Category Archives: Heart Openers

Open heart, strong back. Mon 530pm

Core Work, Heart Openers, Shoulder Openers, Toe Stretch

Pranayama over blocks to open the heart.  Sahaja, Dirgha, Box breath.

Adding alittle Om Yoga to the flows  from Cindy Lee tonight.  A deep shoulder opener being ever mindful of the high mobility and unstable shoulder joint…… do what is right for you.

Toe Stretch with arm movements as well as mudras. Up to standing for a gentle flowing sun salutation. Visiting some heart openers tonight with cobra, bow, camel, bridge rolls then a supported bridge with leg lifts and offering an unusual.. not for everyone quad opener.    Down from bridge to happy baby, hip side stretch and to the good stuff aromatherapy and Savasana.

Aromatherapy tonight will be Vatta/Pitta Blend from Yoga Flow Oils, thank you Susan

NEW CLASS Advanced asana/pranayama Thurs 6pm

Balance, Hamstrings, Heart Openers, Hip Openers, Spinal Flows

Pranayama: Standing Sahaja, Dirgha, Sun breath, breath of Joy  😛

Sun Salutations with crescent warrior.  Balance

Hip openers to start the backbending flows. Prone Boat, Bow, Cobra rolls, Camel. Bridge, full Wheel, Plow, Happy Baby, Reclined Cobbler with Twist.  Other twists and gentle forward folds.

Aromatherapy tonight Open heart from Yoga Flow Oils, thank you Susan

Open Hearts with backbends, inversions. Tues 745p

Heart Openers, Hip Openers

Had a request to go back to some more backbends with inversion of plow so tonight is the night.

Pranayama: Standing Dirgha, Sun Breath and Breath of Joy

Two reg Sun Salutaions not real slow to warm up the body.

Balance: Vrksasana (Tree), Star, Natarajasana (Dancer)

Raja Kapotasana (pigeon) to open the hips. Bhujangasana (Cobra) work, Paripurna Navasana (prone boat), Dhanurasana (Bow), Ustrasana (Camel),Setubandhasana Sarvangasana (Bridge), Urdhva Dhanurasna (Wheel), Halasana (Plow), Ananda Balasana (Happy Baby), Supta Baddha Konasana (Reclined Cobbler)

Janu Sirsasana twists & FF  Mermaid,  aromatherapy, Savasana

Aromatherapy is Open Heart of course from Yoga Flow Oils thank you Susan

TRIYENGAR is a hit let’s keep it up Mon

Core Work, Heart Openers, Spinal Flows, Toe Stretch

Keeping the mix of Tri Yoga  & Iyengar.

Pranayama:  Dirgha, Kapalabhati slow

Opening the feet with toe stretch, toe balance and top of foot stretch. Working on inner thigh and leg inversion & eversion. Reverse table adding in dips.  Navasana flow for abs.

Standing strength  adding in  some  extended cat work for legs, abs and back.

Revisiting Karin Stephan’s dowel work at the wall for back bends.  Wall chair for strength then to the floor for strengthen building in the back with Cobra work & opposite arm and leg. 

Releasing the back with bridge, bridge lifts.  Apanasana, Spider, Hip side stretch.

Aromatherapy tonight will be Yoga Nidra from Yoga Flow Oils thanks Susan.

TIYENGAR what is that? TriYoga & Iyengar mixed Mon

Heart Openers, Hip Openers, Spinal Flows, Standing Strength, Upper Body Strength

Pranayama: Dirgha worked with Doug Keller’s Dirgha breath for complete breath work. Bringing much more awareness to the mid-lung breath. I encourage everyone to try this at home to see if it brings peace to the breath work. Slow Kapalabhati breath with inhale holds.

Bringing two of my favorite styles of yoga together with TriYoga- meditation in motion- and Iyengar- detailed work with holds to open the body for movement and meditation.

cat rolls to open the spine, few jump out to pyramid and back to toe balance. Karin Stephan’s wall work then to TriYoga’s wall work to open the side body, heart, back and legs. Yum!! Spent time with this as everyone really needed the side body work.

On to standing strength and flowing with the breath.

To supine to stretch the hips and twist the body to release any toxin that were in there. Slowly moved through these postures with assists and adjustments so everyone felt yummy.

Aromatherapy will be Shanti from Yoga Flow Oils thank you Susan.

Savasana

Doing Wheelies at Seminole Tues

Forward Folds, Heart Openers, Hip Openers, Toe Stretch, Yoga Moves

Pranayama over two blocks to open up the heart and side body.

Navasana flow to wake up the abdominals.

Toe Balance as well as a few jumps to get ready for frog (Bekasana).  Before Bekasana the now infamous hip openers to see it this will also open up frog for everyone.  Camel posture to develop the opening for the back bending practice.

