Praksis in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory | Community

Praksis

Locality: Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

Address: G08/15 Provan Street 2612 Canberra, ACT, Australia

Website: https://praksis.com.au

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25.01.2022 Huge congratulations to Tom for reaching chest to floor in the pancake position, especially after coming from a place not so long ago where he couldn’t touch his toes! Tom has worked incredibly hard to arrive at this point in his physical development, and he hasn’t made a big deal of it along the way. He just quietly keeps showing up and putting in the time. He is one of those students that sees clearly how the practice is not affecting just his body, but his entire being. He... engages at that more esoteric level, perhaps partly thanks to his background in yoga, but has also come to appreciate the value of simply doing the reps and striving forward toward one’s goals perhaps a move away from his yogic studies, which had cultivated in him something of a kind of denial of the body. I remember after Tom first attended Praksis for one of our introductory workshops, I hoped he would come back. Teachers get a sense pretty quickly of who’s likely to make a good student. It’s the quality of their attention that gives us that feeling. And Tom shows that attentiveness, that engagement, that presence in his gaze whenever he’s in class. Tom E

25.01.2022 It was a real treat having the team from lululemon Canberra come in for a private group session last week. These one-off sessions are always awesome, especially when the group is as open and eager to learn as these guys were! Group privates are not something we advertise but they are something we do from time to time. Availability is limited I only do such sessions a couple of times per month at most. If you’d like to organise a private session for your team, organisation or just a group of friends, flick us an email at [email protected] to get the ball rolling. Tom E

25.01.2022 We are offering a free movement class on Saturday August 15 at 12pm in partnership with HerCanberra, which will be taught by Soisci. Info and the registration link are here: https://hercanberra.com.au/active/move/get-active-august/.

22.01.2022 Anyone who has worked with Jon in class knows he is a great partner and mover. He's an asset to our community and we're proud to show his progress developing the handstand. Jon has had a rocky road with his handstand he had progressed quickly earlier this year but, after injuring his shoulder doing something else, he found himself unable to handbalance at all. But that didn't stop him from coming to handstand classes. We immediately got to work rehabilitating the injury a...nd Jon was able to build back up to where he left off. He has now surpassed that point, recently achieving an important milestone that means he’s moving on to more advanced drills. We tested his freestanding handstand at the end of class and this was the result a solid 10 seconds! Congratulations Jon. We're stoked for you! If you want to learn to balance on your hands but you're worried about an injury or limitation you might have, just come to class. Our teaching approach is flexible; we can always work around and, where possible, work on whatever it is that might be restricting you. Register now at praksis.com.au/newcomers. Langley

20.01.2022 If you're stuck at home in self-isolation or lockdown, you may be interested in our online movement classes. The content includes meditation, strength, handstands, mobility, longevity and movement practice. There are no prerequisites for any of our classes whatsoever everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate regardless of age or ability, and we really mean that! Our expert teachers will provide variations appropriate for your current level. We have 2 classes taking... place daily Monday through Friday, with 3 on Wednesdays. If your schedule doesn't match ours, you will also have access to recordings of every class to follow along afterward. For more info and registrations, head to https://praksis.com.au/remote or click 'Learn More'.

20.01.2022 Caity is a hard worker who lights up the space whenever she steps through our doors. She recently moved away from Canberra and, although she now continues her practice remotely, has been sorely missed by our community. She always supports others through their challenges while constantly pushing hard to progress through her own. Her absence is felt as strongly as her presence. The transformation I've seen in Caity transcends the movement domain and I'm proud to have her as a ...student and friend. Here's a look at some of her current abilities and reflections on her time as a student at Praksis. https://youtu.be/-0NOvpRZho4

20.01.2022 Here’s an excerpt from one of last week’s mobility classes. What we do to cultivate mobility in our students is both different from, and more effective than, foam rolling and the stretches you learned in PE class. Our expertise is in increasing range of motion, awareness, control and balance in the bodies of adults. If your goal is greater physical freedom and you currently feel restricted, uncomfortable, tense, not at home in your body, then our mobility classes are for you. Details and registrations at https://praksis.com.au.

