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Keen on Yoga

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Home to the Keen on Yoga Podcast and YouTube
All are welcome Adam teaches a morning Mysore, Mon-Fri from 6am, all are welcome.

An online Ashtanga yoga studio created by two life-long dedicated Ashtanga practitioners, Adam & Theresa Keen. We met in 2008 whilst running Purple Valley in Goa, hosting senior yoga teachers including Sharath Jois. After many years of teaching Ashtanga in studios we are happy to be able to broaden out with the online medium and reconnect with teachers and friends whom we've met along the say and share with students from around the world. We host workshops with teachers such as Laruga Glaser, Harmony Slater, Mark Darby, David Swenon, Gregor Maehle and more. Our aim is to share the Ashtanga practice and yoga lifestyle in its broadest sense. We are also home to the very popular Keen on Yoga podcast, conversations with Ashtanga teachers, yoga philosophy and more. Visit us online or send us a message. Best wishes
Adam + Theresa

10/08/2025

*link to the episode in bio/stories

Louise Newson is an ashtanga yoga practitioner based in the midlands, UK, as well as a GP and pathologist.

Over the last years, she has come to specialise in the Menopause/peri Menopause, its issues and treatments.

Founder of Newspn Health and author of several best selling books on the subject. she’s in high demand as a a speaker.

So, to make sure I covered as many questions you’d like to ask her as possible, I solicited (the following) questions from some of our audience, which she answered in this episode:

>How do we actually define menopause/peri-menopause?

>What can one expect in terms of
symptoms?

>What might be the possible effects on mental heath?

>And physical health - maintaining strength and bone density and
managing possible weight gain?

>The role of hormones and types of HRT - oestrogen, testosterone, progesterone and estradiol?

>Arguments for and against HRT?
Is the breast cancer concern a valid one?

>Is there an age window for TRT, how long would one typically stay on it?

>Other lifestyle treatments/ therapies

>How to deal with a dismissive GP

03/08/2025

modern yoga teacher as a teacher

*link to podcast in bio/stories

I’m not saying there’s a problem with the general quality of teaching. We all work very hard.

But there are some traps I think we can fall into from time to time - at least I have…

Most particularly, confusing my ability as a practitioner with my value as a teacher.

Hence, feeling the pressure to be ‘the best in the room’ (at asana) in order to feel confident in my teaching.

Indeed, selling my workshops through promoting my own practice through pictures of me in advances postures.

As if, all you have to do is practice with me and you too will be able to do these postures (when it’s really about genetics as much as practice tips).

Or, later, hiding behind an over-specialised use of anatomical/medical language, as if my ability to explain what your body’s doing in this professional language was a validation of my role.

Or, simply performing in front of a class as opposed to actually trying to teach them.

It all comes out of insecurity, is all natural enough, and often goes with time and confidence.

So, what is ia good teacher?

To be consistent and transparent.

To hold the space for the student and not get in the way of them coming into this space (in their own way).

To try to help give people as wide a view as possible on the context of the practice they’re doing

To understand the uniqueness of all bodies

To understand the (basic) movements of the body, and what mobility means as opposed to flexibility’.

I hope you enjoy the podcast. As always, thoughts are welcome.

27/07/2025

Stuart Ray Sarbacker

Is a scholar-practitioner who has authored a number of fantastic books on yoga as well as being associate professor of philosophy and religion at Oregon state university.

The two books we particularly focus on are:

>’Tracing the path of yoga’
>’Samadhi’

In our wide ranging chat, we discuss
amongst other things:

>the Brahmanical origins of yoga as ritual workship.

>the Buddhist and Jain influences on yoga including mind training, karma and reincarnation.

>tapas and its usages.

>notions of samadhi- numinative and cessative, ecstatic and instatic.

*link in stories/bio to podcast

Hope you enjoy it. Let us know what you think.

