Issue 5: My Horrible Experience With Ashtanga Yoga and How It Changed the Course Of My Life
Issue 5: Somatic Muscle Science Unveiled
Ashtanga Yoga It gave me visible flexibility gains– but at a cost.
I started practicing in 1997 and was a die-hard practitioner until 2001. I was that yogi who went to Mysore practice almost every day of the week at 7am, dance class at 10am, then Capoeira at 7pm. Nuts. Inspired by this newfound flexibility (that even my friends commented on), I eagerly enrolled in their 200-hr YTT. The two lead teachers, on separate occasions, each tore a hamstring in my right and left legs… with their bare hands. One hamstring on my right leg was torn when my leg was lifted beyond its range when they used me to demonstrate how to teach a hands-on assist for Uttitha Hasta Padagugshtasana A. Another hamstring on my left leg was torn when they used me to demonstrate how to teach a hands-on assist for Kurmasana, by forcing my leg over my head so that my left heel was near my right ear. I tried to complete the YTT because well, both these teachers studied in-person with Paattabhi Jois, the founder of Ashtanga style, and maybe this was just an accident. But after speaking with one of the teachers about my hamstring and how it ruined my life as a dance artist, and how I felt this was just so wrong, and an abuse of his power, he said, “Pattabhi Jois believes that if a muscle tears, it’s meant to tear. While I was studying in India, Pattaabhi Jois did a hands-on adjustment to a student and broke his leg bone.” I think my mouth must have dropped to the floor. I looked up at him and something in me shifted. I took my books and left the building.
The Least Spiritual and Dis-Embodied Class I have Ever Taken.
Side note. I attended an in-person class with Pattabhi-Jois and his wife, here in Montréal. It was the furthest thing from a body-mind practice that I had ever experienced. He sat there at the top of the studio and screamed out in Sanskrit the number of chaturangas and counts to hold in each pose while his wide circulated and did aggressive hands-on assist to the packed room of over 100 students. I was very content way back in the corner hiding from the carnage with my friend. This was the biggest lesson I learned that demystified yoga for me.
I went into my own Private Yoga Cave for 7 years.
With a very tall stack of yoga text books from this 200-HR Ashtanga Yoga Teacher Training, I began to read, study, and practice yoga daily– on my own. My curiosity peaked as I was able to enter this world of yoga with new eyes, and from a place where I felt safe. Instead of trying to replicate the images of Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois, Desikachar, and Krishnamacharya, I used my background in somatic movement to feel my way through the poses and shapes. After attending a 10-day silent Vipassana meditation (where my mind fixated angrily and with rage on this teacher) I came to a realization. Finally, I realized that I have every right to be the authority of my own body– not some half naked male surveying the class, demanding that we do things, and expect us to acquiesce. I am the authority of my own body– not the teacher at the top of the classroom telling me that yoga is "mind over matter” which subconsciously translates as something like… if you ignore what your body is feeling and force beyond its limits you’ll advance in your practice. The saying “no pain no gain” is NOT my yoga. That is not the yoga I want to practice, teach, or live.
Emerging from my Yoga Cave.
Then in 2007, the director of the gym I taught aerobics and muscle toning at, asked me if I would like to take on teaching a Power Yoga class. Not interested in teaching yoga, I wanted yoga to be my own personal haven. I felt free on the mat. It was a movement meditation for me. But I wanted to come out of my yoga cave and share this body-mind practice so I took the class on. I continued teaching that same slot for another 7 years. Do things really move in 7 year cycles or what, eh?? Inspired by this new class, I decided to complete another 200-HR Yoga Teacher Training (YTT). Wanting to get out of the Montréal yoga scene, I went to NYC to complete a 200-HR in 2009, and by 2011 completed a 300-HR certification in Shiva Rea’s Prana Vinyasa Flow.
Back busted by a Yoga Trainee.
Let’s backtrack to 2009. My father died in 2007. My mother died in 2008. I left the electronic art dance company that I had been performing and touring with since 1996. Feeling in limbo, this series of endings prompted me to search for new beginnings. Arriving in NYC in the theatre district of Hell’s Kitchen to start a 500-HR YTT, I was feeling hopeful for the first time in a while, and vulnerable too, à fleur du peau, as they say in french. And what did I do?? Feeling trusting, I allowed a fellow trainee to practice with a hands-on assist. Now, after the first two incidents of having my hamstrings torn by the bare hands of my teachers,I had been in my personal yoga cave, remember?? I decided to trust the universe. BOOM. Out of nowhere, this student did a violent assist. I screamed. ANd that was that. It’s currently October 10, 2025 and I still suffer in pain daily from the injury he caused.
