OTHER SIDE

@WHITCHERIE

omg!

new
30 minute Video:
Shoulder Love

Posted on Patreon

an after of pranayama, bandha, kriya, and a lot of spine segmentation

so! hard!

sped up 20x

20!

sped up 20x

20!

bootscoot & boogie

it actually looks a lot more like this.

Let me know if you’d like to join in on the fun.

/so!/satisfying!/

“It doesn’t feel like it’s getting any closer,” she says. “Work with gravity— that’s good stuff, “ I say. watch the face. That eyeroll.

she feelin herself ya know

Feelin like a proud
yogi bear rn

when the lecture goes too long

k bai

Most folks can jump higher than a tree.

besos

a duck haiku

hit by car, fucked wrist
end of April, healing up
funny pose to like

wrist is much better

grace not so much

Drills for inversions
Sped up 9x

ridiculous.

first drop back since
getting hit by a car in April

Karen's the first person. I ever saw use this to teach.

not working.

@magiccityyogi

Word. Word.

two of my biggest
influences in one spot

🧘‍♂️Exploring Time Delays in #AshtangaYoga 🕰️

Did you see my article (link in bio)

🔄 I intertwine the practice of yoga with systems theory, emphasizing that the fruits of yoga bloom subtly and gradually, embodying a crucial time delay between practice and noticeable benefits.

🌱 It’s like a garden, little changes are a big deal over time— consistent practice nurtures physical strength, flexibility, and mental focus, forming a continuous cycle of growth and discovery. You can’t rush the crop.

🔄 Practice becomes a holistic exploration, intertwining physical, mental, and emotional spheres.

🚶‍♂️ Navigating through the complexities and time delays in yoga involves embracing vulnerability, seeking personalized guidance, and cultivating patience and compassion.

📝 Strategies like maintaining a practice journal and engaging in community practice are highlighted as vital in navigating through the subtle, continuous progress that unfolds over time.

🌟 Remember: The journey through Ashtanga Yoga is not merely about mastering poses but a holistic exploration that unfolds patiently and subtly over time.

🔗 Link to the full in bio

#YogaJourney #Ashtanga #YogaPractice #HolisticGrowth #Patience #Consistency #YogaLife #YogaCommunity #Mindfulness #MentalHealth #PhysicalHealth #EmotionalHealth #SustainableProgress #YogaBenefits #SystemsTheory #TimeDelay #YogaMastery #YogaPhilosophy #YogaWisdom #YogaForLife #YogaEveryday

Shelly brings me a lot of inspo.

Did you finish day 2?

Did you like the tabata?

My friend from @theyoga.club Liz @lizzoouli suggested I record my practice to check in on some asymmetries I'm balancing. She’s worried I don’t get enough time with a teacher for myself. I broke my ankle and rib last year getting hit by a bicyclist, and my wrist about a year before that getting hit by a car. I am really proud of my generally good attitude, outside of one meltdown phone call ( thanks @made_by_mara !!). Yoga has instilled patience and persistence, pragmatism and a solutions focused growth mindset. 10/10, would recommend. The yoga, that is. The getting hit by stuff is a 2/10.

If you need some support in your practice or healing journey, hmu. This stuff works.

Here’s some stuff I do in order to wrestle with the nature of reality and the infinite. It’s mostly stuff to affect physiological change towards general well being layered with meditation and mindset. These disparate systems encourage an emergence of something greater than the sum of their parts. It looks some kinda way.

Here’s some stuff I do in order to wrestle with the nature of reality and the infinite. It’s mostly stuff to affect physiological change towards general well being layered with meditation and mindset. These disparate systems encourage an emergence of something greater than the sum of their parts. It looks some kinda way.

This is really excellent

exploring adaptation from a place of curiosity tends to be helpful as practice for when the exploration is by neccesity.

When I got to Goa, I felt anonymous again.

In Mysore, I felt like everyone had heard. I was the ashtangi who got hate crime'd in the face after his house burned down. I wanted to be the tall pretty one. Or the smart one. But for now, I was very much the tragic one.

Luckily, Rolf wasn’t watching the news. I was just one more 6'3 drop back for him to do. And he was happy to oblige-- quietly sharing lite bits here and there in my ear about his work. But not so happy with it that I didn’t get assigned sone extra. Great.

