45 Mins
Moving Across Space - Mobilising Joints
Mobilising our muscles and connective joints and tissues with repetitive fluid movements that help us move through the whole body. Feeling space and extension open up as fascia gets juiced and movements become freer.
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Simplicity, Synchronicity and Usability
This class was created to be part of a daily practice sequence. A coverage of movement and mobility through the entire body with a balance of all the elements to open everywhere; abdominals, vinyasa, shoulders, balance, hips, and a long constructive rest sequence at the end.
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Lift & Elevation - Structure
Like any good structure, our bodies rely on a good foundation and good mechanics to function well. There is a lot of pubic bone action in this practice, calling attention to the LIFT safeguards our lower back, stabilises our pelvis, works our ‘core’ and allows us to connect to the legs below and the chest above for satisfying back ‘bends’ AND incredible forward ‘bends’. A note to say it’s not really bending, it’s extending.
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Twists & Turns
Working on keeping the spine’s ability to move in all directions is key to long term spinal health. Rotation of the torso is dependant on the super highway of muscles that connect from and to the pelvis and shoulders and all that passes in between. They help keep us upright, help move, rotate and extend the torso. Here we explore twist and rotations aimed at freeing the ribcage.
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Piriformis - Outer Leg Stretch
The piriformis is a muscle that runs from your lower spine through your butt to the top of your outer thigh. It aids in almost every movement of your lower body and the sciatic nerve runs underneath it. It is a muscle I have become more and more aware of the more I ride on a spin bike. Often our injuries or niggles are our biggest learning tool and it highlights where we may be loading or over using certain parts of our body and where we need to seek balance or healing. This is an indulgent class for me because all of these stretches target the piriformis and outer leg/IT band, easing tension in the hip rotators and lower back.
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Lotus & Binding
When playing with the poses that lead to lotus and binding we look at poses that open both the hips and the shoulders. So whether we can catch the foot in a bind or bring our foot in to lotus or not doesn’t prevent us from moving through the steps on the way. Twists, shoulder openers and strengtheners, going upside down, chest opening, and then possibly twist with lotus where the body allows, other base positions are readily available :-)
Read More60 Mins
Crossing Over - Full Body Extension
Here we extend the side body with a little bit of a twist. We make our limbs travel further by crossing them over, we also add in IT band and hip rotators working this way. We stretch and open the front body and flexors in this practice too. If it’s possible to play Yoga Twister this is it :-)
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Crossing Over - Outer Leg Stretching
This practice for me gets in to all the hard to reach places. The outer leg can be really tight and a lot of yoga poses we practice most often work more on the inner line of the leg and the hip in external rotation. We also experience in this class how much stability we require to attain the most flexibility and this attention can be a reason we always head to practice the things we are most familiar with instead. Crossing over and stretching out, good for the body and proprioception too :-)
Read More60 Mins
Twist, Lift & Extend
Twisting is a great prelude to opening the hamstrings, I’m not sure when I first learnt/experienced this but I have found it to hold true in my practice. It’s tricky to do standing twists, they require mastery over the hip joint to stabilise yourself, being centred in your core and also relatively free in your rib cage and upper back to rotate. It’s the ultimate meditative, mindfulness in action practice. Here we twist, open the shoulders and upper back alongside opening the hips and hamstrings. It’s a wonderful practice for sports people and anyone who needs to provide relief for the legs.
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Binding & Folding
Sometimes we omit things we should be practicing more often. Full range of motion and movements in all directions around the shoulder joint is crucial. Here we review the poses and practices which involve the shoulders; wrapping, binding. revolving, twisting and movements in different directions added in to our familiar standing poses. This then challenges our proprioception and balance when in space. We also explore at the end ways to approach headstand with or without the intention of fully going in to the pose.
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Revolving - Strength & Stability
When we twist our spine dictates how much we can move in either direction. As well as the lats and obliques to name just two big muscles that help. We can deepen our twists with the breath and longer holds, slowly slowly unravelling the patterns and observing them. To aid in the twist mobility we also lengthen the inner line of the legs (adductors) and hamstrings to free the pelvis and waist. There is also fun to be had exploring arm balances, weight distribution and build strength for our ability to do this but also for the longevity of our bones and building density through weight baring.
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Feel The Ground - Extend & Expand
When we practice and really connect our feet to the earth our powers to extend and expand in all directions increases. Lengthening the side body, arms, legs; everything feels stronger, more even and the ability to hold a deeper position in the pose is possible and more beneficial. Here we practice lots of arm movements and directions to liberate the shoulders and side waist, combined with hip openers we have a winning combination for length and space.
