Welcome New Online Students

This page will answer a lot of questions if you are brand new to yoga with me. It's a little harder now that I don't get to see your practices and hear you breathe, but hopefully the lists below will help you to get the most out of your online experience with me!

Best Practices

  • Best to practice on an empty stomach, colon and bladder. No solid foods 2-3 hours prior and no liquids one hour prior. You can still practice if you eat or drink before yoga, but over time, you will realize you will get better results if you're empty.
  • Please modify your practice if there are any injuries, traumas, pregnancy term, pains, or limitations. DO NOT PUSH PAST WHAT FEELS GOOD, AND TAKE YOUR TIME, I.E. NEVER RUSH THROUGH YOGA.
  • Yoga exercises are best practiced barefoot on a level surface on a non-slip yoga mat.
  • Keep a towel, water and your yoga props handy.
  • Dress in comfortable, not too baggy, work out, or yoga attire that allows full range of motion in hips and shoulders.
  • Remove excessive (or all) jewelry and tie long hair up/back.
  • For best experience, arrive to all classes ON-TIME, which means you are ready to begin when class begins.
  • Late arrival is like walking into a really good move that have not seen before, late. (But with subscription, you can replay, rewind and pause all content particular to that channel.)
  • Do not push beyond discomfort. Beyond discomfort is pain. Beyond pain is injury. In my classes, we honor the saying, "no pain, no pain" not "no pain, no gain". More pain in yoga = less gain. You will find this to be true over time.
  • You have permission to NOT do everything and modify ANYTHING. Take breaks as needed.
  • Stay for the deep relaxation at the end of class. This will increase your benefits exponentially.
  • The intention is to leave feeling better than you did when you arrived.
  • Remember, the days you least feel like showing up to my classes are the days you need it most. In all my years of doing yoga, I have never regretting taking a class, even if it was a "bad" class.

Benefits of Navanga Yoga

  • Increased flexibility, strength, endurance and balance
  • Reduced stress, tension, anxiety, depression, anger, frustration, hatred, jealousy, laziness, fatigue, pain
  • Better sleep, concentration, meditation
  • Converting reactivity to responsiveness, thus making better choices on and off the yoga mat
  • Increased awareness and presence
  • Increased acceptance, compassion and gratitude towards yourself and others
  • Peace of mind to accept the things you can not change, strength and courage to change the things you can change, and the wisdom to know the difference
  • Strengthen relationships with those important to you, while releasing toxic relationships
  • You don't need to change your habits in order to practice yoga with me, but I can't promise you that you won't want to change your habits if you continue to practice yoga with me. It will happen when you are ready and not because you deprive yourself. It will happen because you decided that those habits will not serve you any longer. You will see.

I give these beloved teachers credit.

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Srivatsa Ramaswami, one-on-one student of T Krishnamacharya for 33 years. He is the teacher whom I have learned the most about yoga. He's taught me Krishnamacharya's Vinyasa Krama (asana, vinyasa, pranayama), direct translation of ancient texts, e.g. Yoga Sutra, Bhagavad Gita, Samkhya Karika, just to name a few. I have learned a tremendous amount of Sanskrit through this master's blessings.
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Original Ashtanga Yogis David Swenson, David Williams, (Ricky Tran) and Danny Paradise @Ashtanga Mela 2010. These first generation Ashtangis showed me by example how one can continue to practice yoga for the rest of your life.
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The Amazing Kumar Pallana, actor, performer, comedian, yogi, taught me that no matter the age of the student, everyone must be taught to laugh and breathe.
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Sri Dharma Mitra, circa 2009 taught me about ahimsa and devotion. The master reminds us that the goal of yoga is Self-Realization. He is as his name implies, a friend to all.
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Inspired by Bryan Kest Power Yoga, through Suze Curtis, my first yoga teacher. Learn to be comfortable when uncomfortable. Listen. Respond vs. React.
“Before you've practiced, the theory is useless. After you've practiced, the theory is obvious.” David Williams

Copyright Ricky Tran Yoga, Navanga Yoga Shala, Krama Yoga Center, Inc. © 2008-2020. All Rights Reserved.