Former yoga teacher in Wellington New Zealand
I’ve talked before about using the shoulders to intensify a neck stretch. This is an action you can do in standing poses as well. When you do this in standing poses you get a gentle release of one of the
Last week I talked about using the muscles of the back and shoulders to pull your shoulders down as a way to stretch the neck. This not only stretches the neck but helps to strengthen the muscles of your core
I regularly give the cue of relaxing the shoulders down. Not only do we tend to hunch the shoulders up, but some movements of our shoulders and arms cause them to lift up which can compress the neck – an
Cobra pose shows up in just about every yoga class as an essential part of sun salutations. It’s easy to be lazy and just lift your chest off the floor not getting any benefit from the pose. But if you
Plank is one of those poses that appears in just about every yoga class. A lot. Sometimes, we just see it as a transition pose – just getting from down dog to the floor for a rest. But plank requires
We often have tight necks from tramping, or leaning forward at the computer, or looking down while we read. This is one of the simplest ways to stretch your neck gently. The small adjustments make the difference. So take the
Sometimes the simplest poses give the best stretch. They are easy to get in to, accessible to most people and give you a chance to pay attention to the small changes in your body that can affect the stretch.
I’m not much of a rugby fan but I did spot a photo of rugby player Dan Carter doing yoga on the field. It’s a variation of a lunge with a twist. I love adding twists into lunges because you
I have a regular column in Wilderness Magazine. They ran a series on garuda or eagle pose. This is a great balance pose that stretches your arms and strengthens legs and challenges you to balance all at the same time!
We’ve been working on building strength in the shoulders and back through plank and chattaranga (press-up), down dog and cobra. Purvottanasana (or up dog) is often called the counter pose to press-ups because it stretches the muscles across your chest,