20/07/2025

*link to podcast in bio/stories*

Topical with all the questions on my recent hip operation as to whether ‘yoga did it’, this week’s guest is back expert Dr Stu McGill

I subscribe to what Dr McGill says on the topic:

“genetics loads the gun,
exposure pulls the trigger,
and the psycho-social milieu surrounding us dictates how we relate to the outcome’.

Dr McGill has been treating world-class athletes for decades, helping them get back to their sports after chronic back problems.

His book ‘Back mechanic’ is a worldwide best-seller, detailing all the possible issues as well as some very pragmatic and simple fixes - as well as his ‘Big Three’ back exercises.

As always, we also talk on a wide range of other issues too. For example, his enlightening opinions on what a safe and effective forward folding pattern should look like.

If this has interested you in any way, be sure to drop us a line in the comments.

13/07/2025

Reflections on 25 yrs of practice

*link to podcast in bio/stories*

Feeling particularly reflective before my hip replacement next week, it inspired me to record this short episode touching on the following points:

>no posture makes you happier

>no posture is worth sacrificing the daily comfort of your own body for

>just because someone’s an esteemed teacher, they don’t know what’s going on inside your body better than you.

>practice alone is not stronger than genetics in deciding what you’ll achieve.

>breathing is the key to everything meaning the diaphragm.

>’traditional’ means very little to me now - or it means something very different.

>peoples bodies don’t open by being pushed further into postures

>being a good teacher has nothing to do with being the best in the room

>making yoga ALL your life is a bad idea

>sometimes yoga practice is not the best thing to do that day.

>strength training to balance yoga is essential

>holding safe and supportive space is 99 percent of the role of the teacher.

>everyone should have their versions of primary and intermediate within 2 yrs

>getting up before 5am to practice is not good for anyone!

>it’s not so much WHAT you do but HOW you do it.

>Letting go of postures is actually more enjoyable than getting them.

Anything I’ve forgotten here?

06/07/2025

The Yoga of Power

This discussion is based on the recent book of the same name, by Christian Lee Novetzke and Sunila S. Kale.

You might have seen the viral video they posted on social media of sun -salutations being taught in the early 20th century.

It sparked a lot of debate on the political landscape of yoga, which certainly continues today with the use of yoga as a political pawn by the modern Indian government (along with all manner of virtue signalling by the West!).

However, this is not a new thing, for yogas’ historical usage as much it’s been used for the purposes of truth, wisdom, and realising God, has also been for the sake of power.

Indeed, ‘yoga’ as a transitive verb, entails ‘yoking’ something, - put simply, this means bringing something under one’s control.

Which may be reality, or, it may be other people. A great example of this being the text the Arthashastra; a book on ‘statecraft’, dating back to 2 BCE, where ‘yoga’ is a term for political strategy.

This is only congruent with modern uses. For example, Indian nationalists in the first part of the 20th Century used ‘yoga’ in the Bhagavad Gita as their basis for overthrowing the British.

And, as we said at the beginning, the political side of yoga continues up to the present day.

I hope you enjoy the podcast. **Link as always to listen in bio and stories** and don’t forget to like and comment if you found it spurred some interest.

29/06/2025

The Intermediate series

*link to the podcast in stories/bio

the biggest change in the teaching of ashtanga over the years is the general gatekeeping that now goes on.

Especially around starting Intermediate series - where you’re now ‘traditionally’ required to:

1. ‘complete’ primary (whatever that means!)
2. stand up from a backbend

In order to commence practice of what is, actually, a series that only complements primary series, helping with backbends and drop-backs, for example, that aren’t much aided by the practice of primary.

It’s nothing less than a catastrophe for ashtanga yoga that people are kept stuck on primary for so many years. Moreover, it’s actively harmful for the body.

And, in actual fact, if we’re talking about staying ‘traditional’ to the method of ashtanga yoga, originally, Pattabhi Jois taught the early students (a version) of primary and intermediate that worked for their bodies over their first 3 month visit.

