About

What this blog is

Ashtanga Shala is a daily follow-along guide to the Ashtanga yoga Primary Series, written for people practising alone at home. One lesson goes up every morning. The first posts cover the foundations - ujjayi breath, the bandhas, drishti, and the counted vinyasa method - and after that the blog moves through the Primary Series one pose at a time, in the traditional order.

Each pose post covers the same ground: what the pose is, how to enter it breath by breath, where the gaze goes, the mistakes beginners actually make, honest modifications, and when to be careful. Every post carries photographs of the pose so you can check the shape against the words.

Who writes it

I am Jin. I started at twenty-three, and the reason was thinner than it should have been: I overheard someone say that people who do yoga never grow old. What I actually wanted was plainer than that - a healthy body and a clear mind, and to keep both for as long as I live. The sentence turned out to be a slogan. The wanting turned out to be real, and it is what kept me on the mat.

That was twenty years ago. I still practise, and these days I also teach, three times a week. Two decades inside the same sequence changes what you notice. It stops being about which poses you can do and becomes about smaller things: the exact place where students lose the breath every time, the cue that finally lands after four that did not, the injuries that arrive quietly over months rather than in one dramatic moment.

This blog is where I write that down. Much of it is what I say in the room anyway - what beginners misunderstand, what finally makes a pose click, what I wish someone had told me in my first month. It is written for people practising alone, because most people who find Ashtanga do not have a shala within reach.

One honest limit: I am a teacher, not a clinician. I can tell you where a pose usually goes wrong, and how to work with a tight hamstring or a cranky shoulder. I cannot see your body through a screen, and nothing written here replaces a teacher watching you practise or a professional treating an injury. Where a pose carries real risk, I say so plainly instead of talking you into it.

How to use it

If you are new, start at the first post and work forward - later posts assume the earlier ones. If you already practise, jump straight to the pose you are working on. The full sequence, with alignment details and a guided breath timer, is at Ashtanga Shala Practice Guide.

Contact

Questions, corrections, or a pose you would like covered: skiloveman@gmail.com. I read everything, though replies can take a few days - mornings are for practice.

A note on the illustrations

The pose photographs on this blog are AI-generated illustrations created for this project, not photographs of real students. They are drawn to match the alignment described in the text.

Nothing here is medical advice. If you have an injury or a health condition, check with a professional before practising.

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