My Personal Review of a Retreat with Miguel Sant’ana

The month of retreats is over! And boy, let me tell you. I surely do NOT recommend you to do several retreats with different teachers in a row. I have to be very honest here and let you know that I was kinda dreading to make a video. But that’s just the way it turned out for me. As you know, the Handstand Factory retreat I attended before was more spontaneous, since we had been invited on short notice and I didn’t want to miss it, whereas the retreat with Miguel had been planned for well more than half a year.

The two retreats couldn’t have been more different from eachother and I have to say that in each one I had tremendously valuable takeaways for my practice.

My experience with Miguel

The experience of training with Miguel was much needed for me in a sense. His approach is pretty much the opposite of how I used to train until I met him. I knew that my weakness was doing the work that for me personally feels boring: conditioning and endurance

Miguel puts a lot of emphasis on conditioning, meaning actual fitness stuff (like sit ups, leg raises, push ups, etc.), and endurance, meaning long straight handstand holds and a lot of reps in simple movements like tucks, straddles, etc.

So for me it was completely new to treat my handbalance training like what felt more or less like a fitness workout, since until now I’ve been treating it more like a dance practice. I defenitely felt that there is a component to it that I was missing and that it was limiting my capacity to actually do good quality technical work.

Miguel is a very dedicated and passionate teacher. What he teaches doesn’t only incorporate knowledge about handbalance, but is also very strongly influenced by his personality. When you train with Miguel you will immediately feel his strong persona that will automatically rubb off on you and make you work hard. He has a way of making you go way longer and stronger than you thought was possible.

So I have benefited from the retreat in many ways, eventhough (or maybe because) it was so focused on the hard stuff for me.

 

If you want to see more of Miguel and know his schedule for upcoming workshops and retreats, check him out on Instagram:

@miguel_hand_balance

We also just had an interview last week, so check it out if you want to hear the master speak:

Miguel Sant’ana on Strong Handstands and his Journey

If you’re wondering about the venue, here’s their website:

Vikasa Yoga Retreat

 

Let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to know!

Other than that just remember that the world is your playground, so just go ahead and do whatever you love!

 

-Soundschi