Our Top Yoga Blogs directory is full of inspiring and original yogis, all sharing their love with us through their yoga journey. We thought they could use a bit of love from us, too, so we're featuring one of our top bloggers each month in a Q&A style. This month we interviewed Adam Hocke of Adam Hocke Yoga. Here's what he had to say.
Yogapedia: What brought you to yoga?
Adam: It was less of a "what" and more of a "who." A college friend with an ability to make decisive plans, organized an outing to the NYU gym for a vinyasa class. I sweat buckets, giggled uncomfortably, but walked out knowing, at least a little bit, that I had found a practice that was going to upend everything I thought I knew about my body, mind and heart.
(We also love Vinyasa Yoga: A Flowing Introduction That'll Have You Falling in Love With Creative Sequences.)
Yogapedia: Why do you continue to do yoga?
Adam: Twenty years of practice experience, alongside all the chutes and ladders of a human life, has taught me that yoga works. No matter what I have going on, if I feel great or crummy, I can find a yoga practice for self-care that will help me comfort, transcend or celebrate how I feel.
Yogapedia: Why do you blog about yoga?
Adam: I blog about yoga to reflect, learn and grow! Since I was very young, I’ve always needed to write to think something through. My yoga blogging is a form of public learning and inquiry which I share with my students. When I want to teach something better in class, workshops or on a teacher training, I will begin a process of research and writing that can take weeks to months. Subsequently, I am proud of the robust, well-researched content I have been able to produce.
Yogapedia: What’s unique about your blog?
Adam: My guiding mission is to provide a yoga practice resource center to support the individual explorations of my students in London and elsewhere. You can come to my site with a question about your practice and find an answer. And if it’s not there, it’ll probably get there eventually. I won’t post anything unless it provides practical tools, advice or inspiration that can be used on-the-mat. Over the past eight years, the blog has developed into a compendium of nearly 100 yoga audio classes — practical and usable guidance on yoga anatomy, postures and philosophy — and a portal to my new streaming yoga video classes.
Yogapedia: What is your most popular post and why?
Adam: Recently I guest-blogged at Huffington Post on "Why Men Need Yoga More Than Ever," which I was thrilled to see shared on thousands of pages across the world. I believe it hit a nerve as we re-evaluate the meaning of masculinity and how we as men embody it. On my own blog, "Wrists, Yoga, and Pain-free Practice" and my four-part series on "Yoga and Stretching" continue to be popular as they provide usable and practical advice on maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of one’s practice. My 30-minute morning yoga audio practices are also enormously popular as a home yoga practice aid.
(If you're thinking of moving your practice from the studio to your living room, here are 6 Ways to Start a Yoga Practice at Home.)
Yogapedia: Do you have a favorite go-to pose? Why does it resonate with you?
Adam: There is no more powerful pose for me than savasana. If I can prepare myself successfully to surrender into its depth of rest, I know I can reemerge and face whatever comes my way. It is the ultimate test and greatest comfort.
Yogapedia: What has yoga brought to your life?
Adam: I began trying to conquer the postures, but the postures brought me right on back to myself. Yoga has taught me to see the light and dark within myself and provide unconditional self-care. As a teacher, this compassionate seeing and engagement has extended to my students and the charitable causes I support each month.
(Considering becoming a yoga teacher? Read How 500 Hours of Yoga Teacher Training Changed Me.)
Yogapedia: What yoga lessons do you still consider a work in progress?
Adam: All of them. If you think otherwise, you’re fooling yourself.
Yogapedia: If you had to give one tip about living the yoga life, what would it be?
Adam: If yoga has become your life, and you’re not a monk or a nun, then you’re doing it all wrong. Yoga for us modern, house-holding folk should be a practical means to become compassionate and skillful enough to better care for ourselves, our loved ones and the greater human community.
(You can subscribe to Adam's blog at adamhocke.com/blog.)
During These Times of Stress and Uncertainty Your Doshas May Be Unbalanced.
To help you bring attention to your doshas and to identify what your predominant dosha is, we created the following quiz.
Try not to stress over every question, but simply answer based off your intuition. After all, you know yourself better than anyone else.