Walking is great exercise, but sometimes it can hurt. When we walk for miles and are unaware of our posture or body mechanics, that can lead to body dysfunction and discomfort. The hips, hip flexors, neck, lower back, feet and legs are common areas where we feel pain when we walk. One solution? Yoga! Yoga
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For any active adult or athlete, no matter how old or how many years you’ve been doing a sport or activity, cross-training will build your longevity in your sport. Many sports, like tennis and golf, are one sided, where you either swing in one direction or dominate with one side. Other sports, like running and
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None of us like to think about our body as “aging,” yet that’s what we’re doing, every day. Walking is an exercise that supports bone and muscle health as well as lowers cortisol (stress hormone) levels. Yoga is also a practice that strengthens the muscles and bones and lowers cortisol. So why do both? They
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Then… The first time I realized the benefits of practicing yoga for cross-training, it was by accident. I had been a swimmer in high school (100 Butterfly and 200 IM) and was a Master’s swimmer in my 20s. In 1995, I taught swimming at the 92nd St Y in New York to support my dance
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Whether you are just starting to practice yoga or you have been practicing for years, yoga props can enhance your practice in many ways. If you have perfectionist or “I don’t need help” tendencies, you may resist using props. However, you are doing yourself a disservice as they are can help you find more ease
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Backbending, or Spinal Extension, is one of multiple healthy spinal movements (Spinal Flexion, Lateral Flexion, and Rotation being the others). Joseph Pilates once said, “You are only as young as your spine is flexible,” and I find this to be true. Backbending can help your spine feel young by improving its strength and mobility. There
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There are many one-legged balance poses in the yoga practice, and numerous variations of those poses. But why? Yoga is a practice that gives us functional strength and mobility, but also improves our balancing ability in different positions. Actively working on balance can increase our strength and stability as we move through our life. What
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When we practice yoga, we move the spine in many different directions. When we are stiff from sitting all day, sometimes our spine doesn’t want to move the way we want it to. Forward bending and twisting are healthy spinal movements. When you have a young, healthy spine, you can “get away” with all sorts
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Yoga is a wonderful way to cross train and strength train as we age. We can build and maintain muscle mass, bone density, and work on stabilizing our balance. Standing yoga poses strengthen our legs, core, glutes, back, and shoulders, while increasing our ability to balance in different orientations to the floor. While in some
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As we age, our bodies become less tolerant of inefficient movement. As humans we are master compensators, and will “perform” movements, even in daily life, in ways that work, but are not always ideal for how our body should move. One example of that is walking. We can walk through our day and never once
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