YogaKutir

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We teach traditional Hatha Yoga, a holistic science for health and wellbeing. Yoga Teacher Training.

Rory Viggers & Dory Walker
Yoga Teacher Trainers, Mind Mechanics, Meditation, Headstand & Inversion specialists, Global Retreat leaders, 25 years, Dona Holleman students. Feel awesome in body and mind through ancient practices for contemporary life. Our Yoga is inspired by our study of classical teachings of Hatha yoga in disciplines that include Iyengar, Sivananda, Satyananda, Krishnamacharya and Dona Holleman's Centered Yoga system. We offer weekly yoga classes, courses and workshops in Clifton - Bristol, the South West & London. UK and International Yoga Retreats. Holistic Treatments. Yoga Therapy. Private Tuition. Yoga in the workplace.

25/01/2026

Imagine a recipe where every ingredient matters
Every step is essential to create the dish

Then someone decides it takes too long

So they skip ingredients
Cut steps
Rush the process

They might finish faster
But it is no longer the same dish

This is exactly what happens with fast track promises in yoga

And it is what I see again & again when supporting people with inversions who were tempted by speed

Fast track methods do not remove steps because they are unnecessary
They remove them to get a result quickly

And that always shows up later

When you see promises like
“Crow in 4 days”
“Master Headstand in 2 weeks”
“Pincha in a week or your money back”

This is the question worth asking:

What is their standard of the pose they are promising you?

Is Headstand simply getting up at any cost, staying for a moment with effort, then crashing back down?
Is Crow a brief balance without face planting?

Because the Headstand I’d support you in experiencing is light, stable & sustainable
One you can stay in comfortably
One that feels as effortless as standing on your feet

That is a completely different dish

And no teacher worth their weight in gold would promise that in two weeks

Yes, time can be used intelligently
With a clear map & method, you stop wasting years going in circles

But there is still a process

Inversions require progressive load
Time for postural support to develop
Space for the nervous system to trust the method

This is why Inversion Foundations is not fast track
Not 14 days
Not 12 weeks

It is 12 months of guided, supported practice
So nothing is skipped
Nothing is rushed
And nothing has to be rebuilt later

If you are done chasing quick wins & want a practice built to last, reply INVERT for an invite

24/01/2026

Dolphin reps to build strength for Headstand do two things:

1. They build arm strength
2. They teach you that Headstand is an arm based pose

That second one is the real problem

Doing Dolphin reps to improve Headstand is like doing pull ups to strengthen your hamstrings

You get stronger
Just not where you actually need it

This is why so many people feel strong, yet Headstand still feels heavy & effortful

The villain here isnt lack of strength

It’s training the wrong support system

Most commonly taught Headstand methods are arm centric

I was brought up on this model too
And no matter how often I practised, it always felt like hard work

Then about 15 years ago the penny dropped
The design was wrong

Headstand is not supported by big muscles or power

It’s supported by deep postural muscles through the spine

One of the most effective ways to develop these is Salabhasana

When practised correctly, Salabhasana targets the exact postural muscles Headstand depends on for effortless support

How does Headstand feel for you right now?

Standing on your feet feels effortless, right?

Because your body is organised with gravity & you have developed postural support

That is exactly how Headstand is meant to feel too

You will never create that by making your arms stronger
No amount of Dolphin reps will get you there
Because you are strengthening the wrong place

Ask anyone who can stay comfortably in Headstand for 5 minutes or more
They will all tell you the same thing
It isn’t the arms doing the work

And it isn’t fast

Just like a baby doesn’t walk effortlessly on day one, this support compounds over time

Salabhasana is one of the best practices
There are others too
All designed to alert the real support system Headstand relies on

This is exactly what I teach inside Inversion Foundations
Targeted drills
Correct sequencing
No arm centric shortcuts

So Headstand feels light
Stable
Sustainable
And floating the legs becomes effortless

If you’re done muscling your way through inversions & want a Headstand that actually feels effortless reply HEAD & I’ll send you the invite 🙌🏼

23/01/2026

Some of the people I’ve met who claim headstand is dangerous tend to share a few things in common:

They’ve never actually practised the pose

Their view is based on an outdated method that just happens to still be the most commonly taught

Look outside of yoga & you’ll see many disciplines placing far more load on the head in far more dynamic ways than yoga ever does (breakdancing, Circus)

If you look specifically at neck injuries caused by yoga headstand, there are very few documented cases, nowhere near as dramatic as the fear based narrative suggests. There’s not even much data on this

I’ve practised headstand for over 20 years without issue
So have my peers. And hundreds of thousands of others

If headstand were genuinely that dangerous, why would some of the most skilled& experienced teachers continue to practise + teach it?