After 26 years of shrinking myself for others, I got to just be the big one. You gotta gang up to take the big one down, and that's what was happening in real life. Literal gangs at home on the street, and little yogi gangs jockeying for status in Mysore.

When you question your ability to be loved by the universe, it is very helpful to see real love pouring out of someone else’s eyes.

Rolf didn’t need to know that I was stitched together with laughy taffy and titanium. Marci went to work on putting my physical injuries to bed and Rolf my heart. Neither needed a narrative. it is good, because I was so sick of my own story I couldn’t take it anymore.

As I’ve been working on my book-- it’s almost done -- the only part that I haven’t gotten into is my introduction into Systems Thinking-- through a gang beatdown.

I have known catastrophe again and again and gotten up to go again and again. This might sound like hubris, but check my receipts.

Rolf was able to help me see the interconnected nature of things in a way that makes the big picture possible. He also helped me understand how unspecial I was — while also feeling very very, very special. As Rolf would say, you do as you feel, and every day, the Yoga grows inside of you like a little plant.

In many ways, the development of my practice and the autonomy — the Santosh— the self sufficiency — means that there is less labor for my teacher to take on. Now i understand that my desire to be better in my physical practice was also so that Rolf had to do less for me.

Since he’s dead now, I will have to put my thigh down on the ground myself.

word

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Ready to unlock your full potential? Let’s dive deep (literally) into the power of breath! 🌟

Visit michaeljoelhall.com

#BreatheBetter #PeakPerformance #AthleteMindset #BreathTraining

Between backbends

Transitions Playground
Saturday after Mysore

healing this ol’ cage one rib atta time

When I started practicing in 2002, there wasnt a yoga studio on every corner. Yoga hadn’t quite hit the granola standard yet (when its not just for hippies anymore). Practice in general was still counterculture, with lineage-based yoga studios having been established for a decade or two. It wasnt yet seen from a consumerist athleisure lens.
This was at a time when traditional yoga studios had begun to propagate naturally into smaller studios from their spry, allowing 30-something teachers to enter full time teaching, inside their own four walls. It was a time before the big boxes, the local chains, and venture capital from Wall Street. Yes, at one time, independent yoga studios were owned by people who had made exotic journeys and devoted insane amounts of time to their spiritual quests amd studies.

So what happened? Head to michaeljoelhall.com to read more.

o hai weirdo

bb steps

Select postures from 2nd 1/2 of 2nd series
w/ a chair

Resistance bands are great for end-range strength training, and this can be especially beneficial for Ashtanga Yoga asana practice—here’s the “why” in both anatomy and Ashtanga terms:

1. Why resistance bands work for end-range strength

Resistance bands provide what’s called variable resistance: the further you stretch them, the more resistance they provide. This makes them perfect for training end-range strength—that’s the strength required when your muscles are either fully lengthened or fully shortened. Think of the top of a backbend, the deepest point in Supta Kurmasana, or holding your leg behind your head: these are all end-range positions.

Unlike free weights, bands make it harder as you move deeper into the range, which is the opposite of most real-life strength patterns (where you tend to be weakest at the extremes). So by training at those extremes with resistance bands, you’re preparing your muscles and joints to be strong, stable, and supported in yoga’s most demanding positions.

2. Why that’s good for Ashtanga yoga

In Ashtanga, especially the Intermediate Series and beyond, we are constantly exploring the limits of flexibility and control. But:
• Flexibility without strength is like stretching a rubber band with no tension—it’ll snap or sag.
• End-range strength helps prevent injury by supporting joints in vulnerable positions—like Kapotasana or Karandavasana.
• It also helps balance the nervous system’s stretch reflex. If your nervous system doesn’t trust you to be strong at end-range, it will limit your flexibility. But when it feels you’re strong and stable, it lets you go deeper—safely.

3. Systems Thinking

From a systems view, resistance bands act as an elegant feedback mechanism. They amplify the demand precisely when the system (your body) is most vulnerable—end-range. By strengthening the feedback loop between mobility, control, and proprioception, bands help shift the whole system (your practice) toward resilient adaptability—aka fewer injuries and deeper poses with less drama.

❤️❤️ meanwhile, at the yoga club

so much recipricol joy in watching my peoples journies

praxis:
theory in practice

My friend/yoga student brought this cartoon up with me today

but this one was actually me this AM. Thanks for doing the chant with me @electric_cool_aid !