19.01.2022 Here we are warming up for a handstand class. Are warm-ups just warm-ups? What does ‘warm-up’ even mean? ... I personally much prefer the word ‘attune’ over ‘warm-up’. We attune our body, our brain, our nervous system, our emotional state, to the activity being carried out in the present moment. In every moment and in every action there is the possibility for observation, for developing sensitivity and awareness, and for creative expression. Mechanical movements (just going through the motions and ticking the boxes) are a killer of creativity they put us in a robotic state rather than attuning us with our inner voice that wants to express itself outwardly, physically. So a warm-up should be as rich as ‘the work’ itself (is there really a distinction anyway why the hierarchy?). If your warm-up becomes just as exciting as all the other training you are doing, so can everything else! We engage in movement every day whether we are aware of it or not, so why not make each (daily, otherwise mundane) movement something creative and joyful? Soisci

18.01.2022 Carrie is one of the very few students who've been with us since the very beginning. She's a hard worker, which is my favourite kind of student, and she also works meticulously, paying close attention to how changes in her practice are affecting her body and her self. Plus she's an absolute asset to the community. Here's a look at some of Carrie's thoughts and progress after a year and a half in the practitioner program: https://youtu.be/ffPazVsksFM.

17.01.2022 In case you missed them, here is the link to a series of instructional videos we filmed and released during the COVID closure, ranging from brief movement 'snacks' to full-length follow-along sessions covering a variety of different topics: https://www.youtube.com/playlist Enjoy!

17.01.2022 Getting weird in one of last week’s wild card upper body strength classes.

17.01.2022 Anyone who knows Jack even peripherally can't find a bad thing to say about him. He always adds a welcome degree of levity and humour to the group vibe when he's in the studio. But he also works hard and attentively, taking the craftsmanship of his trade into his practice. That's why he progresses so consistently he assesses himself objectively and makes small changes to move closer to the end product he seeks. Only here his material is not timber and the product is not a chair, a desk, a home; here his material is the body and the product is his own physical freedom. This video shows some of Jack's abilities and reflections after a year and a half in our practitioner program. https://youtu.be/umEOmIUuX6U

16.01.2022 Wrapping up one of our recent movement projects focused on animal locomotion with some brachiation. Our structures have been used to hang and swing for far longer than they haven’t. What else did we evolve to do that we’ve eliminated from our lives in the name of ease and comfort? Of course, countless benefits arose from our move away from the jungle and into the safe, linear, predictable, concrete environment we’ve constructed for ourselves it’s easy to look back on the ...past with a nostalgic longing for simpler times while forgetting such things as insanely high child mortality rates and the pervasive possibility of dying a violent death at the hands of predatory animals or, more likely, predatory humans. But the human body has not yet caught up with the times. Cultural evolution far outstrips biological evolution and, in many respects, we are maladapted to the world we’ve created. We pay a serious price for failing to recognise that. The solution? Modify your environment. Tom E

14.01.2022 Takako is an extremely diligent student who pays very close attention to detail and quietly works away at something until she gets it. She asks great questions and truly listens, always incorporating what she learns into her practice. At the beginning of the year, Takako turned her attention to handstands. Here she’s working on pulling off the wall and balancing for as long as possible - one of the drills we use to learn how to catch falls and retain balance on the hands. It... was in this class that Takako achieved the milestone of taking her average hold duration beyond 5 seconds, meaning she’s now moving onto a new series of drills. Congratulations, Takako, I’m proud of your progress! Oh, and she’s in her 60s Langley

13.01.2022 Here's an excerpt from my second interview with Phaon about the movement perspective, recorded for his podcast The Passive Hang. The full interview is now up on our YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/5ieX6j-ILOI. Tom E

