In the Press

Yoga Dude: Why Should Yoga Teachers Study Anatomy?

Fri, 2 Sep 2011 06:55:47 -0400

Jason was recently interviewed by the online blog “Yoga Dudes,” about the importance of anatomy studies for yoga teachers, and the most common injuries that occur in yoga. They post pretty frequently, so after you click the link just look for the entry dated 9/2/2011.

NY Press: Interview with Frances about UWS Yoga

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 08:01:58 -0400

Check out this article about the growing yoga community on the UWS. Frances was interviewed for the article and the ZYWS was featured ;-)

To read the full article, click here.

The New York Times: "The Delicate Art of Adjustments"

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 15:38:36 -0500

Jason was interviewed by Emily Rueb for an article that appeared in the Metro section of the NY Times on February 13th, 2011. The article explored “The Delicate Art of Adjustments.”

To read the full article, click here.

Yoga City NYC: Dana was Sleuthed!

Tue, 8 Feb 2011 12:19:44 -0500

Dana Melillo was recently “Sleuthed” at the Zenyasa® studio. Below is a transcript, which can also be found at Yoga City NYC (just search for Zenyasa®)

Zenyasa with Dana Melillo
On a cold day, Yoga Sleuth headed over to the new Zenyasa® Studio on the Upper West Side. Up above the hustle and bustle on the street, I entered a cozy space with bright orange walls, large windows with sun streaming in and hitting the shiny wood floors…a little piece of heaven! I took my jacket off and checked in with Dana, my teacher for the class. While I filled out first time student paperwork, Dana set up a mat with a meditation cushion and a blanket on it for me. I immediately felt welcomed and warm inside.   Dana, a long lean woman with a big smile and a sunny disposition asked me to sit on my cushion in the middle of the mat. She explained that Zenyasa® classes are a combination of seated meditation, slow-flow yoga and mindfulness-based fitness. The classes are based on a five-element theme that work specific muscle groups and meridian pathways. The themes rotate, so every body part gets worked. The class theme for today was wood; we were going to embark on grounding, rooting poses in our legs.   We began with a Gassho Practice: several bows of gratitude. We stood at the center of our mats with our hands together at the center of our hearts. We bowed to ourselves, our community, the teacher and then to all beings. This simple gesture was a really positive way to start the class.  Next, we sat down on our meditation cushions. Dana asked if I was comfortable because we were going to meditate for fifteen minutes. The idea was to count our breath, inhale one, exhale two when we reached ten we would start over. We focused our eyes on one point in front of us on the floor with our hands in Dhyana Mudra, the gesture of balance and concentration.   We moved our cushions to the side and lay down on our backs. Dana explained that we were moving into the warm-up part of our practice to lubricate our joints. We lifted our legs up ninety degrees and rolled our ankles in circles, then we bent and straightened our knees, we did this with our wrists and elbows too. It felt silly and fun, especially when Dana had us roll up to stand.  Sun Salutations were a little different in Zenyasa®. Dana was careful to go through each pose, step-by-step a few times before we flowed. Our feet were hip distance apart, we moved from “high chair” to “rag doll” with our arms behind our backs.  Dana called out the breaths as we began to flow from pose to pose. After six repetitions we moved to Warrior II and Reverse Warrior. She had us going back and forth from pose to pose several times on the breath. After we did both sides, we had a similar flow from Warrior II to Side Angle. There was a nice build up of poses and everything felt approachable.   We moved on from Parsvakonasana to Trikonasana to Ardha Chandrasana and then lowering our lifted foot coming into a V shape with our feet, we grabbed our big toe and lifted into Utthita Padangustasana, grounding down into our standing leg.  Back at the front of our mats, we balanced in Vrksasana, tree pose. Dana suggested we close our eyes, test our balance and make it playful. I fell right out of my pose on the first side, but managed to focus and balance better on the second side. Once we found balance on two feet, we moved to the wall for handstand, another grounding pose. After kicking up several times, Dana came over and assisted me. She gave me a helpful hint on where to look and everything became easier.  Once again we made our way down to our mats for several seated forward bends like Badha Konasana and Pachimottanasana. After a nice supine twist to each side we came into Savasana. I felt calm and melted into the mat. Dana talked about Erich Schiffmann’s book “Moving into Stillness” and the push and pull we find in every pose and everything that we do.   Throughout the practice, Dana constantly reminded me to ease up, maybe bend my knee a little, or not turn my head so far, let go of what I thought I was supposed to look like and find the balance.   Zenyasa® is a well-rounded practice that is good for all levels and ages. I left class feeling calm, energized and excited that I tried something a little different. Dana is full of positive energy and a knowledgeable guide for new students.  --Margie Suvalle for Yoga Sleuth

Mizz Fit Calls Zenyasa a “Best Mind Body Workout”

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 16:58:28 -0400

While Zenyasa® is no longer offered at Pure Yoga, when it was it created quite a buzz. Check out what MizzFit had to say...

