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Ashtanga Yoga New Orleans

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Many people enjoy their yoga practice immensely, discovering new strengths in themselves every day. The time you reserve for daily yoga practice is devoted to your health and well-being. For many, this creates an oasis in a stressful or hectic schedule, a time to focus on building their reserve of peacefulness and balance in a sea of change. Others enjoy it for the workout and fitness benefits it can provide, or the camaraderie of practicing beside others with similar interests and goals. Our studio provides a friendly, upbeat and focused space for your yoga practice.

No. Although yoga originated in conjunction with ancient Indian spiritual practices, it is a method for improving your mind, your body and your life, not a religion, and can be safely practiced by Christians, Hindus, and everyone else!

No. Yoga helps you regain some more of your youthfulness, reduces unneeded weight, repairs injuries to your body, and improves your balance, flexibility and muscle tone. You don't need these things to begin, because these are the things you get back.

Ashtanga can benefit all ages. Because it is gradual and progress is individualized, it can be started at any age. Current students at AYNO range from early 20s to mid 50s.

Yoga can give you the method and the tools to become a better person, but you have to do the work yourself.

What is the difference between traditional Ashtanga classes and other yoga classes?

Traditional Ashtanga Yoga is a very different endeavor than an aerobics or exercise class, or even another yoga class which you might attend at your gym or local yoga studio. It's a lot more like taking piano lessons than attending a spinning class.

Most yoga classes in the west are "led," in that someone stands up at the front of the room and calls out what to do. Ashtanga Yoga is traditionally taught one-on-one, with the student taking responsibility for learning the practice personally, and practicing from memory at his or her own pace with assistance from the instructor. Traditional Ashtanga classes are quiet except for the sound of breathing and practice and quiet conversations between students and teachers when appropriate.

In many non-Ashtanga yoga classes, you drop in anytime for a single class and be led through a generalized and variable practice step by step. In the Ashtanga practice, you are expected to practice regularly and learn a very specific practice from memory, incrementally over time, continually advancing to more difficult material over the long term.

This method can yield safe, long-term results exceeding those of many other yoga styles and exercise classes, and as it puts the practitioner in charge of his or her own practice, it can be very satifying over the long term.

This traditional method of transmitting Ashtanga Yoga is called "Mysore-style" in the west, named after the teaching style in the city Mysore, India, which is the seat of Ashtanga Yoga. See here for more about "Mysore-style." And for more detailed information about Ashtanga Practice, visit our Practice Pages.