3 Tips for Chaturanga

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chaturanga, four-limbed staff pose, hot yoga postures, how to do chaturanga, vinyasa yoga, yoga flow, yoga poses, yoga pushup, Yoga With Paul

Chaturanga Dandasana, aka four-limbed staff pose, is a fundamental posture in vinyasa flow yoga. This “yoga push-up” is a powerful move that strengthens and engages the whole body from hands to toes, via the core, legs and arms.

What I want to focus on are three tips that will help you maximise your benefits from this incredible move.

Set up right

To ace chaturanga you need to start strong. You begin in plank pose and it is important that you really connect with each part of your body before you begin the posture. Be sure your core is rock sold, your quads are tight, and your arms are close to your sides. You want your body to be a straight line, no sagging or sticking your bum up.

Control the breath

Chaturanga is a dynamic strength posture. Its challenging nature can make it easy to forget about your breathing — which is exactly why it is so important! Focus on a long, smooth inhale as you draw your body upwards and an exhale of equal length as you lower yourself. Your movements should follow the breath, not vice versa.

Work from the core

Chaturanga may look like it’s all about upper body strength, but it isn’t. The heart of the posture is a strong plank pose. To do your best chaturanga, you have to focus on your core and consciously engage it throughout the posture.

Questions about chaturanga? Ask in the comments or Tweet @YogaWithPaul

Yoga for Barefoot Running

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Charlotte Clews, Emma Spencer-Goodier, Vincent Gerbino, Yoga Barefoot Running, yoga poses, yoga running, Yoga With Paul

Yoga can benefit anyone, but it is especially valuable to runners. It works the whole body, increases flexibility, rejuvenates connective tissue, and improves the cardiovascular system through regular practice of Pranayama.

It is also a great tool for the growing community of barefoot runners. Why? Because barefoot running is actually quite a different practice from running in standard trainers, and it demands a level of fine-muscle strength and mobility that yoga delivers.

Here are three expert barefoot runners/yogis on their go-to yoga poses.

Emma Spencer-Goodier

“Downward facing dog is a fantastic yoga posture for runners, especially those in the throws of Barefoot Exuberance Syndrome with tight calves and tender achilles. The inverted ‘v’ shape, lengthens through the calves and hamstrings, decompresses the spine and lower back and opens shoulders that can become tight and uncomfortable.

Vincent Gerbino

“The downward dog and triangle stance are two typical postures I had done for years which helped me build strength in my ankles. Classic, one-legged balancing poses like the Tree and the Eagle both can help build ankle stability and shear leg strength.”

Charlotte Clews

“Toe-breaker pose [toe squat]

Why: Tight, weak foot muscles are the main cause of plantar fasciitis. Keeping your toes strong and flexible is a key part of keeping your feet healthy.

How: Sit down with your feet tucked underneath you and your toes flexed. This can be pretty excruciatingly painful at first. You can lift your butt up off your heels for less intensity, or even lean forward and put some weight on your hands.”

Questions about running and yoga? Ask in the comments!

 

4 Yoga Poses for the Sacrum

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back bends, back pain, bridge pose, locust pose, mula bandha, sacroiliac joint, sacrum, wheel pose, yoga back pain, yoga healing, yoga strength, Yoga With Paul

The sacrum is the large bone at the base of your spine, between your pelvic bones, that connects your spine with your hips, pelvis and coccyx. It is connected to the pelvis by the sacroiliac (SI) joints, whose ligaments act as stabilizers and shock absorbers.

photo credit: Rob Swatski

Basically every movement you make involves the sacrum, though the sacrum itself is not very mobile. It’s like the chassis of a car — if you want things to run smoothly, it has to be solid. This is why I often draw attention to it in class, reminding students to be aware of this essential junction in the body.

The following four poses help align and stabilise the sacrum, increase flexibility of the SI joint, and help promote strong, pain-and-injury free skeletal system.

Locust pose (Salabhasana)

This pose strengthens your muscles and improves balance and alignment. Keep your limbs strong and straight, as you would in a standing posture. Keep your thighs tight, heels together, triceps contracted, with every muscle working in harmony.

When you go up it is critical to look up in this pose. This keeps you in correct alignment and will help you gradually build the posture.