When you look closer at those who label headstand as dangerous, you often find these cues in their method (if they actually teach it):

Place little to no weight on the head
Measure arm distance by holding opposite elbows
Use dolphin reps to build the “right” strength
Press the hands into the head

If these are familiar, you’re not working with the most effective model

I taught these early in my teaching career
Then around 15 years ago I was shown the real blueprint & understood why so many common methods block the pose rather than support it

Since then I’ve helped hundreds of teachers & students dismantle these cues & rebuild headstand using mechanics & principles that actually align with the body

Of course, not every body or condition is headstand appropriate. That’s always case by case

But for a healthy body, when the method is correct, you create support exactly where people fear injury

So saying “headstand is dangerous” without context misses the point

Which method are you talking about? Context changes everything

Like food, two things can share the same name & be wildly different in quality, ingredients & effect

The method I teach has created strong, stable, long term practices for me & hundreds of others

I’m teaching this inside Inversion Foundations

Want an invite? Reply HEAD

22/01/2026

There’s a bigger trap in yoga than lack of flexibility
It’s what flexibility means to you

Be radically honest

When you see someone more flexible in class, what story fires?
More advanced. More dedicated. More evolved
When you feel less flexible, what does that mean about you?

Most of us have run this software at some point

Not consciously
Subconsciously

Modern yoga has quietly turned physical metrics into measures of worth
More range equals more progress
Less range equals being behind

And if that’s the story running, it will shape everything about how you practise

You chase
You compare
You force
You get attached to outcomes

Then what happens when flexibility stalls?
Or when your body changes?
Or when the “reward” never quite lands?

Here’s the part that changed everything for me

Flexibility is just flexibility
Nothing more. Nothing less

The moment it means advancement, enlightenment, success, or value, you are trapped in an endless loop

What if flexibility had no story attached to it at all?
No badge. No meaning. No identity boost.

What if you practised simply because you enjoyed practising?
No gratification hiding underneath. Not even a subtle one

That shift does more for your life than any extra centimetre of range ever will

Because when you change the meaning, you change the intention
And when intention changes, the entire practice changes

Asana is just a lens.
Flexibility is just one character in the game.

Who you are being in the practice is the whole thing.

So ask yourself, honestly.

What does flexibility mean to you?
Why does that matter?
And why does that matter?

Keep going.
The why behind the why behind the why.

When you reach the root, ask one final question.

Is this really about flexibility?

Reply FLEX if you catch yourself in this loop

21/01/2026

I’ve worked with enough teachers & students across all asana backgrounds to see the same thing again & again

Very few people are actually fully balanced in Headstand

And it’s not because of strength or flexibility or anatomy

Those matter, yes
But they’re not the real limiter

The real reason is fear

Not conscious fear
Subconscious fear

And this is the tricky part
Most people don’t realise it’s there

The body normalises being off balance & calls it “safe” - or ‘balanced’
So when you actually move into the true balance point, where gravity supports you fully, it feels unnatural
Unstable
Unsustainable

At first

So the body pulls you back
You lean away from vertical
This causes more effort
You never experience true lightness

This is why even strong, flexible, well aligned practitioners stay just shy of the balance point

In my work, I look closely at the front & back body
Not anatomically
But in terms of awareness

Most of us ‘live’ in the front body

And there are reasons for this that I share in all my in-depth trainings
That relationship alone creates subconscious hesitation in inversions

Its also about trust

Does your body trust that you know exactly what you are doing?
Does it trust the method?
Does it trust the unknown?

