Jul 7
Breathe in clarity and space as you flow through a series of standing poses, balances and transitions aimed at drawing attention inwards while also circulating energy throughout the body and mind.
Give your spine a joyful release as you lightly take the body into all ranges of spinal plane of motions with Kreg Weiss. From twists to bends, ease tension out of key muscle areas that typically prevent the spine from enjoying fluid space.
The anterior shoulder and pectoralis muscles present great challenges to our postural health as these muscles tend to be chronically tight. Yoga stretches utilizing interlaced fingers can be an effective method of breaking down this muscular tightness and expanding the heart center. However, these chest openers are often performed incorrectly presenting potential injury for the wrists.
Part of an overall healthy lifestyle is maintaining an appropriate body composition. When attempting to decrease body fat percentages, many people make some common mistakes that greatly hinder success in achieving effective weight loss.
Balasana (Child's Pose) can be a highly under-rated and under-utilized Yoga Pose in our Yoga classes. Balasana yields tremendous physical, mental, and energetic benefits including:
The classic, straight leg jump through in Vinyasa/Ashtanga flows requires a combination of specific strength engagement techniques along with ample range of motion in the back lines of the body. With this foundation of strength and flexibility, you then need to be able to coordinate these physical elements in order to systematically flow the legs through to sitting.
An important part of a balanced health and wellness program is managing your body composition and understanding what is a healthy body weight for your body type. A consistent Yoga practice, a clean Yoga diet, and observance of Yoga principles and lifestyle habits can help you find this balance in managing your body weight.
In Sarvangasana, Halasana, and other inverted Yoga poses that place the neck in forward flexion, the posterior neck muscles and the Nuchal Ligament can undergo substantial stretching. For those with tense neck muscles and rigid Nuchal ligament tissues, this deep stretching can lead to chronic or acute damage to these important, supportive tissues.
Hatha Yoga has an array of back bending or back arching Yoga exercises that deliver a wealth of health benefits when done correctly. Back bending Yoga poses can be intimidating to those who have low back pain or previous low back injuries. When performed with the right intention and alignment techniques, back bends can be safe, effective, and revitalizing. The common error of doing back bending Yoga exercises is the immediate emphasis of moving into the spine thinking that we need to increase the "flexibility of the vertebrae".
A variety of Hatha Yoga poses provide a wealth of strengthening and endurance conditioning. Many Standing Yoga Poses like Virabhadrasana (warrior pose) or lunging Yoga poses require proper knee alignment to allow for complete flow of energy and to maintain strength, safety, and stability in your Yoga class.
Kapalabhati is a highly energizing abdominal breathing exercise that acts as a kriya or a yoga cleanse. The vigorous exhalations act in many ways to yield benefits beyond the energetic qualities of this advanced yoga breathing exercise.
So you have decided to take the plunge into a more healthy and nourishing nutrition plan? Back up these great intentions with some simple strategies and tips to keep you motivated and make this a long-term routine with success.
In Janu Sirsasana and many other Yoga Forward Bend Poses, we explore the expansion of the hamstring muscles. The resistance of the hamstrings against the sit bones (ischial tuberosities) limits the motion of the pelvis structure in relation to the thigh bone, thus reducing the amount of forward bending motion we can generate at the hip joint.
By applying the principal of reciprocal inhibition in our Yoga practice, we can manipulate the neural signals of key muscle groups to more effectively relax the hamstrings and to increase our ability to fold into our yoga forward bend poses.
Satya is a powerful, foundational element to apply to our Yoga practice. When adding this element during our Yoga class, a greater purpose to each asana (Yoga pose) occurs. Even though we are performing Hatha Yoga (physical practice of postures), we move ourselves to a powerful place of observing and awareness.
What is the purpose of Yoga poses? For me, the purpose of Yoga poses is to create a healthy flow of energy through the body to transit an aurora of vitality into the mind and soul. With new each practice, I establish an intention that every position develops with pure, balanced space in the spine and, from this, the core's energy is invited to move outwards into the limbs. This positive flow of energy transmits back through the nervous system to the mind in a healing manner rather than a stimulation of struggle and ego.
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