Category: Focus on Anatomy
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For the Love of Lats: TLC for your Back Muscles
The latissimus dorsi (also known as “lats”) is a super important back muscle. You use it every time you pull something towards you. Recently I’ve come to recognize how little attention and love I give to this muscle. I train in karate. One of the requirements to move up in rank is to do 3…
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6 Easy Yoga Moves for Foot Love
My mom hates foot massages. Huh!?! I just don’t get it. I think they’re one of the best things ever. I like my feet pampered and free. I can’t wear socks to bed. I don’t really like shoes. I need to wear something that I can take off easily. Flip-flops are great. Going barefoot – ideal. Add a hot…
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Our Wonderful Arms
Giving Loving Attention to the Arms As a writer, I’m highly dependent on my arms, wrists and hands. They are used extensively and if I don’t take care of them, I can quite quickly become injured. As part of the process, I’ve become very conscious about my own personal practice. As a direct result, I noticed that…
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Embrace the Strength in your Spine
Develop a Healthy Spine with Yoga Your spine is the centre for everything you do. It is your support. It gives you strength. When we have a healthy spine, we move easier, we breathe easier, we even digest our food better. Spinal health is more than just eliminating a sore back. Spinal health is about…
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Developing a Balanced Body
Yesterday I discovered that my body, quite literally, is off balance. I always like experimenting with new classes and trends and so I tried a yoga class on the Indo Balance Board. The Indo Board was developed in part due to the massive response to Yoga on the Stand Up Paddle Boards. The idea behind…
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Can Massage Therapy Deepen Your Practice?
photo credit: Average Jane As I’ve mentioned in other posts, I suffer from a bad knee injury, sustained about eight years ago in basic training. So, one doesn’t get away with limping for eight years without some seriously negative side effects. I’m now experiencing tons of lower back pain on top of some major troubles…
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Oh, How Neutral Pelvis Evades Me
photo credit: gyro2 Okay, this is a weird title for a blog post, I know. But a neutral pelvis position seems to be a constant in most yoga poses and for some reason, I just can’t seem to master it and the mantra “find neutrality” seems to be the one correction I receive on a…
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How Far Is Too Far?
My Dad, who I love to absolute bits, is a very interesting man, full of complexities and stories to tell. But as I mentioned in another post, he really isn’t someone I would picture being inclined towards the practice of yoga. He’s a bit gruff. He doesn’t like “touchy-feely stuff.” He’s the kind of…
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Core Stability and Yoga
Welcome back! I hope you are still smiling from last week – Charlotte’s added touch of the John Lennon video first brought tears to my eyes as I remembered the day he died, then smiles and even laughter at the honesty to self and love he radiated into the world. A perfect ending to my…
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Yoga Anatomy
As an avid Yoga practitioner, I do on occasion find myself shaking my head when a new muscle comes into play that I can’t say I’ve felt before. Avid may not be the right word; I do have an ongoing issue with self-competition and admit that I tend to push myself a little past ‘comfortable’…