I discovered yoga while seeking a way to mend and stitch together various aches and pains accumulated in strength sports (olympic weightlifting and highland games, mostly).

Rob and Osman (Receiving 1st in 109+ M35 TN State Weightlifting Championships from 1992 Olympian Osman Manzanares. I was a super-heavyweight.)

It took a while, but the practice I’ve built has been a great help to me. And it’s fun!

Patanjali’s Yoga is a complete and practical philosophical system that heals the body and changes the mind. I’d love to help you get started.

Teachers

These are the people who through their guidance and help have influenced my practice the most:

I believe in community. I want to experience and learn from as many people as I can. I believe that Ashtanga is an evolving practice and a living tradition rooted in a specific cultural context, not a fossil frozen forever. I believe Ashtanga can be a therapeutic practice that stiches together your body and mind. Staid things die. Keep it fun!

My primary teachers are Derek and Joey. I practice asana at least once weekly with Derek and once a month with Joey. I practice the other limbs of Ashtanga weekly with Joey and tag along on philosophy courses he or Andrew host with teachers in India.

None of this would be available to me without David’s efforts in the early 70s to travel to India in search of yoga. Andrew and Joey have both picked up that spirit of exploration and through their efforts opened doors in Mysore for all of us to experience this complete yoga practice.

Om Śrī Gurubhyo Namaḥ

Timeline and Journey

  • 2026-current: 10-month Soul Education Sadhana; the complete Asana, Pranayama, & Mudra system of BNS Iyengar with Joey Paz. Deeper dive into the full Ashtanga system.
  • 2026: Narayana Upanishad course with Dr. MA Jayashree. In depth study of the Narayana Upanishad, taught in the traditional Sruti Parampara method of Sanskrit call-and-response chanting.
  • 2026: Sankhya Karika course with Dr. HV Nagaraj Rao. In depth study of Sankhya Philosophy, the metaphysics of Yoga.
  • 2026: 4-week Pranayama Course w/ Andrew Eppler. Inspired me to go deeper into the other practices in traditional Ashtanga.
  • 2024-current: Nashville Ashtanga (formerly Yoga Shala Nashville). Primary asana adjustments with Derek.
  • 2024: Asana Kitchen Online Program (Ashtanga). Distance and timing prevented me from joining the local shala, so I started with David remotely after my last olympic weightlifing competition.
  • 2023-25: Small World Yoga (Hatha Yoga, occasional Power Yoga class). Community classes with Sarah, Gil, and my wife. The Ashtanga-derrived power classes sparked my interest in the original form.
  • 2023-24: Chestnut Hill Yoga (Iyengar, formerly 12South Yoga). I drop in here to work on alignment.
  • 2023-24: Heart of Wisdom Yoga (Viniyoga/Restorative). Worked with Kim on recovery from strength sports. Resumed olympic weightlifting as a masters athelete and the training volume was really breaking me down. I injured my shoulder in a highland game caber toss and Kim helped me strengthen it up.
  • 2014-16: Fahrenheit Yoga (Hot 26). Coach Dan John recommended hot yoga to me as a form of recovery from strength sports. This was the closest studio to me at the time and was an interesting introduction to the westernized form of yoga.