“Pure Yoga is a fancy Equinox-style yoga club in NYC. You'll find a ton of amazing yoga classes here ranging in style, temperature, intensity and pace. These are my favorites: Restorative Yoga, Zenyasa®, Hot Power Yoga (with instructor Dana Slamp), and Rock Your Chakras (with instructor and co-creator Carlos Rodriguez).

Click here to read more...

Yoga City NYC: Interview About ASFYT

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:21:34 -0400

Jason was interviewed by Joelle Hann of Yoga City NYC over the summer of 2010, about the Anatomy Studies for Yoga Teachers program that he created. We’ve copied the entire article here, as the interview is a bit buried on their website (however, you can click here to visit their site, and then just do a search for “We Get a New School”).

“We Get a New School!” by Joelle Hann
When Jason R. Brown completed his teacher training in 1998, it met the minimum standards set by the Yoga Alliance. But he felt bewildered by his lack of knowledge in anatomy. In too many situations he was making educated guesses about people’s injuries and limitations. So he took some workshops, only to find that three-hour intensives were still not enough to help him feel confident in the classroom.  If you’re a yoga teacher, you might relate to Jason’s frustrations. Depending on which training you did, the anatomy coverage might have left you feeling less than equipped to meet your students’ various needs and to plan effective classes.  Luckily for you, Brown’s long road of self-education motivated him to become an educator himself. After training at the Swedish Institute as a massage therapist, Brown went on to design a rigorous program called Anatomy Studies for Yoga Teachers (ASFYT) which does much more than fill in some gaps—it completely educates yoga teachers in the anatomy they need to know.  Joelle Hann: When did you start noticing the lack of anatomy training as an issue?
 Jason R. Brown: I started teaching in 1998 and after 4 years I realized didn’t know enough about anatomy.   All I could ever find were 3-hours workshops here and there, and they presupposed some foundation in anatomy which I didn’t have. I enrolled in the Swedish Institution for the anatomy part of it—I wasn’t interested in massage. Then I enjoyed the massage and went through whole curriculum.  Then I thought, ‘Wow, I can’t believe yoga teachers didn’t go through this—massage therapists have to have all this education.’ Yoga teachers are often looked to for this kind of knowledge but they get a minuscule amount of training.  The subtext is that a yoga teacher training is just the beginning and one day you’ll fill in the blanks. But who does that? Most people get their 200 hours and start teaching right away.  When I got out of massage school I wanted to share knowledge with yoga teachers. I wanted to do a program that was comprehensive and academic from ground zero and build up, not just a fly-by-night short course.    JH: How does the Anatomy Studies for Yoga Teachers work?
 JRB: In the first two modules, I give lectures with an overhead slide presentation as well as notes that people go home to study. There are take-home quizzes, quick in-class quizzes, and a closed book comprehensive final exam. It’s a college level course and is quite demanding.  People say, ‘Wow, we’re actually really studying this stuff.’  JH: That’s a lot of classroom work. Do teachers get to try things out?
 JRB: The idea is first you acquire strong understanding of skeletal and muscular system in two modules. Then we look at yoga asana through the lens of anatomy.   We say, ‘Let’s just step back and not assume anything about what we learned before.’ Let’s look at warrior two, for example. What’s unique about this pose? What’s working in it? What’s being stretched? How it is different form other postures?  Then, we ask how do we maximize those benefits? How do we instruct those actions? What muscles are being lengthened? What would muscle tightness or weakness look like? What causes that? How does pain manifest in different poses?  Teachers develop the tools to look at postures.   JH: There are some great testimonials on your web site. What have graduates said has helped them most about the training?
 JRB: People report back that they feel a new confidence in what they are talking about. There’s no longer a mystery about what is working or not. Now they know.   They often say, too, that they’ve been inspired in their sequencing. Instead of picking up a class sequence form various classes they go to, they’re on their own mat, saying, ‘I want to get into the piriformis today.’   They also have this heighten feeling of compassion towards their students because they now understand the difficulty some people have doing some poses.   JH: That’s interesting. Can you say more about how knowing more anatomy makes people more compassionate teachers?
 JRB: A lot of instructors who are flexible don’t get why some people can’t do poses.  Teachers take the view that if you just try hard enough you can do it. But if you study the body you see that’s not true. You want to set people up so that they will be able to do things they can do, instead of setting them up for disappointment and injury.  So, for example in the workshop we’ll have everyone come into a lunge and look at the clearance between chest and thigh.  If you have a long tibia, big boobs, or a thick torso, for example, your hands might not reach the floor—and your chest is already on your thigh. So how are you going to change that? All the practice in the world is not going to create that clearance.   The flip side is that some things are possible for people—but not yet. You have to look at their body type and see what’s tight, what’s weak, and work backwards from simple things to more complicated. You give them things that will help them get father along on the path.   JH: So the experiential module at ASFYT is super important to allow people to apply what they’re learning.
 JRB: In 3rd module, we do a few different things—I have everyone come up and show how they practice a pose—say, triangle pose—and we look at choices people make with the alignment of the feet and torso. Different teachers make different choices  I ask why did you make that choice? Why are you making that choice from a muscular skeletal view point? What advantage does it have, what’s the maximum benefit? Then I get people to talk about it.  I encourage people to be curious so they see it’s not a question of good or bad, right way or wrong way. We tend to adopt the habit of the style we practice we don’t even know why. It’s a fun challenge.   JH: Different schools have different ideas about how do to poses. Do people ever resist looking at their own choices?
 JRB: Sometimes the experiential work brings up people’s defensiveness. People have been teaching for years and they’ve developed a belief system about what they’ve been doing. I try to foster curiosity and exploration. Then transformation can come.  But at first people can get overwhelmed then defensive but in the final few days there’s exuberance and excitement as the process changes their understanding of what’s possible.  JH: How do you deal with that?
 JRB: I tell people when you go back to teaching you’re going to be flummoxed for a while but that’s growth.   It’s a gift—you become empowered in a sense that you are not relying on what other people say. You can think about what’s actually working and come up with new ways of doing poses. When you go back you’re a much stronger teacher  My hope is that enough people do this course or some course like it until all yoga teachers feel like they have to stay up with what’s out there. With so many people getting injured, I hope this course raises the bar.
***** The ASFYT runs in three modules over either 6 or 10 months. The first two modules are lecture based and the third one is experiential. Brown has also arranged three different formats to fit people’s schedules but each route covers 108 hours.   Brown’s program graduated its first set of students in June 2008, among them Marco Rojas and Paula Lynch.  Joelle Hann is a yoga teacher and yoga journalist. Visit her blog Yoga Nation and follow Yoga Nation on Facebook and Twitter @yoganation.

