Thai Yoga, is an exercise practice that would take you to a place of relaxation and better physical and mental well-being.
As you may already read on the website page about Thai Yoga, this exercise aims to improve your mobility, motility, and body awareness.
Those exercises are based on the principle of Thai Massage and Myotherapy approach.
I did study Thai Massage with Arjan Pichest Boonthumme, at his home school in Chiang Mai.
Indeed is Pichest the pioneer of this type of exercise.
Book now your next private Thai Yoga class with Giovanni.
He teaches his students to practice those exercises in order to help us, students, to understand how to reduce physical tension from the body, and to be a better practitioner. Even though he doesn’t call them Thai Yoga.
When I left Thailand after my 1st period of training with Pichest (early 2018), I start practising these exercises nearly daily. I was not following a specific sequence, and I was not offering yet the workshop.
As I kept working as a massage therapist, and I was suggesting these exercises to my clients, to keep tensions low and enforce the job done with the Thai Massage, I then realise how all these exercises put together, could actually help others heal their bodies and improve their health.
I start then offering these classes at the Dancehouse in Carlton, and occasionally I will offer free classes at the Carlton Garden too.
So how it works a Thay Yoga class?
Well, as per Thai Massage based, those exercises aim to work on muscle’s tensions and reproduce physiological responses that massage would usually generate.
Said so, as you work on your body, and you feel in first person the stimulus and the response given to the stimulus, you would be able to improve your body awareness.
How it does differ from a regular Yoga class?
The difference from a regular Yoga class is that along with a Thai Yoga class, most of the exercises don’t require a specific elasticity or mobility capacity, even though, once you practice them you would realize how easier is to move a joint and how freer the body is feeling.
This happens because during the class, as we stimulate the blood flow starting from the upper limb, and moving down the lower limb, the body gets warmer, and the stiffness gets cleared away.
Furthermore, during the class, I would show how the usage of the breathing wave technique helps in mastering the practice.
This way of breathing, not only improves the oxygenation of the body, and so the healing of it, but also helps the participant to learn how to deal with the body sensation that arises along with the workshop.
Yes, I would not lie to you, some of these exercises can reproduce pain.
But hey, have you ever heard of a Thai Massage pain-free? Well, Thai Yoga exercises are not so different from it.
In conclusion, Thai Yoga is not recommended for those with conditions like hypertension, osteoporosis and or diabetes n. 1 or whilst pregnant.
Giovanni La Rocca
Giovanni moved to Melbourne, Australia, from Italy in 2008 and became a citizen in 2017. He started studying massage therapy in 2016, then completed a Bachelor of Health Science in Clinical Myotherapy in August 2024. During those years, he also specialised in Thai Massage and Manual Lymphatic Drainage for presentations like Lipedema and Lymphoedema. Nowadays, he runs his clinic in Fitzroy North, Melbourne, where he integrates movement therapy into his practice to enhance overall well-being. He also values meditation, having completed several Vipassana courses. Committed to continuous learning, he aims to share his expertise in integrated therapies to help others achieve balance and resilience.