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Freeing the Ribcage - Twists & Binds
There’s a little bit of everything in here. We connect hips, twists and binds for maximum rotation and also for the biggest transformation in freeing the ribs and the ribcage. Which in turn elevates the spine and chest from the front, sides and back, frees the lungs to breath more expansively and works to chink away at the upper thorascic spine which can be less inclined to move freely. Binds are optional, there are ways and means of creating the same effects in the body with the use of our props that are fuss free and easy to include so we can practice without discomfort or let restrictions hold us back from finding openness.
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Binding Times - Rotation, Opening & Folding
In our previous class we focused on twists and the movements that concentrated on what happened above the pelvis. This week we rotate and take it a step further, by including hip openers (external rotation) and the option to take some stronger binds or cross overs that require an even bigger rotation through the torso. By including some hip openers we can observe how this helps us to free up movement in the spine as well as testing out what’s going on in the hips and where we may need to open and or strengthen more. Please take extra lift for your seat when doing some of this work, do not ignore joint pain in your knees!! Always support and adjust or come out completely of anything that does not feel right.
Read More65 Mins
Twisting - Global Rotation
I think when we twist it’s a good idea to view our body from a 360 degree perspective. Turning to the side or revolving our pelvis, waist, ribs, upper thoracic, collar bones, neck and head? Then there’s the response; how does it feel when we are twisting in the front of the body compared to the back, from the right side to the left depending on the direction we are going. In this practice we are not simply twisting or turning around, we are navigating the full circumference of the body.
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Vishuddha - Throat Chakra
The 5th Chakra, Vishuddha is located in the throat. It governs self expression, communication and ability to speak one’s truth. To speak and be heard. When imbalanced we are prone to gossiping, interupting and dominating words over others. When deficient our voice is small and weak, there is a shyness and fear of speaking. It is the pathway of communication, it’s associated element is sound and it’s energetic colour is blue. In this class we use the physical practices that open the throat, as well as the breath practices, meditation and bija mantra that helps balance and open this chakra. I mention here but it’s important to note that the meditation and mantra practices will be most profound when practiced for 15 - 20 mins daily. Most likely for 40 days!!
Read More60 Mins
City of Jewels the Naval Chakra - Manipura
The 3rd Chakra is located at our naval centre/solar plexus and is considered the city of jewels, the energy centre that governs our sense of self; power, individuality and identification, our self worth and self esteem. ‘I am enough’ countering ‘I am not enough’ … knowing our inherent value. It’s clear passageway is also key to a healthy digestion and a balanced metabolism. In this practice we explore ways to open the space, connect to it with movement, mudra and mantra. The element associated with this chakra is Fire and it’s colour is yellow. Light it up!!
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Lengthening and reaching out
Continuing what seems to be the theme for this series of classes this month we find length in the torso by extending and reaching out of the ribcage. Here we focus on doing this through twists and side body stretches. The benefits of lengthening our torso is improved postured, improved spine mobility, more space for abdominal organs and their optimal function. This practice also focuses on strengthening our hip joint for greater stability when it comes to wide leg postures, whist stretching out the adductors (and semitendinosus, our inner most hamstring) at the same time.
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Bolster love and Digestive Health
The sight of a bolster instantly made everyone in class think of relaxing. The support it offers and what it is usually used for is synonomous with letting go. In this practice we use the bolster in a more active way in our standing poses as well as in more supportive and restorative ways when it comes to certain seated and supine poses. The bolster massages our kidneys, adrenals and posterior diaphragmatic area, whilst creating length and wideness in the stomach, liver and front diaphragmatic region. It’s preferable to have a bolster but if you don’t have one you can use a rolled up yoga mat, a sofa cushion or a pillow (or two).
Read More60 Mins
Uplifted - Lifting Up and Staying Lifted
There are many ways to feel more lifted, at every junction in our bodies, the pelvis, knees, ankles, shoulders, neck etc there is the propensity to shrink, shorten the muscles and impact the joint. Which leads us to feel pulled in and restricted. Here we look at creating length in the abdominal region, lifting the lower ribs out of the waist via twists, legs lifts, hamstring lengthening and extension of the arms. It’s a full body experince.
