Dhanda Yoga

Meets: Tuesdays and Fridays from 10:30 - 11:10 AM

Instructor: Anthony Sell

Our Daytime classes begin with 40 minutes of Dhanda Yoga, followed by our Phase One Class. This makes for a great warm-up and an excellent mid-morning workout. Students look forward to the challenges of these postures and the flexibility that they develop. We also review the Dhanda Yoga forms twice each month in our Bodyworks Classes on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Dhanda Yoga is one of the Yoga Traditions taught by Dr. Maung Gyi of the American Bando Association, a system of Indian, Tibeten and Burmese origins, similar to Letha Yoga. In Dhanda Yoga, students perform a sequence of postures which require them to do one or more of the following with different parts of their body:

• Stretch
• Extend
• Contract
• Twist
• Rotate
• Balance
• Invert
• Support

In performing these postures, students make use of a 4'-6' staff, which serves as a handle, lever, stabilizer and support. The Staff in Yoga is a metaphor for the spine, and in many of the postures, the student tries to make their spine as straight as the staff. Each posture is held for the duration of several breaths, and as students get more familiar with the postures, the focus turns inward with disciplined breathing patterns and longer durations. Over time, the body adapts to the stresses of these postures and the student is able to transition from one to the next with less resistance, less difficulty.

Our Martial Artists like this form of Yoga because it is more accessible and grounded than other popular forms, being a warrior tradition, there is also a long history of practice by Martial Artists. Those who have practiced other forms of Yoga find the variations on traditional postures interesting and challenging. The staves for this class are supplied by the school, and visitors are more than welcome to come watch a class and get a feel for this type of training.