Mysore and Led Ashtanga Classes
Six days a week
A Brief History of Ashtanga Vinyasa
It all started when David Williams, a soul-searching, traveling college dropout from North Carolina, wandered over to a yogasana demonstration in Pondicherry, India in 1972. Manju Jois and his friend Basavaraju were traveling too, demonstrating yoga postures Manju’s father Sri K. Pattabhi Jois taught out of his home shala in Mysore. David had made several trips to India searching for yoga and had hit some dead ends, but seeing these postures brought to life stoked his curiosity and made him want to learn more. David approached Manju and said “this is the yoga I’ve been looking for, can you teach me?”
Ashtanga Half Primary
Mon/Wed
6:00-7:00am
Ashtanga Full Primary
Sat 8:30-10:00am
Manju directed David to his father’s place in Mysore and a few years later at David’s invitation, father and son boarded a plane for Encinitas, California to introduce Ashtanga Vinyasa in America. Pattabhi Jois returned to India but Manju stayed in Encinitas, where he still lives and teaches today. Manju has taught thousands of students worldwide, sharing the practice first known simply as “the yoga” with students who later became masterful teachers themselves: David Williams, Nancy Gilgoff, David and Doug Swenson, Tim Miller and more.
And so the practice has been passed down one community at a time, from teacher to student, student becoming teacher, for over 50 years in the United States and around the world. Manju Jois’ lineage carries on today in Memphis through your Ashtanga teachers at Better Bodies Yoga. Michele Mallory and Tracie Fisher continue to study directly with Manju and his student, our teacher, Greg Tebb, because we’re teachers but we are students of the practice first and foremost.
Mysore Ashtanga
Tue/Thu/Fri
6:00-7:30am
The practice is divided into three main series: primary, intermediate and advanced. In the methodology Manju brings from his father’s teaching, he says, “the way we teach it, the series are all open. You give the posture to the student when it will help them.” Simple. And so as a student, you just begin. Students start with the primary series, known in Sanskrit as yoga chikitsa, which means “yoga therapy”. The primary series is designed to bring your body and mind into balance, with yoga - union of mind, body, spirit - as the goal. When students are experiencing ease in the foundational primary postures, then the teacher can guide the student into postures from intermediate or advanced series. Again, the goal is to give postures to the student to help them strengthen and grow. It’s a very individualized approach.
Ashtanga Vinyasa is taught in two distinct formats: Mysore-style and led class. Led classes are familiar to most western yoga students. The students come in, take their places and the teacher leads the group through the same postures at the same cadence as everyone else in the room. Mysore class turns all of that on its head and allows students to practice their own personal practices individually, in a group setting, with the teacher acting as a guide to provide structure, motivation, challenge, compassion - whatever the student needs that day. Led practice is a great place to learn the sequence; Mysore practice is a great place to really dig in and personalize your work. Brand new students are welcome in both.
My teacher Greg Tebb says Ashtanga Vinyasa is “Hatha yoga with tremendous strength development” and I have found that to be true. Ashtanga practice is not always easy but it is always worth it. After some years practicing various forms of Hatha and Power Vinyasa Yoga, I started practicing Ashtanga at age 47 and have never looked back. Ashtanga brings me strength - physical, mental and emotional - and it’s truly my yoga home. Like one of my students shared with me after class, “I feel like this practice makes me love myself more.” For the student willing to stick with it, confidence is built by trying, failing, trying again, and succeeding. Never say never is the message I bring to my teaching. Ashtanga is about breaking out of old, stuck, self-limiting beliefs and moving into the expanse of growth and possibility instead.
Om Shantih,
Michele Mallory
August 2025