Yoga and Ageing ( with particular reference to Ashtanga).

Yoga and ageing is in the air at the moment it seems, in reference to Ashtanga in particular.

I imagine it' may be assumed by some that my own moving away from Ashtanga was partly to do with growing older, I'm not sure that's the case.

I was, what, forty-three when I started practicing yoga and I started with Ashtanga. In the beginning it was very much a struggle. I was overweight, I wasn't flexible in the slightest but with daily practice and a switch to a vegetarian diet I quickly began to lose weight, became stronger and more flexible. I was practicing full primary within a year, Intermediate after two, and within three I had practiced all of 3rd and 4th series, although the later series corresponded with my move away from straight Ashtanga.

I used to have a full on, dynamic approach to practice, my practice room was hot, I would throw in Kino half handstand jump through's between every posture, mostly jumping straight in and out of a posture.

I remember that at one point I was losing 2 kilo in sweat each practice.


I was obsessed with asana and it was that which drew my attention to Ramaswami's complete book of Vinyasa Yoga, it had A LOT of asana in it. Turns out though that although there was a lot of asana, some variations I hadn't come across in Ashtanga, the approach to practice however was much slower.

So I started to practice Vinyasa Krama alongside my Ashtanga practice, Ashtanga in the morning, Vinyasa Krama in the evening. Later I sold a Saxophone and attended Ramaswami's five week Vinyasa Krama Teacher training in LA. For the first week or two I would get up at four am and do my Ashtanga in a stairwell, grab a coffee then go and practice three hours of Vinyasa Krama. By the third week we had gotten on to  the Vinyasa Krama Triangle and On one leg sequences, these were pretty tough so I stopped practicing my stairwell Ashtanga in the morning.

Two things in particular relevant to this post struck me while practicing with Ramaswami. One was that there was no restriction on which asana you could or couldn't practice, no 'next' asana or 'next' series to strive after, if you could practice asana you practiced it, if not there were other asana that worked towards it, this pretty much undermined the asana chase, I seem to remember my course essay was on overcoming asana madness.  The second revelation was the calm relaxed approach to practice and how ultimately our asana practice led up to pranayama and meditation practice.

When I came back from Ramaswami's course I sought a more relaxed, Vinyasa Krama,  approach my Ashtanga practice.
I was reminded of years before when I practiced Aikido. I'm not that big a guy but I have strong shoulders and a strong back and I would employ that strength somewhat while practicing my Aikido. I remember we had two new students join our Aikido club, one was twice the size of me, the other half my size. The size difference between the two was pretty dramatic and of course the larger of the two would easily throw the other around the Dojo. Over time however, the smaller guy, forced to focus on technique, began to gain the upper hand, the larger guy who had always relied on his size and strength barely progressed (Ss it happened, I heard the smaller guy ended up taking over the dojo when our Sensei left). I took note from this and worked more on my technique and I remember one session where I had to face three opponents, one with a wooden knife, the second with a wooden baton and the third unarmed. The idea was to throw each opponent with an appropriate technique depended on how armed they were, after being thrown they would roll out of the throw get up and attack again and again and again. In the past, using my size and strength, I would soon become tired but this particular session the technique clicked into place and I barely expended any effort at all, it felt as if I could go throwing attackers, on all day. I was in the zone.

I mention the above because I began to notice, that after practicing Vinyasa Krama my Ashtanga became more relaxed, more.... energy efficient. I remember switching from Kino's half handstand jump through to Sharath's little hop. I had been practicing long enough that I already had the technique down, no longer rushing I would ease myself into postures, a rushed led practice seemed ever more ridiculous.

And then I ended up focussing on Krishnamachrya's early Mysore texts, Yoga Makaranda and Yogasanagalu, again a slower more meditative practice where pranayama was very much a part of every asana, kumbhaka throughout the practice, conserving energy, staying calm with a slow  steady heat rate and composed breath became ever more important.
Many who write about Ashtanga and ageing, often critics of Ashtanga generally, fail to understand that while many do take a somewhat aggressive, energetic, and often downright dangerous approach to their Ashtanga practice it is also possible to practice Ashtanga in a relaxed, safe non striving way. On the few occasions when I have practiced Ashtanga at home, a full primary or Intermediate in the last year or two, I've noticed that I barely sweat, my breath and heart rate remain steady (except for karandavasana, too out of practice to keep a steady heart rate there). And this is borne out by seeing some of the more proficient practitioners practice. Despite practice challenging asana, their breath remains steady, as does their heart rate. A proficient Ashtanga practice is a steady practice.

Ashtanga CAN be a dangerous practice, we can dive right in, practice without any common sense, push ourselves too hard, trust and rely on a teacher with more dogma than common sense, allow ourselves to be adjusted by somebody who shouldn't be adjusting, race to keep up in a Led class or try to keep up with our peers, we can fail to listen to our own bodies, our own inner 'guru' if you like. However, practiced calmly, humbly, modestly, with less striving, listening to our body, preparing ourselves appropriately for each posture and how we approach it that day, how we approach our whole practice that day..., I tend to believe that Ashtanga is not significantly more dangerous than any other physical practice. You can twist, even break an ankle, a leg, just walking with your dog in the park.

Leaning towards a slower practice and less concerned with advanced asana, I began to practice less and less asana, pretty much settling on the ten asana I mention in my 'Proficient primary series of posts, it seemed sufficient. I still considered it Ashtanga and Ashtanga a Vinyasa Krama. I practiced less not because I was ageing but because I found spending more time in fewer asana more interesting, rewarding. Was that a more mature outlook, perhaps but I was still forty-three when I started Ashtanga, it wasn't as if I was in my twenties. Still, after getting to the leg behind head postures in Second series I do remember being stunned that my forty year old body could actually do such things.

Part of the asana chase I embarked on at the time, was I think because I had no idea how much longer Advanced postures would be available to me, I wanted to complete Advanced A, Advanced B even while I perhaps still could. No doubt too some (but by no means all) older practitioners are seeking to hold onto or reclaim their youth. Others however enjoy a relatively calm and simple practice and are irritated or perhaps bemused by the suggestion that they should strive for more asana, the next series, perfectly happy as they are ( and perhaps intuitively correct) in their satisfaction with the practice they have. Still others are perhaps somewhere in the middle.

And then, at some point, I became more and more interested in Simon Borg-Olivier's Spinal active movements, I would practice the movements as a warm-up to standing postures but gradually in place of standing. I noticed that I dropped down to eight seated asana and this week I noticed that I had dropped down to three, my whole ninety minute practice becoming Simon's standing Spinal movements and my own inverted version of the same.


I moved away from Ashtanga, disassociated myself with Ashtanga, not because I was ageing, not because I felt it was an inappropriate practice for my age, I think it's perfectly possible to maintain a calm, steady, appropriate Ashtanga Vinyasa practice whatever your age, but rather because I believed Pattabhi Jois' behaviour, his abuse of his students, was inappropriate and damn right criminal. And almost, worse, the ongoing silence in the present community ( and yes, I do understand that many are still struggling with this). The Silence from Sharath on this when so vocal on other more banal matters, the silence from teachers I had looked up to, the enablers and apologists, the defenders, and those who attack and insult those who suffered Jois' abuse, often employing Trumpian arguments. I moved away from Ashtanga not because I was getting older, nor because of the abuse in the past but the silence of the present and because frankly, I found an approach to practice I currently find more  rewarding.