Windfire Yoga Foundation Course

All students must begin with the FOUNDATION COURSE, unless allready comitted to ongoing selfpractice in which case you may attend the self practice week without attending the Foundation Course. Each module of our Windfire Yoga Foundation Course is self-complete and suitable for all hatha yoga students, of any level or style wishing to clrify, deepen, enrich or empower their yoga practice. The classes of each module are designed so that each week can provide a starting point for anyone. This means that the three Foundation Modules can be taken in any order that time and circumstance permit.

In the Windfire Yoga Foundation Course you will awaken, sensitise and integrate the structural and functional capabilities of your body through a systematic progression of movement (ullola) and stillness (asana). This integration focusses on recalibrating the motor and structural musculature to release the spine, and free the breath (pranayama). This recalibration is based on the integrating dynamic of the bandhas in the whole body. The three weeks provided a clear, comprehensive and functional exploration and application of the bandhas that are the heart of yoga practice.

The Windfire Yoga Foundation Course as a whole provides training in: sensitisation of joints and muscles; awakening the seven primary bodyparts; integrating the ten primary joints and seven primary bodyparts; releasing the breath from conditioned imposition; establishing the dynamics of functional integrity; establishing the dynamics of structural integrity; establishing respiratory integrity structurally. This training involves clarifying the relationship between structure and function; harmonising the relationship between movement and action; harmonising the relationship between movement and respiration; the application of yama and niyama to practice; the direct application of the bandhas; the indirect application of the bandhas; release of the breath from habituated imposition; clarification of ujjayi breathing; pranayama practice in the light of patanjali; meditation in the light of patanjali; clarification of the eight limbs of yoga.

The Method Module clarifies the simplicity of yoga practice by using movement (vinyasa) to establish stillness (asana) on the basis of the integration (bandha) of breathing (pranayama), movement, action and awareness (drushti). The simple, primarily symmetrical, yoga postures of the Vinyasasuxmasya training series, used in all these classes, are designed to sensitise the major joints of the body, while awakening the primary muscle groups. This is acheived by clarifying and applying the structural dynamic of the bandhas to every movement and supporting action. This rests on the cultivation of deep internal sensitivity, and establishes the basis of the structural approach to the bandhas.

The Dynamic Module introduces the enegretic dynamic of the bandhas as the spiral dynamic of functional integration. Through the mechanism of opposition the strengthening and lengthening of individual muscles and opening of separate joints are integrated into a single whole. The simple postures of the Vinyasaxakrasya training series, used in all these classes, are designed to recalibrate the whole musculature so that the body functions as an integrated unity. This possibility is based on integrating the structural dynamic of the bandhas energetically, through the spiral dynamic.

The Integration Module focusses on clarifying the five individual bandhas (mulabandha, uddyanabandha, jalandharabandha, hastabandha, padabandha) and their functional unities (merubandha, sarvangabandha). This clarification takes place in the Vinyasaxiktisa training series which allows all the motor muscles and joints to be integrated with the core muscles of the spine. The bandhas are presented both in relation to breathing and pranayama, and to structural integrity and asana.

The three modules of the Windfire Yoga Foundation Course can be taken in any order and any number of times. There are five morning and three afternoon classes in each module,. All our yoga retreat classes are given within the fertilising context of patanjali’s ashtanga yoga, and link yoga postures together into a vinyasa flow of dynamic yoga practice ending with stillness in savasana and sitting, thereby balancing the 'yin' and 'yang' elements of traditional hatha yoga. All morning classes include guided pranayama and meditation.

THE DYNAMIC YOGA INTERMEDIATE TRAINING COURSE

 

THE DYNAMIC YOGA ADVANCED TRAINING COURSES