Warrior l An Essential Yoga Pose for Strength and Stability

If you scroll through Instagram looking for yoga photos, you’ll see only a handful of yogis posing in Virabhadrasana I (Warrior I Pose). It’s not a particularly flashy pose or one that people like to show off on a beach

From Extreme Athlete to Yogi: 8 Sport-Specific Yoga Poses to Improve Performance

Clinton Vinson is a 25-year-old young man in optimal physical health. During the week he works day shift loading heavy freight onto cargo planes and in the evenings he is a much sought-after personal trainer at his local YMCA. His

Setting Goals: 3 Ways That Boundaries Can Lead to Freedom

The banks of a river act as a boundary directing the water to flow toward the sea. In this same way creating structure in our lives liberates us to focus our attention toward the things that matter most to us.

Grow Your Prana: 8 Steps to a Breath-Centered Yoga Practice

According to Viniyoga tradition, our aging process is represented by the movement of the sun throughout the day. Sunrise represents childhood, midday represents adult life, and sunset represents old age. There are specific yoga practices that are appropriate for each

Shore Up the Floor: 9 Ways to Help Your Yoga Students Engage Their Pelvic Floors

In my Pelvic Floor Yoga and Yoga Therapy courses, I emphasize the importance of adequate training and education of pelvic floor muscle (PFM) engagement with proper synergistic timing with other muscle groups with awareness, movement, and breath. I received a

Why Do We Lose Mobility Over Time? The Role of Biotensegrity in the Aging Process

We live longer than ever before, but for many, common age-related movement limitations can make it harder to enjoy the same freedom to enjoy all the life has to offer as we did when we were younger. Are there ways

Feel Powerful: How Yoga Builds Your Inner Strength

Ever walk out of a chest-opening yoga class feeling like you could take on the world—in the most friendly way possible, of course? You might think that feeling is just an obvious physical result of what you’ve been doing. If

Yoga Anatomy: How to Engage Your Tensor Fascia Lata for a Stronger Parsvakonasana

Many of the standing poses have a lunge component; that is, the forward hip and knee flex while the back hip and knee extend. It is not unusual in these types of asanas for the forward knee to drift inward,

Soothe Your Inner Hulk: 5 Ways Yoga Practice Can Calm the Beast in You

The world can be a tough and stressful place that causes us to “Hulk out” sometimes. If you’re not familiar, the Hulk is a comic book hero who is a genius scientist that turns into a huge, monstrous rage machine

I’m Here for Savasana: Finding Savasana in Other Yoga Poses

We’ve all seen the t-shirts: “I’m here for Savasana.” The statement is meant to be fun and tongue-in-cheek. In all seriousness, we can find the qualities of Savasana (Corpse Pose), in the poses leading up to it. Through that, we

Healing Yoga for Cancer: Pain Relief

Although cancer touches one in three women and one in two men nationwide, more people than ever are living longer after treatment. New and promising research heralds the benefits of yoga practice post-treatment.  Yoga practices that include movement, breath work,

How Exercise Might Help Brain and Nervous System Health

“The research shows that using the legs, particularly in weight-bearing exercise, sends signals to the brain that are vital for the production of healthy neural cells, essential for the brain and nervous system. Cutting back on exercise makes it difficult

Do You Play Music In Your Classes? 5 Reasons to Choose Silence in Your Yoga Class

I stopped playing music during the yoga classes that I teach many years ago. Music is a distraction to me as a teacher and it can also be a distraction to students. Yoga is more than an exercise class. It

Rethinking Downward-Facing Dog Pose: 3 Alignment Instructions to Reconsider in One of Yoga’s Most Common Poses

Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog Pose) is a fairly complicated, physically demanding pose that requires full body participation and asks a lot from the various joint structures involved. For the most part, students tend to simply struggle through the pose,

Your Brain on Meditation: Using Yoga’s Limbs to Achieve Pure Awareness

In 2004 one scientific study made quite a splash. In this study, the scientists had monitored the brain activity of eight Tibetan monks and recorded very high-frequency gamma waves that became dominant in states of deep meditation. Previous studies have demonstrated that

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