Tag Archives: Prāṇāyāma

Individual yoga classes for pregnant women

In Brussels, an Individual prenatal yoga class will allow you to interact with your body and your unborn child, alone or in a small group of friends (reservation required)

Prenatal Ashtanga Yoga: you will have the opportunity to get accurate answers to all the questions you might have.

Yoga is an ancient art coming from India. It promotes self-discovery through simple gestures and postures, breathing awareness, relaxation and mind calming.

Taught by Jean Claude Garnier, the prenatal yoga is a special time to take care of yourself and your unborn child.

These classes are adapted to all women – at any stage of their pregnancy (the sooner, the better of course) – who want, thanks to their practice of Ashtanga yoga, to :

  • Relax and release tension
  • Get a better postural balance in everyday life
  • Learn how to synchronize breathing and body movement, and to learn how to listen to themself.
  • Build a strong relationship with themself and their future child.
  • An individual course is tailored to personal needs, body, breath and coordination abilities. A session designed to meet your specific needs with an individual follow-up.
  • Help and facilitate the delivery
  • A fast recovery

This practice enables you to relax and stay focused while working on your body through a number of specific postures. You’ll fully and smoothly experience your pregnancy and its transformation process. You’ll work to get ready for your delivery thanks to specific breathing exercises and the strengthening of your perineum.

 Getting to know your baby

From the beginning of your practice, you’ll feel your baby moving more and more in your belly. Both you and your baby will benefit from these moments of well-being. During these individual classes for pregnant women, you will learn the basics of haptonomy that will help you to bond with your baby. In utero, the baby is already whole person. This class will enable you to dialogue with your future child.

After delivery, Yoga enables you to stay connected with yourself

Birth is a very rich but often a very intense experience. You may want to relax and focus on yourself. Depending on your experience and your personal needs, Yoga classes can resume quickly after delivery. Through private lessons you’ll be able to progressively regain energy and strength in your body. Particular attention will be paid to toning your muscles (the control of the pelvic floor is a significant aspect of Ashtanga Yoga)

For further info concerning pregnancy:

Individual yoga classes for beginners or for advanced practitioners (wishing to get specific coaching)

An individual class is accessible to everyone, especially beginners.

Taught by Jean Claude Garnier, private classes offer an ideal opportunity to better understand the subtle mechanisms of yoga and enjoy its numerous benefits.

These courses are particularly suitable for people who have stopped their sport and physical activity, and who wish to regain it through the practice of Ashtanga yoga :

  • Tonus, relaxation, tension relief
  • Better postural balance
  • Synchronization of breath and body movement that will help you listen to yourself and build a healthy relationship with yourself, and with others
  • An individual class completely tailored to your personal/body capacities, breathing and coordination. A session designed to meet your needs with an individual follow-up.

This individual practice will allow you to gain :

Harmonization:

The basic practice will facilitate a harmonious relationship body/breath.

 

Restructuration :

  • It allows beginners and experienced practitioners, through a proper use of breath, to improve postural and breathing practices.
  • A personalized therapeutic support to relieve discomfort and injury

Individual classes for advanced practitioners

You will improve/deepen your Ashtanga Yoga practice. This class will enable you to receive a personal “training” focused on a better adjustment in the advanced series (second, third and fourth series …), both in the postures and in the Vinyasa.

You will be able to get precise answers to all the questions you may have

Become an Ashtanga Yoga professor thanks to the training given by the Ashtanga Yoga Institute in Brussels

The Ashtanga Yoga Institute in Brussels perpetuates the teachings of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. Since 1973, Jean Claude Garnier trains students, in Europe and Asia, to deepen their knowledge about Yoga. Some of the students will find a calling and become a Yoga Professor and in turn, transmit the art of Yoga.

The Institute is open to different currents of Yoga. Jean Claude Garnier pursues the transmission of Ashtanga Yoga as taught by Krishnamacharya and his disciples B.K.S. Iyengar, and Sri K. Pattabhi Jois.

Sri K. Pattabhi Jois

Sri K. Pattabhi Jois

Training and recycling as a Yoga professor, who is concerned ?

  • People who practice Yoga and wish to deepen their self-knowledge in order to obtain a better body and mind balance
  • Those who wish to deepen their approach of the tradition of Yoga
  • Future teachers who wish to teach Yoga in Europe – this requires a commitment to a course of minimum 5 modules
  • Existing Yoga teachers who wish to broaden their personal knowledge with an ancient and dynamic method
  • Yoga teachers who have the obligation to improve and develop their existing skills

How does the training with personal monitoring take place ?

  • You deepen your knowledge of the practice of Yoga: first, second and third series
  • You study Yoga and its philosophy
  • You learn to observe during classes (group and private classes)
  • You progressively assist the teacher during classes
  • You will be supervised as of your first class, in order to answer your questions.

How to obtain a diploma

The Yoga teacher training consists of a set of modules.

At the end of each module there is a practical and theoretical evaluation.