11.01.2022 Our Movement for Seniors workshop is coming up on Saturday September 26. It is open to anybody of any age who’s interested in healthy, empowered ageing. We promise you WILL be able to participate, no matter what restrictions you may face. The cost has been discounted to $60 per person to help make the workshop accessible for those with lower incomes, and participants will also receive 2 FREE follow-up 60-minute longevity classes (usually costing $40 each) with their ticket. P...urchase tickets for yourself and/or loved ones now at praksis.com.au/products/seniors. This is a little snippet of some ‘walking practice’ from our longevity class the other day. Walking, proprioception, and spatial awareness are all part of the basics when it comes to human movement. Movement practice is about re-activating what is already in your DNA (what you are designed to do) it is about remembering and bringing out an inquisitive and creative child-like quality, making the unconscious conscious. We are often unconscious of the smallest, simplest parts of our life (such as how we stand, how we walk, how we breathe, how we feel), yet it is those elements that truly determine the quality of our wellbeing. Do you pay attention to the little things in your life, or just the bigger events? Don’t neglect things that appear small and subtle -- they hold gold within them! Soisci

10.01.2022 A huge aspect of eating well is learning to cook. Cooking itself is really just a collection of other skills such as using a knife, food choice while shopping, tasting, and meal construction without a recipe can be practiced and improved. Salt Fat Acid Heat is a book that will help you do just that. It teaches you the elements of good tasting food, how to apply them, and gives you recipes you can use to practice. I highly recommend it! The Praksis Nutritional Coaching progra...m also follows this approach - we'll help you develop the habits and skills you need to eat well and enjoy yourself while doing it. If you're interested, you can learn more and book an initial consultation at praksis.com.au/nutrition. Langley

09.01.2022 Congratulations to Marcus for achieving the muscle-up! Marcus is a wonderful and honest team player. He is a silent worker who always shows up for himself and also for others a humble individual who approaches his goals with curiosity and eagerness, and celebrates his achievements joyfully. Well done Marcus. We have many more big and little celebrations yet to come! Soisci

09.01.2022 Tom Shortt is one of those strong, quiet types. He's a great student who looks and listens closely. He worked like a dog or perhaps a lone wolf through the COVID lockdown and came out of that period with a very tidy and consistent freestanding handstand as well as some valuable insights into his practice and himself. Check out some of his progress and thoughts on the practitioner program, in which he's now been involved for a year and a half. https://youtu.be/B1z_UJCv0I4

06.01.2022 A little talk with Patrick Keating about the distinction between being and becoming, which is an excerpt from our longer conversation on movement and philosophy now viewable here: https://youtu.be/3tr7OPWAVuA.

06.01.2022 When people see our more advanced students moving, and our teachers for that matter, they often assume it comes easy and that the process is somehow less challenging for them. This is a false assumption. And even if certain things do come easier, we just move the yardstick to make it challenging again. Tom had been working at an assisted version of this movement the ring backward pullover for almost 3 months before attempting it without assistance. It’s a scary one and i...f it doesn’t seem that way because of how well he performs it here, just consider what it would look like if his chest fell through the rings in the moment he performs the backward roll (swipe left), which is exactly what happens when you fail an attempt. He tried it first on the lower rings and succeeded, then mustered up the courage to try it on the higher rings. He succeeded on this one, but has also failed at this height. You can hear me saying ‘osu’ in the background after he got above the rings an acknowledgement that he’d confronted and overcome fear in that moment and you can see Tom’s relief at the end of the video. The point of the post is not that Tom is an amazing mover, even if he is. The point is that we all have the option to face our fears. What happens to be the specific content of those fears doesn’t matter; the subjective experience is the same from person to person. So if someone comes in for their first handstand class and they’re afraid to climb up into the wall to hold their first wall-assisted handstand, they’re feeling exactly how Tom was feeling at the start of this video. Or perhaps someone’s more introverted and terrified to come into a new community as a stranger, and they’re confronting that exact same experience of fear just by stepping through our doors. The magnitude of the fears we face as seen from the outside matters far less than the fact that we face them, and that our community celebrates us for doing so. After facing fears consistently for a time, one starts thinking of oneself less as the person who overcame this or that fear, acquired this or that skill, achieved this or that milestone, and more as the kind of person who faces their fears. If we can identify with that PROCESS, rather than with our specific achievements, we feel more connected with everyone around us who’s doing the same thing, regardless of their ability levels. Pay attention to your fears and don’t always take them at their word. Fear often points us AWAY from the things that we most need to be moving TOWARD. Tom E