Read More70 Mins
Cross Overs - IT Band LoVe
Crossing over with our Yoga posing targets new muscles groups to feel and focus on. It also adds a new dimension to our twists practice. I would say we cover a little bit of everything here; alongside IT band (outer thigh), we twist, focusing on rotation of the trunk, challenging the spinal rotation meanwhile challenging the abdominal muscles to steady us from falling over, balancing and with this strengthening of the legs, lengthening of the hip rotators and finding stability and support from our hip joints too. And remember it’s good for our brain to do new things and/or to do the same things in a new way :-)
Read More70 Mins
Twists with a Twist
Twists with a twist refers to the way in which we take parts of our body from one side and cross them over to the other. If some families of twists feel confined this sequencing is more about elongation and rotation of the ribs. Like a combination of side lengthening, twists and forward extensions. To gain the greatest ease, mobility and length we make repetitive movements that feel like pulsing in and out. Less holds, more movement.
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This class is juicy. We lengthen, lift, revolve and extend through our side body. Starting by opening the groins and lengthening the inner thigh we create more room for the diaphragm to move in space. In turn this allows us to lift out of our pelvis, open our chest, twist and side stretch with increased ranged of movement. This sets us up perfectly to move and balance in more challenging standing pavrittas (twists). This can all be developed from simple asanas practiced passively at first to enable us to hold for longer periods and in turn see more significant change in the body that helps us develop the more complex movements and asanas with greater ease.
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If I am going to receive a mobility test for my hips and or my shoulders there are a few poses that highlight where my restrictions are. For lotus, the hip is key and no amount of force to the knee or ankle should be necessary if the hips external rotation is good. Same for binding, long arms helps but it is more about a full circumferential rotation to get the hands to wrap behind you. Good chest rotation is key for the binds as is the ability to revolve the femur bones correctly in lotus. As always it is not the end goal that marks success but the journey and the awareness this journey gives you in to the mechanics and workings of your body. Your response and the work on your own practice towards full body awareness is the essence.
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I think I’ve said this before. Happy arm pits, happy life. It comes from a BKS Iyengar quote where he tells his students that if you lift your chest and open your arm pits you can’t be depressed. This does play in to the image of the drooping shoulders, curved spine, down turned lips etc. So in this class we creatively explore how to open the arm pits by lengthening the side body, revolving the spine and opening the chest. Using tadasana, down dog and virasana (extended childs pose) as our neutral base from which to move from and come back to. Also using these poses between sides to observe changes and developments as we move from one side to the other.
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When we practice ‘live’ we often move with the season. This class is the first class back after Christmas and I always focus on lengthening the abdomen (just in case there’s been more time sat on the sofa/eating/drinking etc). This is not the case for everyone and there are many times through the year where we feel we need to fully stretch out the body and this class is perfect for those moments. There are the key elements to lengthen, strengthen and tone the abdomen with a literal twist thrown in here and there. We primarily focus on igniting the lower abdomen through strengthening the legs (inner line/pelvis connection). This is all the things I love to do in one class, weaving in creative changes to familiar poses brings a feeling of newness and regeneration to our practice.
Read More60 Mins
Akunchan means to contract and in this practice we explore different postures where we hug in and contract both or single leg movements in to the abdomen. Rather than compressing the abdomen the contractions have a “wringing” action and create more space deep inside the abdominal area. We are in a sense exploring ways in which we can tone the core of the trunk from outside in through poses and movements that are more compact in nature (rather than expanding and lengthening outwards with our limbs).
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To lift the spine and improve posture I usually cue you to lift your chest/breast bone or to press down in to your sitting bones to lift up. But what happens when we start to lift and twist by lifting from the sacrum (the middle/back of the pelvis)? How is our movement up and round improved? What new knowledge do we feel in our bodies? This way of approaching lifting the spine and twisting broadens the abdomen and organic body much more profoundly than we feel when focusing on the upper body initiating the movement and yet the upper torso still lifts and turns, maybe even more so. What do you think? Practice and see :-)
Read More75 Mins
When we go backwards we are heading in a direction where we cannot see where we are going. We reach back in to the unknown but we take with us what we do know. We also trust. We know how to extend, arch, lift and lengthen. We know where the earth is or where our toes are even if we can’t see them. We know how our body feels moving in space, so as we go backwards we trust our body to take us there. Backbends also require us to open our chests and shoulders, lengthen our abdomen, hip flexors and quads. Opening each part of the spine evenly, not over using our flexible parts or under using our stiffer parts. It’s really a work of art, moving, breathing and backbending.
Read More75 Mins
Our breath has different qualities depending on the movements we are making. We can observe these changes and our awareness of how the breath changes by observing it throughout our practice. It is hard to focus and feel the quality of the breath, or take long steady breaths when our body is under strain (when we hold a particularly challenging posture). The quality changes depending on whether we are holding, maintaining or resting. It changes if we are upside down, forward folding, back bending, side stretching, twisting or lying down. Here we practice variety; in speed, in repetition, in orientation, in variation. In practice we trust.
