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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