He certainly didn’t stop them because they couldn’t stand up for a backbend or keep people stuck on primary for years!

I discuss all this in the podcast, as well as how to begin to structure a intermediate series practice in with primary series and how to work on those postures in the series that seem/or actually are impossible for your body.

I hope you enjoy this. Don’t forget my intermediate morning course takes place next weekend. and I’d love to see you there.

22/06/2025

trauma and hatha yoga

*link in bio/stories to podcast/youtube

In the popular mind, yoga is simply done to relax us; for the sake of ‘regulating the nervous system’.

But, in actual fact, the early roots of the asana practices we do, traced to the ta***ic texts detailing ‘hatha yoga’, suggest a very different approach.

Instead, of simple relaxation, their methodology purposefully pursues a light arousal of the (sympathetic) nervous system for the sake of a deeper level of release.

That is, going into the deeper level where our ‘trauma’ or held psycho emotional tension is held in order to resolve it; extricate it for good by experiencing it in a controlled way.

This technique is done through creating pressure on the nerves of the spine, and the use of a certain style of breath to activate the sympathetic nervous response.

On the other hand, this practice takes stability - in other words, we’re not always in the best space in life in order to don this.

Which is why in this discussion i suggest that there is a season for everything. Sometimes, it’s really not the time to practice ‘hatha yoga’ in the way outlined above.

Sometimes we DO just need to use yoga to relax and nurture ourselves, using it to get into the parasympathetic nervous system.

At which point, the use of asana does need to be adapted as does the breath to facilitate this.

And, indeed, historical usage of yoga asana also points to this.. For example, as a precursor to meditation in such texts as The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

Therefore, it’s just a question of checking in with oneself and asking how you need to use asana at this time of your practise/life.

And this should change - we have seasons as organic beings- and if we don’t acknowledge these we’re not listening.

15/06/2025

Waking the tiger with Peter A Levine

*link to podcast in stories/bio

For me this has been one of those few books that leave a lasting influence.

I first read it 20 years ago, and it’s only growing in relevance with Peters’ message that trauma can be approached through the body - now hardly an outlier as it was back then.

For those unfamiliar with the ‘somatic experiencing’ approach to trauma therapy, I’ll try to briefly outline it and in doing so, the nature of our conversation.

We all sublimate trauma in the body when unable to cope with an experience perceived as overwhelming at the time.

This leads to all kinds of problems in the present (or, our ‘presentness’ in the present), due to unprocessed emotions that keep us stuck
in depression, anxiety or general shutdown.

By gently coming into the sympathetic nervous system within a controlled environment, we are able to go back into this level of repressed emotion, achieving catharsis.

This revelation came to Peter years ago as he dealt with a patient who suffered from crippling anxiety. He helped release her from being stuck in this trauma through imagining they were running away from a tiger together (hence the name of his seminal book).

He then saw how it made sense; how animals behave in the wild after escaping threat, and why they don’t become traumatised in the way humans do coming up with the approach he has now practiced and taught throughout the world for so many years.

Peters’ ideas resonated all those years back with my own experience of using yoga in its cathartic aspect; when talking therapy felt like it had reached its limit and emotion felt literally ‘stuck’ in the body - the intuition that made me take my first yoga class.

I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did. Let me know.

08/06/2025

Andrey Lappa’s on the podcast today for a very interesting interview.

Let us know what you think.

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Our Story

Adam has lived and taught yoga for over 20 years internationally and in London and is renowned in the Ashtanga community for his ability to teach with both technical skill as well as the more subtle elements of yoga.

He is one only a few in the world to have completed the advanced A (third) series of Ashtanga yoga with Sharath in Mysore and was authorised level 2 by him in 2011.

He loves philosophy of all sorts and you can find him sharing this passion on his Instagram channel and You Tube.

Adam is also lived in Buddhist communities and yoga retreats as a vegetarian chef and in his spare time enjoys shopping for ingredients and cooking.