga isn’t simply about flexibility! This ancient method of wellbeing is thousands of years old, and it is still with us today because of the immense and innumerable benefits that it brings its practitioners. When it comes to functional movement, flexibility is only the first half of the equation. Mobility training is the key to increasing your active range of motion. Why is this important? Because by increasing mobility you reduce the risk for soft tissue injury so that you can continue doing whatever it is that you enjoy - whether that is martial arts, sports, dance or any other activity. Get ready because this class will challenge your body and mind in an entirely different way!

What is Elemental Yoga?  In this program, students will be taught yoga set within the ancient and universal philosophy of the five elements. This is not a classical form of yoga, such as Hatha or Ashtanga (as great as they are), but nor is it a trendy twist on pop culture's idea of yoga, like beer or goat yoga (as fun as they are). Instead, this is yoga is not a yoga that has been rooted not into one of the countless traditions, but rather the thing that all of the traditions have been pointing at. Using the basic framework of asana, the goal here is not to have the student understand how yoga works, but rather, give the student the opportunity to understand how the student works. We accomplish this by rooting our practice in universals, and not specifics. It is because of this that this form of yoga will make you better at everything you do, as it’s science can be summed up as the thinking body, dancing mind.   Yes, you will get fit.  Yes, you will get flexible.  Yes, you will feel a greater sense of stability, peace, and joy.   It is of the utmost importance to understand, however, that all of these benefits arrive simply because the program has been designed to help you begin to feel a little more like the real you.

War Yoga  ...War...Yoga? Huh?  As you can tell from the name alone, this class is certainly not for everyone. The name isn’t meant to scare or intimidate anyone, but rather expose that we are full of fear, which is exactly the opposite of any real yoga practice. Unfortunately, this is rarely addressed directly, and therefore all of the resulting mindfulness become utterly dependant on our lives operating in a sanitized space, in a sanitized way. The minute something goes wrong, however, it falls apart. At this juncture, there are two paths we can take: the first, and by far the most common is the attempt to render our environment comfortable, safe, and without any potential trigger. The second is to stop concerning yourself with the world, and start concerning yourself with the source of your problems: you. In other words, yoga.  Okay...You have my interest piqued...What is it?  Acting as an extension of our Elemental Yoga and Meditation classes, War Yoga asks the question: have you ever wanted to learn yoga while holding a spear? What if you did the warrior poses not having to imagine a sword? Sounds sorta cool, but also sorta gimmicky, right? Well, not if you understand history! You see, it was the martial arts that birthed yoga. In fact, a majority of the positions we now equate with yoga actually come from much older martial art practices, such as wrestling and weapons. This should be no surprise as in the yogic lore, Shiva, the Adiyogi (the first yogi) was a warrior of tremendous skill and renown.   Okay, cool, but is there really any value to learning yoga with a sword, especially nowadays?   Yes, and perhaps even more so. Life in the modern age has been largely divorced from reality, and as a consequence of this, most of us feel like our minds and bodies are alien to us. We don’t hunt, we don’t gather, and we don’t protect. Millions of years of evolutionary design flushed down the drain for the sake of a more convenient life. For many, whether or not it brings upon themselves spiritual calamity or alienation, a convenient life is enough. For those of us who wish to reconnect to our bodies, however, we need reawaken our hands, which are the instruments of our minds. They were meant to interface with the world, and weld objects of power (and thus meaning), just as the body was meant to dance in response to them. In this program, you will not be taught how to fight or fence. That is another class, for another time! Instead, you will learn how to move in support of, against, around, and with a symbolic object so that one can ground an authentic yoga practice into the ever-present reality which demands from us right thinking-to-right-action-at-the-right-time. A weapon is a great tool for self-development, and understanding the true root of yoga asana.

What is Mediation?  Our meditation program, acting as an extension of our Elemental Yoga, will be anchored in the framework that is found described as eight stages or limbs within the Yoga Sutras, specifically that of the last five: Pranayama (breathwork), Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (contemplation) and Samadhi (absorption). While these terms may seem exotic or confusing, they are actually just pre-scientific names for coherence, mindfulness, focus, attention, and flow. While these “sciencey” terms may seem all the fashionable rage, it turns out that science is actually very interested in the realities of meditative practices, and with good reason: it is upon these discoveries that the limits of human performance keep being thrust higher and higher every year, whether that is CEO’s running multibillion-dollar corporations or it is extreme athletes accomplishing the seemingly impossible. The results, both in the lab and as they play out in the real world, show us what the yogi’s, Zen masters, and contemplative monastics have known for thousands of years: meditation is the real deal and is one of humanity’s greatest and most dependable technologies of performance and wellbeing. As such, it is not only beneficial for those of us who outrightly seek our spiritual enlightenment, but also has unlimited potential for anyone that wants to be better at life, whether that is in the form of music, art, or sport, or whether it is engaging in the deeper aspects of your own experience, such as nature appreciation, clarity of one’s purpose or parenthood.