Budakon - Jungle

I have had a thing for Budakon yoga since I discovered it last year at the yoga show.

I have always been into martial arts since I was very young and have tried many different styles.

When I was 17, I got into both yoga and kickboxing at roughly the same time. I immediately felt a connection and fell in love with them both equally. To me yoga was my yin and kickboxing my yang. I found that they both complimented each other perfectly.

Cameron Shayne has portrayed the philosophy of my ideal style of how to structure the perfect class. He has intricately joined the mind, body and spirit in a way that I feel a deep resonation. I absolutely love the idea of combining yoga and martial arts.

The gorgeous Ryan demonstrated Budakon Jungle taking us back through our evolutionary past and to our animal instincts to re-ignite our yoga practice. It was the most fun open class of the weekend. We all charged across the ever so small studio imitating different animals. Some were graceful, others not so graceful. Or should I say Ryan made them look graceful! It would be funny to watch back how we all looked when practicing them! Lol

I will be enlightening my students with a new concept of the word crocodile! Formerly known as chatturanga in my yoga classes, crocodile in Budakon is basically a walking plank. You keep your body in a perfectly straight line navel pulled in towards spine to create a strong core. Then keeping your arms straight, flex and extend your wrists while simultaneously moving your opposite foot forward. It’s quite difficult getting used to your co-ordination at first but when mastered this pose is excellent for the core and strengthening the wrists. The next progression is walking crocodile which is very challenging and requires a lot of core and upper body strength. After each movement you add a press up! I really liked this variation it got my muscles working extremely hard and my heart rate elevated rapidly. The jumping crocodile followed... Now this isn’t for the faint hearted! 

As you lower into chatturanga pose, you explosively push your hands and feet into the ground while leaping yourself forward to land in your starting position. Ryan’s demonstration was very fluid and he made it look so easy. The distance he created from himself and the floor was very high and he jumped really far forward.

My attempt was quite good, I could jump up from chatturanga and land in the same position but I didn’t appear to move forward much! I will definitely be having this as one of my goals in my personal yoga practice. 

Budakon yoga inspires me very much and I will continue to practice at home with the DVD's! :)

xXx Namaste xXx