GARY OLSON
Gary Olson grew up in Seattle, watching and imitating his mother practicing yoga. An athletic boy, he played tennis, skied, practiced martial arts, boxed and attended yoga classes with his mother.
Throughout adolescence, Gary practiced yoga and martial arts. For the next 20 years, he practiced martial arts and meditated for hours daily, becoming an outstanding student and teaching others his unique, dynamic form of martial arts. Gary holds a second degree black belt in Tae Kwando, a third degree black belt in in Chinese Kenpo Karate, and has spent many years studying Muai Tai, Boxing, Kickboxing, Aikido and Jujitsu with some of the world's most famous and influential martial arts masters: Ed Parker, Benny "The Jet" Urquidez, and the legendary Hapkido master Bong Soo Hahn.
At age 18, Gary learned the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique and began his twice daily TM program. In 1984, he received instruction on the yoga Sutras of Patanjalis during a three month "TM Sidhis" course in Cobb Mountain, CA, becoming a Sidha yogi. Gary developed his unique understanding of yoga during the next 20 years through the combined practice of TM, the yoga Sutras of Patanjalis, and extensive studies of the Baghavad Gita.
Gary discovered Bikram's yoga in 1998. Finding a deep transcendent state of being through yoga, he began his daily hatha yoga practice. For two years, Gary dedicated himself to a nearly daily Bikram yoga practice with occasional Power Yoga classes. When Gary completed the "Bikram Challenge", (60 Bikram classes in 60 days) he realized that this extremely effective system felt incomplete. Gary then experimented with his practice, incorporating different stretching and yoga postures borrowed from his childhood yoga practice and his extensive martial arts background. This began his unique system incorporating traditional yoga and Bikram yoga along with the spirit, discipline and focus of martial arts, all combined with the core (yolk) from over twenty years of daily TM practice.
Completing Ana Forrest teacher training in 2000, Gary opened a yoga school (Hot Yoga of Laurelhurst). It was at this school that he refined his unique Power Yoga system, becoming its own complete yoga structure. Attending an advanced training for Bikram teachers at the Relational Yoga Manderam in Woodland Park, CO, (taught by long-time senior Bikram instructor Mary Jarvis), inspired Gary to live for two months in the Rocky Mountains. Living in silence and isolation while fasting in a high altitude cabin, without power or external stimulus, Gary learned to teach the Hamsa and the Hamsa Hatha Kriya and Deva Meditation, (also known as TM).
Certified by the Relational Yoga Mandiram, Gary returned to Seattle, managing the Sanctuary Yoga of Redmond. While there, Gary taught his unique, dynamic form of yoga for over two years to regularly sold-out rooms. Since then he has taught more than 10,000 traditional hot yoga and power yoga classes. He regularly holds Hamsa and Hamsa Hatha Kriya and teaches Pranyama, Deva meditation and the yoga Sutras of Patanjalis.