Opening Your Heart With Matthew

I have been attending Matthew’s classes this past two weeks at Beyoga as he is replacing Azmi who has gone for a holiday.

Matthew is teaching the Anusara style of yoga which focuses on heart-opening and at the Hatha class on Saturday, there were a lot of heart-opening postures. We started the class in Tadasana before doing a few rounds of Sun Salutations and some Standing poses which help to build up heat and soften our muscles.

When we did the twisting poses like the Triangle pose, Revolved Triangle pose, Side Angle pose and Revolved Side Angle pose, Matthew asked us to round our back and pressed the tips of our shoulder blades into our back to open our heart before we lengthen our spine all the way up through our neck and head. He also reminded us to keep our hips square by keeping our heels grounded and to use our breath to deepen our awareness to the pose and to perform each transition pose with grace.

Matthew gives lots of encouragement in the class as he would say “well done, guys!” after we have been holding a pose for a while. I find Matthew to be a very dedicated teacher who is very passionate about his teaching. He goes round the class checking and adjusting the practitioners to make sure we are in correct alignment as well as to help us go deeper into our poses.

I like Matthew’s gentle way of assisting me in my poses and the way he uses his body weight to help deepen the stretches as I can really relax in the pose and do not feel any pain in those tight spots in my body. I was really surprised to feel my thighs touching the floor in Baddha Konasana (I have very tight hips) when Matthew used his weight to help me to deepen the pose during Asthanga Intro class on Friday.

If you would like to try out this “Celebrity” teacher's (he is teaching in Celebrity Fitness as well as in Energy and SunYogaKL) style of teaching, Matthew is teaching two Hatha classes in Beyoga on Sunday afternoons.

"Mountain pose teaches us, literally, how to stand on our own two feet.... teaching us to root ourselves into the earth.... Our bodies become a connection between heaven and earth."~Carol Krucoff