Once you have successfully passed a module, you can move on to the next one.

You need to complete a minimum of 5 modules (A, B, C, D, E, F) and write a thesis which summarizes your studies and research on one of the aspects of Yoga.

This diploma is a requisite to :

  • Practice the profession in European countries
  • Teach in a recognised Institute
  • Register to the national professional database
  • Get an insurance
  • As an asset for your students

 European PDF laws

European Yoga Union: http://www.yogaeurop.com/index.php?categoryid=21

Proto Shiva, of the Indus civilization

Proto Shiva, of the Indus civilization

 Content covered during the training

Theoretical documentation will be given to you at the end of each module in electronic version (with an access to “training”)

 Topics

  • Anatomy
  • Physiology
  • Psychology
  • Pedagogy
  • Professional ethics
  • History
  • Etymology
  • Indian sacred texts

Also discussed: communication, oral and written expression, dietetics, lifestyle…

 Course content of Training Module A

  • Postural practice first & second series (Sádhaná Yoga)

Postural foundations, supports, reviewing and improvement of postures and their variations; breathing techniques in postures (pranayama); development of concentration, letting go, individual work and group work, workshops, first trials of teaching.

 

Theoretical courses

  • Classical Indian Tradition through its Vedic origins
  • Invocations (prayer at the beginning of the class): explanation, its significance and its meaning.
  • Theory and practice of Ashtanga Yoga (Mula Bandha, uddiyana, Ujjayi Pranayama, Vinyasa)
  • Knowledge of anatomy related to postural practice
  • Importance of stretching during Yoga postures
  • Use of Sanskrit during courses
  • Religious festivals
  • The creation of the world (Taittiriya Aranyaka viewed by Veda)
  • The life, work and education of Sivananda, Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Ramdas, Yogi Ram Surat Kumar, Sri Yukheswar, Alain Danielou, Krishnamurti.

Check the PDF files to see the content of the other training modules

Admissions

The admission procedures are common to all schools of the National Federation of Yoga Teachers

To enrol in the first year of training you must:

  • Have practiced Yoga for at least 2 years with one or more teachers and have one of the teachers complete a sponsorship record
  • Be over 18 years old
  • Have a general level of education or equivalent vocational training at high-school level.

When and where:

  • India: the longest training (one month)
  • Greece: condensed training (two weeks)
  • Belgium: all year long (10 weekends from September to June / July)

Breathing adjusted to the Ashtanga Yoga practice Ujjãyi Prãnãyãma

During the entire practice of the postural « sādhanā » in Ashtanga Yoga, we use a type of breathing called « Ujjãyi prãnãyãma », « the breath of the ocean ». There are many variations of the Ujjãyi.

The breathing (prãnãyãma) is always synchronised to the movements.

For a beginner, the inhalation and exhalation must have the same duration.

For an advanced yogi, the inhalation is a little longer.

The breathing methodology in Ashtanga Yoga :

  1. A continuous and uninterrupted flow
  2. Always breathing through the nose
  3. Opening gently the larynx region (Jālandhara)
  4. It should produce a soft sound (Ujjãyi)

Thereby the breathing sound (Ujjãyi) is obtained via the positioning of the throat (Jālandhara)

Jālandhara is the glottis control in the ujjāyī type of breathing; it is the positioning of two muscles of the thyroarytenoid laterals, which provokes the characteristic sound of the ujjāyī.

The specificity of the Ujjāyī lies in « control » partial opening of the glottis, in order to control/stop both the air coming in and their going out.

Diapositive94

Nota :

It should not be confused with the uninterrupted breathing (Jālandhara bandha).

 

The three points in the Ashtanga Yoga practice

The key point of the « garland of postures » (Yoga Mālā), taught by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois is called « Vinyasa ». It is described in the fourth śloka of the Yoga Korunta :

In Sankrit devanagrari :

« ट्री स्तनम् अवलोकय्é आसनम् प्राņआयाम द्रिस्थिहि »

In occidental characters :

« Trī stanam avalokayé āsanam prāņāyāma dristhihi »

That we can translate as:

The vinyāsa, the connecting movements between the postures, is composed of 3 fundamentals (Tristana) which are:

  1. The breathing (Ujjãyi Prãnãyãma – the victorious breath)
  2. The control of the pelvic floor and the abdominal ball (Mūla bandha),
  3. The focused gaze (drishti) in the postures (āsana).

Each of these spaces (positioning -Bandha) is one of components of the breathing technique called « ujjāyī prāņāmāya ».

The 3 points ashtanga yoga EN

When the three components (Tristana) are in harmony, synchronised with the movement, the sequence of Yoga postures and its rhythm, the yogi has reached the tristana. Once the tristana is reached, the yogi (le sādhaka) enters into the seventh part of the Aṣṭāṅgayoga, the meditation (dhyāna).

The ujjāyī breathing is the basis of the « Vinyasa ». The correct body positioning in the ãsana(s), comes from the Bandha(s). Drishti completes this trinity.