Strengthen, Lengthen, and Release: Yoga for Low Back Pain

with lisa stowe
saturday, june 29
4:00-6:00pm
$40
limited to 12
sign up!

Is your low back permanently cranky? Do you avoid backbends because they hurt? Are you recovering from a back injury? Join Lisa for a workshop designed to help you use yoga asana to relieve low back pain.

In this workshop, we will strengthen, lengthen, and release muscles that contribute to low back pain. We’ll start with a discussion and review of the main culprits in back pain, focusing on the hip flexors and all 4 layers of the abdominal muscles.

You will emerge from the 2-hour workshop with practical tips, tricks, and tools to use in your own practice to both release tension and prevent future injury. The workshop is suitable for all levels, as well as those with and without acute low back pain.

Strap-tastic and Amaze-blocks!

with steph creaturo
saturday, june 15
4:00-6:15pm
$50
limited to 9 people
sign up!

A workshop all about the block and the strap.

Ever wonder why we use the block and strap in yoga class? Come explore the why and the how in this fun all-levels class that is Steph’s mash note to blocks and straps! We’ll do every pose (standing poses, seated poses, upside down – you get the idea) with either a block or a strap and sometimes both.

Straps and blocks provide our bodies and our minds with a ton of information and support – these props can illuminate the actions in a pose, be the gateway to depth in our practice via our poses, and, perhaps most important of all, provide support and confidence. We’ll also learn what to do when props aren’t available to us, or we want to transition away from their use. Whether you love or hate blocks and straps, there’s something for everyone in this workshop.

Words to Live By

“Ring the bells that still can ring,
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything,
That’s how the light gets in.”

- Leonard Cohen

Building Hip Stability

by Steph Creaturo

Don’t runners already have strong, stable hips? Well, yes and no. Certain muscles get super strong when we run, but others don’t. The catch is we also need those muscles in the “don’t” category to stabilize the hips while we run.

I put together this sequence at home to turbo-charge my hips practice. By performing the entire sequence on blocks, our muscles are challenged in these familiar poses.  When I do this practice, I feel my hamstrings working a bit more. I’m able to open different parts of my quads,  I get some core/shoulder strengthening as well, and I feel an increase in pelvic stability.

The height of the blocks also encourages the mind to stay present. They make us focus on drawing into the midline of the body, particularly from the edges of the hands and feet. This training season, this mental focus has helped me beat back the “wall” that creeps up at the end of longer runs/races, when the sweaty, salty fatigue threatens to overtake my sharp mental focus and strong form.

Coupled with the sequence in last week’s Strong Hips = Happy Yogis post, you’ve got a pretty complete hips practice – all in just 10 poses! Also, add this to your running/yoga practices at least three times a week to cultivate stronger hips, which can mean happier legs (and in my case, it’s been happier knees).

And lastly – really, don’t worry how “tight” your hamstrings/hips/quads feel. As you can see in the video, my “straight” leg sometimes means that my knee is bent! We runners have tighter hamstrings/hips/quads than yogis – and that’s cool.  Just like you wouldn’t run a marathon without proper training (right?), we don’t aim to stretch the hamstrings/hips/quads all at once. Work with where you are in your body so you can stretch these muscles in a safe, effective manner over time.

Ok, let’s roll out your mat and practice! Let me know what you think in the comments.

Oscillations: A Yogic Exploration of the Brain

LIKE A TIGER

by Janna Leyde

Yogash chitta vritti nirodhah ~ Patanjali.

When you are in a state of yoga, all misconceptions (vrittis) that can exist in the mutable aspect of human beings (chitta) disappear. 

I bought a sparkly new mala last month. It’s made of Tiger’s Eye. I was between this and a sparklier Citrine strand until the woman at Namaste Bookshop told my friend and me that “Tiger’s Eye brings order to chaos.” Emily, who is one of my very best yogi friends, happens to have a uniquely beautiful Tiger’s Eye herself, where her iris splits in shards of caramels, espressos and honeys. Done deal, I thought paying for it.

Whether you believe in the healing powers of gem stones or not, I was pretty jazzed to have a string of beads that attracts fortune and focus, a stone that—like a tiger—operates on patience. I rarely have enough. “The wearer will be able to see clearly what is needed for him to act with confidence and without being illusionary with life’s realities,” one website says about the stone’s properties.

Ah… illusion… so it parses out what is not actually there, that which we are actually creating ourselves, from what is. Om tat sat, wins me over again.

Don’t create stuff that doesn’t need to be there. Don’t tell yourself a big story about it.  We hear these phrases that revolve around the notion of eliminating the drama quite often in yoga class. I say them to my students, too. Think less, do more. Can the drama. And my mother says similar things to me, at times a wee bit more exasperated than your average yoga teacher. Janna, will ya cannit with the drama?  You are making much more out of it than it is!

