Mysore-Style

Mysore-Style refers to the tradition and method in which Ashtanga has been passed on in Mysore, India, the seat of Ashtanga Yoga for nearly seventy-five years.  In the Mysore tradition, you learn and commit the practice to memory posture by posture and breath by breath, progressing to the limit of your abilities and then stretching beyond them.  In this way, primary material prepares you for intermediate material, progress is methodical and systematic, and the practice is paced and tailored to the individual student.

In Mysore-style classes students of all levels practice together, and the classes are characterized by one-on-one instruction and individual practice carefully monitored and assisted by the instructor.  At the beginning of the practice period, the chant is recited and practice begins.  Following that, students start and finish at their own pace as the instructor moves from student to student, working with each one individually, giving assistance, and teaching new material when appropriate.  Ashtanga in particular is taught this way because:

• It is a movement system linked with the breath, which to impart its intended benefit must be practiced at the pace of each individual's breathing;

• In this way, instruction can be one-on-one, your practice is attended to individually, and you practice and progress at your own rate, neither that of a lowest common denominator or average, nor at a pace or intensity that injures or exhausts you;

• It asks you to be responsible for your own practice, teaches you to practice independently, allows for complete focus on your practice, and teaches you to overcome external distractions.

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