Yoga for the root chakra in Maui
Feel safe, grounded and at home in your body.
Root classes are built around Muladhara, the first chakra, which in this framework sits at the base of the spine and is traditionally associated with the earth element. Expect slow, steady standing poses, a lot of attention on your feet and legs, and imagery of weight, support and the ground under you.
No classes scheduled in the next two weeks.
What Root does for you
You slow down and feel your weight drop into the floor. Long holds in standing poses build warmth in your legs and a clear sense of where your feet are. Many people leave feeling steadier and more settled, especially after a scattered week. It is a useful counterweight to a day spent mostly in your head and on a screen.
It suits you if
- your head runs faster than your body
- you like slow, strong standing work
- you are new to chakra imagery and want an easy way in
- a move, a breakup or a new job has you feeling unmoored
Read the full guide to RootWhat a class is like, your first time, history and the words you will hear
What a class is like
Most classes run 60 to 90 minutes at an unhurried pace. You will likely spend time in mountain pose, warriors, wide squats and low lunges, then come down to the floor for hip and leg stretches. Facilitators often cue you to press through your heels, notice where your body touches the mat and breathe low into your belly. Some chant the seed syllable 'lam', play drums or low tones, or use red as a visual theme. You warm up but rarely sweat much, and the class usually ends with a long rest on your back.
Your first time
- Come in clothes you can squat in and practice barefoot, since much of the class is about feeling the floor.
- Arrive ten minutes early so you can settle and grab a block and blanket.
- Tell the facilitator about any knee, hip or ankle injuries before class starts.
Good to know
- Expect some Sanskrit, a chanted syllable or two and talk of energy; you can listen quietly instead of joining in.
- Long holds in squats and lunges ask a lot of knees and ankles, so take a higher variation or a block whenever you need it.
Where it comes from
Muladhara means 'root support' in Sanskrit. It is the first of the chakras (wheels, or lotuses) that medieval tantric texts describe along a central channel of the subtle body. Those texts never agreed on a single map: different traditions counted four, five, six or more centers. The version most classes use today follows the Sat-Cakra-Nirupana ('Description of the Six Centers'), written by the Bengali tantric Purnananda in 1577, which describes six chakras plus a thousand-petaled lotus at the crown.
In that text Muladhara is a crimson lotus of four petals holding a yellow square, the sign of earth, with the seed syllable 'lam' and an elephant as its animal. It is also where kundalini, pictured as a coiled serpent energy, lies asleep until practice wakes it. These are images for meditation and visualization, not descriptions of anatomy.
The text reached English readers through The Serpent Power (1919) by Arthur Avalon, the pen name of the British judge Sir John Woodroffe, who worked with Indian collaborators. The Theosophist Charles Leadbeater added his own clairvoyant descriptions in The Chakras (1927). The full rainbow scheme running from red at the root to violet at the crown, and the psychological themes of safety, survival and belonging, came later: they were assembled by Western color therapists, Carl Jung's circle, the human potential movement around Esalen and then the New Age movement. Anodea Judith's Wheels of Life (1987) did much to fix these associations in the form most studios teach today.
In Berlin you mostly meet root work inside chakra series that climb through the seven centers week by week, in grounding workshops, and in hatha or vinyasa classes that take the theme for a month. Cues are often a mix of Sanskrit with English or German, and the tone ranges from purely physical to openly devotional.
Words you will hear
- Muladhara
- Sanskrit for 'root support', the name of the first chakra at the base of the spine.
- Lam
- The seed syllable (bija) traditionally chanted for the root chakra.
- Tadasana
- Mountain pose: standing tall with your weight spread evenly through both feet.
- Malasana
- A deep, wide squat with heels down, often called garland pose.
- Mula bandha
- The 'root lock', a gentle lift and engagement of the pelvic floor.
- Kundalini
- In this framework, a coiled energy pictured as resting at the base of the spine.