Starting with Bridge work then moving onto the full Wheel see if done slowly with intention it opens up more fully. Doing Wheelies to Feel the flow of it 🙂  at least 3.

Some floor twists and stretches rolling up for a few more twists and forward folds to cool the mind.

Aromatherapy will be Yoga Nidra Blend from Yoga Flow Oils thanks Susan

Savasana.  Nadi Shodhana to calm and center the mind before going home.

King & Queen of the postures with a Jack or 2 tossed in Mon

Heart Openers, Hip Openers, Upper Body Strength

Teaching Wanda’s advanced class tonight.

Going more into Headstand and Shoulderstand tonight.  If headstand is not in your practice then I will be assisting any that want to get up into handstand.

Pranayama practice to open the heart and lungs.  Navasana work.  Feeling froggy we will see how Bekasana feels for everyone tonight.

Camel  to see how the body is opening.  Next I will share what I have been doing in the gym with external hip openers WOW  it really works.

Wall work with more side body opening to prepare for Headstand and Shoulderstand. LIttle more abdominal work then Headstand & detailed set up for Shoulderstand.  While those that have Headstand practice is up those who would like to try Handstand I will assist to get up.

After Shoulderstand drape the upper body over blankets to release neck.

Twists and some forward folds.

Aromatherapy will be Ananda Blend from Yoga Flow Oils thanks Susan

Savasana   Nadi Shodhana before going home to calm and center the mind.

Everyone did really well with going into headstand staying awhile then coming down for a few breaths in child then going back up.  Shoulderstand went so well that I added in some variations.  Good practice for all.  Headstanders you are ready to move away from the wall.  Give your yoga a future.  The practice of headstand & shoulderstand was over 30 minutes for just these two postures.

What were the Jacks?  well they were the ab work as well as the hip openers.  🙂

Strong backs open hearts. Tues

Heart Openers, Hip Openers, Toe Stretch

Pranayama complete breath over blocks

Toe stretch, toe balance, toe stretch, top of foot stretch.

Cat rolls to cat bows with a roll added in. Doing both cat bows tonight to build strength for arm balances.

Cobra work tonight.  Half tortoise twist. Moving into hip openers with swan & swan bows  add in Iyengar TV watching swan.  Adding in the two new external hip rotator stretches WOW these are still tough. However, these really do open the side hip.  Glad everyone likes them and smiles through the stretch.

The new forward fold Karin would like to see in more classes was visited once more. Savasana

Aromatherapy tonight is Anxiety Ease from Yoga Flow Oils thank you Susan.

Open the Heart & Open the Hips for a peaceful Thurs

Hamstrings, Heart Openers, Hip Openers, Spinal Flows

Pranayama by popluar request will be over 2 blocks tonight, just feel the heart opening to receive.

Doing a little core work before moving on to opening the hips and hamstrings with leg stretch, hip circles. Hip side stretch holding this long enough for everything to let go.  Reclined Cobbler up we must go.

Toe stretch, reverse table for more heart opening.  Camel allowing the spine to curve in and up to go back…. yum.  Facedown work with cobras this is a must do for all of us to keep our spine young.

Opposite arm and leg, locust, Bow with assist from me to feel how effortless it can become.

Bridge rolls to full wheel if that is your practice.

Rock the clock low back release, twists and folds.

Aromatherapy  what else Open Heart by Yoga Flow Oils.  Thank you Susan

When the Moon’s in your eye you do Chandra Namaskara.Fri

Heart Openers, Hip Openers

I have been enjoying the moon and the weather so much that I had to add some of that to class.

Working with the legs we went through cat movements, nose to knee then long through the leg.  My favorite Dog on a Fire hydrant,  Mule kicks,  Fire hydrant stretch.  Opening the shoulders with thread the needle.

Few wrist rolls and a carpal tunnel opening before moving on to Mandala movement to further open the hips.

Moon Salutation (Chandra Namaskara)  starting with a standing side bend that looks like a crescent moon.  Five point star through the Warrior postures to Crescent warrior, Half moon balancing asana finishing twist and Deviasana.

Face down to work on strengthening the back muscles. A Physical Therapist friend of mine mentioned how important these postures are to keep the strength in the back & upper body to fend off the rounding of the shoulders that is so common in our society.  As she reminded me the first move a baby does is lifts its head from a prone position then pushes into the hands to lift a little higher (sounds like cobra postures to me) so that it prepares the body for walking and standing.  How often in our normal motions in life do we do this?  Lift our head, shoulders and torso while in a prone position?  Not often enough so we did a few back postures of cobra, cobra1/boat, cobra 2  then the releases for the low back including flopping fish (my favorite). No rounding shoulders and humped backs for us.

Forward folds and twists ended the class.

Aromatherapy today was Prana blend to help with all the pollen in the air.  Thank you Susan with Yoga Flow Oils who does all of my aromatherapy for me.

Many Blessings…….Namaste