Finlay Wilson - Kilted Yoga: yoga laid bare

First published in Great Britain in 2017 by Yellow Kite
An imprint of Hodder & Stoughton
An Hachette UK company

Text copyright Finlay Wilson 2017
Photography by Simon Buxton Hodder & Stoughton 2017
Photograph Joel Wilson 2017
Design by Andrew Smith Hodder & Stoughton 2017

The right of Finlay Wilson to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The advice herein is not intended to replace the services of medical professionals or to be a substitute for individual medical advice and the method may not be suitable for everyone to follow. You are advised to consult a doctor on any matters relating to your health, and in particular on any pre-existing conditions or other matters that may require diagnosis or medical attention.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

ISBN 978 1 473 66785 3

Yellow Kite
Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DZ

www.yellowkitebooks.co.uk
www.hodder.co.uk

In 2016 I was asked to become a contributor to BBC The Social, an online platform that features creative people across Scotland. I wanted to bring my sense of humour to the content and so I proposed a video of yoga in kilts, shot in the style of an aftershave commercial. In fact, this idea wasnt their first choice. It wasnt until my rescue dog, Amaloh, went viral with 2.6 million views that I was encouraged to create the Kilted Yoga video.

Kilts in hand, Tristan and I went to the Hermitage in Perthshire; it reminded me of where I grew up and its setting encapsulates features of the Scottish landscape. We were freezing the whole time, especially when shooting that final cheeky headstand at the end! After Tristan fell out of the headstand for the 50th time, I had to call time on the shoot as I could no longer feel my hands or feet, and snow was starting to fall all around us.

The afternoon the video went out I was due to be teaching. After my first one-hour class, I saw that we had passed 1 million views. After the second class, I was shocked to see that we now had 2 million views. By the next morning we had hit 17 million and I called Tristan, shaking and yelling! We couldnt believe it. It was surfacing all over the globe as people shared this 48-second video.

Articles appeared in Cosmopolitan , People , The New York Times , Mashable and Insider, and the story was picked up by news stations all over the world. While waiting in the BBC green room for an interview, we were speaking live to news channels in Australia. This culminated in us representing Visit Scotland on the Tartan Day Parade in New York, doing yoga down Sixth Avenue to cheering crowds and taking more than 300 selfies with fans. It has been an absolute roller coaster!

This book is for everybody. You dont need to be a guy; you dont even need to own a kilt! The poses and sequences will guide you through the basics towards a stronger practice and offer a balance of forward bends, twists and backbends to help you strengthen and open your body in a comprehensive way. Whether you are new to yoga or an experienced practitioner, you can approach the poses in a new way and deepen your practice.

This book contains four sequences to take you through the absolute basics, building the foundations and your understanding for the longer sequences. Each sequence builds on the one before. There are also short meditation exercises that you can use, and even record and play back for yourself. The meditation segments advise on whether you should practise them alone or get out into nature. Like any muscle, your focus needs to be regularly flexed. The meditation examples will sharpen your attention and help calm your mind using simple techniques.

Each sequence begins with an intent for you to use throughout the practice to build focus and guide your attention. From there, the breathing exercises will get you breathing consciously, helping to develop a strong focus for the poses.

The pose instructions indicate the duration they should be held for and how many rounds should be done, and pointers are given for when youre in them. Repeat one-sided poses on the other side unless the poses are marked as a sequence. At the end of each sequence, take a few minutes for intentional rest.

My introduction to yoga was challenging. I hated it when I began: I was so stiff, the poses demanded so much of me physically and mentally, and I felt unsupported by the instructor. I was fresh out of two rounds of surgery on both my legs, having had six months between operations. So, when one leg was getting better, it was the other ones turn. The operations were to remove spikes from my bones and to mend the damage to the soft tissue. The resulting nerve damage made me look like a baby deer trying to walk.

I was on mobility supports when I showed up to my first yoga class and I couldnt do any of the standing work. I attended classes for a year and found that my stamina wasnt good. I started doing short sequences at home from audio files (back before YouTube was a thing). I progressed and by the end of that year was doing two rounds of 20 minutes a day, and I began to trust my legs again. It took about five years before I felt any real competency with the basic physical poses. To this day, my left leg can still buckle if I am exhausted. One thing I will say about myself: I am stubborn! I never gave up despite walking out of a few classes or being told to leave because of my swearing!

Now, I do yoga every day. Without it, my muscles are tight, I feel groggy and I am usually pretty snarly. Without yoga, you wouldnt want to know me! Yoga gives me time to do a daily reset, to focus on my breath and to move, sweat and reaffirm my connection to my strength.

I teach beginners primarily and usually advise that people practise yoga a few times a week initially to get a grip with the techniques and really focus on it. After a few weeks, I advise factoring back in other activities and movement styles (running, cycling, martial arts and so on) so you can see the great boost your yoga practice can bring to them. It is down to personal preference when you do your practice. For me, I practise in the morning because of a busy work schedule but my body prefers an evening practice once I have been up and about for a while.