"Stretching can be bad for you." - Not what you'd expect to hear from a yoga teacher, right? But Utopia Dynamic Health's Jane Gillespie says exactly that and she's done her homework
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But Integra Yoga's Jane Gillespie says exactly that, and she's done her homework.
"In the West our bodies are quite different from the bodies from the time and place when yoga was created, so we need adjustment [in yoga] . . . Overstretching can be harmful. A stretch needs to be controlled and organised."
After more than 30 years of yoga teaching, Jane has developed her own brand of yoga from her knowledge of traditional yoga, Pilates, Feldenkrais, qigong and other physical and meditative disciplines.
Integra Yoga focuses on strengthening the small muscles which support the bones and joints. It also avoids those yoga positions which are potentially harmful.
"Yoga isn't about the pose you do. . . yoga means unity, so it's about integration and awareness and movement, and the breath in the movement. You can go to any yoga class, and not be doing yoga if you haven't got that integration.
Integra is the process of training that integration towards a true experience of yoga."
Utopia client Kathryn Nevell rates Integra Yoga as the best style of yoga she has practised to date.
"I have tried all kinds of yoga over the past 15 years or so, and Integra is the one form of yoga I have found which actually changes the way I feel on a day-to-day basis.
"While I felt great doing other yoga classes, I found that I would lapse into old habits almost as soon as I left a yoga session. Integra trains the body very effectively, so I feel strong, with an overall feeling of lightness and balance all the time now."
Integra yoga is not just for people who have yoga experience. Jane also has the expertise to teach absolute beginners, or athletes, as well as people who have injuries, or experience aches and pains.
She runs an introductory course in which she ensures her clients grasp the concepts of the breathing and movement she teaches. Clients move on to Integra level 2, and then can opt to go onto level 3 after a minimum of three months at level 2, if they so wish.
Learn Integra yoga exclusively at Utopia Dynamic Health.
Jane runs a free introductory session on the first Wednesday of every month, at 7pm.
Basement level, Bracken Court Building, 480 Moray Pl, Dunedin.
Phone (03) 477 2290