영국에 핫 요가 열풍 불다.How I got to grips with Pippa's very hands-on yoga guru...(video)
How I got to grips with Pippa's very hands-on yoga guru: An intimate encounter with the man who helps shape the world's most famous rear
영국에 핫 요가 열풍 불다.
직접 몸으로 가르치는 스튜어트 길크리스트(53)의 유명 고객에는 모델겸 디자이너
케이트 모스 미 여배우 우디 하렐슨 등이 있다.
지난 주에는 영국 작가인 피파 미들턴까지 합류했다.
미 요가 강사인 제인 프라이어도 호들갑을 떨며 길크리스트의 요가 교실에 입문했다.
스튜어트 길크리스트는 인도 아쉬탕가 요가의 대가이다.
황기철
콘페이퍼 에디터
Stewart Gilchrist's clients include Kate Moss and US star Woody Harrelson
And as of last week Pippa Middleton joined his popular 'hot yoga' classes
His very 'hands on' approach can even see him lying on top of members
Jane Fryer has now gone to his class to find out what the fuss is about
[VIDEO]
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2910657/How-got-grips-Pippa-s-hands-yoga-guru-intimate-encounter-man-helps-shape-world-s-famous-rear.html#v-1091414229001
By JANE FRYER FOR THE DAILY MAIL
Britain's 'most touchy-feely yoga teacher' is sitting cross-legged, very hairy, semi-naked and discussing his long, grey, surprisingly soft locks.
'I just wanted to know what life would be like without any razors or scissors. And this is what happened,' he says, flicking his dreadlocks over his shoulder and lifting his foot-long beard with a flourish.
'It smells a bit like a labrador at the moment. I only wash it once a year, in the sea, and after that it takes about a month to calm down and stop smelling. But it self-cleans, which is great, isn't it?'
Stewart Gilchrist (pictured putting Jane through her paces) has had his classes overflowing with new recruits keen to replicate the success of his most famous client - Pippa Middleton
Stewart Gilchrist — the man once described as the Marmite of Yoga, whose devoted clients include Kate Moss and the Hollywood star Woody Harrelson — is a man utterly bemused by the fame that has engulfed him the past few days.
It all started when Pippa Middleton and her world-famous bottom turned up in one of his 'hot yoga' classes last week — so-called because the temperature in the room regularly hits 35c, which apparently helps the release of toxins.
'I wouldn't recognise her if I bumped into her walking down Camden High Street. I have no idea who she is. Why would I?' he barks in his broad Scottish accent.
Regardless, he has been besieged with press and interview requests, earned his new 'touchiest feeliest' title in the national papers, and his already jam-packed, 90-minute Advanced Yogasana classes have been overflowing with eager new recruits, keen to replicate that bottom.
Or perhaps just be 'adjusted' themselves by Stewart, who is 53 years old, has legions of loyal devotees and is apparently one of the most invigoratingly 'hands-on', or occasionally (where the posture demands it) 'body-on' teachers in the business.
Up close and personal: The dreadlocked instructor- once described as the Marmite of Yoga- helps 'adjust' Jane into a move
This can involve him laying himself out flat on top of a stunning woman who's wearing nothing but a few scraps of Lycra. Or, as one of my male colleagues puts it: 'He's got the best job in Britain.'
'I don't understand what all the fuss is about,' says Stewart. 'It's not sexual — it's like Thai massage, or physio, or sports massage,' he says, flicking his hair about and duly touching my arm, shoulder and forehead, to demonstrate.
He is also keen to explain the distinction between yogic 'adjustments' and 'assists'. Apparently, anyone can 'assist' — move a foot in line, for example — to make a pose easier. But an 'adjust' — precisely moving someone from one position into another — takes an expert.
'In India, yoga is very hands-on and very physical. That's the way I was taught it — that if you're going to adjust someone, adjust them as if you mean it. Don't just dab at them.'
Stewart does not dab. He pushes and pulls and presses and massages and leans on and lies on and then, every so often (if, for example, he feels a tail bone needs a good stretching), straddles his eager pupils with his strong, tanned, veiny little body.
The 53-year-old's very 'hands-on' or occasionally 'body-on' approach can involve him laying himself out flat on top of members of the class
His technique has garnered rave reviews and a group of devout followers who attend the packed 70-strong sessions
And judging by the rave reviews of his devout followers and the packed 70-strong classes and 50 teachers he trains each year, they love it.
So, what better way to see what all the fuss is about than to attend one of his classes, at Indaba Yoga in Marylebone, Central London, where it is immediately easy to understand why Stewart would never have recognised Pippa.
First, he clearly doesn't give a fig about celebrity, or fame, or money, or any of that stuff — in fact, he insists he's actively against the extraordinary commercialisation of yoga over recent years.
'I've been in meetings where they talk about my 'USP' and refer to me as 'the revenue stream'. A revenue stream! Yoga has changed my whole life and made me calmer and nicer, and suddenly I'm a revenue stream?' he says.
But, secondly, pretty much everyone in his class (the ladies, anyway) looks just like Pippa. Slim, attractive, long-haired, polished and beautiful-bodied, with teeny pert bottoms perched halfway up their backs.
They're all wearing stylish yoga kit and all immaculately turned out — and one suspects they won't struggle to pay the £16-a-session fee. One regular used to come in full make-up and a hat, even though the temperature in the room is sweltering.
