Kim Weeks

Tips for Office Back Health and healthy back class

Basic Rules for a Healthy Back in the Office

Overall

• Slumping when sitting = dangerous
• Sitting with a long, supported spine = normal

The 1-2-3 Approach

1. Lift the floor
2. Support the sacrum, not the low back. This straightens out the spine by forcing the abs to work when you are sitting
3. Do not underestimate the value of movement of any kind, at any moment (shoulder rolls, neck rolls, getting up and stretching your arms overhead, walking for 5 minutes)

Basic Back Health Yoga Class

1. Child’s pose (often needs to be modified)
2. Cat/cow
3. Down Dog or Half forward fold with hands on chair, couch, table
4. Advanced: Full Standing forward fold
5. “Low” lunge, i.e., back knee down; pelvis facing forward with legs front/back
6. Side angle pose with elbow on knee (modified); Pelvis “open” or legs wide with pelvis in center
7. Advanced: Wide legged standing forward fold
8. Mountain Pose. Inhale to Mountain Pose with hands reaching overhead
9. Warrior 2 Pose
10. Triangle Pose
11. Side angle pose with block
12.  Tree Pose
13.  Head-to-knee-pose (modified)
14.  Savasana
15.  Abdominal work, as taught by Kim in Healthy Back Series
16.  Supported Bridge Pose (using block) or Advanced:  Bridge Pose
17. Advanced: Plow Pose
18. Savasana

Stay flexible, live better! On NBC4 today.

Today, Tuesday morning yoga teacher Nandini and Kim spent a few minutes with NBC4′s Keith Russell talking about yoga, flexibility, and the aging process. Check out Nandini’s drop-back to wheel pose!

View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.

NBC on Yoga and Injuries

I wrote last week here about another recent New York Times piece on yoga and injuries, and Keith Russell at NBC4 wanted to talk more about it. We were a little short on time for this segment but RYT trainee Jennie Kim and I managed to show the top ways that things go wrong in two yoga poses.

View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.

Guys, injuries, and yoga

Thank goodness for William Broad. He’s a concerned yoga enthusiast who is also a science reporter for  the New York Times. In addition to writing such detailed reports as this one concerning injuries men get doing yoga, he published a provocative and informative book, Yoga: Risks and Rewards, on the whole subject of yoga and injuries last year.

His article “Wounded Warrior,” referring to this, this, or this pose, says men are more likely to suffer injuries in yoga class than women are. He is also moved, as we all should be, by the letters he’s received from injured yoga dudes.

Boundless Yoga has been teaching safe, relaxing, and challenging yoga for 13 years. If your teacher, like all the senior and junior teachers at Boundless, knows how to keep you safe by offering deep, intelligent, and detailed instruction on how to move your body, you will find a wide variety of ways to enjoy, grow, and feel totally successful doing yoga.

Men, yes, are often more inclined to treat the class as a challenge versus a “refuge,” and that’s why teaching poses from a basic safety and alignment-principled place pushes them mentally and emotionally, as well as physically. Our yoga for athletes and all our alignment-principled classes teach this way every week!

If you’re a man and taught well, you will stretch your muscles and bend at your joints with incredible benefit to your sense of personal power, well being, and happiness in the world.

Thanks again, William! We’re always glad to see you concerned and publishing.

Hello Boundless

Hi, my name is Erin McCarley. The week after Thanksgiving I became the new General Manger here at Boundless. It has been a busy and wonderful two months; meeting students & teachers, listening to the great ideas and feedback many of you have taken the time to provide, cozying up the studio space, finding my (loose) bearings with MindBodyOnline, the list goes on…

I come to Boundless after spending nearly 10 years in the non-profit finance/administration field.  I am very excited to be working in the context of a small, local, woman-owned business. I am a California native, musician, silkscreen visual artist, poor but persistent gardener, and mother of two. You may have seen some of the changes Kim & I have been making to the studio, and wondering what’s next. Things on my mind for 2013 include everything on the spectrum that is the student experience at Boundless, supporting teachers, marketing, communications, social media, and making the studio space an inviting and warm place to deepen a yoga practice and support community. I see my role as being a catch-all for feedback, ideas, requests, thoughts, dreams, visions, complaints, and “even better ifs…” These things get stored, processed, and hopefully come out the other side a cohesive improvement to the way we all experience our time here no matter if it’s your first yoga class ever, or your 25th year of practice.

Partner Yoga on NBC!

RYT 200 trainees Rudy and David went with Kim to Monday’s NBC4 “Pose of the Week” segment to show Keith and his crew about the benefits — and intimacy — of partner yoga!

View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.

Yoga for Holiday Stress

View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.

Yoga for Back Pain

Yoga is one of the best ways to decrease or get rid of back pain, and it even takes on such difficult issues as herniated disks and sacro-iliac pain! Check out Kim and Boundless’s core queen Carol (who teaches a workshop on the core in Janaury!) on NBC4.

View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.

Where to start if you’re a beginner

We all know that this is the time of year when New Year’s Resolutions start percolating. Kim and star Yoga 1 teacher Ashley Waddell visited NBC4 for Boundless’s weekly visit to discuss what you do if you’re a total beginner to yoga.

View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.

Welcome Erin Mccarley, GM

I’m very happy to welcome our new General Manager Erin Mccarley to the team. Many of you have seen the great changes she’s made in one week (!) of working here — from the lights in the studio to the changes on the site, she continues to bring to the forefront Boundless customer service and the experience you have with us in studio.

We’ll have more pictures — from the party and the space improvements — up on the site soon. In the meantime, pass on the Steal-of-a-Deal pass to your friends we haven’t seen ever or in a while, and don’t hesitate to email Erin with any suggestions you have for an even more successful 2013! We’re all ears.  :)