Hello yoga friends,

This is scene from a recent hike in the Wissahickon. I love seeing the occasional horse or pony cart, bikes, dogs, and lots of people enjoying this unique local resource that helps us get outside and stay active. I'll make it a point to be out there once a week for the next several, so I can watch the change of seasons happen in the woods.

New Class Alert

Gentle Yoga at Blue Banyan Yoga Studio (Mt. Airy)

Tuesdays 9-10am, Starting Oct. 11

Prepare your body and mind for whatever the day brings with breath, mobility, and stretch. Learn breathing techniques for focus, gentle core engagement, and relaxation. On top of breath, you’ll layer movement that focuses on mobilizing your spine and other joints and dynamically stretching muscles. Some longer-held stretches will be included to work with connective tissue, your nervous system, and a meditative focus. Props and variations will be offered to allow you to customize your practice.

Pre-registration is required at https://bluebanyanyoga.com/ ($18 – drop in; $14-15/class if you buy a class card)

I would love to see some local folks at the first class! Let me know if you have any questions.

Upcoming Class Theme: Upper Body Strength and Mobility

Upper body strength is important for posture, maintaining bone health, and the pushing and pulling activities of daily life. We can work on arm, shoulder, and upper back strength through a variety of yoga poses. Bearing weight through the wrists is often a part of building upper body strength in yoga, and yet many people have trouble being on their wrists for any length of time. Distributing weight evenly through hands and fingers can be helpful, and it's also helpful to have some options that don't involved weight bearing.

Mobility means have range of motion around your joints. Range of motion around your shoulder joint means being able to move your arms forward and up, out to the side and up, back and up, and to rotate them externally or internally. The ability to move your arms forward and up is heavily dependant on the ability of your shoulder blades to glide on your back ribs, so that will be an element to work on as well. Range of motion in your spine means the ability to extend it (backbend), flex it (round forward, which is a movement we tend to do a lot anyway), rotate it, side bend it, and do combinations of these. We'll focus on the thoracic spine, which goes from the bottom of your ribcage to the base of your neck and the cervical spine, which includes your neck vertebrae.

3 ways to build upper body strength without being on your wrists

1. Belly-down backbends – in locust pose (salabhasana), baby cobra (bhujangasana), and sphinx pose (salamba bhujangasana) you are lifting your upper body away from the floor, strengthening the muscles that draw your shoulder blades together and down (mid and lower traps). In baby cobra and sphinx, it's the press into the floor and pull back (isometric actions, meaning engagement of muscles but not moving through space) that create the muscle engagement that builds strength.

2. Forearm variations – you can do a forearm version of plank, knees-down plank, or a side plank. The crucial action for upper body strength is stabilizing your shoulder blades on your back ribs. This feels like lifting your back up into your shoulder blades in a plank pose or in a side plank pose being mindful not to collapse weight onto your bottom shoulder. You can even try a forearm version of bird dog, which is a shoulder and core strengthener that we do in most classes.

3. Press into a block or pull out on a strap – press your palms into the sides of a block as you do various arm movements (forward and up; arms overhead with a side bend; arms at shoulder height, twisting side to side). These could be done from a standing position or sitting in a chair.

At home yoga idea:

If you are interested in doing yoga at home and don't know where to start, this is a resource.

https://www.tummee.com/yoga-sequences

It is a collection of yoga sequences arranged by theme, with pictures showing each pose. This can be a nice intermediate between having continuous instruction in a class/video and designing a practice completely on your own. You decide the pacing and whether you want to do all the poses or sub in some of your favorites.