David Garrigues Weekend Workshop

The Craft of Ashtanga: Strength, Skill, and Stability

 

This 4 day immersion with certified Ashtanga teacher David Garrigues blends Mysore practice with focused workshops to build strength, clarity, and confidence in how you move. You’ll learn smart repetition, effective modifications, and how to generate real power without forcing, guided by David’s principle-based approach and decades of dedicated daily practice in the Ashtanga tradition.

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David has been immersed in Ashtanga study since 1991. He met Sri K. Pattabhi Jois in 1993, traveled to Mysore to study at the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute, and received a teaching certificate directly from Jois in 1996. That lineage, along with David’s clear and practical teaching method, shapes the way you’ll work throughout the weekend.

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You’ll work on:
• Mysore-style classes with one-to-one guidance, adjustments, modifications, and props
• Crouch & Spring transitions for decisive, strong movement
• Standing postures for leg and core strength, spinal freedom, and steadiness
• Backbend essentials using Primary roots with optional Second Series shapes
• Arm balances and inversions taught step by step for stability and confidence

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For all levels, from first-time Ashtanga students to experienced practitioners refining technique. No Second Series experience is needed. When Second Series postures appear, they are optional tools for teaching universal principles.

 

Class Descriptions

 

Friday June 19

• Friday Evening 5am-7am: Crouch & Spring · Foundational Dynamism

Life changes fast, and we often meet that change with hesitation. In practice, that shows up as timid transitions and half-commitments that block real strength.

This workshop trains the Crouch & Spring mindset: prepare clearly, commit fully, and move with decisive power, building both physical strength and inner confidence.

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What we’ll practice:

• Strong, safe transitions into Chaturanga Dandasana

• Surya Namaskara transitions, especially into Upward Dog, with clean preparation and a determined impulse

• Entries into standing postures (Warrior sequences) to develop leg and core strength

• Forward bends with commitment, avoiding collapse

• Hip openers progressing toward half lotus through Vrksasana and Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana

• Backward jumps that generate power without wear and tear
   

You’ll learn to take smart risks in controlled conditions and practice in a way that builds real capability, not caution.

 

Saturday June 20

• Saturday 12.30 pm - 2.30 pm: Standing Poses 

Standing poses often get treated like warm-ups. Five breaths per side, then on to the “real” practice. That’s a mistake.

These are the gold mines of Ashtanga. Standing poses teach the craft of asana: set your foundation, free your spine, and find depth instead of chasing complexity. You can build strength, absorption, and healing power here for a lifetime.

In this class you’ll learn how to use feet, legs, and hips to create real stability and power. Grounded support in the lower body awakens breath, engages mula and uddiyana bandha, frees the spine, and opens the possibility of clear spinal gesture, steady drishti, and meditation in movement.

Put your energy where it counts. Standing poses are the foundation of everything.

 

• Saturday 3.30 pm-5.30 pm: Backbend Essentials - Primary Roots, Second Series Wings

You do not need any experience with Second Series.

This workshop teaches backbends with precision and commitment, using First and Second Series postures to build universal principles you can apply to any extension.

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What we will practice:

• Purvottanasana and the transition from Upward Dog

• Urdhva Dhanurasana (Wheel)

• Dropping back from standing with commitment, not collapse

• Shalabasana, Bhekasana, Dhanurasana

• Ustrasana

• Kapotasana
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Focus areas include activating legs, glutes, and core, opening the chest without jamming the low back, and organizing the spine with strength and stability. You’ll learn to meet the work with determination, without fear or forcing.

 

Sunday June 21

• Sunday Morning 8am-10am: Mysore

Traditional Mysore-style class with one-to-one guidance in the Ashtanga system, taught through David’s principle-based approach. You learn the set sequence while also learning how to modify, use props, and bring crouch-and-spring dynamism into your transitions. Each student works at their own pace as David circulates with hands-on adjustments, verbal cues, and specific technical guidance—whether you are on your first sun salutation or refining advanced postures. The focus is smart repetition and intelligent practice, not forcing your body into shapes it is not ready for.

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• Sunday Afternoon 12.30 pm - 2.30 pm: Arm Balances and Inversions

No experience with Second Series necessary.

Arm balances and inversions train your relationship with risk. You can creep into Headstand with doubt and get shaky results, or you can work step by step, prepare, commit, and keep taking smart risks even when you want to play it safe.

This workshop applies crouch & spring principles to advanced forms, so you learn to enter and hold arm balances and inversions with stability and confidence.

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What we will practice:

• Sirsasana (Headstand): rise with confidence and hold with strength

• Bujapindasana

• Bakasana

• Pincha Mayurasana

• Advanced variations of forward and backward jumps

 

Monday June 22

• Mysore 7am-9am 

Traditional Mysore-style class with one-to-one guidance in the Ashtanga system, taught through David’s principle-based approach. You learn the set sequence while also learning how to modify, use props, and bring crouch-and-spring dynamism into your transitions. Each student works at their own pace as David circulates with hands-on adjustments, verbal cues, and specific technical guidance—whether you are on your first sun salutation or refining advanced postures. The focus is smart repetition and intelligent practice, not forcing your body into shapes it is not ready for.

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Pricing

• Full Program - 4 days: 325 euro

• Friday-Saturday-Sunday: 285 euro

• Single sessions: 75 euro

• Single Mysore session: 45 euro

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Cancellation Policy – David Garrigues Workshop Gent | 19/06 – 21/06

If you wish to cancel your participation, the following cancellation policy applies:

• For cancellations up until 15/03, a full refund of the amount will be made to the original payment method.

• For cancellations up until 30/04, a 40% refund will be made to the original payment method.

• For cancellations after 15/05, no refund will be offered.
   

The organizer and hosts have no involvement in or responsibility for expenses made for transportation/traveling to Gent or accommodation costs. Therefore, no refund for these expenses will be applied under any of the mentioned circumstances.

You may ask us to provide useful information regarding accommodation; however, we do not offer accommodation services.
 

The organizer and hosts reserve the right to cancel the event for serious reasons (including – but not limited to – pandemic, epidemic, illness, or force majeure). In that case, a full refund of the workshop fee will be made to the original payment method.

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Dit is een event van VZW Blanchasana - RPR Gent - Ondernemings nr. 0794.425.743