by Jillian Pransky Autumn is a time of transformation in the environment. And nature outside always affects our nature inside us. As the trees go back into their roots, we are also afforded the opportunity to draw in, retreat, reflect and reconnect. In fact, many spiritual traditions use this season to reflect on behavior and [...]
Practice
Are you competitive in yoga class? Maybe not on purpose? Or maybe it’s a internal competitiveness either for a personal goal….or maybe you’re feeling just a bit self-judgmental. (Did we make up a new term?) Essentially, we’re a pretty competitive society (hello, capitalism!) – it often helps us understand progress and encourages us to reach [...]
A Biomechanics-Informed Response to Yoga Journal: We Do Not Need To Tuck Our Tail In Every Yoga Pose
A Yoga Journal article entitled “Alignment Cues Decoded: ‘Soften Your Front Ribs’” by YogaWorks teacher Alexandria Crow came through my Facebook feed yesterday and I decided to write a response to it. As you might know, I am very interested in seeing our wonderful yoga world update its traditional alignment cuing with the intelligence of biomechanics and modern movement science.
It’s just Pema Chödrön and Oprah chatting and chillaxing on a Sunday afternoon sipping from their coffee mugs like gal pals do. Pema was a recent guest on Oprah’s “Super Soul Sunday” which is basically the Super Bowl for spirituality, where the two conversed about “what to do when your life falls apart,” “why fear is nothing [...]
How many of us have been told to engage our bandhas, or internal locks, for our entire yoga practice? First of all, it doesn’t seem like anyone is able to truly sustain these illusive muscular contractions the whole time they’re on the mat, but second of all, is this even a biomechanically wise feat to ask us to do?
When many people think about a strong core, they picture someone with “six pack abs” like this fine underwear model man right here. But our functional core is actually much more complex than this over simplified notion
Poochy and Chester instinctively stretch their front paws forward, rear limbs back, arch and lengthen their furry torsos, and swoosh their tails. Frequently.
Yet Jack and Jill tend to be perma-hunchbacked in their soft-as-mashed-potatoes sofa watching the dumbo-tron, fingers glued to their smarter-than-human devices, with a bag of chips and can of soda on their laps. We must be in Kali Yuga.
In Part 1 we looked at how classifying a small, specific group of yoga poses as “hip-openers” overlooks the anatomical fact that nearly all yoga poses are hip-openers, and if we treated them that way, our practice could offer us so much more. We’ll now turn our biomechanical eye to how you can shift your alignment to truly open your hips in your practice!
We talk a lot about “hip-openers” in yoga, but hip-opening is actually more complex than we often realize.