05.01.2022 Carrie is one of our few founding members (turned practitioner). She started coming to classes three years ago when they were taking place in my garage, before we opened up our first little studio. We recently filmed an interview in which she described her experience at Praksis and almost had me tearing up (almost!) as she reported never having felt like she ‘fit in’ at any other gym. Many of us know that feeling of needing to stay quiet, to hold back, to keep ourselves to ...ourselves, for fear of not being accepted as we are. Well, Carrie is just the kind of person I was hoping would show up when I started those garage classes. She’s honest, she engages fully with the work, she pushes herself, she pays close attention and reflects deeply on her practice, and she’s also provided an array of constructive feedback which is very hard to come by to help greatly improve what we’re doing at Praksis over the last three years. Her progress reports are among the most detailed I receive, and they show the extent to which she’s not just working hard and making progress, but is also noticing what’s happening in her body, how the practice is affecting her and truly collaborating as an active participant in the learning process. We’re not looking for ‘customers’ at Praksis passive recipients of a service who are ‘always right’. We’re looking for people, for students, for friends to become part of a genuine community in which they can be themselves and be honest with each other. Carrie is exactly that. Here she’s cranking out her first ever 5 consecutive chin-ups, an absolutely amazing achievement after many years of trying and failing to achieve her first chin-up before joining Praksis. Tom E

05.01.2022 We’ve had 150 newcomers try their first class at Praksis since we reopened post-lockdown on June 1st. Five of them were at this handstand class. Almost everyone who arrives as a newcomer is a little bit frightened, some terrified, that they’ll be asked to do something that’s too difficult for them and will make a fool of themselves. But that never happens. In our studio, if you’re there to make people feel embarrassed or ashamed for not being able to do this or that, YOU will be the one who leaves feeling embarrassed and ashamed. As long as you genuinely want to learn, you’ll be welcomed by all of our students and teachers with open arms. Register as a newcomer to get your first two classes for the price of one at https://praksis.com.au/newcomers.

05.01.2022 Animal locomotion is the central project in my movement practice classes at the moment. We’ve been talking a lot about the similarities between phylogeny (stages in the evolutionary development of different species) and ontogeny (stages in the development of individual organisms). Consider, for instance, how the earliest locomotive patterns of human babies are similar to the crawling patterns of the earliest known reptiles. We’ve started the project by practising spinal waves... as an exploration of amphibian movement patterns the fish body followed by reptilian and mammalian locomotion understood as spinal waves PLUS movements of the limbs. This is how evolution functions; every new development is scaffolded atop the one before it, so the side-to-side spinal wave of the fish becomes the contra-lateral crawling pattern of the lizard, which becomes the contra-lateral swinging pattern of the primate, which becomes the bipedal walking pattern of the human being. I love this material. It has the potential not only to make us incredibly strong and mobile, but also to fundamentally shift how we think about, see and experience our embodiment. Perhaps we could spend more time conceptualising the body not in terms of biceps and triceps, but in terms of it being a fish that developed limbs, then a lizard that developed body hair and emotions, then a primate that developed complex language, advanced abstract cognitive abilities and intricate social structures, then eventually a human being that used its thumbs to craft Facebook and Instagram posts. For the world expert on this topic from both a conceptual and experiential perspective, check out Simon Thakur’s Ancestral Movement. Tom E

04.01.2022 Big congrats to Chris for achieving his first-muscle up! Chris hasn't been hibernating this winter; in every spare moment he gets, he's at Praksis working on his movement practice. This muscle-up is just one of the many things we're stoked to see Chris achieve, and is one he’s been working toward like an absolute dog for a long time. And on the first day of spring no less what a way to come out of winter! On top of everything else happening in the last year, Chris has mana...ged to sell a business and start a new one. As they do for all of us, obstacles sometimes keep him from being as consistent as he'd like to be. But it doesn't matter because he gets back to work the instant he's able to and with an enthusiasm that's contagious. He's honest, humble, hard working and generous to our community. We couldn’t be happier to call him one of our own. Awesome work Chris. We’re very proud of you! Both Toms

04.01.2022 3 minutes of combined floor work + eye gazing A variant of a game shared with us by Simon Thakur during his time teaching our Wednesday night classes last year.

