From Yoga to Martial Arts
Posted: July 23, 2008 at 8:09 pm | Tags: Chi Gong, Dragons Breath, Kung Fu, Martial Arts, Yoga
The History of Martial Arts and Yoga
(The Beginnings of Dragon’s Breath Yoga at Temple Arts in Plantation Florida)
Dragon’s Breath Classes // Thursday 6:30 – 8:00 PM
Temple Arts Yoga and Belly Dance studio in Plantation, Florida is excited to introduce the entirely new program, Dragon’s Breath Yoga. This Yoga was made with the Martial Artist in mind. Although one does not need to be a Martial Arts practitioner in order to become involved.
The founder of Dragon’s Breath is Amanda Clemens (also President of Temple Arts Yoga and Belly Dance Studio) who has been a Yoga practitioner her whole life. Starting at the young age of, well being born! You see Amanda’s mom used an Indian massage called Loving Hands on her since the very day she was born. This massage not only helps with the connection between mother and child but also helps in keeping the baby pliable and healthy. It uses a gentle massage that places the baby in Yoga Asanas. So, with an early start in Yoga and nine years experience in the Choy Lee Fut Kung Fu brand of Martial Arts Amanda was destined to see the link between her two loves.
After studying Martial Arts for a few years at a local Plantation Florida Studio, John Wai’s Florida Kung Fu Academy, she began to notice similarities between it and Yoga. Both Martial Arts and Yoga had similar stances or postures. They also shared in internal practices like breath work and focus for the mind. So Amanda began to do a little research and found out what is not very known in the Martial Arts world, that Yoga actually was the beginning to Martial Arts.
Many years ago a Buddhist Monk named Bodhi Dharma went to China in a time where the Emperor was converting to Buddhism. He visited a local Temple, were monks were translating sacred Sanskrit texts to Chinese, and what he found astonished him, the monks were falling asleep during there meditations! Bodhi Dharma could not have this so he began to teach the monks a series of postures to build stamina and strength back into the monk’s bodies. This practice was called Yoga. Just like the standard Yoga asanas are based off of animal poses, Martial Arts, or to be more specific to that time Kung Fu began to develop out of a need for self defense, from those and other animal styles.
Dragon’s Breath Yoga uses that very integration in its program. It shows through the flow of the class the movement of Yoga from Martial Arts. Even better there are two variations to this already popular class. You can try the pure Dragon’s Breath Yoga class which combines a series of Yoga asana with breath work, focus and meditation work design for the Martial Artist. Or the Dragon’s Breath class that is the combo of Martial Arts and Yoga. Both are heart pounding, sweat dripping classes for anyone that wants a challenge themselves and get all the benefits of a healthy, lean, flexible, strong body and focused mind.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
