yoga – Page 12

Yoga Workshop Fridays: Downdog

July 15, 2016 by Alicia Leave a Comment

Welcome to week 3 of yoga workshop Fridays. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, click here.

This series will be each Friday explaining how to do a particular pose leading up to a peak pose on the last Friday of the month. Throughout this series, I ask that you listen to your body to prevent injury and warm up for a pose when needed.

Disclaimer: Though I am a certified yoga instructor, please consult your doctor before you begin practice and note that everyone’s practice may look a bit different as you align the pose to your body.

This week we are focusing on downdog, or in sandskrit, adho mukha svanasana. Downdog is a resting pose within the sun salutations. For me, holding this pose can be very challenging and my arms definitely get tired.

In my teacher training I learned that my arm bones are more curvy and therefore my downdog might look slightly different from yours. As I mention below you should be externally rotating your arms. My right shoulder has shoulder bursitis, so for me to properly work on the external rotation, I learned I have to bring my shoulders forward a bit more. Remember you are aligning the pose to your body. If you have any questions about your downdog form, consult your yoga teacher.

How to do the pose:

Starting from hands and knees, plant your hands on the mat, index fingers should be pointing straight forward. Spreading the fingers wide and press into each of the knuckles. We tend to press towards our pinky fingers in this pose, so if you notice that, try to press inward towards the thumbs and remember it’s important to even out the weight.

Tuck your toes under and send your hips up. Press your heels towards the ground, even if they are not touching the ground. You will notice in my picture that my heel do not touch. Only recently with a continuous practice and being really warmed up do I get my heels to touch.

To get a better form, slightly bend the knees, then lift the hips higher and slowly straighten the legs. Draw your belly in, draw your shoulder blades up along the back to widen them. Externally rotate the arms. Legs continue with an internal rotation just like tadasana. Look towards your feet, keeping your head between your arms.

Benefits:

Mild inversion, good for calming the brain
Lengthens the muscles of the back
Strengthens the arms and legs
Stimulates digestive organs

Share your pose on Instagram, tagging @bridgesthroughlife and hashtags #bridgesthroughlife #yogaworkshopFridays

I hope you enjoy this series. If you have any suggestions for what poses you would like me to break down, leave a comment or send me an email [email protected]

Date Night and Yoga Workshop: MIMM#79

July 11, 2016 by Alicia 4 Comments

Hey there! Happy Monday. Today is a great Monday, because it’s 7/11 day!! Hello free slurpee! I haven’t purchased a slurpee in ages and last 7/11 day I failed to get one. I am hoping to make it to the 7/11 in the city today for my slurpee fix. I hear they released a birthday cake flavor. Weird flavor for a slurpee but I also really want to try it. Growing up, my house was around the corner from a 7/11. I remember when my parents would send me and my bff there to pick up some milk and while we were there we would get a slurpee or a cheap little toy. Good times.

Alright back to the present, or the weekend rather.

I don’t have too many photos from the weekend as it was pretty laid back, but started out with Brian meeting me after work on Friday and we went out to dinner. The restaurant El Rey is around the corner from my office and since me and my boss discovered it on Cinco De Mayo day (worst day to try to get a seat at a mexican restaurant btw), it has been a great restaurant to go to for lunch.

Somehow even with the happy hour specials, Brian and I both chose one of the pricier menu items, but they were delicious. We started with a crab avocado salad. I am not a big seafood person, so I picked around the crab but did have a bite of it. Eventually our main plates came out. I don’t remember what my plate was called as it was in Spanish, but it contained chicken, cheese, peppers and onions, guac and refried beans. It was delicious!!

After paying for our meal, we had about 45 minutes until the train and Carlos’ Bakery was around the corner so we stopped there. Brian was set on getting a cannoli and I was set on a cookie. Since Brian ordered 2 cannolis, I decided to also get a cupcake to take home. The cupcake was perfect dessert for Saturday.

So from Mexican to Cake Boss…an interesting combo for date night, but delicious!

We made it home around 8 and decided to watch Kinky Boots. Brian and I both loved the movie so now we want to go see the show on Broadway sometime.

Saturday

To be honest Saturday was pretty uneventful other than me attending a yoga workshop. I worked on meal prep through the morning, using the oven for almost 3 hours when it was 80 outside…probably not the best idea, but made some delicious food.

In the afternoon, I drove to the Yoga Garden for a workshop on backbends and inversions. There was quite a bit of handstand work and that is definitely not my strong suit. I loved the partner work we did because I finally feel like I am becoming more confident in kicking up to a handstand. I know that my weight workouts are helping my arm strength a ton and it feels amazing to get a little assistance and be upside down. As far as backbends go, I love them! My wheel pose inspired the name for this blog. One interesting way to combine the inversion and backbend is with hollow back handstand, which with some help from my partner during the workshop, I was able to get a feel for it for the first time. That was really awesome!! If I had someone to help me all the time, I would definitely practice more, but at the moment, my practice for handstands is limited to workshops where I have teachers and other yogis to assist me.

By the time I arrived home, Brian had dinner ready. We attempted cauliflower rice sushi again and I guess I didn’t buy enough cauliflower rice, but from the little bit of sushi he did make, it was pretty good. I ended the night with a cupcake.

Oh and the perfect shirt arrived Saturday from the Summer Sweat Series with Lee and Monique.