Yoga City NYC: Interview About Zenyasa®

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:12:33 -0400

Jason was interviewed by Katie Clancy of Yoga City NYC in the Spring of 2009, when he was teaching Zenyasa® at Pure Yoga East. We’ve copied the entire article here, as the interview is a bit buried on their website (however, you can click here to visit their site, and then just do a search for “Creating a New Practice”).

“Creating a New Practice: Using Buddhism to Inform Yoga” by Katie Clancy

Do you ever feel like it takes an entire class just to settle down and become present - let alone go deep into inner silence? Or that you couldn’t possibly learn to meditate - just focusing in yoga is hard enough? Strugglers may have a new option. Jason Ray Brown has created a practice that blends Zen meditation, exercise science, and Vinyasa yoga into an hour and fifteen minute class. YogaCity’s Katie Clancy sat down with this respected teacher, who can be found at Pure, Yoga Works, and Reebok Sports Club, to find out about Zenyasa®.   Clancy: I’ll start with a deep one. Do you have any thoughts on the quote by Swami Sivananda: “Yoga is not a religion, but an aid to the practice of the basic spiritual truths in all religions”?   Brown: This is a hard one to answer, because it evokes some difficult questions: What is yoga? What are the spiritual truths inherent in all religions? Yoga means different things to different people. Classical yoga is more a philosophy than a religion, or a physical practice as we have come to know it in the West. As a spiritual practice, some people might mix it with aspects of Hinduism, incorporating devotional teachings from the Bhagavad Gita, but others might relate it primarily with the Yoga Sutras, where yoga is defined simply as a cessation of the fluctuations of the mind.   Unlike classical Yoga, the spiritual teachings offered in Zenyasa® Yoga are inspired primarily by Buddhist philosphy. It’s difficult to define Buddhism as a religion, because many people argue that in order to have a religion, you must acknowledge a God. But Buddhism neither negates nor affirms the existence of “God.” That’s why some people call it a philosophy.   If there is a set of basic truths common to all religions, I think yoga can help you discover them because ultimately truth is within. And yoga helps you access this inner truth.
 Clancy: Fair enough. So what else makes Zenyasa® Yoga unique?

