Functional Yoga Program

This 3 week program is all about learning how to make yoga poses work for our individual bodies. We focus on what we are really trying to achieve with various yoga poses and why, and how we can adapt them so that they serve us best. We focus our attention more on the function of the pose rather than its form.

So what do we mean by Functional Yoga?

When we talk about practicing or teaching yoga in a functional way it’s helpful to ask these three questions:

1. What is the function of the pose? What are you trying to achieve? Which part of the body are you targeting?

2. What’s stopping or restricting the pose? Is it a physical restriction (tension or compression) or perhaps emotional or energetic blocks?

3. How can you change the pose to make it work for you? Are there physical adjustments you can make to the shape of the pose, do you need to work on restrictions in your muscles and fascia or freeing stuck energy?

In this program, 3 teachers - Esther, Anat and Marcel - bring you you their own perspective on Functional Yoga.

Week 1: We look at “traditional” yoga poses and how to make them more functional

Week 2: We focus on three areas of the body - legs, torso, upper body - drilling down how to work on these target areas in a functional way

Week 3: Putting it into practice. Each teacher incorporates the lessons from the previous weeks into a free flow in their signature style

After this program you can take what you have learnt into any class you do on EkhartYoga. For more information, read Anat Geiger's article, What is Functional Yoga?

Want to dive deeper?

Check out our Functional Anatomy course with Anat Geiger on the EkhartYoga Academy

Learn what functional yoga is and how this approach can help free you from the stress of striving for an aesthetic ideal and instead, practice in an efficient, empowered and pain-free way that honours the uniqueness of your body.

This illuminating 2-hour course will familiarise you with the main anatomical structures of the pelvis, spine and shoulders and show you how the shape of your bones can determine the shape of your yoga poses.