Muscular and Organic Energy are a pair of yoga alignment principles designed to work in tandem to bring us into balance. I find such paired alignment principles powerful teaching tools, because they inherently stress the importance of balancing opposites. By balancing opposites like Muscular and Organic Energies, we can increase not only our joy in our practice, but its [...]
Inner and Outer Spirals are a pair of alignment principles usually applied to the hip girdle. They are specifically designed to take us towards a place of balance, as they are based on the realization that wellbeing is a state of balance, not an extreme. This perspective runs counter to the widespread belief that more is always better. It also [...]
Most of us have a tendency to work too hard in yoga at least some of the time. We typically do this in an effort to try to force improvement in our practice. However, over-efforting is counterproductive not only because it increases the likelihood of injury. It also distracts us from the enjoyment of the present moment and impedes our [...]
My approach to yoga places the balancing of opposites at the heart of the practice, because I believe that an emphasis on balance is key to increasing the benefits of yoga. This week I want to focus on balancing groundedness and lightness. Balancing groundedness and lightness allows each pose to reach its full expression How is this pair of opposites [...]
Forward bends can be quite problematic for the lower back. When we bend forward, we tend to do too much of the movement in the lower back. The lumbar spine is quite mobile in this direction, but excessive movement here is a frequent cause of back pain. Lower back pain in turn is the most common health complaint in the [...]
A typical yoga asana class winds down with forward bends and twists, because they are calming. Both support the down-regulation of the autonomic nervous system that eases us into the full relaxation of Savasana. However, if we approach forward bends with an attitude of “must touch the toes”, we are unlikely to derive the benefits that they are designed to [...]
Keeping your knees safe is important but challenging, because the knee joints, despite their size, are rather fragile joints. One main reason is that there is no overlap of the two bones meeting to create the joint. That means the knee joints can move into problematic alignment with relative ease. Crescents of cartilage (the menisci) create a shallow joint socket [...]
Hip alignment can be challenging—perhaps more so than the alignment of any other joint in the body. This is true not just because hip tightness is such a common phenomenon. It is also true because we don’t spend much time thinking about our hips and core. Poor hip awareness in turn makes it very challenging to place the hips intentionally, [...]
How do you know whether you are working too hard or not hard enough in yoga? How much should you push yourself when practicing yoga? What is the difference between intensity and pain? What is perfect intensity, anyway? And why does it matter? Most people who practice yoga have experienced creating too much intensity, at least occasionally. So how do you [...]
You have probably heard a yoga teacher say something like "come to your edge". Most often this place is defined as the place beyond which the risk of injury goes up dramatically. In the context of stretching, I define "the edge" as the point beyond which you can no longer savor your breath. To me, that is a definition more [...]
