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| Tiger scorpion practice |
Five months ago, I read the book Hellbent by Benjamin Lorr. In the book, Ben fully immerses
himself in the world of a Bikram Yoga student, competitor, teacher, and
refugee. Around that same time I had been examining the yoga and the man
closely myself and had lots of questions; the book came with perfect timing
into my life, providing lots of answers and direction.
After Ben goes to Bikram’s teacher training, he goes to
Mexico to study with Tony Sanchez, an ex-partner/friend of Bikram who also
studied the same asana (posture) lineage with the same guru, Vishnu Ghosh. I
had recently heard about Tony and knew a couple people branching out from the
Bikram bubble to study with his videos or go to his trainings. The book gave me
the information I needed to sign myself up for a seminar with Tony to study the
lineage where my practice originated.
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| demonstrations |
Some background... To make a long story short, Tony was running Bikram’s school
in San Francisco while Bikram taught in Beverly Hills. Over time, Bikram
changed his teaching methods and classroom setting, lost his personal practice,
and fell victim to fame, and soon Bikram and his senior teachers cut off Tony.
Tony faithfully practiced and taught the yoga he learned from Ghosh. However,
Bikram’s approach to the yoga is what caught on to the masses.
Meanwhile, Tony continued to teach in San Francisco and also
developed a program to have schools teach yoga to the children. He was
successful in this and, instead of letting the idea of having a following go to
his head or his wallet, he and his wife retreated to Mexico and went off the
grid for a while.
Then, seemingly just in time *ahem*, Tony began offering teacher
trainings and seminars. In the beginning, only a few ex-Bikram teachers and
studio owners knew about Tony and were visiting him regularly. Hellbent is the reason for about half of the people signed up
for Tony’s current seminar and word of mouth by those individuals is taking
care of the rest. His next teacher training is full and has a waiting list just
as long.
The 84 posture advanced seminar was one week long, held
where Tony lives in San Jose del Cabo in Baja Mexico. There were 16 of us, half
of whom had spent the previous two weeks with Tony in his teacher training.
Tony’s goal in this seminar was to have us focus on our personal practice only,
so that we could think for ourselves as teachers. (The teacher training was a
much different structure, I did not attend that). The small group setting was
ideal.
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| balancing stick practice |
For six days we practiced the 84 postures together and
examined them individually, sometimes running through most of the sequence
three times a day. Sometimes, while focusing on a posture individually, we took
savasana after each one! In sun salutations we held each step for several
seconds. Our afternoon consisted of a three and a half hour class of the whole
series, yet no one was crawling on the floor! The room had no mirrors and was
about 75 degrees. We learned to unlock hyper-extended knees, not to stretch our
shoulder blade scapula out of our body, and that pulling is sometimes not the
object of stretching. Sometimes Tony threw some different postures in or took
some out. I felt like my yoga world was being turned upside down!
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| Assisting wheel pose |
Tony’s approach to practicing Hatha yoga is to use the least
amount of exertion to achieve maximum results in a posture. In other words, not
worrying about elbow, fingers, and stomach when the goal of the posture is to
bend your spine. In backbending, Tony’s words are “don’t push, just fall.” The
advice he gave on the postures made several more of them accessible to me.
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| "Don't push, just fall." |
I was worried that I wouldn’t bend well without the heat but
we took our time in postures. I went just as deep as I always do, without using
force, and experienced no soreness! I felt strong in the classes and felt that
the flexibility I was using was very sustainable.
This seminar was a great way to expand my thinking. Tony and
the other Bikram method teachers and students were an inspiring group to be a
part of. I learned so much to apply to my practice, which will surely influence
my teaching. I am in no way abandoning the dialogue, 26 postures, and 105
degree room- just for the record!- but I do highly recommend an intensive
seminar with Tony in order to expand your thinking and your practice. Feel free
to contact me if you have a question!
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| You've seen his poster in all the studios! |
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