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Holding a posture is often the strongest part of the practice physically. Then we practice staying, making the pose homely so that we can then experience feeling; the doing has been done, nothing has to be held. After the doing and the holding the homely state will start to come more quickly with practice. What we can create, maintain and enjoy in our practice begins to feel limitless and we find a state of peacefulness in many poses that may have started off feeling stressful or difficult. Our mission is for a state of being where feeling homely comes naturally no matter the difficulty. Here we explore breathing whilst holding in a variety of postures that lift and expand our upper rib cage and shoulders, challenging our balance as well as looking for different breathing patterns when the body isn’t straining or stressed.
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There is no doubt our arms and legs have different functions. If we were meant to walk on our arms, they would be our legs. But there are lots of poses in Yoga where we are asking our arms to hold and carry the weight of our body or share the load with our legs. That doesn’t mean this is about handstands, we do it downward facing dog, side arms balance etc. And very often we shift our body weight from one to the other and back again. By looking at ways to use the arms to support our body weight, how our connection to the arms from our torso (front, sides and back) needs to be balanced and stabilised in the shoulder joint so we can move with confidence, without struggle and see how our arms can be as supportive as our legs.
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Moving the arms and legs in directions where they move away from and towards the midline of our body is called adduction and abduction. It’s an interesting way of exploring movement and the directions we can take our limbs in and the effect this has on our experience. What patterns can we discover in our bodies? it’s strengths and weaknesses? This class is both strengthening and lengthening with it’s possibilities and also requires us to balance our opposing sides when we focus on the opposite, our awareness is drawn in all directions around the body. Ultimately always coming back to the midline.
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When we twist in our bodies we are often spiralling a part of the body from small to big or criss crossing from one side to another. Physical twists can be used to untwist our minds but this is something you need to explore after your practice and see how inner turmoil can be lifted, softened or maybe even resolved. Twists can feel intense, you learn a lot about the ways your body can and can’t move in certain directions. They also unlock a lot of freedom and movement in our bodies and help create more balance and evenness.
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I was thinking about the concept of being on the ‘straight and narrow’ whilst reading a book called The Practice Is The Path by Tias Little. The concept of trying to keep oneself on this path and those we care for on a similar ‘straight and narrow’ pathway is not only very limiting but nye on impossible. In this class we navigate our practice by looking at the movement patterns we use to come in and out of poses creatively. Sometimes it’s not the pose itself that’s difficult to experience but the path we take towards it. I would say this class focuses on hip mobility and our own agility when it comes to movement in Yoga.
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In this fundamentals class we focus on sequencing together many of the standing and backbends we have covered so far in this series. Here we highlight the poses where we are twisting/revolving and stretching the front of the thigh/hip flexors. This particular family of backbends are more front body lengthening, bending in the back is a misnomer. The key to them is the strength and flexibility in the legs, particularly the hip flexors and the strength of the paraspinal muscles and glutes to give you stability and lift off.
Read More75 Mins
Having had a pretty heavy few weeks on the hamstrings I decided it was time to loosen up and have a little bit of hip play. Less focused on long holds and forward folds but gaining movement and momentum in the full range of the hips. Sometimes we think there is a movement or a pose that we can’t do but sometimes we can if we approach it in a different way, from a different direction. Or we can access it by adding in a prop or two. Please approach this by exploring your range of movement and not with any idea that one pose fits all.
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When I practiced and planned this class before teaching I realised that most of the postures required us to make ‘V’ shapes with our bodies, either by splitting the legs (one forward, one back, parallel) or by the angle we make at the hip junction between the legs and the torso. Sometimes the ‘V’ is an ‘L’ or in our finale posture an ‘X’. In actuality when practicing this sequence, when making these shapes, feel the letters your body to making.
