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Initiate Certificate

Yoga: The Eight Limbs

The whole path, not the last two limbs sold as fitness.

4.9 · 2740 4.9 out of 5

Video · 70 lessons · practice library · monthly live practice

Taught by

Lakshmi Iyer

Yogacharya · Nineteen years teaching, trained in Chennai

2 free previews

  • The eight limbs, and how we lost six of them 22:40
  • Patanjali in plain English 26:15
$265

One payment. No subscription, no renewal, no upsell inside the course.

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Lessons
70
Total length
19 h 30 m
Level
Initiate
Language
English (subtitles: ES, FR, HI)
Access
Lifetime, all future revisions
Certificate
Yes, on assessment

Instant access on payment

14-day refund, no questions asked

Watch on any device, download the workbook

What this course is

Yoga as Patanjali set it down: eight limbs, of which posture is the third and the one the modern world has mistaken for the whole. You will build a real asana and pranayama practice, and you will also work the yamas and niyamas, pratyahara and dharana — which is where the practice actually starts to do what it is for.

What you will be able to do

  • Hold a daily practice you can sustain without a studio
  • Work asana with correct alignment and honest modification
  • Practise pranayama safely, in the right order
  • Understand the yamas and niyamas as practice, not decoration
  • Sit for dharana without your knees or your attention collapsing
  • Read the Yoga Sutras with a working practitioner’s eye

The whole path

Curriculum

Every lesson, in order, with its running time. Free previews are marked.

4 modules · 20 lessons

    • The eight limbs, and how we lost six of themFree preview22:40Lesson 1
    • Patanjali in plain EnglishFree preview26:15Lesson 2
    • Yama: the five restraints as daily practice28:02Lesson 3
    • Niyama: the five observances25:44Lesson 4
    • Standing postures: feet, then everything else34:20Lesson 1
    • Forward folds without wrecking your lower back29:55Lesson 2
    • Backbends: the ones you should not rush31:12Lesson 3
    • Twists, and why they are not detoxifying24:08Lesson 4
    • Inversions: who should not, and why27:33Lesson 5
    • Building a 20-minute daily sequence30:41Lesson 6
    • Why pranayama comes after asana, not before21:18Lesson 1
    • Ujjayi and the even breath24:50Lesson 2
    • Nadi shodhana, taught slowly26:37Lesson 3
    • Kumbhaka: retention, and its real cautions29:14Lesson 4
    • What to do when it makes you anxious22:05Lesson 5
    • Pratyahara: turning the senses inward25:30Lesson 1
    • Dharana: one object, held28:12Lesson 2
    • Sitting: knees, hips and the honest use of props23:47Lesson 3
    • Dhyana and samadhi — what can and cannot be taught26:55Lesson 4
    • Your assessed practice submission13:20Lesson 5

Your teacher

Lakshmi Iyer

Yogacharya · Nineteen years teaching, trained in Chennai

Lakshmi trained for seven years in the Krishnamacharya line in Chennai before teaching anywhere. She is polite but immovable on the point that asana is the third limb of eight, and that a studio which teaches only the third is teaching a third of a thing.

Before you enrol

Frequently asked

  • No, and it does not pretend to be. It is a practitioner’s course. Several teachers take it to fill the philosophical and pranayama gaps their training left.

  • Nobody is, at first, and flexibility is not the point of any of this. Every posture is taught with honest modifications and with the props most people already own.

  • It is taught from a Hindu philosophical text and says so plainly rather than stripping the origins out. You are not asked to believe anything.

From students

Reviews

4.9

4.9 out of 5

2 verified reviews

  • 5★ 2
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  • 5.0 out of 5

    The other six limbs

    Verified purchase

    Twelve years of studio classes and I had never been taught the yamas as an actual practice. This reframed everything.

    Ritu P. · 4 July 2026

  • 5.0 out of 5

    Honest about inversions

    Verified purchase

    She spends a full lesson on who should not do headstand. I have never heard a teacher do that.

    Dan V. · 18 May 2026