Strong Back, Open Heart
Yoga and movement with Matt · online and in Co. Kildare · one-to-one sessions open now, with a weekly class to follow
If your back aches, or your hips complain, or your body just feels tighter than it used to, you have probably already learned that pushing harder doesn't work. This practice strengthens the muscles that hold you up and helps you move well within your range. Over time, the range grows.
Maybe yoga has always looked like it belongs to someone else: young, bendy people folding into shapes you have no intention of attempting. I understand. I have never been particularly flexible, I carry restrictions from old back injuries and a damaged rotator cuff, and I teach from inside a body that knows what limitation feels like. If you are stiff, or careful with an old injury, or a man who has never set foot on a yoga mat, this is for you.
What you'll receive
A set of practices, with ongoing support, to safely strengthen your core. By core I mean the deep muscles that support your pelvis: the low abdominals, the glutes, the inner thighs. The ones that actually hold you steady, not the six-pack that looks good on Instagram.
You will also work on range of motion and posture, and start to notice the unconscious gripping and bracing that pulls us out of easy sitting, standing and walking.
This is more than fixing a problem. It is an investment in the whole body: less pain, fewer injuries, better balance. And better balance in the body tends to become better balance in the mind. Who doesn't need more of that?
What happens in a session
The practice is rooted in yoga: breathwork, gentle strengthening and balancing postures, and careful work on flexibility and range of motion, with guidance throughout on the muscle engagement that keeps you safe.
It is also rooted in Azul Conscious Movement. Part of each session is movement meditation: exploratory movement, guided by my voice, that keeps calling you back into a listening that includes the body.
The road here
I know this road because I have walked it. Chronic back pain from three herniated disks in my late twenties became severe osteoarthritis by the winter of 2017, when I could not sit or walk any distance. An x-ray showed essentially no disk material left in my two lowest joints. I kept going to the weekly dance through all of it, lying on a bolster with my legs in the air. I have been almost entirely pain-free since 2018, and I no longer call it a "bad back". The disks did not grow back. What changed was the practice: years of one-to-one and group work with yoga therapists and Alexander Technique practitioners, and conscious movement in a room with other people. Strong Back, Open Heart is that practice, gathered into something I can hand to you.
The open heart
The strong back is half the name. The other half is older. I was once ordained as a novice monk in Thailand, and my meditation practice began many years ago under the guidance of Thich Nhat Hanh. Azul, the path of conscious movement I teach within, holds that the body carries everything we need for our own healing, and that awakening comes through our humanity rather than around it. And the Men's Leadership Programme I completed with Niall Graham rests on a premise I have come to trust: we were never meant to do this alone. All of it points the same way. A strong back is what lets the heart stay open.
An honest note
I am not a doctor or a physiotherapist, and nothing here is medical treatment or advice. If you are in acute pain or under a practitioner's care, keep working with them — this practice sits alongside good care, never in place of it. What I offer is a practice, steady company, and my own experience of how far it can carry.
Practical details
Now: one-to-one sessions, online or in person in Maynooth, Co. Kildare
Coming: a weekly online class — join the list below and be the first to hear
Pricing: we'll talk it through in your first conversation and find what works. Concession rates are available; if cost is what stands between you and this practice, say so.
Write to me and we'll set up a time to talk: twenty minutes, no cost, no obligation. Tell me where your body is, and I'll tell you honestly whether this practice fits.
No experience needed, and no flexibility required. Come as you are, in whatever body you have today.
Be the first to hear
Occasional, unhurried, and only when there's something worth saying.