blog: the boundless perspective

Thank you, Owen

Owen’s review on Yelp makes me think we should start Yoga for Guys again.

Owen, I’m so glad you’re having this experience with us.  Namaste.

yoga and scoliosis

So scoliosis has been a big topic is my clases and Apprentice Training lately. These are two great articles Susan Ruether offered from Elise Miller via Yoga Journal. They are really good.

http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/1060

http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/1061

2: On Jinsung’s workshop

Jinsung owns and teaches at Oakland Yoga Studio. More feedback on his awesomeness.

1: On Jinsung’s workshop

Jinsung owns and teaches at Oakland Yoga Studio. IMO he is one of the best teachers in the Bay Area.

liana’s class 4/21

Kim’s April 15 sequence

Of course mindfulness save time

I hope you like this!

A pain in the skull

So I was moving quickly from unshowered to showered to kissing baby to feeling guilty that I’m leaving at all, to the car to Connecticut Avenue where I hit a wall of traffic at 10:02 am. I was already late for the yoga class I take on Wednesday mornings, with this woman who should have droves of people studying with her, and I suddenly realized that it was more yogic to slow down and not go to class.

Before I realized all the other things I could fill with my time, e.g., post this blog, return some overdue calls and emails, and spend some quiet time alone thinking about the move Boundless is about to make, I felt a release of tension in the back of my skull. My whole body felt so much better at the decision not to race into class — to hurry up and relax, of all things. I also felt both my eyes relax back into the head, and, of course, those lovely “should”-ers, the shoulders, soften.

Of course it’s possibly a bad business decision to post this fact on my business’s website, but sometimes going to yoga class is less yogic than going to yoga class. The body never lies, so check in always and it will tell you the truth.

Lori’s Advanced Sequence 4/11

So this is how we’re doing advanced asana classes now. Following is the sequence Lori taught Sunday, 4/11. It will inform my Thursday, 4/15 class, and Saturday, 4/17 class. I am still working out screen shots: Please note savasana followed halasana. Click the image below to enlarge.

Desk Jockey Spine Straightening, 1

A friend, John,  asked me over the weekend what to do about the pain in his low back. This happens often, because so many people have back pain. John’s problems come from years of sitting slouched in school and work chairs. And all the other chairs. Different from Angela’s back, John’s back is seized up and tight in his quadratus lumborum, which is extremely common for guys.

Following are literally the A, B, and C of the problem, and the two things John can do — five minutes a day! — to alleviate or remove the pain in his back.

A: The low back and butt have become one. The above-mentioned quadratus muscles become weak and tight, and as they are the hamstrings of the back, they tighten all the way to the backs of the knees. Think of how you look sitting in a chair (better yet, feel it).

B: The low belly and inner groins are dropping away from the spine. Everyone who owns a chair deals with this. The belly organs need to lift away from the pelvis via the abdominals and better action in the thigh bones: We need to stand through the pelvis, on the legs. What we do today is collapse into the pelvis and on to — almost all of us.

C. The outer hips/thighs grip to try and bring the belly and groins back in. This area is also to a degree an extension of the low back and butt. However, the body is very intelligent as it seeks to solve its own problems before it tries to get your attention. In this case, the outer hips/thighs are gripping in an attempt to make the abdominals engage so that the belly and groins move back into the body.

All desk jockeys need to do #1 and #2 to lengthen their spine and feel better in their back and posture overall.  Five minutes a day, with conscious breathing, and a regular class with a well-educated yoga teacher is all it takes.