Bridge pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)

This asana builds the large lower body muscles and helps improve the alignment of the sacrum. Lie on your back to begin and draw your knees up with your feet flat on the floor, about hip width apart. Press up from the four corners of your feet, engaging the legs and buttocks to lift the hips higher.

Wheel pose (Urdhva Dhanurasana

Wheel pose is a fantastic, challenging way to open up your SI joints, balance your sacrum, and work all the major muscle groups in your body. Done correctly, as in the photo, your sacrum is a “hinge” that the rest of your body revolves around. This is a very releasing, empowering pose.

To ensure you receive maximum benefits, be sure your body is correctly aligned. You need to distribute your weight evenly and move slowly in and out of the posture, always checking that you are keeping your body even. If you do this too fast and twist, you can stress the SI joints.

 

Root lock (Mula Bandha)

Mula Bandha is done by tightening the muscles of the perineum. This is a powerful tool to stabilise the sacrum and revitalise the SI joints. Mula bandha channels the flow of energy within the postures and benefits the pelvic nerves, reproductive and endocrine system, and excretory system.

Questions about sacrum health? Ask in the comments!

5 Anti-Allergy Yoga Poses

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calming yoga, yoga allergies, yoga allergy relief, yoga benefits, yoga breathing, yoga healing, yoga immune system, yoga seasonal allergies, Yoga With Paul

Breathing easy in a big city is a challenge at the best of times. Allergy season can aggravate our bodies, turning the joys of spring into miserable marathon of itchy eyes, aching heads and painful sinuses.

Yoga is a great tool for calming inflammation, including allergies, and keeping our bodies and immune responses functioning properly.

Here are five anti-allergy yoga poses to help you survive spring.

Pranayama (Deep breathing)

Breath-work has many benefits for allergy sufferers. First, regular pranayama practice increases your lung capacity and flexibility. This helps if you get short of breath or suffer asthma related to allergies. Second, it eliminates stale air and toxins to cleanse and rejuvenate the body. Third, yogic breathing calms the body and mind, reducing stress and inflammation due to allergies.

Hitting the beach-also a good way to fight allergies!

Adho Mukha Shvanasana (Downward facing dog)

This is a partial inversion that helps balance the body, stretch the spine, and open up the back, creating more space through the chest and lungs. It also builds strength and stamina, helping you achieve a greater overall sense of well-being.

Dandayamana-Bibhaktapata-Janushirasana (Standing separate leg head to knee pose)

This posture compresses and massages your thyroid, which is a tremendous benefit to your immune system. Touch your forehead to your knee, not your nose or chin. Tuck in your chin as you move toward the knee, and keep your eyes on your stomach. Your throat will feel choked but keep breathing calmly in and out through your nose.

Right way round, upside down

Sarvangasana (Shoulder stand)

Inversions offer a range of benefits to your  body and your mind. Shoulderstand is a good tool to help decompress and drain the sinuses, and it improves blood flow into your lungs, helping fight inflammation.

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge pose)

This asana activates expands your chest and lungs to increase your lung capacity and your ease breathing. To begin, lie on your back and draw your knees up with your feet flat on the floor, about hip width apart. Press up from the four corners of your feet, engaging the legs and buttocks to lift the hips higher. Press your arms and shoulders into the mat to lift the chest up and toward the chin.

Questions or tips for surviving seasonal allergies? Share in the comments!

Holiday Sun Salutations

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Bikram yoga, Christmas yoga tips, holiday fitness, hot yoga info, hot yoga studio, how to do sun salutations, sun salutations, yoga practice, yoga tips, Yoga With Paul

The holiday bustle can make it difficult to make your regular yoga class, not to mention that a lot of studios cut the number of classes offered, or close altogether.

Don’t let this stop you doing yoga, though! After all, you need it more than ever during busy, stressful times.

My recommendation for keeping yourself grounded, healthy and calm during the season is to do home practice. If you don’t have the benefit of the yoga studio warm up with a few sets of Surya Namaskara (sun salutations). Do five to ten rounds of sun salutations followed by other yoga poses and then rest deeply.   This is perfect!

If you’re not sure of the sequence here is a great step-by-step guide.

