Hello Villagers!

Welcome to Fit U, your private on-line Fitness University where you can learn about fitness, maximizing your workout, and lengthening and strengthening your body.  There are currently two fitness regimes available to you: Yoga or Sculpt.

Is Yoga right for U?  Well, that depends.  Do you want to strengthen and lengthen your muscles?  Do you want to increase bone density and the range of motion of your joints ?  Do you want to learn more about yourself, your body and your mind?  Do you want to de-stress and detoxify?  Then, yes, Yoga probably IS for you!  Yoga has been around for 5000 years for a reason – it works!  So give it a try!

Is Sculpt right for U?  Again, it depends.  Do you want to strengthen, lengthen and increase muscle tone?  Do you want to learn how to maximize your workout time, toning your body in safe and effective ways?  Do you want to sculpt your body to a younger looking you?  Then yes, Sculpt probably IS for you!

Do you have questions?  Ask me – that’s what I’m here for!

Set an Intention

Now that our season together is winding down, I wanted to talk about setting an intention.  As you know, I always set an intention, which is just a meaningful objective for our yoga practice together.

The first thing I do is to observe.  In order to set an intention, you must know your current situation and where you are in your practice.  Then decide what your practice needs.  Hips tight?  Hip openers needed.  Feeling tired?  Maybe try an energizing practice?  Moving your feet between poses?  Mindful practice exercises coming right up.

Next, be specific of what you want to focus on during your practice.  Whether it’s the placement of your front foot, the awareness of your breath, or how much you can release your hips, be clear of your focus.

Last, practice with awareness.  Keep running your intention through your mind as you practice.  You run through your “to do” list as your day progresses, right?  So, as you practice, bring your mind to your intention with full acceptance of each moment/posture.  Be compassionate, self-accept, practice with awareness, and receive the benefits of your “intentional” practice!

Mindful Gratitude

Today’s practice was to remind us that there’s a larger context to our lives.  Asana practice is about moving your body into, holding, and getting out of, postures.  So, let’s appreciate the miracle of our body’s abilities.

Again, we focused on our foundation, this time, both feet.  Having a focal point quiets your mind and generates a strong connection with your heart, increasing energy, elevating mood, and bringing appreciation, compassion and deep relaxation into our bodies.

In this week’s class, I put you in postures where you balanced on two feet – but NOT in your center of gravity – because it’s important to understand that distributing your weight in equilibrium doesn’t necessarily mean placing equal weight on each foot.  To balance a seesaw, you put the lighter person further out and the heavier person closer in to the center.

In standing poses, your feet are your “center”.  So the position and use you make of your feet is crucial in building a stable foundation for each asana.  Pada Bandha is more than a simple, voluntary, muscular lift of your arch.  To create strong arches we extend the foot, stretching it lengthwise and extending it out laterally to spring the weight of the body upward.  Fully pressing your weight into the front of the heel, the root of the little toe, and the root of the big toe, creates a triangular base that vaults the inner arch of the foot upward.  You can enhance your equilibrium by spreading the toes and the ball of your foot. The broader your base, the more stable you are, and even the slightest widening of the sole of the foot is surprisingly helpful.

Practice this Vinyasa:  Chair – Reverse Warrior I (R foot forward, R arm up), Extended Side Angle (R hand down, left after over ear), Half Moon (R hand down, left leg up).  Use the strength of your foot and lower leg muscles to shift your center of gravity when you move from one pose to the next.  Actively press down into the big-toe ball and inner heel to lift up through your body and shift your center of gravity toward the outer edge of your foot because pressing into the outer edge of your foot shifts your center of gravity more over the inner edge.

Be grateful for your ability to coordinate all the actions you must coordinate to remain stable as your move into, through, and out of each posture.  Smile – You’re amazing!!!!

Concentration (Dharana)

Concentration (Dharana) lets us light up one activity so brightly that all else falls away.  We hold our concentration on a focal point, keeping our mind from wandering away to some other place.  Using the technique of Dharana in asana practice helps us learn how to integrate awareness of muscles, joints, and organs (internal body adjustments) with prana and breath.

Tadasana (Mountain Pose) is the foundation for all the postures because the neutral standing position teaches us to be fully upright, connected to the ground yet reaching out and up toward the sky.  To find ease in your upright posture, you must have “equal standing” through the inner and outer side of each ankle joint. Without good arch support, the inner ankle bone collapse in and down, the inner groin collapses, and weakness of the inner thighs compress the lower back.

So, in today’s practice, our focal point was one part of our foundation – our forward foot.  As we worked, we constantly brought our attention to the forward foot, it’s alignment in the pose, the feeling of balance within it, it’s importance in stabilizing and supporting us in the pose.  We finished with Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose) because, standing on one foot, we naturally drop extraneous thoughts to focus on the balance.

The three essential elements of balance are alignment, strength, and attention. Alignment of the body with gravity makes balance possible. Strength gives us the power to create, hold, and adjust alignment. Attention monitors alignment so we can correct it from one moment to the next.  When we balance, we align our  center of gravity with the earth’s gravitational field.   We can’t be absolutely still – we have to rebuild our balance moment by moment. The effort to center and recenter brings flesh, bones, thoughts, emotions, and consciousness into balance.  because the adjustments are focus points telling your mind, “be here!”

Paying Attention

Part of Mindfulness is noticing when we’re NOT paying attention.  Paying attention means that we notice vrittis (the fluctuations of our mind), even as we strive to focus it on the present.  This week’s practice worked on training our mind to pay attention using our breath, grounding, and lengthening, as the focal points.

We worked on backbends, paying attention to our spine, both front and back.  Try to create a curve that is equal through the entire spine, from tailbone to the base of the skull.  Learning to create this curve allows the spine, shoulders and hips to open evenly, so that no one area is stressed.  As we worked through the energetic qualities and detailed movements of poses like Makarasana (crocodile), Bhujangasana (Cobra), Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward facing dog), we paid close attention to see where we were more open, and where we were tighter.  As you learn to focus your awareness, you learn to smooth the curve out, opening tight areas and strengthening weak ones.  Paying attention to your body’s sensations develops objectivity of mind … which allows transformation and growth to happen within your body.