Five-Minute Yoga Challenge: clasp your hands to open your shoulders
Want to transform your shoulders without help from a magic frog? Read on. “It is no over-statement to say that if a person regularly practices Sarvangasana he will feel new vigour and strength and will be happy and confident. New life will flow into him, his mind will be at peace and he will feel […]
Cool it: rest your head on a chair, then put your feet up
A few weeks ago I promised to fill in the blanks of the cooling yoga sequence I’d suggested – the poses that hadn’t already made it onto this blog in the form of a Five-Minute Yoga Challenge. I meant to do it, really I did. Then we lost our summer, temporarily. At about the same […]
Five-Minute Yoga Challenge: meet Chaturanga at the wall
For more than 25 years, I’ve felt bullied, oppressed and pushed around by Chaturanga Dandasana, the yoga push-up. I’d watch other people push up off the floor, or lower themselves from plank pose, and wonder why I was such a weakling. Yes, it’s a hard pose. Yes, after looking through a few hundred photos on […]
Five-Minute Yoga Challenge: sit at a corner to strengthen your core
From the first time I met them, I have had two demon yoga poses: arm balance and Chaturanga Dandasana. Kicking up into arm balance scared me silly for years, but over time I’ve had recurring breakthroughs. Chaturanga has remained an unpleasant mystery. Every time it came up in class, it affirmed my inner suspicion that […]
Squat on: deepen Malasana with straps at your hip creases
Yes, my fascination with hip creases continues, and only grows deeper. I just came back from a short road trip. When I got out of the car after several hours of sitting, I noticed that while I was a little stiff in my hips, I didn’t have the pain I used to get, deep in […]
Use a strap around your hip crease to free your groins: Five Minute Yoga Challenge
Anatomically speaking, the groins are the folds that mark the meeting of the lower abdomen and the inner thigh. In Iyengar yoga, those would be the inner groins. Iyengar yoga also identifies middle groins, outer groins and back groins, making a circle of awareness all around the meeting place between legs and torso. Lately I’ve […]