Yoga is Hard Core!!

Yoga is Hard Core!

Most people associate yoga with flexibility and mental relaxation training, but rarely make the connection that Yoga Asana (poses) are great abdominal strength training too!

If you need a break from “crunches”, take a little journey with me as I explore two powerful “hard core” poses from the yoga asana sequence.

Plank Pose and Dolphin Plank are two very powerful strengtheners for both the abdominal core and hip flexors. Plank has the added benefit of strengthening the chest, arms, back and triceps, which traditional sit up don’t do. Keeping your torso strong will help prevent a sore back, and helps you move your limbs with more grace and awareness away from the spinal medium.

The strength training from Plank will also help for more challenging yoga poses like Head and Handstand for the advanced practitioner, and if you are an athlete, a strong core translates in to explosive power and injury prevention and quicker recovery.

Let’s Do This

Plank:

To begin, find Down Dog on your mat, and make sure your fingers are spread wide and you have a strong connection between the floor and the power moving up your arms, lifting the shoulder blades up your back.

Plank is, moving the shoulders forward from Down Dog, so your shoulders and elbows are in a direct line above your wrists, and your body is straight out behind you like a board.

To prevent “sagging” in the hips, tighten your kneecaps, activate your inner thighs and push “away” from the floor with your feet and hands. Your hips should be about level to shoulders.

Since the breath (prana) in yoga is so very important, as you hold this pose for 5-10 breath cycles, fill out your rib cage with new oxygen like a balloon. This newly oxygenated blood with give you energy and focus to hold the pose, and train you to breath deeply while under stress.

Dolphin Plank:

Dolphin Plank is similar to Plank with your forearms on the floor instead of hands. This is great if you have wrist issues or shoulder injury.

Start on hands and knees, in Cat/Cow, and lay your forearms on the floor, palms facing down, fingers wide, and elbows and wrists as wide as your shoulders. From there push back off the floor to either a Down Dog Dolphin or walk your feet back behind you so you are straight like a board, same as Plank.

For more intensity in both poses, join feet together and lift one foot at a time off the floor and hold up for the 5-breath cycle. Then switch. To strengthen Glute Medias, lift the foot, keep the toes pointing down, and open the leg out an inch or two. SLOWLY!!

To modify, set knees on floor and press belly button actively up toward spine so you won’t sag in belly.

As always, all Yoga Asana and other similar movement disciplines are best under the guidance of a certified instructor or coach.

You should come to one of my SAC classes, and I’ll show you this and a whole lot more!

Monday/Wed. from 6-7pm

You can always email me through my website, if you have more questions about yoga and wellness.

www.tonjareneehall.com

Thank you!!

Tonja Hall

PS…. incase you didn’t know, Tonja is one of the senior yoga instructors at Seattle Athletic Club, conducts classes for the Seattle Sounders, FC and has conducted classes for the Seattle Seahawks, Rat City Roller Girls, and members of the Luna Cycling Teams. She is also a Lululemon Ambassador, and has taught yoga internationally in Thailand, Vietnam and Croatia. She is looking forward to her up coming trip to Oaxaca, Mex. to teach and practice her Spanish skills. She is a certified Thai Yoga practitioner and mixes a wonderful blend of Thai Yoga and passive yoga stretching for a total body feel good tune up, in her private practice. She is ever grateful for the lessons her students teach her ,

Utkatasana --Chair Pose

Yoga Fans,

Welcome to summer, and in the Pacific Northwest, it is finally here! Let's all rush outside in one big herd, shall we? Not so fast, not, at least til you strengthen your ankles!

Ok, what?

The ankle joint is one of the most used joints in the body, and the strength of it is crucial to the health of your back , knees and hips. If your ankles are weak, you are more prone to injury, and you definitely don't want to sustain twisted ankles in your summer soccer game, or big Alpine hike.

Break it down: Chair Pose

Utkatasana or Chair Pose is one of the most basic, and frankly overlooked poses in the Ashtanga Yoga sequence, but is an amazing platform to build strong quads and ankles. It also strengthens the muscles over your shins, and calves.

To start, stand at the top of your mat in Mountain Pose (Tadasana) with your feet and legs joined up as one. As you sit down in "Chair Pose" first engage your core, as you swing your arms up and open the chest. Widen your shoulder blades and collarbones, softly bend your elbows to keep plenty of space open in your front body. As you slide your seat back to "sit" in Chair Pose, squeeze inner thighs and calves firmly together as the shin bones rise in line over the feet. I like to say, "sit down, like the bus took off, with your booty back, and your chest rising , arms reaching out for something to grab onto".

Core engagement is crucial to keep your low back in alignment, and as you push your feet down into the floor, you'll feel the strength of the pose rising up your legs.

Hold for 10 breaths, then twist to each side with oppisite elbow to knee, and hold for 10 seconds.

For a counterpose, step your feet as wide as the mat, for a full "easy" forward bend. Cross the elbows and gently sway from side to side.

Have a great summer!!!!

PS. How bout that tasty organic garden bounty, so much to choose from in Fruit and Veg land. , and I hope a pile of it is landing on your plates daily!!! Cheers!

your brain on YOGA

Your Brain---Your Brain on yoga!!!

This wonderful CNN article highlights a new field of study called, "Contemplative Neuroscience" or the science of Meditation. Scientists have now proven that meditation transforms the circuts or pathways to the brain to increase functionality, focus, empathy and happiness. Changes in limbic system, which controls the endocrine and autonomic nervous systems AND the left side anterior region , responsible for generating positive emotions.