 

You might find that this could be the mantra to stay fit over the festive season.  You’ll be amazed how a home session can relax and invigorate you.

Namaste.

3 Yoga Poses for Sharper Focus

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London yoga, mindfulness, stress relief, yoga, yoga benefits, yoga concentration, yoga focus, yoga for work, yoga postures, Yoga With Paul

In my recent City Solicitor interview I talked about how yoga can help stressed, busy professionals find greater clarity and focus. A regular practice cultivates mindfulness and discipline that translate into every area of our life.

This focus is something that develops over time. However, you can tap into the mental benefits of yoga no matter where you are, or how much or little time you have, with these three yoga poses for sharper focus.

Eagle Pose (Garudasana)

Eagle pose is one of the fundamental postures of hot yoga. We use it to work all the joints in the body and open them up. Releasing tension from our joints helps us shed stress and anxiety that causes distraction. In Garudasana you must concentrate in order to balance and work deeper into the posture. This cultivates focus and trains your mind go deeper into the task at hand.

Tree Pose (Vrikshasana)

In this pose we emulate has the grace, stability, and calm of a tree. The first part of the posture is creating a firm base with your standing leg, which activates your muscles and mind. Then you find your balance as you bring your other leg up. This physical process of laying a foundation then moving into the balancing element is great practice for finding serenity and concentration in challenging circumstances. 

Seated Forward Bend (Paschimottanasana)

Forward bends are excellent tools for relieving stress and freeing yourself from irritations. Seated forward bend takes you to the floor, so you can ground your whole body. For maximum benefits, spend a moment adjusting your seat so your weight is evenly distributed. Then breathe gently into the posture, gradually extending and relaxing your upper body over your legs. This posture relieves stress, anger, and frustration, helping to calm and clear your mind.

Even if you don’t have time for a full yoga session, you can transform a hectic day with these three simple postures and pranayama breathing. As you develop the habit of physically working to improve your focus, you will find it becomes easier, both in the studio and in daily life.

What’s your best tip for finding focus? Share in the comments!

#YWP January Newsletter

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food for yoga, learning yoga, London yoga, meditation, mindfulness, yoga nutrition, yoga postures, yoga practice, yoga retreat, yoga teacher, yoga tips, Yoga With Paul, Yoga With Paul newsletter

Your first Yoga With Paul newsletter of 2017. Enjoy!

yoga-with-paul-newsletter-jan-2017

3 Spine Healing Yoga Poses

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spine healing yoga, spine twisting pose, yoga, yoga back pain, yoga healing, yoga poses, yoga postures, yoga tips, Yoga With Paul

Our spine is literally the backbone of our lives. It protects our spinal cord which transmits all the information our body needs to move, flex and function. It provides the single most important support structure in our body.

Because the spine is in constant use it is vulnerable to an array of problems. Muscular weakness or imbalance in other parts of the body can damage the spine. In turn, a stiff, painful or injured spinal column causes pain that reverberates through the body.

Yoga is a powerful tool for creating a healthy spine because it creates unity and balance. These three moves are especially useful for preventing and healing our backbones.

Spine-twisting pose (Ardha Matsyendrasana)

Sit with legs long in front of you. Bend right knee and place right foot outside of left knee. (You can keep left leg long or fold it in like a half-cross-legged seat.)

Wrap left arm around right leg and place right hand on the ground behind sacrum.

Breathe here for 5 deep breaths, then repeat on the other side.

Standing forward fold with shoulder opener (Uttanasana)

From a standing position, the body is folded over at the crease of the hip with the spine long. The neck is relaxed and the crown of the head is towards the earth. The feet are rooted into the earth. The toes are actively lifted. The spine is straight. The ribcage is lifted. The chest and the thighs are connected. The sacrum lifts up toward the sky in dog tilt. The fingers are interlaced behind the body and the palms are together. The arms and elbows are straight. The shoulder blades rotate towards each other as the hands move forward (away from the lower back). The gaze is down and inward.

Fish pose (Matsyasana)

Lie on your back. Your feet are together and hands relaxed alongside the body.

Place the hands underneath the hips, palms facing down. Bring the elbows closer toward each other.

