Hi, I’m Michael.
I teach insight practices — yoga, meditation, and a few less obvious ones — to people building things in leadership and technology.
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About
Twenty years teaching yoga, running a studio, and thinking about what insight practices actually do. They sharpen attention — and attention is the bottleneck on every hard problem, personal or professional. I write about that intersection, work one-on-one with leaders and builders, and run The Yoga Club in D.C.
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Wednesday
August 26, 2026
Tuesday
August 25, 2026
washingtonian.comSweetgreen Opens its First DC Area Drive-ThroughSweetgreen, the fast-casual salad chain founded in DC, opened its first East Coast drive-through in McLean, Virginia. The 'Sweetlane' is a mobile pickup system where customers order online and collect their bowls at a window, adapting the urban fast-casual model for car-dependent suburban markets.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
henryaj.substack.comThe Sloppification of PeptidesThe article examines how AI-generated content is creating fake review sites and forums to manipulate peptide buyers. An entire website (CompoundTalk) was built with AI-generated posts, fake user histories, and coordinated domain registrations—designed not for human readers but to be ingested by LLMs✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
thecancunsun.comWhy September Is The Cheapest Month To Fly To Cancun (And The Best Hubs For Sub-$250 Fares)September is the cheapest month to fly to Cancun, with average one-way fares around $217, driven by ultra-low-cost carrier competition and off-peak demand. Major hubs across the U.S. are seeing sub-$250 round-trip deals, and travelers can double savings by pairing cheap flights with heavily discount✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
goodereader.comLithuania has an e-book piracy issueLithuania has an e-book piracy problem significantly worse than the EU average, with popular titles appearing on illegal platforms within hours of release. A 2024 study found that while 60% of digital readers use only legal sources, 20% are uncertain about their sources' legality, and one piracy sit✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
The NASM-CPT Podcast With Rick RicheyHow professional trainers stand out from amateurs in fitnessA veteran trainer cuts through the noise with blunt, field-tested business and programming habits that separate people who play trainer from people who build a career. The self-awareness is unusually honest.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Practice with us this season
Two ways to go deeper before the year turns — a full Ashtanga study season in DC, and an intimate Mysore retreat on the coast of Mexico.
Self Practice by the Sea
A Mysore retreat on the Riviera Maya.
Four mornings of practice, four nights on the coast, a private home with a rooftop pool. Small on purpose — four spots only.
Ashtanga Study Group
Three series. One room. One season.
Sixteen Tuesday cohort nights and sixteen Sunday all-levels sessions — Primary, Intermediate, and Advanced A, side by side. Choose your cohort.
Books by Michael Joel Hall
Six books on Ashtanga, systems, and the craft of a practice. Functional Ashtanga is free; the rest are $10 each, or all six for $50. EPUB + PDF, instant download.
Functional Ashtanga
The manifesto and the method — the whole project’s front door, built on one principle: agency, not compliance.
Free
Self Practice
The method as a manual — how to build an intelligent, sustainable self-practice from the first breath.
$10
Ashtanga 2.0
The philosophy — a postmodern deconstruction of yoga’s authority, and the grounded mysticism that survives it.
$10
Mechanism, Not Magic
The thinking underneath the practice — yoga as a system for clear, honest leadership on and off the mat.
$10
How to Build a Yoga Club
The playbook for the room itself — how to build a practice space that lasts, without burning out or selling out.
$10
Your Life Is Art
The systems primer — stocks, flows, and feedback loops, and the craft of composing a life.
$10
Press
Interviews, bylines, and the occasional controversy.
What is Ashtanga Yoga? The Benefits of This Challenging Practice
“Ashtanga demands fitness, flexibility, and focus — a calming, yet sweaty form of moving meditation.”
Read →Yoga Teacher Recovers, But Attack Highlights a Job’s Health Care Issue
The catalyst for my ongoing advocacy around economic precarity in the yoga teaching profession.
Read →Building Resilience in This Political Climate
A practice sequence for finding strength and clarity when the news is loud.
Read →Responding to Rand Paul on Free Yoga for Government Employees
“They are in less pain, physically and mentally. They go on and do a better job.”
Read →Does Yoga Really Foster Transformation?
On why I practice — to cultivate the conditions required for transformation.
Read →Mysore, the Place and the Practice
A long conversation with Chris Parkinson about my journey, cross-training, and the trajectory of yoga in D.C.
Listen →The Newsletter
A daily email on consciousness, leadership, technology, and practice. No fluff. Unsubscribe anytime.
Recent Writing
Fresh off the press.
Get in Touch
Questions, collaborations, speaking, coaching inquiries — send a note.
