Starting Ashtanga

July 2003
by Linda McGrath

Before you start, get off your office chair right now, print this out, find something cold to drink and go outside. Before you know it, it’s going to be October…

In my experience, when you practice Bikram, once you get past the first hump of the beginning, you start to progress almost exponentially: you get to do things you never thought possible again, your physical awareness is multiplied by 100, every day or so you discover a new thing about a pose, a new way to make the pose fit, and a new way to make it more challenging. You’re not Cirque du Soleil material quite yet, but with each class, you feel like you take up more room in the world, you feel stronger, younger and more grateful.

And then you come to a plateau. Most people are content to just stay there. Some people get disappointed and lose their practice. I see it all the time and it makes me want to cry. But there’s those students who grasp the universal truth of a step back to make two forward. They want to keep growing, and try to find a way to break through. Ashtanga is the most logical way to do that. So I made the executive decision and rallied all the best instructors from all over the Bay Area to bring this great practice to you.

Ashtanga will turbocharge your core strength. You will get great abs, arms and shoulders (ok, that’s shallow, but it’s the time of year we’re supposed to look good almost naked). Kris does it. Barry does it. Raquel does it. Amy does it. And I do it. So do Sting, Madonna, and Gwyneth (ok, that’s even more shallow – I’m sinking very low to talk you into this). You will discover brand new poses, and just like you’ll use your Bikram poses in Ashtanga, you will definitely use your Ashtanga poses in Bikram, resulting in this great symbiotic effect between the two practices. Even though the room is not heated, you will sweat and get a great cardio. And since we can, at our studio, we actually open the windows and let summer in.

Now, don’t tell me you don’t think you’re not good enough at Bikram to start a new practice. You are ready and you are able. You are tough. You do Bikram. You are the Marine core of all yogis! And the sooner in your Bikram practice you start Ashtanga, the faster you will progress with Bikram. I took a workshop from one of the better known Ashtanga instructors and when I told him my main practice was Birkam, he said: “Wow, I see all those Bikram people; when they take up Ashtanga, it’s amazing – they absorb it like a sponge…”

Your first Ashtanga class, just like your first Bikram class is probably not going to be the most rewarding. It takes a complete different set of skills. It’s not just that the poses are different. It’s a completely different world. I hated my first Ashtanga class. It was 4 years ago. Granted, Mark (who you will see teaching) made us start with 18 sun salutation because it was the summer solstice (yogis do weird things for weird reasons). We spent half the class with our butt up in the air, and everything’s going so fast, before you know what pose you’re doing, everybody’s on to the next. I spent the entire class just complaining to myself.

So when you take your first class, don’t do that. Take your Yoga Critic hat off. You are not supposed to know what is going on. You are not supposed to be good at this your first day. Remember you first Bikram class. And even if that was easy for you, don’t assume Ashtanga will be. That’s why you want to practice it. If you don’t like your first instructor’s style, go beyond that. You will find one that you like, and over time, you’ll even discover that you liked that first one you had. Most importantly, be safe and take it easy. Don’t look at what the instructors can do and get discouraged. It’s all baby steps. And that’s why it’s so exciting. I grin at the thought that you don’t even suspect the possibilities that lay in front of you, waiting to be explored.