Breathing in, lift the head and chest up. Keeping the chest elevated, lower the head backward and touch the top of the head to the floor.

With the head lightly touching the floor, press the elbows firmly into the ground, placing the weight on the elbow and not on the head. Lift your chest up from in-between the shoulder blades. Press the thighs and legs to the floor.

Hold the pose for as long as you comfortably can, taking gentle long breaths in and out. Relax in the posture with every exhalation. Now lift the head up, lowering the chest and head to the floor. Bring the hands back along the sides of the body. Relax.

Questions about the best postures for your spine? Ask in the comments or Tweet @YogaWithPaul

 

 

Positive Effects of Backbends

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backbend benefits, healing yoga, healthy attitude, mindfulness, perspective, positive yoga, yoga anxiety, yoga benefits, yoga calming, yoga spine, Yoga With Paul

Backbends are a challenging element of yoga. They require us to do the opposite of what feels comfortable and “normal” — at least at first. As we grow in our practice we experience the positive effects of backbends and build mental and physical flexibility.

Blogger and yogi Lindsay Dahl shared an inspiring post on 11 benefits of backbends. Enjoy these three excerpts and can read the whole post here…

Relieve anxiety and stress

One of the most notable benefits of backbends is relief of anxiety and stress. As I mentioned earlier, a daily backbend routine can do wonders to eliminate chronic anxiety that racks our bodies and minds. By opening up the front of your body,  you release and break through stress. To do so takes mental determination, discipline and dedication.

Approach each backbend with a can-do attitude and tell yourself you will stay in the posture and breathe. Breathing is one of the most important elements to a properly executed backbend. If you’re experiencing chronic anxiety, increase the number of days you practice yoga each week. I’ve found that a more consistent practice keeps anxiety in check.

Opens your mind and heart to new possibilities

By releasing and countering some of the tension on the backs of our spines (think shoulders and lower back) we can open up the front of our bodies to new people and experiences. Increasingly, flexibility in the body mirrors itself in our minds.

Relieves insomnia and restlessness

If your mind is racing when you lay in bed, get out and do camel pose. Just a minute in this posture will help release the mental chatter and tension in your body. I’ve done this several times and it’s amazing how fast it works. Make sure to breathe while doing the posture and do a few sets if you need to. It’s so simple, and so effective.

Questions about backbends? Ask in the comments!

 

Simple Yoga Poses for Abs

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ab exercises, best yoga poses, core yoga, London yoga teacher, spine strengthening yoga, yoga abs, yoga asanas, yoga postures, yoga tips, Yoga With Paul, YWP

Yoga is a fantastic way get great abs. Regular practice will help tighten and tone your midsection and build the muscles that support your spine. These two simple yoga poses for abs via Yoga Basics are a great way to add targeted core work to your practice.

Upward Boat Pose

1. From a seated position bend the knees, bringing the feet flat to the floor with the legs together. Slide the hands behind your hips with the fingers pointed forward and elbows bent away from you.

2. Lean back to lift the heels an inch or two off the floor. Draw the shoulder blades together to lift and open the chest.

3. Slowly begin to straighten the legs, kicking out through the heels, lifting the legs up as high as comfortable. Release the arms forward, parallel to the floor with the palms facing down. Keep the chest open and the shoulders down and back.

4. Breathe and hold for 2-6 breaths. Put as much effort into lifting the chest as you are in lifting the legs.

5. To release: exhale and bend the knees, lowering the feet back to the floor.

Benefits: Boat pose tones and strengthens the abdominal muscles, improves balance and confidence, and stretches the backs of the legs.

Plank

1. From Standing Forward Fold, step or jump both feet back 4-5 feet into a push-up position.

2. Spread the fingers wide apart with the middle finger pointing forward, press into the palms with the arms are straight. Tuck the tailbone under so the legs, hips and torso are one straight line. Press the crown of the head forward and with the toes tucked, press the heels back.

3.  Breathe and hold for 1-4 breaths.

4. To release: either bend the knees to the floor into Child pose, or bend the elbows and lower down into Kataranga.

Benefits: Plank pose builds upper and core body strength, lengthens the spine and strengthens the low back muscles.

Read more about core yoga poses at Yoga Basics.

Questions? Ask in the comments!