Why do we hold yoga poses?
I had a student many years ago who due to some psychological issues wasn’t able to keep her internal dialog to herself. So whenever she took my class, she would[…]
Category: Teaching tips
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3 steps to making any yoga pose more effective: why do we repeat the pose before we hold it
“Raise your hand if you are busy” – my teacher Gary Kraftsow likes to prompt at his workshops. This always gets the same reaction – a short disbelieving laugh, as[…]
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Why the foot pain is connected to the neck pain: your movement patterns shape your body
In the yoga world, if we get pain somewhere in the body, we take it as a call to action and begin to stretch that particular area. This approach is[…]
Stretching is overrated: it doesn’t help with muscle tension or muscle soreness
Last year an article in the New York Times titled Reasons Not to Stretch made quite a stir. It listed multiple studies that concluded that static stretching before an activity[…]
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What’s in your toolbox? Yoga breathing techniques
I signed up for a yoga class in the past titled something like Yoga for the changing seasons that promised to address the energetic and physiological changes that occur during[…]
Yoga for pelvic floor muscles: do you need to strengthen or release?
My toddler has been going through a potty training process, which means learning to control his pelvic floor muscles. Not a fun experience, but I am sure he will get[…]
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Mula bandha: what it is and whether or not you need it
Some Sanskrit words had successfully made it into our pop culture. When a lady in a scented candle commercial talks about clearing her chakras, you know that the cat is[…]
How to use yoga to energize or unwind
I am not a morning person. In my early days as a yoga practitioner I would will myself into x number of sun salutations or some power yoga routine in[…]
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A breathing trick: how to calm down before bed
A few weeks ago, a student complained of trouble falling asleep. You know how it goes – you are lying there awake at 2am, mind still spinning. I suggested that[…]
Why bother with breath in yoga?
Recently a new student asked me: “Why do we care about breath in yoga anyway?” This caused me to stumble for a moment as different possible answers rushed through my[…]
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IT band stretching and rolling won’t relieve the tension
As a yoga therapist I create practices for students who are very physically active, students who are sedentary and everything in between. Students at both ends of the activity spectrum[…]
Dance your way out of hip pain – salsa moves can help relieve QL tension
There is a peculiar maneuver that I often recommend to the students who have restrictions in the movement of their hips; I call it a “salsa move”. I find it[…]
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3 types of pain in the butt and what you can do about it
Having a literal pain in the butt is not a fun experience; it can make walking, sitting and sleeping difficult and uncomfortable. It is certainly something that one would want[…]
Neglecting your hip abductors can mess up your walk, sleep and balance
Few months ago this video of Jean Claude van Damme doing a split between two moving trucks made quite a stir and produced a number of copycats trying to do[…]
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Stretching the hip flexors is not always a good idea
Technically, we have five main hip flexor muscles, but one of them seems to be in the spotlight much more then others – the “mighty psoas”. Psoas seems to be[…]
Why do we get hip pain and what can we do about it?
When you look at the structure of the hip joint, it becomes clear that it was designed to withstand some serious forces. The head of the femur (thigh bone) is[…]
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10-minute home yoga practice in the morning can shape the rest of your day
My teacher often compares regular home yoga practice with flossing. He jokes that you should only floss around the teeth that you want to keep. When I first heard this[…]
Want pain-free shoulders? Cut down on your Downward dogs and Planks
A fellow yoga teacher confided in me once: “I had quite a scare in my class yesterday – one of my students had dislocated a shoulder. Luckily, there was a[…]
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6 reasons your yoga practice can become a pain in the neck
Many of us carry tension in our necks and when we go to a yoga class we hope to come out with our necks feeling better. But that is not[…]
How to stretch your neck and relieve neck tension more effectively
If you google “neck stretches” or “neck stretching” you will get a number of variations of the following two options: Clearly, Option 2 is not the kind of stretching we[…]
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