Brown: In a sense, it brings together both Western and Eastern techniques, and relies upon theories found in contemporary exercise science. It combines aspects of Buddhist practice and meditation with movement that is inspired by both Vinyasa yoga and functional strength training. I think that we also spend more time during each class practicing formal meditation and breathing practices than in many yoga styles. I also encourage a cultivation of goodwill and respect through the “Gasho” practice. And each class sequence is inspired by one of the five elements in Chinese Medicine—Earth, Metal, Wood, Water, and Fire. [For more information about how class works, see Jason Ray Brown Sleuth at Pure Yoga]   Clancy: Can you talk a little more about how exercise science influences the practice?  Brown: I became very inspired during my time at the Swedish Institute, where I studied exercise science in addition to my massage courses. One of the key insights for me was the concept of “push-pull”… that if we do an exercise that strengthens the “pushing” muscles of the body, we should also do an exercise that strengthens the “pulling” muscles, in order to maintain balance in the joint. In vinyasa yoga, there are a lot of chaturangas, which strengthen the pushing muscles of the upper body (pecs, front deltoids and triceps), but there really aren’t a corresponding number of postures that strengthen the pulling muscles (rhomboids, rear deltoids and biceps). If we were in the gym, the perfect complement to chaturanga would be a seated row. On a yoga mat, we might simulate a seated row by doing a “shoulderstand vinyasa,” and then fish pose with arms in “grasshopper” (elbows pressing into floor). In Zenyasa® yoga, the concept of “push-pull” is always incorporated into the sequencing.   Also, according to exercise science, strength and flexibility are both important for healthy muscles, and if you are going to do both, it is more efficient to work on strengthening first, then stretching. The way that I used to teach, I knew that strengthening and stretching were both in there, but didn’t really give much though about when I was doing either. In Zenyasa®, we try to do postures and exercises with a strengthening focus first, and then later practice postures that stretch the muscles that we’ve strengthened.   Also, when I first began teaching vinyasa I would build the entire class around a climax posture, with the sequences all designed specifically to prepare for that pose. In Zenyasa®, there are no “climax” poses, but rather a strengthen/stretch focus that is inspired by the location of the acupuncture meridians (according to Chinese Medicine). So the postures are not ends in themselves, but rather the means through which we cultivate strength, stability, flexibility, balance, etc.   Clancy: That feels very zen, studying the body and its functions from an anatomical level and not embellishing with philosophy or dogma.  Brown: For the most part. If I do sprinkle in some Buddhist philosophy during the class, I try to keep it down to the earth so that is seems applicable in our daily lives.   Clancy: So we see that its not so much the form, or posture, that is important, but rather, the result or effect of it, right?  Brown: Yes. For example, during the Fire Series we practice classic push-ups to strengthen the muscles within the pathway of the Heart meridian. People will sometimes ask later, “Are push-ups yoga?” I might reply, “Is Triangle pose yoga? What is yoga?” You can do certainly do triangle pose without doing yoga, if you’re not present while you’re doing it. And you can do yoga at the dinner table, without doing any postures, if you are eating in complete mindfulness. Yoga literally means “to yoke”, so we could ask, what are you yoking in your practice? I like to think of it as yoking the mind to what is happening in this moment. So whether you are doing a push-up or Triangle pose, if you are practicing with steadiness and ease in your mind, paying attention to your breath and what is happening in your body… then in my view you are practicing yoga.
Clancy: You emphasize a rather formal zazen meditation practice in the beginning of class, instructing students how to sit and hold their hands properly. Any reason?  Brown: When I moved to New York 14 years ago, there were just a handful of yoga studios in the entire city; now there are over 100. Now that it is hip and trendy, and the physical rather than the spiritual aspects of the practice are often emphasized, it sometimes seems like a sense of etiquette and respect for the practice has been lost. I learned to understand the value of formality and respect through the practice of martial arts and Zen Buddhism. In both there is a deep sense of respect for the teacher, the history, the practice and the other students, which is expressed through form and behavior – arriving early, bowing to the teacher and the practice space, helping to tidy the space before leaving. So I try to bring a little of this into the Zenyasa® practice, with the formal seated meditation. And also through the “Gasho” practice, which is a series of four bows meant to cultivate goodwill toward the practice space, the sangha, the teacher, and all beings.
 Clancy: Yah. I wish we weren’t sitting in the blazing sun right now. Should we move?  Brown: Exactly. Should we? One of the things we work on during the seated meditation practice is our inherent desire to change things, to make them better than they are. When we commit to sitting for fifteen minutes no matter what, many distractions come up. We want to scratch the itch on our face, brush the hair out of our eyes, etc. But from a Zen perspective, sitting with these urges, and not attempting to chase them away, teaches us to find peace in the moment, with the way things are. I refer to it as “making peace with the conditions that are present.” To not chase after our attachments, or run away from our aversions. That while we cannot control everything that happens (such as the weather or aging), we can learn to work skillfully with our mind’s reaction to what is happening.   Clancy: Hmmm. Well, I am sweating so much my heart is racing. I think it might be skillful to ask the waiter to bring us some water.
 Brown: Yes.

