Yoga and qigong through a physicist’s eyes
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Articles on breathing, posture and the physiology of practice, notes from life, and announcements of classes in Burgas and retreats.
Qigong in Burgas: A New Season of Morning Classes Has BegunSince Monday, September 21, a new season of morning qigong classes has been running in Burgas. We practice in our favorite hall at the Amrita Center (Bratya Miladinovi district, 145), as usual on Mondays and Fridays at 8 a.m. Qigong is especially…Read →Latest posts
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Qigong in Burgas: A New Season of Morning Classes Has BegunSince Monday, September 21, a new season of morning qigong classes has been running in Burgas. We practice in our favorite hall at the Amrita Center (Bratya Miladinovi district, 145),…
Breathing at Altitude: My Second Article for Yoga JournalMy second piece for Yoga Journal is out, and this time it’s about the mountains. More precisely, it’s about something anyone who has packed a mat for a hiking trip…
Yoga and Qigong Retreat in Madzharovo: October 16-18Join us for a weekend in the Eastern Rhodopes. From October 16 to 18, 2026, we are holding a yoga and qigong retreat in Madzharovo, Bulgaria. The town sits in…
Yoga and Qigong Through a Physicist’s Eyes: My First Yoga Journal ArticleSome good news: my first article has come out in Yoga Journal (the Russian-language edition), and I’m now one of the magazine’s contributors. I didn’t show up with yet another…
In the Press: the “Yoga and Qigong Without Esotericism” ProjectTwo online publications have written about my video project. I’m glad the journalists picked up on the main point: this isn’t yet another “open your chakras” course, it’s an attempt…
Yoga, Qigong and Gödel’s Theorem: Why No System Can Contain a Whole PersonFair warning: this is a long read. If you’re lucky, it’s the only thing you need to read today. If you’re not, that last sentence is false, and we’ve landed…
“Qigong from Behind”: how I filmed qigong sets that are easy to followIf you have ever learned a routine from a video, you probably know the feeling. The person on the screen raises their right arm, you, standing opposite, raise your left,…
The book “Yoga vs Qigong: Basic Techniques”
The foundations of yoga and qigong in six practices: 235 pages, over 200 photos and video lessons via QR codes. In English, Bulgarian and Russian, as an e-book and an audiobook.
Morning Qigong in the Open Air: Every Wednesday in the Burgas Sea GardenOn Wednesdays I teach qigong in the park instead of a studio. We meet in the Sea Garden (Morska Gradina in Bulgarian), on the grassy lawn to the left of…
Tension headache? How your neck, breathing, and posture play a roleA squeezing pain, as if someone had put a tight band around your head. It doesn’t throb or knock you off your feet, but it drags on for hours and…
BIKE, SUP & DWS: how I invented my own triathlon and what came of it in a yearOn June 21, 2024, half joking and half serious, I declared the birthday of a new sport. It’s called BIKE, SUP & DWS, and it has three legs: ride there…
Bhramari Pranayama and Nitric Oxide: The Physiology of a Humming BreathBhramari is Sanskrit for “bee.” In this pranayama you exhale with an “mmm” sound, like a buzzing bumblebee. The technique looks almost childish, but it has a fascinating physiological explanation,…
Slow, Low Breathing: A Physicist’s Explanation from the Kitchen and the TextbookIn yoga and qigong, when the body is at rest, we breathe slowly and low, “into the belly.” There are plenty of explanations for this rule, some of them quite…
Meditation Without Mysticism: Notes from a Teacher Training in IndiaIn 2019 I completed a meditation teacher training course in India, at the Sarvaguna academy in Goa. Our teachers were Dr. Keshava and Praveen Reddy. When I got back, I…
Myofascial Release with a Roller: How to Work with Fascia SafelyEight hours at a laptop, an hour behind the wheel, then the couch. After a couple of years of that, plenty of people end up with a nagging neck, a…
Books on Breathing: Technique from Iyengar, Mechanics from Calais-GermainWhen I got serious about breathing practice, instructions like “just breathe deeper” stopped being enough. As a physicist, I wanted the mechanism: what actually moves, which muscles do the work,…