Ashtanga Yoga inside out

The Primary Series of Ashtanga Yoga is called Yoga Chikitsa.  Chikitsa means Therapy and is designed to cleanse and purify the entire body. Each posture has specific benefits. By synchronizing breath and movement we build internal heat which purifies the body by releasing toxins as well as beneficial minerals and hormones. The sequencing of the poses is by design, (Maryichasana A prepares you to take B deeper as your heel presses into your abdomen, C prepares you for D in the same way--and so on it goes).  At times we may need to modify a pose, or flow, to fit us in a certain circumstance, overall we want to work towards following the time tested sequence.
Ashtanga Yoga works from the inside out.  Our Western minds want to condemn what we think of as lack of form in some of the poses, we want to condemn Pattabhi Jois’s brutal nature to put us in a pose we do not want to do.  This is done for a reason, each pose is working on something inside, be it cleansing an organ (detoxifying) or a chakra, pressing on a nerve that stimulates a certain organ, or breaking through some resistance in our mind and body we are working internally, we are put deep in the pose to get the internal cleansing.
Ashtanga yoga gives concern to cleansing the internal body.  When you compare a pose from Ashtanga yoga to other forms of yoga that work mostly on the external body, Ashtanga may look sloppy.  Ashtanga performs the poses differently to effect the internal organs and to remove disease from the body.  Many of us need to start on an external plane to prepare the body to go deeper in the poses to get the internal work.  If we stay on the external plane we will not receive the internal detoxification and removal of dis-ease from our bodies.

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