Opening those Shoulders Shoulders Shoulders :)

Today I am wearing all my hats. My foodie cook book hat, my pro photographer hat, my yoga hat and my urban house laundry lady hat :P It's the start of the week and after the weekend of birthday celebrations with my mom, it's all gotta be done. 

So I am working this Monday  day and evening on my  gluten * sugar *  soy * animal free = a guilt free vegan book of awesome yummines. I am sending out photos for photo clients for their holiday stuff. I am putting together photos from past shoots  for the Four Seasons website in Nevis.  I am making a promise to get to that huge pile of laundry (though it is looking doubtful) and  despite my hot yoga class this afternoon at the beautiful Hudson yoga studio in Victoria, my shoulders are tried and sore from all this. Computer work is a killer for shoulders! I even work on a ball chair but still I feel my shoulder tighten

So time I thought to talk about some great shoulder openers to share with you for moments just like this. 

Lets get to it :) Lets start off in my "go to" pose for waking up the spine before I start any yoga session with my clients. It is called the Cat Cow sequence. Cat Cow is great for opening up your shoulders and upper back!

So here are the steps: 

 

1-Begin in Table Top, hips over knees, shoulders over wrists.
2-As you take an inhalation, roll your upper back and press it upwards towards the ceiling, keeping your shoulders and wrists, and your knees and hips, aligned with each other. Feel a release in your upper back. This is Cat.
3-When you exhale, bring your upper back down and raise your glutes to the ceiling, creating the exact opposite shape in your torso as you did in Step 2. This is Cow
4-Repeat this cycling of Cat Cow with your inhalations and exhalations for five to seven breaths.
5-When you are finished, sit your glutes back onto your heels into Child Pose, extending your arms forward and pushing your glutes back. Feel a stretch all along your spine and take five deep breaths

I think the name of this pose is too funny but it's a get one for the shoulders too:
Cow Face Pose (Gomukhasana):

Let go through it step by step 

1 - Sit in Dandasana (Staff Pose), then bend your knees and put your feet on the floor. Slide your left foot under the right knee to the outside of the right hip. Then cross your right leg over the left, stacking the right knee on top of the left, and bring the right foot to the outside of the left hip. Try to bring the heels equidistant from the hips: with the right leg on top you'll have to tug the right heel in closer to the left hip. Sit evenly on the sitting bones.
2-  Inhale and stretch your right arm straight out to the right, parallel to the floor. Rotate your arm inwardly; the thumb will turn first toward the floor, then point toward the wall behind you, with the palm facing the ceiling. This movement will roll your right shoulder slightly up and forward, and round your upper back. With a full exhalation, sweep the arm behind your torso and tuck the forearm in the hollow of your lower back, parallel to your waist, with the right elbow against the right side of your torso. Roll the shoulder back and down, then work the forearm up your back until it is parallel to your spine. The back of your hand will be between your shoulder blades. See that your right elbow doesn't slip away from the right side of your torso.
3-  Now inhale and stretch your left arm straight forward, pointing toward the opposite wall, parallel to the floor. Turn the palm up and, with another inhalation, stretch the arm straight up toward the ceiling, palm turned back. Lift actively through your left arm, then with an exhalation, bend the elbow and reach down for the right hand. If possible, hook the right and left fingers. 4 - Lift the left elbow toward the ceiling and, from the back armpit, descend the right elbow toward the floor. Firm your shoulder blades against your back ribs and lift your chest. Try to keep the left arm right beside the left side of your head.
5- Stay in this pose about 1 minute. Release the arms, uncross the legs, and repeat with the arms and legs reversed for the same length of time. Remember that whichever leg is on top, the same-side arm is lower.

Moving right along, another really great one is Big Toe Pose and don't worry I can never  say it right in Sanskrit either "Padangusthasana"

(both images are right -it just depends on your range of motion - listen to your body)

This is how we do that one

1- Stand upright with your inner feet parallel and about six inches apart. Contract your front thigh muscles to lift your kneecaps. Keeping your legs completely straight, exhale and bend forward from your hip joints, moving your torso and head as one unit. 2- Slide the index and middle fingers of each hand between the big toes and the second toes. Then curl those fingers under and grip the big toes firmly, wrapping the thumbs around the other two fingers to secure the wrap. Press your toes down against your fingers. (If you can't reach your toes without overly rounding your back, pass a strap under the ball of each foot and hold the straps.)
3- With an inhalation, lift your torso as if you were going to stand up again, straightening your elbows. Lengthen your front torso, and on the next exhale, lift your sitting bones. Depending on your flexibility, your lower back will hollow to a greater or lesser degree. As you do this, release your hamstrings and hollow your lower belly (below your navel) as well, lightly lifting it toward the back of your pelvis.
4-  Lift the top of your sternum as high as you can, but take care not to lift your head so far that you compress the back of your neck. Keep your forehead relaxed.
5- For the next few inhalations, lift your torso strongly as you continue to actively contract your front thighs; on each successive exhalation, strongly lift your sitting bones as you consciously relax your hamstrings. As you do this, deepen the hollow in your lower back.
6- Finally exhale, bend your elbows out to the sides, pull up on your toes, lengthen the front and sides of your torso, and gently lower into the forward bend.
7 - If you have very long hamstrings, you can draw your forehead toward your shins. But if your hamstrings are short, it's better to focus on keeping the front torso long. Hunching into a forward bend isn't safe for your lower back and does nothing to lengthen your hamstrings.
8-  Hold the final position for one minute. Then release your toes, bring your hands to your hips, and re-lengthen your front torso. With an inhale, swing your torso and head as a single unit back to upright..

