Stop Making Ashtanga a Cult! Part 1: The Problem
Michael Joel Hall offers a different approach to Ashtanga Yoga grounded in humanist values, personal agency, and inclusivity, rather than dogma or hierarchy.
My Teaching Journey — Ashtanga Tech
I started teaching yoga because a friend of mine caught dengue fever.
Ashtanga Tech — the podcast. Keep the practice, lose the guru. Michael Joel Hall on Ashtanga yoga without the authoritarianism.
🎧 Listen to the podcast: https://pub-477a42ee397942aa87e96485ef790f2c.r2.dev/podcast/ashtanga-tech/feed.rss
If a stuck practice or a bad room is on your mind — text CULT to 202-816-5612.
Ten Years of Practice, No Idea Why: Building the System I Couldn’t Find
For years I mistook obedience for depth. The day I started reading my practice as a system instead of a set of instructions — and started instrumenting it like one — everything I’d called discipline turned out to be drift.
The Mouse Arm Side and the Coffee Side Are Both Tight
Your office wired one side of your neck on and the other side off. Marichyasana D pays the price.
Don’t Guess. Assess.
“Don’t guess, assess” is a data thesis. We turned every posture into a diagnostic you can actually read — joint by joint, no guru required.
Cortisol Dropped After a Single Yoga Class
A 2007 study found that people new to yoga experienced significant decreases in cortisol, the primary stress hormone, after just one class.
Two Tracks
A teacher showed up sick, taught brilliantly, and asked a rude little question: are body and mood really the same thing?
Your Maha Sadhana
A reminder that asana isn’t the whole practice—it’s training for how you treat people, reduce harm, and maybe enjoy your life.
Who Am I? The Yoga Question Behind Every Other Question
Self-inquiry sounds soft. In practice it’s the hardest thing in yoga.
MJH INC: Building a Personal Sovereign Internet
From chatrooms at thirteen to running a world in Ultima Online to building communities for companies — a life spent tending rooms online. Now I’m turning that instinct on my own data: pulling twenty years of my life off the platforms and onto ground I own, and building the habit of micro-journaling in my own garden instead of Meta’s.