I have just dropped Bryan Kest off at the Detroit Metro Airport yet still feel his presence with me. He is a very charismatic person, eager to share his love and knowledge of yoga with anyone and everyone. I found this past weekend to be very inspiring and Bryan to be “IN THE SPIRIT.” I was truly impressed with his business prowess and that his workshop schedule is booked out nearly five years in advance! Yet he remains humble. When I asked him if he ever thought he would be this popular or famous, he answered with a question: “Am I?”

My company, Fitness Rx, sponsored the yoga weekend workshop on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, April 23-25, 2004.

Our location was the Sisters of Mercy Center in Farmington Hills, MI. We began our intense Power Yoga journey with Bryan at 6 pm on Friday evening.

Bryan began the workshop with a discussion about yoga and his thoughts on it. He shared as much of his twenty five-plus years of experience as possible in an hour and fifteen minutes. He talked about stress-related illnesses, and that it is not about the stresses in our lives, it is how we respond to the stress that matters. He discussed and mentioned several times throughout the weekend that it is not important that you can put your leg behind your head. He talked about how we should de-emphasize the efforts we put into how we look and instead, put more into changing our thoughts and improving our attitudes about ourselves and others.

The discussion was followed by an hour-long practice. The session on Friday was not overcrowded so everyone benefited from mild adjustments whenever Bryan’s verbal cues were not enough. Bryan commented several times (throughout the entire weekend) on how we were able to maintain the focus and concentration necessary to move through the asana flow he had so intricately designed. Each practice session on the weekend began with child’s pose and a centering of our minds and bodies. Surya Namaskara A and B from the traditional Ashtanga Yoga Series followed (with Bryan Kest flair). Bryan called these our “warm ups.” We were holding cobra (vs. up dog which is traditional) and Bryan explained that we should only straighten our arms to the degree where it felt good, where we were making love to our back muscles. Friday’s practice was the least physically challenging of the weekend, more due to the length of the practice compared to the others. Overall, we practiced asana for eight and a half hours over the weekend.

Bryan pointed out that anyone from 18 to 80 years old could do the postures, or a modification of them, that we were doing during the weekend workshop. The traditional postures from First and Second Series of Ashtanga Yoga where extreme contortions would be necessary were not included at all. In other words, none of us was asked to get into pretzel-like shapes!

Saturday morning’s practice elaborated on the practice from the evening before and began similarly. Bryan intertwined many hip openers throughout the practice. (“Did you know that the hips are huge storage depots for lots of stress and tension?” Bryan asked.) The practice included six very slow push-ups where we were instructed to touch only our chins down. Those who needed to were allowed to come onto their knees. We learned new names for old postures (this is where the humor came in just when we needed it). We did Cobasana, Dogasana, Crotchasana, Head to Leg Pose (a modification of Parsvatanasasa).

Most importantly, we were asked to keep our necks in line with our spines, to use the upper back muscles more in cobra, and to place the most emphasis on our breathing. We were asked to “be present” and to “suck the juice out of every moment of our lives.”

The Saturday afternoon session was a live version of Bryan’s Long, Slow and Deep Audio CD. (Available on my website: www.fitnessrxonline.com)

The practice would be considered more Yin than Yang, according to Bryan, as I discussed with him after class. “We live in a male dominated society, so it is good to do some more feminine, restorative practices to complement the Yang hard, driving practices,” he explained. Bryan recommends the Deep Stretch type of practice at least once a week.

This practice was considerably challenging, but complemented the morning session. We did a very short warm-up followed by many postures on the floor and on our backs. The holds in the postures were much longer than in any of the other sessions which, for me, were almost torturous. (I hold my postures for five to ten breaths maximum.) Bryan suggested that in order to deepen your practice, try holding your postures for 10 minutes.

We held paschimotanasana (seated forward fold) for a full ten minutes. Bryan talked us through the extra-long hold by prompting us to lengthen our breaths from three to four seconds on inhales and exhales to up to fifteen seconds on inhales and exhales. The lengthened breathing itself was challenging in addition to the long duration in the asana.

While we were in the forward fold, Bryan told us stories, where he worked humor into what could have been a very boring, long hold. The one I remember is where Bryan told us how easily we get distracted and how our thoughts trigger other thoughts. I liked the story about how Bryan said he was practicing yoga in a class and the girl in front of him had a tattoo. He spent some time figuring out what the tattoo was. (It was a devil.) The tattoo reminded him of a movie with the devil in it starring an actress who he had seen recently at the grocery store. From that thought, he started mentally making a grocery list! After the story, Bryan reminded us that we need to “be present” while we are doing things, and especially while practicing our yoga.

Sunday morning was the Grand Finale session, which happened to be the largest session of the weekend. Bryan dedicated the practice to everyone over 30 years of age. The love and energy in the room was overwhelming and although our muscles were fatigued from the previous hours of practice, we were ready to go again. The practice began similarly to Friday evening and Saturday morning, but we progressed through more challenging postures. The sheer length of the practice was challenging (three hours).

Our practice ended very memorably. No headstands were performed all weekend. Bryan does not feel that headstands are necessary to yoga practice.

We concluded with Halasana (plough pose) and shoulder stand followed by a beautiful guided meditation about gratitude while we were seated. We were in “an attitude of gratitude” for about 5 minutes. We all enjoyed a 5-minute Savasana (final relaxation).

The weekend ended with a round of applause for Bryan. I have not seen any yoga workshop presenter applauded and swarmed with hugs and kisses like Bryan Kest. In fact, we were all hugging each other at the conclusion of the weekend.

BRYAN KEST’S WORDS OF YOGA WISDOM:

Find out more about Bryan and Power Yoga at www.poweryoga.com or visit Bryan at his Santa Monica, CA studios.

Angie Kielar is a Registered Yoga Teacher who has been teaching and practicing Yoga for 10 years.