Ahh...now that is feeling better...oh I wish there was a yoga pose for getting the laundry folded and put away :P

Have a restful night.

Enjoy! Namaste

It's UP! Come see me for whatever service best suites you! Yoga YOU!

It's UP! Come see me for whatever service best suites you! Yoga YOU! Click to the link.

http://www.atlashealththerapy.com/service/private-yoga/

This is my new location here in Victoria BC Canada. The AMAZING Atlas Health Therapy Centre. Here is what my service page on their website says:

The physical practices of stretching, breathing, and deep relaxation bring about a natural balance of body and mind and help to sustain and enrich the quality of your life at any age.
Each yoga session is lead by Tara Leigh, a direct student of Allaine Stricklen, (creator of Gentle Therapeutics Yoga), who uses this style to help you prefect the alignment of your postures.  Sessions include hands-on passive stretching, massage, and muscle manipulation of particular areas to enhance muscle length and improve circulation.
Because your session are customized specifically for you, a thorough assessment of your body alignment and function will take place on your initial visit. Your personalized program will take into account your history of injuries, your physical condition, and your personal goals. From there we will develop a yoga routine and a program that can be maintained at home.
Clients experience a multitude of benefits including:

• Strengthened core stability and overall body tone
• Postural alignment and reduction
• Improved flexibility
• Enhanced mind/body awareness
• Decreased pain caused by muscular imbalance and injury
• Improved body chemistry
• Increased focus and relaxation

Unique Yoga Classes Offered by Tara Leigh

See Tara to Restore, Rejuvenate, and Realign!

Yoga You means my focus is on exactly that, YOU. While my I am certified in a number of different yoga styles, my focus at  Atlas Health Therapy Wellness Certer is on you. 

Gentle Therapeutics Yoga is a method utilizing props to restore the body’s balance and vitality. It is a life enhancing practice and is appropriate for anyone at any age or stage of life and in any physical condition. Whether you want to become super powerful, increase your strength/ range of motion, improve your body image and health or keep fit while you are recovering from an injury or you want to maintain physical health while you are pregnant: I am there for you making our yoga and training adaptable “for anybody and any body”.  Your body.

Gentle Therapeutics Yoga is for emotional healing, it is yoga with a whole slue of benefits.  It is the practice of entering into Yoga postures using an assortment of props: blankets, bolsters, blocks, straps, walls, chairs, eye pillows etc. Supported and stabilized by various props, one experiences the Yoga postures as profoundly relaxing and deeply rejuvenating, invoking a natural state of healing rest, renewal and equanimity. Supported and passive Yoga postures allow the body to naturally release, letting go of held tension and stress. The results are a balanced state of being from inside out.

Restorative/Gentle Therapeutics Yoga.

Pre-Natal Yoga is offered on a request basis to clients. These unique classes offer a carefully selected series of asanas (postures) and breathing techniques to restore balance and vitality while deepening your awareness of pregnancy. Concentration and relaxation techniques assist in preparing for and providing relief during labor and birth. Pre-Natal Yoga also helps relieves physical and emotional discomforts associated with pregnancy including, back pain, heartburn, constipation, swelling, sleepiness, depression and anxiety.

Post-Natal Yoga: Mom’s & Babies Yoga. Deepen the experience of bonding with your baby by continuing yoga practice in the moms and babies class. In these baby-friendly classes, we focus on postures that help restore alignment and tone, and provide relief from lifting, carrying, and nursing. The Postnatal class is a supportive class for new moms and babies three weeks old to crawling to little one stretching with mom!

Little Yogi Classes. Yoga is amazing and fun for children of all ages! According to the Yoga Journal: Children derive enormous benefits from yoga. Physically, it enhances their flexibility, strength, coordination, and body awareness. In addition, their concentration and sense of calmness and relaxation improves. Doing yoga, children exercise, play, connect more deeply with the inner self, and develop an intimate relationship with the natural world that surrounds them. Yoga brings that marvelous inner light that all children have to the surface.

