Tim Feldmann visited yogaview Chicago in early November and presented a series of Ashtanga workshops. He is director of Miami Life Center in Florida, a studio he cofounded with his wife, Kino MacGregor, and Matt Tashjian. His initial teacher was Lino Miele, and he is authorized to teach Ashtanga yoga by its founder, the late Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, and his grandson R. Sharath Jois. Tim, whose background includes 20 years as a professional dancer and choreographer, turned to yoga after a near-fatal fall in the mountains of Venezuela in 1992, according to his video biography at www.timfeldmann.com.
Tim Feldmann explains the importance of lengthening the spine before pursuing forward folds, back bends, and twists. Photo by Barbara Passy.
His first workshop, entitled “Detailing the Primary Series,” included a guided traditional Primary Ashtanga series integrated with insights and actions that enabled students to progress within their practice and take yoga’s value beyond the mat into their daily lives. He provided specific anatomical guidance to help us prevent injury and improve our asanas and the transitions between them.
Ashtanga, which is a prescribed series of specific poses that are practiced in a specific order, provided the foundation on which Tim built this workshop. He explained that his goal was to provide “constructional” assistance and to “bridge gaps” where understanding of the practice might not be complete. Self-care was very important. He said, “I’m going to say ‘do this’ and ‘do that,’ but there will be exceptions. You make sure that you keep yourself safe first and follow my instructions after that.” It was refreshing to hear him tell us that it was wise to follow our own needs as a first instinct.
One of the early questions Tim addressed was how do we create flexibility in the spine and joints in order to pursue forward folds, back bends, and twists? His answer was to practice lengthening prior to all of those movements. He demonstrated how to use our arms in conjunction with abs and chest muscles to obtain length in the spine. In these moves, partial efforts will not result in the elongation we are striving for; rather, we need to focus on fully activating those foundational muscles in order to prepare properly for our next poses. Tim then discussed the importance of bandhas, or interior body locks, for engaging our bodies from the inside and achieving additional lengthening. Uddiyana bandha, or the abdominal interior lock, was Tim’s go-to pose to elongate the spine from inside the body.
Tim followed by showing us how to “use energy and to make energy real.” He meant that we can utilize physics and gravity to help us in our poses. Our practice pose for this section was trikonasana, or triangle pose. He showed us how to create length in order to reach our front foot and how to use gravity and very active legs to “pop up” in the pose. The pop-up comes from releasing the grip on the front toes, allowing the energy flowing through our legs to lift us up.
Tim discussed intensity of practice: mild, intense, and in-between, noting that the fruits of our practice would be in accordance with the intensity we choose to pursue. For example, a mild practice would produce fewer gains than an intense practice. He elaborated on some of the big challenges in Ashtanga practice. He explained that it requires both a level of engagement and a level of softness, which might not naturally proceed in tandem. He conceded that this balance was often difficult for him to achieve, yet he encouraged us to work toward this goal. One way to get closer to this goal, he proposed, was to get rid of nonessential aspects of our practice and our lives, which serve as barriers to achieving yoga’s benefits.
Barbara Passy, Tim Feldmann and Tom Quinn
Each of the Ashtanga poses is prefaced by a pose that has a similar foundation; they all build upon each other. He told us to make warrior 2 look more like mountain pose by creating a solid foundation with our lower bodies and to keep our torsos centered and steady. That approach to warrior 2 indeed created a similar feeling to mountain pose and strengthened my sense of grounding in a refreshing new way. Similarly, in staff pose (as in mountain pose), Tim instructed us to internally rotate our legs, allowing the insides of our legs to shorten while the outsides lengthened. He noted it was important to engage our feet as well. He cued us to push our big toe forward at the same time that we “winged” our little toe back or in the direction of our hip. Staff pose became a very active pose for me as a result of these enhancements—small shifts leading to big changes.
Rather than focus on form, which he noted we often do, Tim suggested that we examine three aspects of practice: content, foundation, and function. Focusing on these three components will create a more intense practice and provide greater physical benefits as well as spiritual ones.
Finally, Tim talked about the ways we react in poses—and in life. Our reactions determine whether we move toward or away from the practice of yoga as well as influence the unity within our lives. We all have problems in learning new things, but those difficulties and the awkward feelings that we all experience are important. They allow us to embrace new practices and reach new goals.
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Tim may be contacted through his website, miamilifecenter.com.
Barbara Passy is a Chicago-based certified yoga teacher. She began her practice in 2007 as part of a weight-loss journey in which she shed more than 100 pounds. Her email address is barbara.passy@gmail.com.