If you are a yoga dork like me and enjoy the "science" of yoga, this is a great article!!

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/26/can-meditation-change-your-brain

half moon pose, Ankle Strength/Core

Ardha Chandrasana/Half Moon Pose
What is one of the most common Spring sports injury? The ANKLE joint. Now that the sun is beginning to peak it’s head out more often, it’s time to amp up your Spring training and use yoga balance poses to strengthen ankles, calves, inner thighs and core. Spring sports like Soccer and hiking depend on the quick response, strength and flexibility of your ankle joint.

Half Moon pose is an important pose in the yoga sequence, because it teaches both the front/back (anterior/posterior) of the body to stabilize and balance, by in large because the core has to fire both front and back. This pose also requires mind, breath, body coordination and stretching of the side waist and chest.

Break it Down
Do at least 10 minutes of warm up before starting standing balance poses like Half Moon. Set a block down by the front of your mat to use as an extension of your hand if it doesn’t easily touch the floor.

Starting in Warrior II (Virahbdrasana II) with your right foot forward, and your knee bent in a direct line over your foot. Ease your right hand down to the block as help to propel you forward, so you can lift your left leg off the floor with the front body open. The point is to pretend there is an imaginary wall on either side of you, front and back, so move slowly enough you stay open like a star shape and feel your core and inner thighs engage. Try not to fling your body parts into an awkward shape, move slow, with your breath, and “feel” your way into the pose.

Start by holding the pose for 5 breaths and then come down slowly back into Warrior II. Over time, you won’t need the block, and you’ll develop the strength and finesse to lightly touch the floor with your balance hand.
The focus should be keeping your front and back body open, strengthening the standing leg and ankle and stretching the side waist and chest.

Half Moon Pose, Ankle Strength/Core

Ardha Chandrasana / Half Moon Pose

What is one of the most common Spring sports injury? The ANKLE joint. Now that the sun is beginning to peak it’s head out more often, it’s time to amp up your Spring training and use yoga balance poses to strengthen ankles, calves, inner thighs and core. Spring sports like Soccer and hiking depend on the quick response, strength and flexibility of your ankle joint.

Half Moon pose is an important pose in the yoga sequence, because it teaches both the front/back (anterior/posterior) of the body to stabilize and balance, by in large because the core has to fire both front and back. This pose also requires mind, breath, body coordination and stretching of the side waist and chest.

Break it Down

Do at least 10 minutes of warm up before starting standing balance poses like Half Moon. Set a block down by the front of your mat to use as an extension of your hand if it doesn’t easily touch the floor.

Starting in Warrior II (Virahbdrasana II) with your right foot forward, and your knee bent in a direct line over your foot. Ease your right hand down to the block as help to propel you forward, so you can lift your left leg off the floor with the front body open. The point is to pretend there is an imaginary wall on either side of you, front and back, so move slowly enough you stay open like a star shape and feel your core and inner thighs engage. Try not to fling your body parts into an awkward shape, move slow, with your breath, and “feel” your way into the pose.

Start by holding the pose for 5 breaths and then come down slowly back into Warrior II. Over time, you won’t need the block, and you’ll develop the strength and finesse to lightly touch the floor with your balance hand.

The focus should be keeping your front and back body open, strengthening the standing leg and ankle and stretching the side waist and chest.

Good luck!

If you have any questions, feel free to email me on

www.tonjareneehall.com

Tonja Hall teaches yoga for intense athletes (like you!) and sports teams in the Seattle area. She also teaches internationally and locally at Seattle Athletic Club as one of their senior instructors. Please check out her SAC schedule on her website

www.tonjareneehall.com

half moon pose

Ardha Chandrasana / Half Moon Pose

Now that the sun is beginning to peak it’s head out more often, it’s time to amp up your Spring training and use yoga balance poses to strengthen ankles, calves, inner thighs and core. Spring sports like Soccer and hiking depend on the quick response, strength and flexibility of your ankle joint.

Half Moon pose is an important pose in the yoga sequence, because it teaches both the front/back (anterior/posterior) of the body to stabilize and balance, by in large because the core has to fire both front and back. This pose also requires mind, breath, body coordination and stretching of the side waist and chest.

Break it Down

Do at least 10 minutes of warm up before starting standing balance poses like Half Moon. Set a block down by the front of your mat to use as an extension of your hand if it doesn’t easily touch the floor.

Starting in Warrior II (Virahbdrasana II) with your right foot forward, and your knee bent in a direct line over your foot. Ease your right hand down to the block as help to propel you forward, so you can lift your left leg off the floor with the front body open. The point is to pretend there is an imaginary wall on either side of you, front and back, so move slowly enough you stay open like a star shape and feel your core and inner thighs engage. Try not to fling your body parts into an awkward shape, move slow, with your breath, and “feel” your way into the pose.

Start by holding the pose for 5 breaths and then come down slowly back into Warrior II. Over time, you won’t need the block, and you’ll develop the strength and finesse to lightly touch the floor with your balance hand.

The focus should be keeping your front and back body open, strengthening the standing leg and ankle and stretching the side waist and chest.

Good luck!

If you have any questions, feel free to email me on

www.tonjareneehall.com

or FB Lionheart Yoga Training page

thank you!!

Pictures from my life in Thailand