Power Yoga. Are you looking to build strength one on one with me. Are you wanting to find that fantastic inner power? Do you want more energy? Do you want to transform your body in ways you never thought possible before without the risk of injuries that often other conventional boot camp high impact fitness classes can cause? Then POWER it up with me. I was certified in Miami by rock hard yogi bodies focusing on strength training through correct posture and alignment.  In this practice we move quickly: Power Yoga is definitely an intense workout. Prepare to work hard and work up a sweat! In Power Yoga, you lift and hold your entire body’s weight constantly. These classes incorporate a serious number of Vinyasas, and they’re definitely going to get your entire body into gear. For one, your arms will definitely feel the burn from all those Chaturangas! It makes you feel energized:  Power Yoga classes always leave you feeling calm but with an extra little skip in my step!

Couples Yoga. Couples yoga is the perfect to introduce partner yoga into your relationship. Practicing yoga with your significant other helps to bring your relationship into balance. I my couples yoga session I focus on poses that help build companionship, trust, compassion, intimacy, and so much more.  Sharing your yoga practice together, while extra challenging (as well as extra rewarding!) at times, shows a mutual respect for the holistic health and wellness of both yourself and your partner too.  It isn’t difficult, but, it can be challenging of course as any yoga practice can.  That said, as with all yoga practices (individual, partner, class, etc.) you can also go at your own pace, and there are always opportunities to create an individualized practice that will work for you and your partner. The results bring you together in a very special way.

 Partner Yoga. Practicing together with your sister, your cousin, your BFF or even you life partner is FUN ! Traditionally, yoga is seen as an individual practice, but Partner Yoga brings people together through movement, play, breath and touch. It can be practiced by any two people and is a great way to strengthen a relationship by fostering trust and communication. Partners rely on each other’s support to keep correct body alignment, balance and focus in a posture. When you feel physically supported, not only do you experience a yoga posture differently, but you also begin to allow yourself to trust and laugh someone else, and laughter is the most healing thing of all. Partner Yoga is an exhilarating and challenging practice. But don’t just take my word for it-try it for yourself!

3 Victoria Yoga Studio Reviews

Hello happy short four day week in November everyone.  My reviews for this week are up on "Gather" (where you can click to the studio websites and addresses).  www.gatheryoga.com

 Feel free to read my reviews here too :)

 Yoga Studio/ Class reviews

Studio 4:  Sunday mornings 11am Hatha Flow Class.

So, I have been exploring the idea of yoga outside of the traditional yoga studio setting this week, which has brought me to Studio 4 today on a colder Sunday morning  here in Victoria.  The yoga studio in the Studio 4 gym is not what you expect.  Even though the music is pumping and load and the energy is high in the gym of Studio 4, the Yoga studio is upstairs tucked in it’s own corner. You pull back the heave sound proof doors and enter into this beautiful exposed wood and brick hard wood floor studio space complete with floor to ceiling windows looking into the city on one side and mirrors for alignment on the other side.  It is bright and clean.  Today’s class held about eighteen of us with ease.

Our yoga guide for the 75-minute Hatha Flow Class today was Karley.  Her class opens with a meditation and an outline of the theme of the class. Today was twists. Karley’s tone of voice was smooth and soothing guiding us seamlessly through her set of dynamic and passive twist poses such as twisting triangle pose (parivrtta trikona), eagle pose (garudanna) and seated twist (bharadvaja).  The pace of the class was calm but active and by shavasana the energy in the room was that of a great rejuvenating Sunday morning experience.  It is not until you have rolled up your matt and the heavy door is pulled back open that you realize where you are again (met by the music and the world of an active gym).

Karley’s class on Sunday’s is one of many that Studio 4 hosts throughout their week. Located downtown off Government and Yates street, the schedule for yoga classes throughout the week are designed to be flexible not only to the avid yogi but also to the downtown business professional on their lunch breaks or after work to find their place of Zen. If you haven’t checked out Studio 4 for yoga yet, I think you will be pleasantly surprised!

 Fierce Studio:  Thursday evening 5:30-6:30pm Flow Yoga 

 

Fierce Studio is  “Home of Jiu Jitsu, Yoga, & Hit to Fit”. While the studio has a great vibrant staff, enthusiastic for fitness, it is more of a martial art area then a yoga space.  The studio is located at the corner of Fort and Cook Street in Victoria.  The room is a large space with floor to ceiling window that are fully exposed to the outside busy street. Since it is a room used for multiple things it is a little busy with lots of stuff in it and around the edges of the room.

While practicing you do have to get use to the fish bowl effect. Yes, yoga is meant to be a personal practice, but I have to say it is a little distracting with all the car lights flashing in and out of the space as they drive by. You will also catch glazes from people walking past.