There is a focus on needing the hamstrings to open and lengthen, and for the hip flexors and quads to help in lifting the legs but there are progressions towards each full posture. Remember when the hamstrings challenge your movement the best course of action is to add props, or modify, they will open far more successfully this way than when they are in a fear state (“You are going to snap me aren’t you?? STOP” said the hamstrings). Amongst others, we practice Navasana and variations (boat), Krounchasana (I think they call this heron) and kurmasana (which makes me think of Kermit the frog). Have fun :-)
Read More60 Mins
In this fundamentals class we focus on Prasarita Padotanasana, a pose where the legs are wide apart and we fold forward. We also explore similar poses that require the legs to move wide apart and where there is an element of forward ‘bending’. What movement patterns and key elements make up these poses and how we can make it more accessible and/or experience it in different planes. This can be experienced intensely in the hamstrings and the inner groins and requires a fair amount of ankle stability to ensure we don’t overstretch in the outer foot. The distance we take the legs apart depends on our hips and often the shape of our pelvis and the amount we can ‘fold’ depends on the flexibility of our hamstrings and our ability to move into, stay in and move out of the pose. By striking a balance between stretching and strengthening, the placement of our feet, where we bare weight, we can have a much healthier forward extension that doesn’t comprise the integrity of the spine or make us feel like we can’t move forward.
Read MoreIf you are spending long periods of time sitting, whether this is at a desk, driving or feeding a new baby the pull in the body to slump becomes harder to resist. Our focus in this class is how we can counter the effects on the upper back (the hunch) through shoulder/chest openers and twists. There are so many options to relieve discomfort and a lot of the postures can be taken individually and practiced regularly on their own for relief. Never be intimidated by the length of a class, we are not doing this particular class in order to achieve a deeper backbend or a fancy arm balance. This is like first aid and does not need to sequential if you do not have the time to follow the full class.
Read More60 Mins
In this fundamentals class we focus on Parvrtta Parsvakonasana and many other Parvrttas (revolving poses/twists). Moving in to Parvrtta Ardha Chandrasana, a tricky balancing twist. What movement patterns and key elements make up these poses and how we can make it more accessible and/or experience it in different planes. What is wonderful about Parvritta Parsvakonasana is it combines elements from Parsvottanasana, Parvrtta Trikonasana and when we move towards Parvrtta Arda Chandrasana, the elements of Virabhadarasana 3/Warrior 3 that come in to play. Our base, centre of gravity and balance across the pelvis shifts and alters with each move and transition as we attempt to remain steady whilst revolving. Maintaining/creating not just the lift in the chest but avoiding compressing the abdominal organs and loosing the spaces between the ribs to breathe fully.
Read MoreSometimes we just need to slow down. Do less, stay longer and take a pause between thoughts and actions. As well as approaching things from a new perspective, supporting postures and giving yourself the space to let go. This class explores classically Yin poses and ways to ‘flow’ standing with minimal effort. This is the class for you when you need to move but perhaps feel low on energy or when you feel exhausted and in need of calming down the nervous system.
Read More60 Mins
In this fundamentals class we focus on Parsvakonasana, or extended side stretch pose. Moving in to Ardha Chandrasana, or half moon pose and it’s related family poses. What movement patterns and key elements make up these poses and how we can make it more accessible and/or experience it in different planes. It is similar to Virabadrasana 2 (Warrior 2) and Trikonasana (Triangle Pose) in that your base, the legs and pelvis are at the same angle/have the same directionality. We ask our spine to rotate upwards so we can lift the chest and extend the top arm overhead. The position of the legs is key to finding the length in the side body in parsvakonasana and the standing, balancing leg (ankle, knee, hip connection) is key to mastering 1/2 moon pose. If we see how all the standing poses are connected we can begin to find accessible roots for all Yoga asanas and these provide the building blocks for further exploration and are essential before doing inverted postures.
Read More60 Mins
In this fundamentals class we focus on Parvrtta Trikonasana, or revolved triangle and it’s related family poses. What movement patterns and key elements make up this pose and how we can make it more accessible. It is part of the Trikonasana family and yet your base, the legs, are the same as in parsvottanasana. We ask our spine to rotate whilst our pelvis remains level, our frontal hip bones angled down and the torso revolves up. The balance alone is tricky to navigate. The revolving of the abdomen in to each of the movements is key to all the variations in this class. The hip, knee and ankle connections, stability and/or flexibility in these joints can help or hinder our progress. But with practice and patience all the elements will come together.
Read MoreSquatting and all roads that lead to the ultimate balancing squat - bakasana or the affectionately named Crow pose. Our focus is the path not the pose but the possibilities for movement and creating both mobility and strength along the way. Angles and bending and range of motion in the ankles, knees and hips is an interesting place to start. Let’s explore …
Read MoreWe twist, we open, we lengthen, we release. Like a 360degree tour around the ribcage to lengthen, stretch and release the chest, upper back and side body for optimal lift and preparation for shoulder stand. Strengthening the legs and twists prepare the body perfectly for all lifts, backbends and inversions.
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