Spine Divine - How Spinal Fluidity Keeps You Healthy for the Long Haul

Do we get older just because of age?  Or do the patterns we’ve etched into our bodies decrease the fluid movement in our spines and thereby limit our movement potential?  In this interview with YogaUOnline, yoga teacher, Hellerwork Practitioner, Structural

Keys to Safe Hip Opening: 3 Yoga Poses For Happy Hips

When a teacher asks the class, “Any requests today?”, students often say, “Hip-openers!” As Dr. Ginger Garner, a PT and yoga therapist, noted, “Hip-opening is not universally beneficial. Hip-opening can even lead to injuries if overdone or done with incorrect

Yoga Anatomy: The Mighty Heart and Amazing Circulatory System

“Go to your bosom; Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know,” wrote William Shakespeare. We expect a lot from our metaphorical hearts. We want them to know what’s true, love deeply, feel compassion, point us in the

Warrior 3 Yoga Pose At the Wall: Variations with Props

Practicing Warrior 3, Virabhadrasana III, at the wall is a wonderful option to help strengthen our legs and stabilize ourselves. There are so many variations you can play with, but here, we’ll explore two basic stances.  In the first variation,

Supta Padangusthasana (Supine Big Toe Pose): Sustainable Stretching

There are many reasons people decide to start practicing yoga. For me, it was simple curiosity, at least at first. Many of my students come to yoga to bring some calm to their lives. Some want to increase flexibility. A

Recovering from a Sports or Yoga Injury? 4 Tips to Heal Faster

When healing from a sport or yoga injury, you may consider physical rehabilitation and rest as the key components needed for a full recovery. While these are definitely important, most people overlook the fact that what you choose to eat

Just What Is Your Core? Here’s Everything You Need to Know

You’ve heard of the “core” before. But do you know what it really is? Or even where it is exactly? Do you know how to engage your core? Yoga teachers often tell students to engage their cores, but it’s much

How to Maximize the Benefits of Gate Pose - Includes Free Online Yoga Video!

Gate Pose (Parighasana) is a a foundational hatha yoga posture that is equally great for both beginning and more advanced yoga students. While simple, it is also a challenging and incredibly beneficial yoga pose. Gate Pose incorporates many different key

Yoga Research: Yoga Improves Memory and Cognitive Performance, Study Shows

Sean Mullen wants more adults to go with the flow. The yoga flow that is. Mullen, an associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health at the University of Illinois  Urbana-Champaign, collaborated with fellow Beckman Institute for Advanced

Conscious Relaxation Techniques: How to Unplug, Reset and Revitalize

Author Anne Lamott said, “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes … including you.” Finding healthy, productive ways to unplug is important during stressful, difficult times. The practice of conscious relaxation can do that

Yoga for Balance: How to Test For and Cultivate Balancing Skills

As stated in my recent blog titled "Digital Dementia," poor posture is not a cause; it is simply a symptom indicating over or under-functioning various bodily systems, including musculoskeletal, endocrine, and nervous. Hours sitting staring at screens, lack of exercise,

How to Give Effective Cues in Restorative Yoga

Have you ever had a massage, and the therapist’s touch is a bit off? It’s either too hard, too soft, hurts, or doesn’t feel like it’s doing anything. From the therapist’s perspective, they might be approaching it as they do

3 Tips to Boost the Heart-Opening Power of Yoga Backbends

When it comes to opening the heart space, it’s hard to beat backbends in our yoga practice. Backbends can be subtle or intense. It took 10 years of regular yoga practice before I finally realized the true power of these

Janu Sirsasana with a Chair: Fold Deeper with Alignment, Patience and Ease

Forward folds comprise a large portion of the yogic repertoire, a strong focus of many asana practices. If you surveyed a group of practitioners, most would likely say that they wish they had more open hamstrings or a deeper forward

Sequel to How Beliefs Affect Our Health

We’ve learned that environmental signals change the activity and structure of cells, including which genes within the nucleus are active. Repeated environmental signals also affect the receptors in the cell membrane. Reprogramming Our DNA and Our Cell’s Receptors Each receptor

Share