You get it. As do I. Less is more. It’s hard though. We try to fill our space—our poses, our life—with story, because things move faster that way, and in this society stillness, slowness, can be uncomfortable. So we steer clear, and rather than accepting impatience, we create narrative, something more to focus on. I do it all the time. I create too many things, especially when it comes to accepting change, because I just want to get the change over with already. I’ve made a habit of convincing myself that I operate best in chaos, under duress, too many things at once. I do operate well in those instances, but why tell myself that’s the best way I operate? Because I have no patience, no trust?

Change is here. I’m moving to Pittsburgh. Big bad change. Time for chaos!

The thing is, the miasma of moving a life from one city to another is getting checked off as easy as if it were a Trader Joe’s list—apartment, yoga teaching jobs, TBI meetings, happy mom, goodbye dates and dinners with friends… check, check, check, check, check, check… Does anyone deserve it to be that easy? No, of course not, right? I should (funny how sneaky that should word is) probably find out why the process has been so lacking in drama, re-trace my steps. I should probably worry about this a lot.  I don’t deserve this, do I?

“Yes,” my father says. “Sometimes things are and sometimes they’re not.”

Easy, I assume. “What?” I ask.

“Easy,” he says.

I used to get so annoyed with the black and white way he sees the world. Mostly because it hurt so much, trying to eke emotion and reason out of him that was simply never going to be there. Yet when I started teaching him yoga, I was able to see how he sees his practice. Pure. Simple. Absolutely no drama. The man tells himself no stories about his asana. The pose is awesome that day… or it’s crap. Just as I cue him to, he focuses on his breath, his alignment, his intention. He lets me, his yoga teacher, guide and ground him.

Off the mat, my father—believe it or not—grounds me. I can tell my stories galore and he just peels them away, and I’m left with the just the facts.

The facts are: it’s just Seated Spinal Twist: it’s just ardha chandrasana chupasana, and you just fell out of it; it’s just moving to Pittsburgh where the road ahead looks pretty smooth.

So this time, instead of creating a fuss where there need not be one, I chopped a locks of love worthy length off my hair. And it is dramatic.

Janna Leyde is a yogi and writer living in Brooklyn and the author of He Never Liked Cake, a coming of age memoir that tells the story of growing up with her father’s traumatic brain injury. Oscillations: A Yogic Exploration of the Brain offers her perspective on the practice through the lens of the complex human brain. When she’s not on her mat or at the front of the room teaching, she is working on her second book about yoga for brain injury. You can buy her first novel, He Never Liked Cake, here. 

Prenatal Yoga: Your Third Trimester

Ooooh, she’s getting close. If you’ve been around the studio recently, you may have noticed Angela Clark is definitely in her third trimester of pregnancy. With her growing (and adorable!) belly, you can imagine her practice has changed quite a bit.

Enter Christina Hatgis! Well-versed in prenatal yoga, Christina devised a lovely, appropriate, and very modified practice for Angela to do. And, bonus, this video is not just for the pregnant ladies. Christina also provides a wealth of information, as well as some great assists partners can give. This video is all about fun for the whole family.

(And, of course, please check with your doctor first to make sure this is an appropriate practice for you.)

Click here to watch:

You. Us. Yoga in Prospect Park.

with angela, christina, and steph
thursday, june 13
7:00-8:00pm
meet at the north end of Prospect Park’s Long Meadow
free!

With Spring more than just a faint sight in the distance, we thought it would be the perfect time to talk about outdoor yoga! That’s right. It’s almost time for Yoga in Prospect Park. The lovely ladies at lululemon have been kind enough to include us in their series of free yoga classes on Thursday nights, running all summer long (pro tip: go to all of them).

There’s something magical about practicing outside. The sky, the grass, the occasional turtle (true story). Thursday night classes in the park are a great opportunity to enjoy the setting sun, the breeze, and to re-connect with Mother Nature in a way that can be difficult in this bustling, cement-filled city If you’ve never done it before, try it now! With the familiarity of your favorite teachers, just in a brand new studio without walls.

For more info, visit lululemon.com.

Strong Hips = Happy Yogis: Five Poses for Strong Hips

by Steph Creaturo

Yep, I wrote that. Not open hips, but strong hips.  Imbalances in the hips can cause all sorts of havoc on our bodies – achy knees in particular.

Don’t despair! Yoga is great to balance out the strength and flexibility needed for healthy hips. While this post could have been titled, “Fifty things you can do to strengthen your hips,” let’s start with these five sure-fire hip strengtheners.  Commit to doing this sequence three times a week, especially if you’re running, and see how your lower body responds.  I’d love to know your thoughts. Let me know in the comments!

Tree Pose #1

Tree Pose #2

Tree Pose #3

Tree Pose #4

Tree Pose #5

1. Tree sequence on the floor:  This version of tree isolates the gluteus medius, a hip abductor and stabilizer, and strengthens the overall core.  By experiencing a familiar pose in an unfamiliar way, new information is sent to your body and brain – which is great for building concentration and using different muscles then when the pose is right side up.

