Arm-Balance Poses
An index of Arm Balance videos which involve balancing on the hands with one or both legs supported by the arms. Mayurasana is included even though it breaks this rule.
Ashtanga yoga is a sequence of yoga poses. The primary series uses sun salutations to warmup followed by standing poses and seated poses and ending with a finishing sequence.
Effectively Activating Transverse Abdominus can mean better stability for the SI Joint as well as for the lumbar and lower thoracic spine.
Agency is the idea of having some say in how we act or what we do. It could be thought of as taking responsibility, of making decisions and taking action for ourselves and those around us. A simple way to give ourselves agency of our own body is through muscle control where muscle control is the ability not just to activate and relax muscles and connnective tissue at will, but also the ability to feel or notice them.
How do you define mastery? If you understand what mastery is you may find it easier to work towards it.
Arm Positions
How to actively stretch your calfs and shoulders in downward facing dog.
Can you actually practice first principles? Or can you train your mind so that doing things from first principles is easier, more natural. Enter [The dance of Shiva].
Getting your hands in reverse prayer yoga pose (parsvottanasana) while bending forwards is difficult. Some simple muscle control can be used for both.
Arm-Supported Poses
A sequence of arm stretches for a complete and balanced stretching of the shoulder and arm muscles. Includes arms cross the chest, out to the side, up and back and down and back, internally rotate and externally rotated positions.
You can do a handstand against the wall but you can't pull your feet off of the wall to balance. Learn how to peel your feet off so that you are balancing in handstand.
Regulate air flow using your lips, tongue or throat. Mouth breathing and nose breathing basics.
In bridge pose should you or should you not clench clench your buttocks? Learn how to feel your spine and even your sacrum while doing this back bending yoga pose.
Energize your chakras and tune into your body with this chakra meditation. Use your bones as landmarks to help located each of your chakras in turn.
Are you too weak to do Chatarunga Dandasana? Build arm strength, develop muscle control and body awareness by lifting into this Sensational Yoga Pose in stages.
Having difficulty lifting up into chaturanga dandasana (or lowering down)? Make this yoga pose easier by positioning your hands further ahead so that your forearms are angled and learn how to add tension to your torso and legs.
Double pigeon yoga pose can be used to stretch the glutes. For a full range glute stretch you can lean forwards or backwards or reach to the side.
Learning how to balance in a way that is not activity specific, it helps to have some simple exercises and an underststanding of what balance is.
This selection of psoas stretches with a focus on lengthening the lower fibers of the psoas. You'll need some body awareness for these stretches but you may find that these stretches also help you to develop it.
Having trouble breathing deeply? Learn how to feel and control your respiratory diaphragm so that you can breath deeply with ease.
Standing and seated yoga pose side bends for strengthening and stretching the side of the spine, hips and shoulders.
Here's a break down of the steps of Ashtanga Yoga Surya Namaskar A to make this sun salutation easier to learn and remember.
Improve upper body awareness and arm control exericses, including videos for thoracic and scapular awareness and control.
What is yoga? If you are doing yoga poses it can help to understand what yoga is. It also helps to understand what it's compliment is.'
Binding Poses
Steps for Binding in Seated Half Bound Lotus Pose as well as modifications if you can't bind, and actions you can do when you do bind.
Counterposing
The couch stretch is a hip flexor stretch that can affect (and be affected by) the knee. Learn some basic hip flexor and knee anatomy to help make this stretch more effective (and less uncomfortable).
Hip openers generally involve stretching the inner thighs and/or stretching the hip while it is externally rotated. So how then do you counter pose these actions?
Fluid tensegrity joint anatomy looks at the tendency of the body to maintain space within the joints. The question is, how is this space maintained?
Hamstring Stretching Poses
Cobra Yoga pose can help you lengthen your spine and bend it backwards and strengthen your arms at the same time.
How do you prevent or remedy scapular winging? It can actually start with certain spinal erector muscles, and can include sequenced activation of the serratus anterior, lower trapezius, external shoulder rotators and latissimus dorsai.
Yoga for strength includes includes progressions to help you work gradually towards more difficult exercises with exercises for strengthening the knees, hips, legs, spine, back, abs, shoulders and arms.
Hamstring Stretching Standing Poses
These yoga poses can be used as arm strengthening exercises.
