Traditional Ashtanga practice largely does not address the menstrual cycle at all: in its original transmission, women were not expected to practice during menstruation, and where a modified practice exists today, it is rarely built with any real anatomical or physiological reasoning — often reduced to “no inversions, no strong vinyasas,” with no positive alternative offered in their place. The result is a four/five-day gap in most women’s practice, repeated month after month, that neither traditional nor modern yoga has properly filled.

This course proposes a different model: a practice deliberately designed for each phase of the cycle rather than merely restricted around one of them. During menstruation, participants learn an adapted, restorative-leaning sequence — drawing on approaches developed for the menstrual phase by teachers such as Lois Steinberg — that supports rather than avoids the body: gentle supported forward folds and twists, pelvic and lower-back ease, and a clear rationale for why inversions and strong vinyasa are set aside during this window (venous and pelvic congestion, the traditional concern around retrograde flow, and simply what the nervous system needs during this phase) rather than treating the exclusion as an unexplained rule. In the days following menstruation, the practice shifts deliberately toward alignment work and a graded return to inversions, using the follicular phase’s typically greater energy availability and joint stability to rebuild strength and precision. The remaining phases of the cycle are placed in this same framework, so that a student’s Ashtanga practice becomes a four-week arc rather than an identical sequence repeated regardless of where she is in her cycle.

This is designed as a practical, teachable system for Ashtanga teachers who want to offer their female students something coherent — not an ad hoc set of exceptions, but a full cycle-synced practice with a clear rationale behind every adaptation.