Yoga City NYC: Jason was Sleuthed!

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:26:47 -0500

Yoga City NYC has a feature that they call “Yoga Sleuth,” where they send journalists around the city to take yoga classes and then write about their experience. The teacher doesn’t know that they are taking the class, or that they’ll be writing about it later.

Jason was “Sleuthed” during the Spring of 2009, when he was still teaching Zenyasa® at Pure Yoga. Below is a transcript, which can also be found at Yoga City NYC (just search for “Zenyasa®”)

Zenyasa® with Jason Ray Brown
Pure Yoga
203 East 86 St. at 3rd Ave.
Mon 10:30 AM to 11:45 AM
Intermediate
http://www.pureyoga.com

Jason Ray Brown’s Monday class at Pure is a fusion of Zen Buddhism, Vinyasa and Exercise Science he created two years ago. Always up for something new, Yoga Sleuth went to see how he’d put all these pieces together in one yoga class.

Inspired by his teacher, the Vietnamese monk, Thich Naht Hahn, Jason weaves Buddhist readings and breathing exercises throughout the class.We start with a 10-15 minute meditation. Hands folded in a "Dhyana" mudra (hands form a circle and join at the thumbs), we are told to follow our thoughts carefully. Instead of judging emotions and thoughts, we simply notice and label them, then move our attention back to the breathe. "It's like training a puppy," Jason says, "we have to use gentle repetition in meditation." I feel the breathing calm my nervous system, connect me to a deeper inner silence, and prepare me for the rigorous class ahead.

Then we do a "Gasho" practice, as an expression of goodwill. To honor our practice, we step off our mats and bow to them. We then honor the teacher by acknowledging Jason, and look around the room to everyone in class to acknowledge our yoga family. Lastly we invoke a simple wellbeing prayer in honor of all beings.

The warm-up flow is a series of unique yet simple sequences that involve the front and back bodies, with an emphasis on opening the shoulders. We move slowly through sequences of grasshopper (forward bend with bend knees and elbows reaching towards ceiling), side plank, and downward dog. When we hold downward dog for twenty breathes, I feel the strong focus established during the opening meditation.

Each class is based on one of the five elements in Chinese medicine: earth, fire, water, metal and wood. Today, Jason focuses on Earth, which is associated with the body's spleen and stomach organs. In order to ground and strengthen the inner and outer meridians that run along the length of the leg, we do a "hero" series that involve deep lunges, standing balances, and forward folds. In the spirit of the theme, Jason calls one particular lunge “touching the earth.” Right before the Buddha was enlightened, Jason explains, thoughts of women, luxury and food overwhelmed him. In order to rise above these distractions intended derail him, the Buddha knelt down by the Bodhi tree and literally touched the earth to get grounded and centered. As we sweat through the countless repetitions, Jason laughs and says: “you can see this pose from a Buddhist angle, or just from an exercise viewpoint, where we are doing a single leg squat that strengthens the gluts and quads.”

We also do core work and hip opening stretches that challenge me physically and mentally. I realize that because of the thorough meditation at the beginning of class, we are technically only doing asana for one hour, however, Jason is very thoughtful and certainly provides a fully-body workout. It's also great to be reminded how vital meditation is to our practice. Stay tuned for an in-depth article about his Zenyasa® philosophy.   -- Katie Clancy

American Yoga

Thu, 27 Feb 2003 15:50:33 -0500

In 2003, Jason was one of the main “yoga models” in the book, “American Yoga: The Paths and Practices of America’s Greatest Yoga Masters,” by Carrie Schneider. This is a great coffee table book, featuring interviews with some of the pioneers of yoga in America, including Richard Freeman, Beryl Bender Birch, Erich Schiffman, Mary Dunn, Tim Miller, Rodney Yee, Judith Lasiter, John Friend, Patricia Walden, Stephen Cope, Dharma Mittra, Richard Miller, Gary Kraftsow and many others.