We went for a nice walk in the evening as the humidity is finally going down. I love the heat, but the humidity was a bit much being at like 80%. We enjoyed watching the movie Butter in the evening, which I have seen a few times, but Brian never saw it.

Sunday

Sunday morning started with the oven and stove on again. What can I say?! I love being in the kitchen, especially making breakfast when Brian is around. I made Lexi’s sweet potato BLT fritta. I was actually so hungry while making it that I also made a quick protein pancake while waiting. It was a nice protein filled breakfast that kept me full for hours.

For the rest of the morning, I worked on my blog and writing up a yoga sequence to teach in the afternoon.

After yoga, we headed to the pool for a few hours talking with some new friends.

Then we headed over to a new friend’s place for dinner. I brought over some brussel sprouts and roasted beets which we had with salmon and potatos. It was really tasty and nice to get together at another person’s apartment, plus I got to play with hot wheels cars with her sweet little boy.

Afterward, it was time to prep some stir fry for my dinners for the week and then relax for the evening finishing the movie, The Big Short and watching The Next Food Network Star, of course.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day. They are releasing new train schedules for me today so I hope the commuting goes better than last week for me.

What is one fun thing you did this weekend?

Do you like to cook on the weekends?

Yoga Workshop Fridays: Forward Fold and Half Lift

July 8, 2016 by Alicia Leave a Comment

Welcome to the second yoga workshop Fridays. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go here to check out the first post.

Whether you are a beginner yogi or more experienced, I hope that you can find this series beneficial. Maybe you will learn a new cue or be able to work on the peak pose a bit further. I will do my best to give suggestions for all levels. If you are a beginner, I do suggest having a block or 2 and a strap as those props can help you with alignment as you work on the pose to get deeper into it.

Disclaimer:

Though I am a certified yoga instructor, please consult your doctor before you begin practice and note that everyone’s practice may look a bit different as you align the pose to your body.

Our second week is forward fold (uttanasana) and half lift (ardha uttanasana). I decided to pair these two poses together since they are paired together in a sun salutation.

How to do the poses:

From tadasana, exhale to fold forward hinging from the hips. Try to keep the legs straight, but if you can’t, you can slightly bend the knees so that your hands come to the ground. You could also bring your hands to blocks so you can focus on lengthening the torso and keeping those legs straight. As you take a few breaths here, with each exhale, release into the fold to try to fold more deeply.

When you are ready, inhale, coming to a half lift. Lift your hands up to the tops of the finger tips or bring your hands to your shins so that you can straighten your legs. Spine is neutral. Some teachers refer to this as “flat back”, but when you think about that, you can not and should not flatten your back because of the natural curves which is why I say neutral spine. In class, I cue the pose as “look long.”

In half lift, you are lengthening the torso as you roll the thighs inward and draw the belly button up and in. Lift your head slightly but not too much as you want to avoid straining your neck. Again, in half lift, you could use a block under your hands to help prop you up.

Benefits:

Stretches the back of the body

Strengthens legs

Half lift engages the abdomen

Share your pose on Instagram, tagging @bridgesthroughlife and using hashtags #bridgesthroughlife #yogaworkshopFridays

I hope you enjoy this series. If you have any suggestions for what poses you would like me to break down, leave a comment or send me an email [email protected]

Yoga Workshop Fridays: Tadasana

July 1, 2016 by Alicia Leave a Comment

Hello everyone!! Today begins a new month and what better way to kick off the month than to start a new series on my blog all about yoga. I completed my 200 hour yoga teacher training in May 2015 and have had the idea for doing a series of poses on the blog for a while. I am so happy that I have finally taken the time to sit down and prepare this for you.

Welcome to Yoga Workshop Fridays! This series will be each Friday explaining how to do a particular pose leading up to a peak pose on the last Friday of the month. Throughout this series, I ask that you listen to your body to prevent injury and warm up for a pose when needed.

Disclaimer:

Though I am a certified yoga instructor, please consult your doctor before you begin practice and note that everyone’s practice may look a bit different as you align the pose to your body.

This month, I decided to start by focusing on the basics of vinyasa yoga. Vinyasa simply means movement with breath. In a vinyasa class, we move through a series of poses with the breath, so inhale is one movement and exhale is another. For this first month, I will be focusing on the poses in sun salutation A as I feel they are the basics for any vinyasa class.

Our first pose will be Tadasana, also known as Mountain Pose. Let’s break it down.

How to do the pose:

Bring your feet together at the top of the mat, with all 10 toes pointing straight ahead. Root into all 4 corners of your feet and engage the inner arches. With a tall spine, roll your shoulders up and then down your back and look straight ahead. Imagine someone is pulling a string from the crown of your head up.

Bring your arms to your side, palms facing forward, so that your arms are externally rotating. Legs are internally rotating. If you place a block between your thighs and squeeze the block, that will help you get the feeling of internal rotation of the legs.

Feel free to close the eyes here and take a few breaths. Maybe even explore what it feels like to lean forward onto the toes and then back towards the heels, gently swaying back and forth.

Benefits:

Helps improve posture

Strengthens legs

Good for grounding

Share your pose on Instagram, tagging @bridgesthroughlife and hashtags #yogaworkshopFridays #bridgesthroughlife

I hope you enjoy this series. As I mentioned above, we are starting with the basics and each month I will have a new peak pose for you to work on. If you have any suggestions for what poses you would like me to break down, leave a comment or send me an email [email protected]

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