Rudi Maritz

Junkie Stats

Status: Hooked

Years hooked: 2 years

Age: 33 years old

Weight: 75 kilograms

Height: 186 centimeters

Favourite Style: Vinyasa Yoga

Other Styles: Yin, Restorative and Ashtanga Vinyasa

Least Favourite Style: Bikram Yoga

Favourite Pose: Adho Mukha Svanasana

Least Favourite Pose: Utkatasana

BIO:

Hi, my name is Rudi, and I am a yogaholic.

My journey to Vinyasa yoga didn't start with this beautiful practise but instead started in a warm and humid room with a Nazi-like teacher telling me to be like a Japanese ham sandwich. It was a clear and warm African morning in January 2016 when I, at the insistence of my best friend, joined her for a Bikram class at Yoga Experience in Johannesburg. I did not know what to expect but I had certain preconceived notions of what yoga should be like from years of television. We were going to flow gracefully from one seemingly impossible pose to the next while looking like supermodels on a Milanese catwalk. What I got instead was the most humid room I have ever been in, sweating like a pig in the Sahara trying to keep my fight or flight instinct under control, all the while wondering why I was not at home with a cup of coffee and a cigarette. When I walked out of that room, dehydrated from 90 minutes of excruciating heat and humidity, I felt like a Superhero and so began my winding road to Vinyasa.

After that I class I researched yoga and started a very basic home practice of sun salutations with a couple of Virhabadrasanas sprinkled into the mix, attended a couple of Virgin Active yoga classes, the odd Bikram class and watched a lot of YouTube videos. My practise existed but it wasn't great and I did not think of myself as a yogi. It wasn't until another friend invited me to attend a proper Vinyasa class with Melanie Castleman in August of that year, that I truly fell head over heels in love with yoga (and a little with my yoga teacher).

It is the love I hold for her and for yoga made me sign up for a teacher training course with Melanie and Steven Heyman (another yogi that I feel immense love for). The goal of my teacher training is to deepen my practice, spread the love and joy of yoga, and to disseminate the message; that if you ever want to truly know your body, your mind and your limitations, then you there is only one thing for you to do: Get on your mat, get hooked and become a Junkie!

Namaste!

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