The Dynamic Yoga Training Method is not a practice style or format but a teaching and learning method that supports a creative, challenging and effective process of self realisation on all levels. The Method has been developed over 35 years by Godfrey Devereux, author of Dynamic Yoga, Hatha Yoga Breath By Breath, 15 Minute Yoga and The Elements of Yoga. His intense training in the Iyengar and Ashtanga approaches were fertilised by a profound study of Oriental Medicine, Advaita and Zen. It is both internally and externally dynamic. Externally this takes the form of repeated movements that simultaneously develop stamina, strength and respiration. Internally it takes the form of an integrating structural dymamic that opens every joint of the body as it stabilises every muscle. At the heart of the method is the recognition and application of the evolutionary, structural and functional significance of the relationship between locomotion and respiration: posture and breathing. This hinges around the lower back, and the relationship between the ribcage and the pelvis: the dynamic elements of the spine.

Dynamic Yoga is based on the clarification of principle. It is not concerned with the endless accumulation of specific information. Life and Yoga are based on an infinite variety of specific applications of a limited number of fundamental principles. Dynamic Yoga is a precise and complete clarification of the underlying principles of yoga. Principles which are themselves derived from the fundamental principles of life. Both life and being human partake of an inherent unity. This unity does not reveal itself easily to the discriminating capacity of the human cortex. Nevertheless it remains continuously and inexorably present.

Dynamic Yoga is unique in its accesibility and effectiveness. Based entirley on how the body functions in response to gravity, and naturally expresses deeper mental and spiritual dimensions, it is a methodical approach that challenges and rewards the fit and the unfit, the old and the young, the mobile and the restricted equally. Its effectiveness rests on the evolutionary legacy programmed into cellular DNA. A legacy that is a result of, and seeks constantly to express, the indomitable power and integrity of life itself. A power that always seeks wholeness through deeper and fuller self expression.

Dynamic Yoga harnesses this power by systematically reintegrating the seven major body parts and eight primary joints: hands, feet, legs, arms, skull, ribcage, pelvis, lower back, neck, hipsockets, shoulders, ankles, knees, wrists and elbows. This is done by awakening and sensitising each part to and with simple repetetive movements. Then these fifteen somatic keys are integrated in simple, symmetrical shapes through the application of opposition. By opposing actions to each other they limit, fertilise and integrate each other into the inherent integrity of the body.

The human body is designed to move. It is much easier for us to walk for an hour than stand still for ten minutes. Only if they have been made ready dynamically joints and muscles are then ready to sustain a stillness that reaches the mind, because it is taken by action to each part of the body systematically. Because of the shape of the postures resistance to gravity must be provided by continuous muscular activity. It is the ongoing dynamic of this activity in each part of the body that releases and strengthens the muscles, opens and stabilises the joints and eventually integrates the whole body. Each part of the body is opened in relation to its internal structure and in relation to each other part. This opening requires a sensitivity to the sensations in the joints and muscles that becomes the gauge of both movement and shape.

Yoga posture practice is a process of re-education into integration. One in which learned patterns are relinquished in order to allow the inherent integrity of the human body, and its intrinsic unity with mind and spirit, to resurface freely and fully. When the body parts themselves are allowed to determine the nature of their activity they release and develop their capacity easily and effortlessly. This process requires a sensitivity to sensation that invites deep and subtle internal awareness. Dynamic Yoga focusses on isolating and contextualising actions that cultivate a deepening sensitivity to subtle sensations, while simultaneously reintegrating the body. Without making reference to anything other than accesible phsyical actions and their perceptible impacts, a deep mental clarity and lucid internal awareness is cultivated on the basis of phsyical activity. In this way the recovery of the inherent integrity of the body becomes simultaneously the discovery of the inherent unity of body, mind and spirit. A discovery that requires no reference to speculative beliefs and concepts. Instead it relies entirely on the inherent unity of being human expressing itself through the utilisation of the inherent integrity of the body.

Dynamic Yoga, then,  goes beyond the body and mind to the subtle depths within. However, this does not happen by magic. It is a question of the activating and integrating the inherent capacity of body and mind. This is done by moving into stillness on the rhythm of the breath. The key to yoga is sustained stillness. Yet the key to stillness is structural integrity. The key to structural integrity is functional integrity: the way that you move and activate each part of your body. Dynamic Yoga uses movement as the doorway to stillness, while using the body as the key to the mind.

In order to release, open, strengthen and integrate the body sensitivity is necessary: force is not. Going further or deeper into a posture is not a question of quantity but quality. By deepening sensitivity to sensations and increasing awareness of body and breath actions and movements can be refined towards integrity. Integrity of intention, action, impact and awareness are the key to awakening, releasing, developing and enjoying the full potential of both body and mind.

The key to functional and structural integrity is the impact of gravity on body tissues and organs. The structural and functional design of the human body is a direct response to the impact of gravity. We have the bones, muscles, fascia, tendons, ligaments that we do because of gravity. They all know how to respond to gravity if we let them. We can allow them to do so by feeling them. By developing sensitivity and responsiveness to their sensations.

Dynamic Yoga is based on movements and actions that access and express the almost unlimited potential of the human body. These actions and movements are organised to awaken, develop, strengthen, reintegrate, relax and vitalise the body while focussing, clarifying and calming the mind. The key to this process is honest and open sensitivity to the actions being takenand the impacts that they are having. The key to their impacts is the quality of breathing. The breath must be allowed to be as free and natural as possible at all times.

On the basis of this intelligent and organised use of specific and organised actions the full capacity of body, mind and spirit are gradually, effortlessly and delightfully accessed. This includes confidence, tranquility, appreciation, concentration, clarity, vitality, strength, flexibility, cardiovascular stamina, muscular stamina and more. The Method is suited to any one who can walk unaided, and can be developed endlessly to satisfy even the most ambitious student.

Dynamic Yoga is based directly on the inherent unity of body, mind and spirit. A unity that is overlooked and compromised in almost all cultural activities, including the majority of yoga styles and classes. The overt, and most accessible, expression of this unity is the body: dynamic yoga therefore is based on accessing the deeper subtleties of being human from physical action. It is based on the recognition that both spirit and mind depend for their expression on the body and its capacity for action, obvious and subtle. A dependency that permits them both to be fully accessed and realised through and from the body.

Therefore Dynamic Yoga does not rely on, or utilise, any esoteric or mystical concepts. It utilises only concepts that can be easily derived by anyone from the natural functioning of body, mind and spirit. Accordingly it does not depend on the blind acceptance of any external authority, not even that of the teacher. Instead it seeks and honours the authority of life itself functioning through the imperfectability of nature in and as the human being. By giving priority to biomechanical integrity the deeper relationships between body, mind and spirit are invited to express themselves. Then attention can focus on actions and their direct impacts. This gives the postures a power, and a spiritual dimension, that they cannot have if they are simply described.