It is like standing at the edge of a cliff
Most people stand a few steps back
That distance costs effort

The further you are from true balance, you create uanessacry effort

Part of the first vital phase of inversions is addressing this layer
Not with strength or cues

Through learning how to have full awareness of the body & how to mobilise it

Very few inversion trainings teach this yet it’s huge

When this piece is missing, you can train forever & still feel stuck

When it clicks, everything changes
Balance
Leg lift
Staying longer with less effort

Fear finally fades - at subconscious level

This inner engineering is a core part of what I teach inside Inversion Foundations
It applies to all inversions, not just Headstand

If you want to understand how to remove this hidden brake from your practice, reply HEAD for an invite

This is where things finally shift on a whole new level

20/01/2026

For years I was told to keep all the weight in my arms in Headstand.
None on the head.

“Protect the neck.”
“It’s dangerous.”

This is still the most common narrative today, even in teacher trainings.

If you build Headstand around arm strength, you get an arm centric Headstand.
That is what most people are shown.

Not because Headstand is unsafe.
But because the pose is misunderstood.

Key pieces are missing.

When I was shown a completely different way to look at Headstand, everything changed.
The fear.
The myths.
The scaremongering.

Because when you actually understand the mechanics and how the body works with gravity, the story falls apart.

Your head is not passive in Headstand.
It plays an active role.

In utilising the Normal Force.
In switching on the real foundations.
In supporting the neck rather than threatening it.

Headstand is a progressive transfer of load.

Just as a baby does not walk immediately, the body develops support through gradual, intelligent loading.
Headstand works the same way.

When you build an arm centric Headstand, you bypass this process.
No matter how strong your arms become, the real foundations never fully switch on.

You are trying to get a Ferrari by building a tractor.
Same pose name.
Completely different design.

Different principles.
Different techniques.
Different results.

When the design aligns with the body’s mechanics, everything changes.

This is how my legs began to float.
How balance became calm.
How staying longer felt effortless.
How fear disappeared.

Not through doing more.
But through doing it differently.

This is the version of Headstand I teach inside Inversion Foundations.
And it changes the pose from the inside out.

If you want an invite, reply HEAD.

Your Headstand will never be the same again.

[Save this for next time you practice]

19/01/2026

For years, I taught Headstand inside yoga classes
Five minutes at the end, if we were lucky

That’s how I was taught
That’s what I saw modelled in trainings & studios everywhere

About 15 years ago, something shifted
And once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it

Two things became very clear

Most commonly taught Headstand methods miss key elements of the real mechanics
And a group yoga class is not the right container to actually learn Headstand

Headstand is not just a shape
It requires specific technique, progressive load, & joined up time

If you are constantly going up & down, you never build the internal support the pose depends on
So you compensate with arm strength
It feels heavy
Fear stays close

That’s when I realised something uncomfortable

I had gaps in my understanding I didn’t even know existed
And if I had them, the people I was teaching did too

It wasn’t my fault
I was teaching what I had learned from very good teachers

But the system itself has gaps

Trying to squeeze a complete, layered process into a five minute window makes those gaps inevitable
That’s why so many people feel “not ready” for Headstand, when in truth they’ve just never been shown the full picture

You can’t do that in a class

It’s like trying to build an engine with missing parts
It might run, but it will never run well

So I stopped teaching Headstand that way

Every inversion training I now offer lives in its own container
Dedicated time
Clear phases
Enough space to actually build support, stability & awareness

The minimum time I use is 60 minutes
And that is just one phase. There are three more phases

The difference is like chalk & cheese

Students & teachers stuck for years finally understand why it wasn’t working
Legs float
Staying longer feels possible
Fear drops away

Classes are fine once you already know what you’re doing
They’re not where the foundations are built

Inside Inversion Foundations, you get the full process
Headstand, Pincha, Handstand & more
Step by step, with feedback + time to integrate (which is essential)

We’re opening v soon.

