Home / Blog / Simon Borg-Olivier (Australia) - videos from Moscow workshop

Simon Borg-Olivier (Australia) - videos from Moscow workshop

Moving energy and information through your body
Ilya Zhuravlev

In june 2012 yoga-master from Australia Simon first time visited Russia and conducted workshop of author`s style "Yoga Synergy". Here Wild Yogi magazine readers could watch pretty long videos from this workshop and get to know this interesting style. Camera & edition by Mikhail Baranov.

Parts 1 & 2 (about Pranayama)

 


Part 3 (dynamical asana sequence)

Workshop topics:

Using your spine: Developing energy and flexibility with core strength:  How to make your life a graceful dance and rid yourself of back pain

Using your legs: Developing external power and internal health: How to make your life easy and pain free

Using your arms: Developing internal power with strong heart and lungs: How to make your life fun and practical

Using your breath: Moving energy and information through your body: How to comfortably breathe less, sleep less and choose to eat less

Using your mind: developing dynamic meditation and static meditation: Learn how control how you feel

Simon Borg-Olivier

Simon Borg-Olivier MSc BAppSc (Physiotherapy) is a Co-Director of Yoga Synergy, one of Australia’s oldest and most respected yoga schools. The Yoga Synergy style is based on a deep understanding of yoga anatomy, yoga physiology and traditional Hatha Yoga. Simon has been teaching since 1982. He is a registered physiotherapist, a research scientist and a university lecturer. Simon has been regularly invited to teach at special workshops and conferences interstate and overseas since 1990.

Suffice to say, Simon has led an extraordinary life. At the age of six, he was introduced to yogic breathing (pranayama) by his father George who taught him to swim underwater, and the main bandhas (internal locks) through a family friendship with Rhodesian Olympian Basil Brown. At the age of 17, he met a Tibetan Lama who introduced him to the philosophy and practice of Tantric Yoga. In 1985, Simon met his primary teacher Natanaga Zhander (Shandor Remete) with whom he studied for almost two decades. He has also studied with such internationally revered Indian teachers as BKS Iyengar, K. Pattabhi Jois and TKV Desikachar.  Since 2007, Simon has been developing his yoga practice and understanding by studying with Master Zhen Hua Yang.

During the past 20 years, as well as running a successful yoga school, Simon has continued to both study and teach at the University of Sydney. Simon has completed a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology, a research-based Master of Science in Molecular Biology and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Physiotherapy. As well as teaching both group and individual classes through Yoga Synergy, Simon also teaches regularly at workshops and conferences both nationally and internationally. He lives in Sydney with his wife and fellow-yoga teacher Vitoria and their children Amaliah and Eric.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Science in Human Biology (1980)
  • Oki Yoga Teacher Training Certificate (1984)
  • Shiatsu Massage Certificate (1985)
  • Master of Science in Molecular Biology (1986)
  • Chinese Massage Certificate (1987)
  • Iyengar Teacher Training Certificate (1991)
  • Registered Physiotherapist (Bachelor of Applied Science) (1996)
  • Yoga Alliance Teacher Certification ERT500 (2010)

Teaching

Early on, Simon and Bianca realized the importance of understanding the human body. Not only did they both return to university to become fully qualified physiotherapists, but together they developed Yoga Synergy’s Applied Anatomy & Physiology Course of Hatha Yoga – the only one of its kind – in conjunction with the unique Yoga Synergy style of yoga. This course is pivotal to the training of each Yoga Synergy teacher and is also attended by Yoga Synergy students, and yoga teachers and teachers-in-training from all styles of yoga.

In 2007, the couple was approached to turn this course into a tertiary course to be taught as part of the Integrative Applied Eastern Anatomy and Physiology taughtat Melbourne’s RMIT University. Simon and Bianca wrote the course and have both taught it to the university’s students. (Simon continues to be the course’s primary lecturer.) The course also forms part of a new internationally recognised degree, the Master of Wellness. The main textbook used is one that Simon and Bianca co-authored called Applied Anatomy and Physiology of Yoga.

Gallery of Simon`s first yoga class in Russia (on Yoga-Rainbow Festival near Moscow) (facebook)

Gallery from first Simon`s workshop in Moscow (facebook)

Yoga Synergy Australia