For me fear cropped up constantly when going around corners really quickly while riding a motorcycle or bicycle. It's also popped up when doing arm balancing poses like crow pose. Here's how I learned to deal with it.
Parivrtta trikonasana can be challenging. Make it easier by giving yourself a checklist of things to do while you are in the pose. Instead of thinking about how much you dislike the pose, you can then get on with doing it.
How far should you push Into discomfort?
Pyramid pose is a straight knee asymmetrical standing pose that can be used to stretch, and strengthen, the hamstrings.
Reverse plank can be used to strengthen the hamstrings, glutes, spinal erectors and the shoulders. There are particular muscle activations you can use prior to entering the pose to make it more bearable.
Effective techniques for dealing with low back pain can differ depending on the cause of your low back pain. In these standing exercises for low back pain, a few different muscle control options are provided to help you find one that works for you.
Inversions
The intrinsic back muscles, aka deep back muscles, can be used to feel the spine as well as control and stabilize it. These muscles include the spinal erectors as well as the smaller muscles that run along the back of the spinal vertebrae.
Some tips for learning how to do deep squats (without weight). The first tip is on how to stay balanced while squatting.
In pigeon yoga hip stretch you can deepen the hip stretch by gradually moving your foot further forwards. Another way to deepen the yoga pose is to add weight.
Inversions-Headstand
In balancing cat pose you lift the same side leg and arm. This same posture is used as a test in Gray Cooks Functional Movement Screen
A selection of Hatha yoga poses with suggestions for sequencing poses.
If joints are friction free then muscles on opposing sides of a joint can work together to share loads. The question is, how do you keep joints friction free? That's one of the questions I attempt to answer in: how muscles and joints work together.
Work on hip stability, foot and leg control with triangle yoga pose. Strengthen the obliques.
Yoga forward bends includes forwards bends for the hips and spine. Forward bends for the hips include both bent and straight straight positions.
Inversions-Handstand
Simple tips for moving in and out of the flow at will, making learning an enjoyable experience, and rewriting your operating system
Learn basic muscle control for standing and seated hamstring stretching yoga poses. Learn how to make these poses more effective for stretching your hamstrings.
While bones form a framework for our body and while our brain(s) controls everything, in terms of feeling and controlling our body while moving it, the three most important differential elements are connective tissue, joints and muscles.
Apply yoga principles to doing kettlebell exercises. Learn how to feel your body and control it while doing get ups, swings and clean and presses.
How do you make a tensegrity liberated? By replacing static tension components with dynamically self adjustable tension components.
Belly down and prone yoga poses can be used to strengthen as well as stretch (and increase flexibility) of the front and back of your body, shoulders and hips.
Inversions-Shoulderstand And Plough
Learing to distinguish anatomy and actions of the shoulders, arms (and ribcage) so that you can use them more effectively together.
Learn how to balance on your forearms in the yoga position called pincha mayurasana. Make it easier by stretching your shoulders with Spiderman Wall Stretch and Rack Pose.
The sacrum forms the base of the spine and connects it to the pelvis via the si joint. The muscles of the pelvic diaphragm can be used to tilt the sacrum backwards (counter nutate) relative to the pelvis. Learn how to do this action and why you might want to do it.
Kneeling And Virasana
Working towards a kneeling quadriceps stretch you first need to be able to kneel. If you have difficulty kneeling, you may find it helps to activate your quadriceps.
Reciprocal inhibition works when muscles are creating movement. It doesn't work when you are holding a static stretch. So what should you do instead?
Touching your hands together over your head in virabhadrasana.
Lotus
Dealing with anterior hip pain near the asic it helps to understand some basic muscle control principles along with tips on how to apply them.
If you get pain along the outer hamstrings then its possibly the biceps femoris. Understanding how this muscle can help control or resist knee rotation may help in figuring out how to alleviate pain in the outer hamstrings.
To develop full body awareness you can isolate body parts and focus on the feet, the spine or the breath. It doesn't matter what part of the body you start of with so long as you start somewhere.
Trying to bind in marichyasana A, how to grab your hand behind your back.
How do you grab a wrist and bind with your hands behind your back in marichyasana C? The first step is to make your spine long so that you can use your spinal and thoracic muscles to deepen the twist so that binding is easier.
Pigeon
Suggestions for preparing the shoulders and then adjusting the shoulders (and arms) in Dolphin Yoga Pose.