If you want an invite, reply HEAD & I’ll send you the details

18/01/2026

In a seminar this week, I shared the part of inversions that almost no one is taught

Not drills
Not exercises
Not anatomy or biomechanics

That all comes later

This was the first of the 4 Vital Phases of Inversions

The operating system
The inner engineering
The place you are practising from

Your relationship with gravity
How you organise force
Where your attention lives
How fear, belief, expectation and effort shape what your body can access

This phase includes things like:
How you work with gravity & return force
How you mobilise support without muscling
How awareness changes load
How visualisation & intent bring the nervous system on board

This is the phase that gives you extra gears

Not by trying harder
Not by becoming stronger or more flexible

But by changing how you are doing the work

These principles were central to my biggest breakthroughs in inversions
Floating the legs in Pincha
Staying in Headstand without effort
Balancing blindfolded

And the ripple effect goes far beyond inversions

Inversions are just the lens
The real shift is in the process

Working with concepts like Hara
Energy flow
Non-doing

This way of working is rarely taught in asana, let alone inversion training
Yet it changes everything

It reminds me of Zen in the Art of Archery
The arrow fires itself
As if the universe shoots through the archer

Asana can work the same way
The pose unfolds, rather than being forced

This is the opposite of fast-track thinking
Opposite of chasing outcomes
Opposite of doing more to get more

Balancing on your hands won’t change your life
How you go about it absolutely can

This is how we work inside Inversion Foundations
A system that includes strength & biomechanics, yes
but is rooted in something much deeper

Founding Member invites are open

Curious? Reply INVERT & I’ll send you an invite

17/01/2026

Dolphin reps do two things in Headstand

1. They build arm strength

2. They teach you to assume that Headstand is built on arm strength

That second one is the problem

Because what if arm strength isn’t the foundation at all
What if it’s not the missing piece
And what if the belief that “my arms aren’t strong enough” was never actually true

What if you already have enough strength
You just haven’t been shown where to direct it or how to apply it effectively

I see this in around 90% of the teachers & students I support

Without adding more arm strength or core workouts, people who thought they couldn’t suddenly can

Not because they got stronger
But because the design changed

When the right areas switch on & the real support chain comes online, everything shifts:
The legs float
Fear drops away
Balance stops feeling effortful

This happens when technique finally aligns with the true foundations

When foundations are misdirected, techniques built on top can’t fully work
So you compensate
You muscle
You rely on arms or core to make up for what’s missing

That’s why Dolphin becomes the default
It feels logical
But it’s misdirected

Focusing solely on arm strength for the foundations in Headstand is like doing pull-ups to build leg strength
Pull-ups build strong arms
They do nothing for your legs

And no matter how many Dolphin reps you do, you won’t switch on the support Headstand actually needs

When you understand how to work with gravity & the return force
When you know how to align the body so those forces do the heavy lifting
When the whole system is involved, not just the arms

Headstand becomes lighter, more stable, & far less tiring

This is exactly what I teach inside Inversion Foundations
Drills & practices that build strength where it’s actually required
Not more arm work
Better foundations

If you’re ready to change how you approach Headstand & all inversions, reply HEAD for an invite

This is where things finally start to make sense

16/01/2026

In my headstand trainings, I always start the same way

Before we practise, I invite anyone who already does Headstand to show how they usually go about it

What happens next is almost always the same

Some come into forearm headstand
Others go straight to tripod

And that tells me 2 things immediately

If someone goes straight to tripod, they either never practised forearm headstand, rarely practise it, or avoid it

And more often than not, they were never shown the learning order of Headstand through a Yoga lens

In classical systems, forearm headstand is learned first

Not because tripod is unsafe
But because tripod asks more of the body

Tripod places significantly more load through the head
Which means two things must already be in place:

The inner support system must be switched on
The body must have enough postural strength to handle that load

When those are missing, discomfort or instability shows up
Not because tripod is wrong
But because the body isn’t prepared

This is where many people feel “fine” in tripod, yet never feel settled

Think about how a child learns to move

First they stand
Standing builds postural strength
Then they walk
Then they run

You wouldn’t ask a body to run before it knows how to stand

Forearm headstand is where that standing strength is developed in inversion

It spreads weight through more of the arms
It gives clearer feedback
It teaches the body how to organise support from head to feet
It allows progressive load without rushing

Tripod comes later as a variation & as a launchpad into other postures

There’s also a key distinction most people miss

Forearm headstand is a long-duration pose
Tripod is a short-duration pose

Forearm is where you stay long enough to feel the deeper effects on breath, nervous system & mind
Tripod isn’t designed for that