03.01.2022 Liam is a regular cheeky student who always comes prepared to work hard, improve himself and be a good team player with all that practise with him. He has worked very hard at his scapular awareness and many other areas of his movement practice. This piked-hip straddle front lever is just one of many of his achievements, but one that required a lot of committed effort to reach. He brings an intelligent, playful, creative energy to class which uplifts not only his practice but also everyone around him! Soisci

03.01.2022 Like all good teachers, Tom is a student first. Without such an orientation, the teacher loses empathy with his students and his teachings become ossified, fossilised in the past as time continues its march forward. In a dynamic world, stagnation equals death figuratively and literally. Tom avoids such a fate by putting in the work daily to continue refining himself through his practice. Tom started working with me in the very early days when classes took place in my garage. I’m proud of the profound physical transformation he has undergone in the last 3 years and, more importantly than that, I’m honoured to witness his ongoing growth as a man. Here's a look at just a few of the improvements Tom's made and his thoughts on being a student of movement at Praksis: https://youtu.be/-91lLTjRkyE.

02.01.2022 The key to developing habits in all domains is consistent repetition. Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. James Clear During university I worked as a stocktake manager at a cinema which meant I had access to free choc-tops, lollies and popcorn. The share house I lived in kept coke and energy drinks in the fridge. I got into the habit of eating these foods daily. ... Without knowing it, I was voting repeatedly for a type of person I didn’t want to become. I was very surprised the first time I didn’t fit into my jeans. I grew out of my clothes a few more times before I realised the effect my votes were having. But I was able to reverse these effects using the exact same principle. I started with one thing: I ate a breakfast I thought a healthy person might eat. And I did it every day. I stacked more and more votes on top of that first one and continue to do so today. Any one thing you eat won't make you ‘fat’, just as eating one good meal won't make you healthy. It’s the sum of actions you take over time that makes you who you are. Book an initial consultation to learn more about healthy eating habits, gain a new perspective on eating well and to get started with building a new habit today. Info and bookings at https://praksis.com.au/nutrition. -- Tom L

02.01.2022 The Ward clan working together in class to help improve Audrey’s line with the dark side/light side drill I learned from Ido Portal at his Australian Movement Meeting back in 2016. Kim (Audrey’s mother) takes her daughter to the dark side, then Will (Audrey’s father) takes her to the light side. All the while, Audrey works to maintain a tight body line, like a perfectly straight stick being taken from one side to the other. It’s always a joy having this family in class, and i...t’s inspiring to me seeing them develop their practice together. Tom E

02.01.2022 A lovely little video narrated by Soisci discussing some of the work she’s been doing with our older students in the Tuesday and Friday 10.30am longevity classes. Soisci is heading up the initiative we started this year of engaging with the seniors in our community and helping them to train not in a way that’s adapted from CrossFit or from yoga or from functional fitness but to move in ways designed specifically to serve their unique needs. She is the teacher of next Saturday’s Movement Workshop For Seniors (26 September 2pm-4pm). A few spots are currently still available ticketing at praksis.com.au/products/seniors.

02.01.2022 Some shots from today’s rehabilitation workshop. It was a pleasure to have physiotherapists, exercise physiologists, chiropractors, strength coaches, massage therapists and folks simply looking to learn more about their bodies all in the house for this one. We shared some tools and perspectives to help participants and their clients become both better mechanics and better drivers, with a particular focus on the spine, hips and shoulders. The workshop was framed around rehabil...itation as a process of DIFFERENTIATION of realigning scar tissue with healthy tissue according to as many varied lines of force as possible, and of redrawing smudged and unrefined body maps with movements of incrementally increasing size and complexity. Thanks to all who participated and did so with an open mind and eagerness to learn!