When practicing Asana, the physical practice of doing yoga poses on a mat, having a general understanding of your own anatomy can enhance your practice in many ways. Practicing yoga is not just about physicality, it’s about awareness. Studying anatomy gives you more awareness of what sensations in your body mean, and how to move
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While most people start practicing yoga for the physical benefits, strength, balance, and flexibility, there is so much more to yoga than poses. If Yoga was a tree, this tree would have 8 limbs; asana (yoga poses) is just one of those limbs. The 8 limbs are: Each of these limbs address different aspects of
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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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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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There are many causes of lower back pain as we age, and tight hips are one of them. “Hips” is a combination term that includes the hip flexors (iliopsoas, rectus femoris, and tensor fascia latae) and the buttocks (gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, gluteus minimus, piriformis, and deeper hip rotators). Imbalances in these muscles can lead
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When I was 39, I suddenly started having some weird lower back pain. I was very active with yoga and swimming and didn’t want my back to hold me back. I wasn’t even 40! Why was this happening?! I went to see one of the physical therapists that I worked with (I am also an
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Cat Pose and Cow Pose are two commonly practiced yoga poses and they are definitely two of my favorite. They are simple, not requiring any insane strength or flexibility, and are hugely beneficial to most bodies. These two poses can be practiced by anyone at any level of experience. Cat and Cow have alternating spinal
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In the yoga asana practice we often talk about a category of stretching poses called “Hip Openers.” They don’t refer to the area where you “put your hands on your hips,” but target the groups of muscles surrounding the hip joints. The Hips include the Gluteal muscles (Gluteus maximus, Gluteus medius, and Gluteus minimus), the
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The ins and outs of this powerful yoga pose Chaturanga Dandasana, or Four-Pointed Staff Pose, sometimes called “low push up,” can be the bane of many Vinyasa or Ashtanga yogis practice. Done correctly it is a powerful pose that creates full-body strength by engaging the core, legs, arms, shoulders and back. Unfortunately, it is rarely
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