Gilchrist, whose devoted clients include Kate Moss and the Hollywood star Woody Harrelson, is bemused by the fame that has engulfed him the past few days since news of his royal fan emerged
They are also very, very fit — because Stewart's classes are rock hard. There is no flopping about on the floor praying to the great elephant-headed god Ganesh. No endless head-bobbing Namastes. No time for the day-dreaming I've enjoyed in previous yoga classes. Instead, we warm up with about 1,000 press-ups and a lot of loud music. Meanwhile, Stewart is brusque, ever so slightly scary and very shouty.
'No! All wrong. You're not listening. PAY ATTENTION!' he yells.
He shouts about nurturing our spiritual side, how eating dead animals can slow us down (he is vegan) and reminds us to breathe ('Keep breathing or you'll die — there's quite a lot of Tuesday left.')
Then he starts 'adjusting' — prowling the room, pausing to haul up a pair of dainty ankles, lean heavily on a beautiful back. Or, in my case, pull one arm very firmly towards the back wall while pushing my body hard in the opposite direction.
Stewart was not always a vegan, long-haired, teetotal yogi.
He worked for IBM for five years, trained as a lawyer, was a barristers' clerk, then spent five years learning to become a head waiter at an esteemed academy in Paris, worked as a senior youth worker, a Father Christmas, and was a drummer in a band.
So the Daily Mail's Jane Fryer decided to see what all the fuss was about and attended one of his classes, at Indaba Yoga in Marylebone, Central London
His yogic journey started back in 1986 with a drunken fall over a wall (via some scaffolding and a very hard footpath) into London's Regent's Canal. 'I'd been up all night, doing what you did in the late 80s late at night,' he says with a wink.
He somehow hauled himself out of the water and spent the next three months in hospital.
'I'd broken five vertebrae and crushed the rest of them, so I was pretty much flat on my back.'
He spent the next three years trying (unsuccessfully) to kill the pain, one way or another.
'Everything you can possibly imagine, legal to illegal. From diamorphine to, well . . . everything. I was ambulanced out of quite a few festivals with herniated discs.'
Until, finally, his girlfriend convinced him to try a yoga class.
'And I discovered you can cure anything with your breath. You use concentration, and forcing your breath through different channels — that's the whole basis of yoga. You get these blockages — genetic, mental, physical — and you can unblock them by pushing the energy though these channels.'
Even spinal injuries?
'Oh yeah! There's been a lot of people using breathing techniques who have got over paraplegia.'
With his yogic awakening, everything changed.
First, he became vegan and, 17 years ago, gave up booze. 'I used to be a big drinker. I wasn't very good with alcohol — it made me very Scottish.'
But this is no easy session as Gilchrist starts with a warm up of about 1,000 press-ups and a lot of loud music
The yoga teacher starts 'adjusting' class-goers- pushing or pulling members into the correct positions
The hair and beard (which I can confirm from my various 'adjusts' are both surprisingly soft and don't smell remotely labradory — maybe they really do self-clean) came 13 years ago, when he was teaching in Maui, Hawaii.
From there he moved to Los Angeles, where he started teaching full-time and developed a cult following among the local celebrity community.
'I've got loads of them — I can't tell you all their names, but loads. My first was Woody Harrelson. He's over here at the moment.'
And what about Kate Moss. Was she any good?
'I didn't have any idea who she was either — apparently she came a few times with Sadie Frost. But then my girlfriend said she had a wee tattoo on her ankle and I remembered it from adjusting her.'
Stewart has an extraordinary energy. He teaches all over the world, takes clients on retreats, trains more than 50 yoga teachers a year and has given a talk in which he somehow persuaded the entire 3,000-strong audience to do a bizarre stand up/sit down pantomime dance.
He is also refreshingly off-message about the 21st-century obsession with yoga.
He loathes all the designer kit: 'All you need in the heat is a T-shirt and a pair of pants or a bikini. You certainly don't need one of those posh mats — some of them cost £125! It's crazy!'
And he has no time for today's obsession with the body beautiful.
'I hate today's body fascism. Are there any disabled people in my class? Are there any blind people? No, of course not — but I wish there were.
Gilchrist was not always a vegan, long-haired, teetotal yogi- he got into yoga after breaking his back in 1986 after drunkenly falling over a wall into London's Regent's Canal and had tried many different remedies for his pain before he came across yoga
'It's all wrong. Yoga's not about getting a good body, that's just the by-product.'
He also has an extraordinary ability to motivate his (undeniably gorgeous) students — either by shouting at them, teasing them, sitting on them, squashing them or just staring at them very hard with his steely blue eyes.
'You can always do more than you think — just follow the breath.'
Somehow — perhaps it was all that 'adjusting' (though no sitting, squashing or straddling for me) — I got through his killer class.
Admittedly, I opted out of the handstands and some of the more tangled moves, and the bit where everyone seemingly supported their entire sweaty weight on their fingertips.
But I made it. And I have never felt so good. Briefly. An hour later, I was so broken I couldn't even open the taxi door and later nearly fell asleep at my desk.
Goodness only knows how so many of Stewart's devoted beauties manage five or six classes a week. Perhaps, like Pippa and Kate, they don't have to struggle into the office afterwards.
So, to sum up, did he get up close and personal? Yes, extensively — pushing, pressing, holding and grasping with extraordinarily strong, smooth hands and absolutely no impropriety.
Including a very nice head massage at the end.
Did I mind? Not in the slightest.
Would I go again? Like a shot, just as soon as I can move my arms and legs again properly.
And finally, was Pippa any good?
'I've no idea. I certainly wouldn't recognise her if she came back.'
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