Black out concussion. Mohammed Ali inspiration.
Then fast forward to 2011. I am completing one of the final modules in the 300-HR YTT in NYC. We are in a different studio. There are about 40 yoga teacher trainees crammed into the space with mats about 2 inches apart. The pain from the SI joint injury had subsided and I was feeling once again, more hopeful, and trusting. We were doing this flowing sort of movement horizontally on the mat and I said to myself, “See, Alyson?? Everything is going to be ok.” BOOM. The person in front of me fell backwards and I blacked out. At least I think that’s what happened. I blacked out for so long on that floor that in that state I went into a faraway place. I realized that I was unconscious and was not waking up. I said to myself, “Alyson, you need to wake up. You need to wake up… What would Mohammed Ali do? Alyson, I am going to count down from ten and you NEED to wake up before I reach one you MUST wake up. TEN! NINE! EIGHT! SEVEN! SIX! FIVE! FOUR! THREE!...” I woke up. Thank the universe. Slurred speech. I had to quit being a fitness instructor because all the jumping and movement rattled my inflamed brain too much. Another cycle of endings.
Every Ending Is A New Beginning.
I picked myself up from this, slowly, meticulously. It was 2011, and still suffering from the SI joint pain from the injury to the yoga trainee, my doctor suggested a series of cortisone injections. He prescribed me too many in too little time. The cortisone eroded the collagen around my hip. Two weeks after the last injection, I woke up in the middle of the night with my legs spasming in a terrible sweat. In the morning it was all I could do to try and put on my socks or walk. The doctor said it was osteoarthritis, that dancers at 40 get this all the time. NO. I had been dancing and teaching aerobics and loving life– got the cortisone injections and two weeks later my hips turned to stone. This time, I also had to quit my dance career– for good. Another cycle of deep loss and mourning.
From the Mud Grows the Lotus.
How I wished I would have never invited yoga back into my life or taken that doctor's advice. I took three months off from teaching yoga and slowly resumed a regular schedule. I found teachers who taught me how to listen to my body, move and heal, and help others do so too. I found teachers who empowered me to find my voice and speak. Hand-picked as one of Sadie Nardini’s master teacher trainers I started my own Yoga Alliance approved school and became a Continuing Education Provider. By 2019 I was voted Best Yoga Teacher by Cult Mtl for in-person and online classes. After studying with Jill Miller since 2009, I became a certified Yoga Tune Up® instructor in 2022. I found my purpose. The guru is not someone that lives outside of you, the guru is within. This is my yoga. My somatic yoga trainings offer students and teachers embodiment principles and practices inspired by yoga principles and practices in order for them to become the authority of their own body too.
Be The Authority Of Your Own Body With Somatic Mobility Drills
I stopped practising at yoga studios.
Tired of hurting my own body day in and day out over the years teaching millions of weekly group classes, and tired of seeing students get injured in yoga classes all over the city, I continued teaching at studios but without naming my style (because I didn’t have a name yet). I integrated Somatic Mobility Drills (SMD) sequencing into my classes. I spent ten years refining these sequences. The result is a meticulous integration of dynamic movement techniques combined with Dynamic Pandiculations.
I am known as “The teacher who does things differently”.
The culmination is Somatic Mobility Drills (SMD) Sequences for Yoga Poses based on Krishnamacharya's principles of Vinyasa Krama. It saved my body and my students bodies– and it can save yours and your students too. Known as “the teacher who does things differently” I continue to give my students a new perspective on their yoga practice. Students love SMD because they feel the difference it makes in their bodies when flows are created with the stretch reflex in mind. Somatic Mobility Drills (SMD) Sequences work with the stretch reflex avoiding risk of repetitive strain injuries. Overtime, outdated yoga and stretch workouts cause muscle tears, over-stretched ligaments, tight/weak muscles, brittle and dry fascia, knit-up adhesions along the myofascial meridians, and joint degeneration. Instead you can build resilient muscle, tendon, ligament, and fascial tissues, gain lean muscle mass, protect joints and improve range of motion by incorporating SMD Sequences into weekly yoga routines. Move with more ease, power, and grace for years to come on the mat– and in daily life.
Stay tuned for Issue 6 where we nerd out on the Gamma Feedback Loop and how it can benefit your yoga practice.
In the meantime, try some 10-mins Somatic Mobility Yoga Drills with me.
See below! Enjoy.