When forearm headstand is practised properly, it unlocks keys to many other inversions, its one of the blueprint poses

This is exactly what I teach inside Inversion Foundations LIVE

A step-by-step process for all inversions
No guessing
No incomplete maps
No skipped foundations

If you want to float your legs with ease, Reply INVERT for an invite

15/01/2026

Most people are taught Crow in a way that looks strong, but switches off what matters most

Knees high on the triceps
Pelvis lifted above shoulders
Legs neutral or internally rotated

This modern version comes largely from gymnastics & calisthenics

It balances well
It looks impressive

But there’s a catch
Your abdominals dont do much

When the pelvis stays high & knees clamp the arms, leverage is reduced
With enough grip between knees + arms, you can hold the pose with little core engagement

That’s why modern Crow often feels exciting, yet gives very little back to the body beyond arm & shoulder effort.

Classical Bakasana works very differently

Legs externally rotate
Shins, not knees, draw high towards armpits
Feet actively pull towards navel
Pelvis + shoulders level

Here, there is nowhere for the abs to hide

This leg position and action of the feet fire up the abs
The hands and feet working together to create the spinal curve

In essence, classical Bakasana is Malasana or Baddha Konasana in the air

And this is the part most people never hear
You do not need to balance on your hands to develop these benefits
There is a grounded version I teach that builds the same deep core engagement & postural support without holding the balance at all
In many ways, it is more functional & more useful than chasing the modern version

When the classical pose is trained properly, modern Crow feels much less effortful

Inside Inversion Foundations, we deconstruct & rebuild Bakasana from this lens.
Because these mechanics are the foundation and engine to other arm balances

Twelve months of live weekly training & support
No shortcuts
No quick promises

Just the method, timing, & guidance for really developing these poses
If you want a different relationship with Crow and a core that supports your practice, reply CROW for the invite

14/01/2026

Gravity works from sky to earth
But there is another force you can work with

When you know how to mobilise it & distribute it through the body, effort drops & lightness appears

This is one of the core inner pillars of inversions
And it is one of the most missed pieces

Within the 4 Vital Phases of Inversions, this sits in the first phase. Preparation
This phase is what gives you access to gears beyond pure muscle

When this phase is missing or incomplete, you end up working far harder than you need to
More muscle & tension
Tighter breath

Energy efficiency is a key principle I work with
Not using more effort than is required, so energy can be channelled where it actually matters

When alignment is clear, unnecessary tension drops away
And when alignment is combined with working with gravity, another resource becomes available

The return current
Normal Force

A natural support that is already there, waiting to be accessed

When you know how to mobilise & distribute it, you experience:
less effort
softer breath
greater stability
a calmer, clearer mind
+ longevity in the practice

This is just one layer of inner engineering that supports inversions without relying on strength alone

And its rarely taught
Even in most teacher trainings

How do you know if this piece is missing?

If you’ve been told to put no weight on your head in Headstand, you are not accessing it
If you’ve never been shown the role of the feet, often more important than the hands, you’re missing it

When this support is cut off
balance feels harder
the legs feel heavy
staying up feels effortful
fear creeps in

This isnt your fault
Most commonly taught methods miss this entirely

I didn’t learn this for a long time either
And when I finally did, 15 years ago, everything changed

The 4 Vital Phases of inversions are often incomplete or skipped
Around 95% of the teachers & students I work with are missing key parts of this system without realising it

These principles are part of what I teach inside Inversion Foundations LIVE
They are not extras
They are the edge

If you want to explore inversions with less effort & more intelligence, reply INVERT for an invite

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About us

We are passionate about the full spectrum of yoga. We live, teach and embrace the richness of a yogic lifestyle. We endeavour through our teaching to share our own experience of yoga as a transformative practise on and off the yoga mat. Our classes are inspired by our study of classical teachings of Hatha yoga in disciplines that include Iyengar, Sivananda, Satyananda, Krishnamacharya, Scaravelli and Dona Holleman's enlightened asana work. We teach group classes and private lessons, host courses, workshops, retreats, and organise Teacher Training programmes.