I do yoga to keep my body healthy and flexible. I do yoga to feel better about myself. In 2012, after my first Rocket Yoga class, I finally found a practice that worked for me and made sense for my physical and emotional body. As I sit at a desk for on average eight hours a day, five days a week, when I practice yoga, I need to move. I need to unwind from the day and reconnect with my own centre. I need a practice where I can stretch, twist, fold forward and back, go upside down, fly, play with the edge of my comfort zone and come out of my head and into my body.
This crazy, fun, challenging flow was created by Larry Schultz in San Francisco in the eighties. After nine years of studying Ashtanga Yoga with Shri K. Patthabhi Jois, Larry combined the Ashtanga primary and secondary series to form the accessible and dynamic Rocket vinyasa flow. Larry believed that all students should have access to all the poses in the Ashtanga system, so you can progress onto different postures and have some fun on the way. While this is a strong, physical flow, in the core Rocket sequences there are no goals of accomplishment. The only goal is to be sensitive and aware of your practice and and enjoy the practice moment to moment, breath to breath. 'Do what makes you happy' is a Rocket mantra. If you don’t want to do a pose, you don’t have to do it. If you want to try an advanced pose, try it. Do you want to go rogue, be creative, do your own thing? The flow can be modified or progressed depending on how you feel.
In the Rocket, you own your practice and celebrate your truth, your strengths, your grace, your connection to your spiritual source. With the Rocket you practice from your heart and journey to the vast potentials that lie within you. 'You always leave feeling better than when you came in, that's the Rocket’. (Larry Schultz)
Koundinyasana - A Rocket Transition which took me three years of constant practice to find - so much fun to do!