Ashtanga Yoga Studio, D.C. (AYS) is a bright, airy, peaceful spot in the Palisades neighborhood of Washington. Along with a variety of classes, the studio offers daily Mysore--the traditional individual practice in a group setting, as developed at the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore, India. Keith Moore, the studio's founder, and the other two Mysore teachers--June Lee and Wendy McGrath--are terrific: smart, knowledgeable, friendly, helpful, respectful, irreverent, and not the least bit sanctimonious.
In Ashtanga yoga, students learn a prescribed series of postures, linked by movements, that they then practice at their own pace in a group of other students. The teacher comes around to each student in turn, offering adjustments and suggestions and teaching new postures when the student is ready for them. Each student ends up with an individualized version of a standard practice, to be done several times a week. The more you keep at it, the more you learn. Your practice can expand from an initial 20 minutes of sun salutations and standing poses to 90 minutes of increasingly challenging postures.
Students at AYS range in age from their early 20s up into their 60s and beyond, with all sorts of skill levels, from Elastigirls to rusty Tin Woodmen. I'm a guy in my mid-50s. I began this practice four years ago, when decades of weight-lifting and cycling had left me creaky and stiff. Almost all those kinks have been worked out. I can stand up straight first thing in the morning and have developed flexibility I never imagined possible (I still have a long way to go). I find the Mysore practice an excellent workout, and the other students are a great bunch: disciplined but not self-important, and happy to welcome newcomers. Also, this is yoga: the rhythmic breathing and movement do induce a meditative mindset. But at AYS, there's no music or incense, and nobody is spouting philosophy or affirmations or making the group chant in unison. You have a lot of latitude to shape your own experience.
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