Former yoga teacher in Wellington New Zealand
Last week I talked about the physiological impact of chronic stress – how it can overstimulate the sympathetic nervous system and trigger a persistent state of fight or flight. And how some yoga poses can help counteract this reaction in the body.
Legs up the wall is an restorative yoga pose that can help trigger the parasympathetic nervous system.
Do you ever find yourself in yoga thinking how far should I bend, should I be able to reach my toes, how much stretch should I feel, how much should I squeeze the muscles? These are great questions to be
Last week we looked at using your glutes or buttock muscles in backbends to help protect your lower back. Squeezing your glutes or squeezing your thighs towards each other helps protect your back because it keeps the lumbar or lower
Learn how you can use your buttock or glute muscles to stabilise your lower back in camel (ustrasana) yoga pose.
In every class we do several sun salutations. A sun salutation is a sequence of yoga poses that include down dog, plank, cobra and often lunges. In the middle of that sequence is a small backbend, called cobra pose. It’s
That’s right, your hands are just as important as your feet – even when they are not on the ground. We’ve learned over the last 2 weeks how to activate the muscles in your feet and ankles in a way
Last week we learned about using ‘Barbie feet’ with your foot in the air when trying to balance – also described as flexing the foot and toes towards you, but then press through the ball of your foot forward (not the
When balancing on one leg, it’s obvious that the foot you are standing on is doing a lot of work. You can feel your ankle muscles twitching and your toes gripping and pushing into the floor as you wobble. But
When you balance with a slightly bent or very bent knee it’s easier to activate your glutes and all your other muscles to help you balance.