January Featured Practice Series: Body Transformations – Keys to Refining Alignment in Yoga with Julie Gudmestad
With the majority of New Year’s resolutions focused on health, fitness, and stress-relief, it’s little wonder that yoga is a major go-to. The key to keeping a yoga-related resolution, however, lies not in “pushing hard” or “going far” but rather in going deep. By tuning the way we practice so that we get the most out of our yoga, we produce rewarding, transformative experiences that naturally make us want to continue. Join physical therapist and yoga teacher Julie Gudmestad as she guides you through these practice-refining sessions. Tune in to your body. Let it keep bringing you back to the mat.
Hip-Opening with Standing Poses – Key Poses to Lengthen the Adductors
Julie guides you through a practice that will open up more space in your hips and lengthen your adductors, making Triangle and Half Moon more accessible. This video also places an emphasis on uncompressing the spine and moving it into a deeper rotation, increasing its mobility and suppleness. By following Julie through this practice you will build a stronger foundation for future forward bends, twists, and balance poses.
Dump the Slump! Deepen Your Backbends to Improve Posture
The amount of time we spend sitting in chairs closes up our front body: our hips flex at a right angle; our arms stay low, which tightens our shoulders; our diaphragm is compressed; our chest dropped; and our mid-back flexed. It’s no wonder we face a challenge with backbends! In this video, Julie guides you through a practice to open up the front body and stretch out all those tight areas. This practice places an emphasis on careful preparatory poses to prevent hyperextending the neck or causing low back pain.
Building Strength: The Importance of the Warrior Poses in Building Strength and Resilience
Julie guides you through a practice that will tune and enhance your Warrior 1 and 3 poses. This practice builds flexibility and strength, but it also builds the heat within us that can burn up old habits, preconceptions, and blocks that hold us back. Attention to opening the hips and shoulders increases mobility and prevents the common problem of low back compression in these poses.