The floors are very squishy and padded making holding yoga poses unstable. While these floors are ideal for breaking someone’s fall in a Jui Jitsu class they were not my favorite for practicing yoga on. Nevertheless, our yoga guide, Michelle, was very personable. Managing the hour time well we flowed through Sun salutations A and B in addition to a few other pose sets before shavasana.

Fierce offers at least one yoga class a day; either the flow style or an hour of yoga exploration class. If you an athlete looking for additional stretching I would encourage you try out Fierce. The studio also offers your first class for free, so you have nothing to loose!

Yoga Shala Ashtanga Yoga Studio Saturday Yin Restorative 4:30-5:30 class

 Yoga Shala Ashtanga Yoga Studio is a more traditional yoga studio. “Studio owner and frequent instructor Jennifer Pritchard is authorized by the KPJAYI of Mysore South”.  At the Shala their focus in teaching is on the primary series and traditional practice. Every day the shala hosts a number of classes.

Located in the heart of downtown just two blocks from the mall on Broad Street, the studio is a couple floors up from the street access. Yep, you are going to get your heart rate up before class begins by climbing those stairs. The building is a little older and has that older building Victoria damp smell.  The studio room is small. I would say it would be a struggle to fit more the 18 to 20 students in there at a time maximum but ten fit nicely making for a personal class dynamic.

If you are a punctual on time-focused yogi (like me) I am going to forewarn you that the Yoga Shala will test your patience on this. Instructors are never on time and always seem to be in a busy busily panicked rush when they arrive with one excuse or another for while there are late. Nevertheless, while this may be irritating in the start, if you take a few breaths and allow yourself to experience one of Jennifer’s yin classes you will be in awe. Jennifer combines her yin class with passive poses and the power of her own musical voice to guide you through these long holding poses.  Struggle is released throughout your body feeling the compassion in her voice as you melt into your pose even deeper.

I have been practicing yoga and yin a long time.  While I do have my favorite all time instructors all over this world I have to say there is something magical in Jennifer’s voice and lullaby songs that, when coupled with her yin series , make for a wonderful match.

Yoga Shalla is also often featured on Groupon in Victoria so if you want to try the studio out for a great deal I would suggest looking them up there as well.

A Day For Peace shanti shanti shanti om

So today is Remembrance Day, November 11th. Please,  at some point  today,  take a moment to reflect, to be grateful for all that we are, all that have and all that we can be. Most people ask that today we remember those who have died in these terrible troubles/conflicts we call "war".

Instead, today I am asking that you move through your day in a sense of gratitude for the peace we are so lucky to have in whatever small or large way we connect with it.

Our thoughts are the most powerful thing we can use to create a shift in our behaviours, ideals and patterns. If we think conflict, flight, death and war we attract more of that within ourselves and within our world (even if we do not want it to be). Thoughts attract like thoughts, so I ask you today to think on peace. Join me today in being at peace.

“I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there.” Mother Teresa

Yoga poses for peace:

Lotus position

The lotus position, also known as the cross-legged position, is one of the most well-known poses in yoga and most often performed while meditating. According to Zen Mountain Monastery in New York, the position of the body during meditation often has to do with the function of the mind. When you’re in an open position like the yoga lotus pose, you can open yourself up to meditative thoughts more easily. There are several types of lotus positions, including the full lotus, or Padmasana in Sanskrit, the most stable position which places a foot on each thigh, and the half lotus, or Ardha Padmasana, where one foot rests on a thigh and the other foot is placed under the thigh. Whichever one is most comfortable, that’s the best position for you to find peace of mind.

Standing forward bend

This position is best for those who are flexible and don't mind standing. According to Yoga Journal, you can start forward bend, or Uttanasana, by standing straight with your feet parallel to your hips. Keeping your back straight, bend from the hips until your hamstrings are stretching. If you're flexible, place your palms on the floor on either side of your feet; otherwise, cross your arms with each hand on the opposite elbow. With each exhalation, allow your body to relax deeper into the stretch. With each breath, allow your stress to dissipate and peace to fill your mind.

Corpse pose

According to Yoga Journal, the corpse pose, or Savasana, is one of complete relaxation that can help calm you down as well as relieve mild depression and headaches. To do this pose:

• Begin by sitting on the floor with bent knees and feet on the floor.

• Next, lift your pelvis off the floor, and use your hands to push the pelvis toward the tailbone before coming to rest it on the floor again.

• While breathing in, push through your heels to stretch out both legs. Allow your groin to relax as you make sure your feet are angled out from the spine.

• Now, allow your tailbone and your torso to relax, with your hands behind the back of your head to keep it from lying down with your spine.

• Finally, lay your head down, staying in this position for about five minutes.

Thank you my dear yogis for joining me today in this union of Peace.

shanti shanti shanti om

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XP-f7wPM0A