PNF Hatha Yoga is the Complete Yoga Practice for Flexibility and Inner Strenght. Hatha Yoga has been practiced for thousands of years for developing in the body qualities like flexibility, strenght, balance and stillness. It is the most recognised and most practiced form of Yoga in our curent timeline. Hatha Yoga uses mostly the stretching technique as a form of muscle tension release. Hatha Yoga guides you in different stretching postures (asanas) to open up the body so it is able to stay confortable for a long time in any posture. Hatha Yoga also uses posture for strenght and balance. The goal of Hatha Yoga is to prepare the Body and the Mind to be able to stay confortable for a long time in Lotus Posture. In this Lotus Posture, you can go very deep in Prolonged Meditation.

PNF stands for Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation. PNF represents a contraction being applied to an area that is being stretched. You get into your Hatha asana and after you get connected with your stretch, you focus on the muscles of the stretched area and you start to contract them intensily as you can while maintainining a continous deep breath for minimum 6 long breaths. You would start with a 75% Full PNF Contraction and with each outbreath you increase the intensity of the contraction by 10%. You have minimum 6 outbreaths on each asana and by the third outbreath you should be Max Output on the PNF contraction of the stretched area. The goal is to get the PNF Contraction to failure, when you cannot keep the contraction active anymore. The best practice is to be able to get to PNF failure in every asana. When you get to PNF failure, the body openess itself naturally to the next degree of flexibility. The more you give into the contraction, the more relaxation it will bring.

PNF brings fast and easy progress. The contraction balances the stretching and they take out the disconfort from each other. If you only stretch, you will feel disconfort from the stretching. If you only contract, you will feel disconfort from the contraction. If you stretch and contract, you will feel relaxation as the contraction relaxes the stretch and the stretch relaxes the contraction. In this way, it is easier to stay a lot longer in postures and you are able to go through different degrees of flexibility. Your succes is determined by how much will you implemement in the contraction.

The stretch of the body is done by an external force which is created by moving our body ourwards. The contraction of the body is done by an internal force which is created by contracting our awareness. You become aware of the muscles that are being stretched by your outer body and you focus on contracting them with your inner body. The more will and attention you implement in the Contraction, the more openeness it will bring. It is a more refined way of opening the body.

The PNF Contraction is executed in every asana. In some special asanas, we also use the PNF Push and Pull technique. This technique uses postures where you can apply a push-pull force. One such posture is the Easy Pose where you stay on your buttocks with legs crossed and knees hanging to the side. This posture has the purpose to open the hips and the PNF Push and Pull technique is a great addition to the PNF Contraction. Push and Pull represents 2 opposite forces coming together as One in a single point.  In the Easy Pose we connect the elbows with the knees. The knees go upwards and the elbows go downwards. The knees are pushing up and hard into the elbows and the elbows provide the same force in reverse. By pushing up the knees you create tension into the hip joints and with the additional PNF Contraction of all muscles of the legs, you are able to easily open your hips. Your main focus is the knees pushing up and the second focus is on the elbows pushing down mirroring the force of the kness. The elbows never go harder than the kness as this would be forcing the hips. PNF is allowing the hips to open themself naturally in their own time without any force. Using this technique I was able to finally unlock the Lotus Posture.

The best gain from this technique is that it is able to bring you into a moment of continous inner strenght. Your goal is to always increase the intensity of the inner contraction so you can get as much relaxation as possible. This keeps the mind very busy in the contraction and makes it not able to wonder off as it would be when no contraction is applied. The contraction squeezes out from within all the Focus and Concentration Available. The PNF technique builds strenght of focus.

The PNF Hatha Yoga class is being offered every Wednesday from 6pm to 7:15pm. The price of the class is £10.

Please contact me on watts app me to book a spot and to get confirmation of the class availability.

Thank You

Namaste