Do you have low back pain? Learn how to activate your multifidus (along with your psoas and your piriformis) to stabilize and straighten your lumbar spine. Use your pelvic floor muscles to help.
New in yoga notes, stretching the biceps. This is for people who have difficulty straightening the elbows because of tight biceps.
Prone Poses
What are some common ways of getting injured in a yoga class? What can you do to help prevent injury when starting yoga?
Seated Poses
How do you learn the body weight safely? How do you work towards this pose even if you aren't sure if you are capable of doing it.
Creating tensegrity in yoga poses. What is tensegrity, why should we aim to achieve it when doing yoga or any other activity where mindfullness is required?
Easy breathing is a breathing technique that helps you to mobilize your spine and ribcage as well as breathe more easily.
I like to think of learning as building a model inside of ourselves. The better the model the better we can act effectively with minimal thinking effort.
The IT Band runs down the side of the thigh from the crest of the hip to the tibia. Knee pain can occur where it inserts into the tibia.
Janu Sirsasana B is literally a pain in the butt. You position your perineum on top of your heel. You can use it as a prep for lotus pose because it uses body weight to close the knee joint. To make it easier on your knee support your weight with your arms and slowly lower down.
One simple modification for janu sirsasana c is to turn the foot out 90 degrees. Here are some simple foot preparations that could also be substituted for the pose while helping you to work towards it.
Learn to be present. Develop body awareness and control so that you can handle change, create it and manage it.
Marichyasana is potentially dangerous for your knee. Here are some ideas for moving into this twisting lotus variation intelligently. Rather than worrying about binding, focus on feeling your body as you work deeper into this yoga pose.
Muscle control is actually a requirement for proprioception. And muscle control is what helps to protect our joints. Mindful muscle control helps you to notice correlations between muscle activation, movement and stability. It helps you to understand your body.
Spice up your seated twist by activating and relaxing your spinal erectors. Practice activating your multifidus and rotatores. Then add you abs.
10 ways in which a bicycle wheel can help you to understand your hip joints.
Why learn muscle control? I've used it to deal with pain, improve flexibility and to help me be present while using my body. It also helps me to understand my body and how it works.
An index of videos focusing on upright balance, including balancing on forefeet and balancing on one foot.
Spinal Side-Bending
In this preparation for compass pose use your arms to pull your leg towards you for a seated hamstring stretch. To modify, use a strap.
Side angle pose can be used to lengthen the side of the body, strengthen the abs and or stretch the hip extensor muscles. It can also be used to practice activating the serratus anterior muscle.
When side bending the spine, both in isolation and in the context of yoga poses, you can focus on the short side of the side bend to make the side bend easier to feel.
A progression of side plank exercises for shoulder stability, inner and outer thigh strength, quad and hip flexor activation and hamstring strength.
Standing Yoga Poses can be used as shoulder strenthening exercises. It's also a way of practicing body awareness via shifting your weight.
Spinal Back-Bending
A simple set of exercises for working towards the Astavakrasana Yoga Arm Balance.
Calf stretches that also stretch the hamstrings. These stretches can be painful but effective.
Locust pose for strengthening the back of the neck to counterbalance bad posture from excessive phone and computer use (tech or text neck).
For deeper and pain-free back bends for your spine and hips, learn to use your spinal erectors, gluteus maximus and hamstring muscles.
Spinal Forward-Bending
Foot exercises for Improving Balance, Proprioception and fixing flat feet. These foot exercises help you to shape your feet and activate inner arches, outer arches, heel and forefoot. (They may also help you deal with knee pain.)
Spinal Twisting Poses
Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana or half bound lotus is a standing forward bend with one foot in lotus. The trick is learning to get in and out of this yoga pose without hurting your lotus knee.
Got tight hip flexors? These bent knee hip flexor stretches or quad stretches might help. Two effectively stretch your hip flexors in any stretch, these two key points may help.
Marichyasana B is a forward bending binding yoga pose with the non-marichyasana leg in lotus. One way to prepare for this position is to use the janusirsasana C foot position.
One way to deepen your side split while doing seated straddle splits is to focus on opening your hip creases. This could be thought of as an active adductor stretch.
Standing side bend yoga pose can be used to stretch the side of your spine (ribcage and waist) and hips. It can also be used to strengthen them.
Like learning a sun salutation you can learn the smaller movements of the turkish get up in isolation. And like when doing a yoga pose you can focus on being aware of your body as you learn the movements.
