Carsten was born in January 1972.  He has an undergraduate degree in sports science and physics, is a certified ski and snowboard instructor, a triathlon coach and a Geoff Lawton trained permaculture designer. He considers himself a life-long learner.

While growing up, sports and its competitive edge always played a major role in his life: he was a gymnast until the age of eighteen and later revived his skills at university, he competed in swimming and tennis, played football, basketball, handball, volleyball, got into triathlon in his twenties and started breakdancing when he was teaching at a school with economically disadvantaged students when he was 31.

Carsten discovered Yoga quite late in life. His father went to weekly Yoga classes when Carsten was a teenager, but he didn’t consider it to be for anybody else then his dad or women. His attitude changed dramatically when he broke his hand during a breakdance session in 2002. An article about Bikram Yoga in ‘Men’s Health’, lying about in the hospital’s waiting room, sparked his interest in the challenging poses depicted. Once his hand had healed, he picked up the corresponding book by Bikram Choudhury and started a regular practice.

His long background in gymnastics together with his scientific training in sports science at university helped him to break down difficult asanas into progressions to reach mastery step by step.

From Bikram Yoga he moved on to studying with different teachers and yoga styles ending up going to a small Iyengar studio in Bockenheim, Frankfurt where he practiced until he left to teach at the German Private School in Namibia in 2007.
Since then he has constantly widened his horizon, always on the look-out for ways to improve his own Yoga practice. So it was merely a formality to acquire his credentials as a Yoga teacher by completing the 200 hour Yoga teacher training with Lara Baumann in April 2017.

Carsten during his teacher training in Sri Lanka

Reading the book “The Multiorgasmic Man” by Mantak Chia in 1996 sparked Carsten’s interest to study the body’s flow of energy. Consequently he started QiGong and KungFu classes in Frankfurt at the Shaolin Wahnam Institute with Sifu Kai Uwe Jettkandt.
In 2001 Carsten did his first silent 10 day  Vipassana retreat. Since then meditation has become part of his daily practice.

On his way to India in 2001 to visit the Ashrams of Osho and SeiBaba, Carsten met his wife, Lindsay Taylor.
They got married in England in 2006 and had their children Miles and Grace in 2007 and 2010 in Namibia.

Carsten with Grace, Miles and Lindsay

Carsten with Grace, Miles and Lindsay (2014)

In 2015 Carsten moved with his wife and family from Namibia where he had been teaching for the previous eight years and took a leave without pay from his job as a school teacher.
Having lots more time on his hands gave him the opportunity to pursue and intensify his many varied interests: permaculture, aquaponics, surfing and in particular yoga.

In November 2017 Carsten went to Thailand to be taught by one of Mantak Chia’s earliest students, Walter Kellenberger, in the art of Iron Shirt QiGong and Bone Marrow Nei Kung.

Carsten likes to challenge himself, whether it is free diving with Trevor Hutton, skateboarding, surfing or building an Earthship with Michael Reynolds in the Philippines. He does not want to give up exciting and adrenaline inducing activities, just because he’s getting older.

Neil Unger after a successful Kickflip.

Seeing other people, like 55 year old skateboarder Neil Unger, on YouTube motivates him to contradict common misbeliefs that come from repressed society telling everyone to “grow up and behave like an adult”.

Because of people like Neil, Carsten started thinking about a blog or website about his own health and fitness journey to inspire others and to keep track of his own life: challenges, ideas and events.

Finally, in October 2017 Carsten set-up ‘carstenantoni.com’.