How to:

• Lie on your right side in mountain pose. Now you may feel like a Weeble – totally cool. Engage your core and support your neck.

• Roll the top hip forward in space. If you roll the pelvis backwards, you immediately cheat the actions and can overwork other hip abductors (or, muscles that move the leg away from the body).

• Place your hand on your left hip to get a sense of where your body is in space.

• Lift the left leg straight towards the sky. Now slide your left palm down to your outer thigh. Press down to provide your own gentle resistance. Hold this for five breaths.

• Bend the knee, externally rotate the leg at the pelvis, and place your left foot on the inner right calf for tree. Press the outer right leg into the floor.

• For an added challenge, lift your left arm up.  Need more support? Put your left hand on the floor in front of your ribs.

• Hold for 10 breaths, keep the core engaged as you release. Change sides.

Bridge with Blocks Under the Feet

2. Bridge with feet on the blocks: There are 108 million ways to do bridge pose. In this version, lead with the glutes and hamstrings to strengthen the back of the hips. Strong glutes and hamstrings prevent the pelvis from seesawing in space, which creates stronger support at the body’s center. In turn, the low back and knees are then more aligned.

How to:

• Lie your spine on the floor, with the knees bent and feet hip-distance apart. Place two yoga blocks at the wall on which to ground your feet.

• Inhale, engage your glutes, then press your feet down into the blocks to lift your hips. Think about pinning your sitting bones to the backs of the knees as your pelvis comes into position.

• The hips stay lifted and glutes strong for five breaths, then release on the exhale, staying engaged through the glutes as you release.

• Start with three sets, work up to five sets with a eight-breath hold at the top of each bridge.

High Lunge

High Lunge with Front Leg Straight

3. Lunge Variation: Bend/straighten front leg AND back leg. Lunges are great “bang for your buck” poses. They work the hips, glutes, calves, and thighs all at the same time. The caveat here: “straight” is relative to your hamstrings!  Tip: Getting – and keeping – a good press through the big toe mound of your front foot can create more stability in lunges.

How to: Bend/straighten the front leg

• Place your left heel at the wall and press evenly through the inner and outer heel.

• Your right leg is in a lunge position. Make sure your right knee does not migrate beyond your front ankle or wobble to/away from your midline.

• Inhale, straighten the right leg. Zipper your right hip crease back in space. Keep the back leg taut and the back glutes engaged.

• Exhale, and return the right leg to lunge position.

• Repeat five times, working up to 10, then switch sides.

High Lunge

High Lunge with Back Leg Bent

How to: Bend/straighten back leg

• The back heel is off the wall for this variation.

• Stay in lunge position.  Now bend the back knee towards, but not all the way to, the floor. Then straighten it.

• Watch your pelvis doesn’t tip forward. Imagine there’s a cup of tea in the middle of your pelvis and you don’t want to spill that tea as you bend your back knee. Keep a slight engagement of your abdomen to prevent this.

• Your front knee stays perched on top of the front ankle the whole time.

• Repeat five times, working up to 10.

Awkard Chair at the Wall

4. Awkward chair at the wall: Also known as a “wall squat.” This pose ups the ante in terms of sensation in the quads. But, given how big those muscles are, and how strong we want them to be, this is supposed to be uncomfortable!

How to:

• Lean against a wall ever so lightly –  don’t hold the wall up with all of your body weight.

• Aim for a right angle between your thighs and the floor.

• Squeeze a block between your knees.

• Hold for thirty seconds, then release. Do two more times, working up to holds of 60 and 90 seconds.

Upside Down Bound Angle Pose

5. Upside-down bound angle pose: Turn this familiar pose upside down to awaken and strengthen your deep hip muscles (think Piriformis, aka the muscle you feel in pigeon). It also awakens the connection between your feet and hips, as the feet to stay together to protect the knees and low back.

How to:

• Lie on your abdomen, with your forehead resting on stacked hands.

• Create a good seal between your hip points, pubic bone and floor by pressing down and toning your abdomen towards the spine.

• Take the legs to the width of your yoga mat, bend your knees and bring the bottoms of your feet together. The feet can be way off the floor – that’s fine.

• Inhale, press the bottoms of the feet together while keeping the front of your pelvis sealed to the floor.

• Hold for 30 seconds, release on an exhale, then repeat three to five times.

Exploring Strength-Building Through the Bandhas

with christina hatgis
thursday, june 6
7:30-9:00pm
drop-in/class cards accepted
sign up!

When we work on the core, or talk about strength-building, using the bandhas helps access the core muscles of the body, reducing stress or strain on the joints and smaller muscles. The bandhas act like locks or valves to help us work with the flow of prana and encourage us to create stability without gripping.

Our class will include building strength in our core, legs, and shoulders. Engaging the bandhas create a solid and supported foundation for our physical practice and our breath so we can access and expand our strength, maintaining balance and ease.

Words to Live By

“Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.”

- Rumi