Rhoda Miriam: Chair Yoga for Beginners — Proper Setup & Alignment
You don't need a yoga mat on the floor to have a meaningful yoga practice. For many people — whether dealing with limited mobility, recovering from injury, or simply wanting a gentler entry point into movement — a chair is
Natasha Rizopoulos: Pigeon Pose – Hip Opening That Protects Your Knee
Pigeon Pose is often called the king of hip openers—and for good reason. It provides a deep stretch to your external hip rotators, glutes, and hip flexors all at once. But Pigeon also carries significant risk for your knee and
Open Hips Gently with Props - Bound Angle Pose Variations
Bound Angle Pose is a powerful hip opening yoga pose that requires significant external rotation in the hips—range of motion that many adults simply don't have yet. This tutorial shows you two accessible variations of Baddha Konasana (also known as
Pain in the Neck: 6 Yoga Poses to Nurture Your Neck and Shoulders
When I first began my yoga practice, I was still in the “no pain, no gain” mentality from my years teaching high-impact aerobics. That attitude, combined with my frustration trying to kick up into Headstand (Sirsasana) one day, led to
Free Video with Doug Keller! Happy Baby Pose – Hip Opening with Proper Alignment
Happy Baby Pose looks deceptively simple, lie on your back and grab your feet, right? Yet without proper alignment awareness, this hip opener can strain your lower back and sacrum rather than releasing your hips. This detailed tutorial teaches you
Enlivening the Body's Subtle Energy with Mula Bandha
Some Sanskrit words have successfully made it into our pop culture. One of the terms that seem to be thrown around a lot is mula bandha. You’ll hear a teacher instruct you to “engage your mula bandha” in various poses. What
Can Simple Stretching Help Fight Cancer? The Groundbreaking Research of Dr. Helene Langevin
What if one of the most powerful tools against cancer were something you already do in your yoga practice? Dr. Helene Langevin is a physician-scientist whose career has been shaped by a single, elegant idea: that the body's connective tissue
Sankalpa, Visualization, and Yoga: The Diaphragm-Psoas Connection
In yoga practice, the Sanskrit word sankalpa means “resolution” or “intention,” usually in association with the practice of Yoga Nidra. According to Swami Satyananda Saraswati, “sankalpa has the potential to release tremendous power by clearly defining and focusing on a
Donna Farhi: Keys to Pain-free Living - The Importance of a Balanced Core Cylinder
Donna Farhi is an internationally renowned yoga instructor, leading countless intensives and teacher training programs. She is the author of The Breathing Book, Yoga Mind, Body, and Spirit: A Return to Wholeness, as well as Bringing Yoga to Life: The Everyday
The Fourth Niyama: Svadhyaya - Self-Study
The fourth of the niyamas (personal observances) from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras is svadhyaya. In Sanskrit, sva means “self;” dhyaya translates as contemplating, meditating on or reflecting upon. Svadhyaya therefore can be translated as self-reflection, self-contemplation or the study of oneself.
Shoulder Biomechanics, Part 2: The Infraspinatus and Teres Minor Muscles
Welcome to the second of our series on the shoulder joint in yoga. The first article in the series discussed the subscapularis muscle, the main shoulder internal rotator. Now we’re on to the antagonist muscles of the subscapularis, the infraspinatus
Half-Hero Pose: Television Yoga for Tight Quads
One of the most fruitful areas for a new yoga practitioner to explore is television yoga. It’s not a formal practice. You don’t have to wear special clothes, roll out a mat or light a candle. And if you watch
What Makes an Effective Yoga Teacher?
Yoga instructors, let’s take a moment for honest self-study (svadhyaya). Do you teach yoga, or are you solely leading poses? What distinguishes yoga instructors from fitness instructors? How do yoga classes and fitness classes differ? What makes an effective yoga
Love your Back With This Spine-Focused Yin Yoga Sequence
In our typical day-to-day lives, our spines do a lot, and usually, we aren’t even aware of the amount of stress that we put on these tissues. The spine is an ingeniously designed shock-absorbing structure and a column of strength
Practice Figure 4 Cross-Legged Hip Stretch at the Wall
At first glance, it may not look as though the wall is useful in a Figure 4 Stretch (Supta Kapotasana). Yet it potentially offers good leverage and resistance to venture deeper into the realm of mobility and flow in your