Splits
Two key body elements that may make doing handstands easier and more pleasurable are the knees and the elbows. It's not so much about the joints as the single joint muscles that work on these joints that make controlling your body easier.
Stability is a key factor in a lot of yoga poses. Learn about creating stability and staying balanced in headstand yoga pose.
The following spine stretches include sidebending, front and back bending, twisting and sliding exercises for a stonger and more flexible spine.
Standing Poses
11 Basic balance poses including balancing on forefoot or heel as well as balancing on one foot. The challenge in these poses is keeping your ribcage and pelvis still.
This standing spinal twist includes activating the hips so that the spinal muscles have a stable foundation from which to more effectively twist the spine.
Learn how to work towards the arm position from eagle pose. If you first get the hang of eagle pose arms in isolation you can then combine it with various leg positions including eagle legs.
Learn the basic movements and positions of the dance of shiva. There are only 8 of each.
A step-by-step guide to operating your body effectively in this bent knee standing yoga pose.
In warrior 2 it easy to forget about your back arm because you are looking at your front arm. Stay aware and focus on feeling your back arm and reach it away from you. Make both arms feel long.
You don't have to be a yogii to have good posture. Yoga to improve posture includes simple exercises to help you find good posture (and keep it) without having to do lots of yoga poses.
Standing Poses With Knees Straight
Muscle motor control is the ability to control muscle tissue. The compliment to it is sensitivity, the ability to feel tension in muscle and connective tissue. Both can be learned and improved. Both are functions of the brain.
Pain is a pretty useful signal. In general, it's your brain telling you something isn't right. With poor posture, instead of dealing with a pain signal, poor posture is something you can see and in some cases feel.
To get into reverse prayer position you can first practice internally rotating your shoulders. After that you can use this position to open your chest and stretch the fronts of your shoulders.
Balance on one foot while expanding upwards and outwards in tree pose. You can do a twist and side bend at the same time.
Some intelligent options for working towads the Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana set of ashtanga yoga poses. You could also call these the lazy options.
Standing Poses With One Knee Bent
Bound angle pose can be used to stretch the adductors or inner thighs.
Steps for working towards bound side angle so that you can bind a little more easily.
Prior to learning the Yoga arm balance called galavasana it can help to learn how to lift and stabilize the hips in pigeon pose. This page shows you how.
Why do we have SI joints? Why allow the hip bones and sacrum to move even just slightly relative to each other? Pelvic Tensegrity might be one answer.
The vastus muscles can be used to add tension to the long hip muscles for better knee, hip bone and even low back stability.
Train your abs, relieve low back pain, help your heart pump blood by walking with a twist. This method of walking develops core awareness and control and exercises your abs.
In warrior 1 and warrior 2 learn how to form a stable base with your legs while reaching your arms either upwards or outwards.
Standing Poses With Both Knees Bent
Body awareness tips: Are isolation exercises a waste of time? If done intelligently they can actually be beneficial. The key is understanding how and when to use them and in understanding what to isolate.
Grounding and centering can often be thought of as leading to the same state of being. Here I'd like to focus on the idea of centering. But I will talk a little about possible symptoms of a lack of groundedness or a lack of centeredness as well as some symptoms of overdoing either of these two tendencies.
Dealing with fear in life, and when trying scary new yoga poses like headstand.
For people who can't do them, splits are one of the stretches that we can aspire towards. You can work towards splits first by using your arms to support your body, and then learning to use your legs to support your body even as you gradually go deeper.
You can learn yoga poses and learn to feel your body at the same time. Here's an introduction to how.'
Sun-Salutations
Some tips for activating and stretching the psoas along learning why your psoas might be tight in the first place.
Having trouble remembering sun salutation a? To learn it, break it down into a series of mini-sun salutes and learn it in easy to remember sections.
The Ashtanga Yoga sun salutation B builds up on elements learned in sun salutation A. Break it down to make learning this sequence of yoga poses easier.
Supine yoga poses including bridge, wheel pose, supine bound angle, big toe pose variation, and preparations for wheel pose, plow pose and shoulderstand.
Supine Poses
In this overview of the asthanga yoga style sun salutations, learn about common mistakes and how to avoid them. Also use counting as an easy way learn the movements
These standing, sitting and kneeling yoga poses can be used to improve balance.