Stinky Yoga Thursdays and A Few Other Things

I just noticed the date of my last post and saw that it's definitely been a while since I've updated this blog. Purely unintentional I assure you. I've had many great blog ideas and thoughts but they were all swept away by the demands of my day to day schedule and one trip to Germany.

Yes, even yoga teachers get too busy to update their blogs. If you picture my life as all green tea and long, relaxing afternoons of yoga practice, I'm going to have to burst that bubble for you. My husband found himself in hot water the last time he made fun of my work by saying, "What do you mean busy? All you do all day is stretch and breathe?"

I'm afraid that as long as people have stress, desk jobs and small children, I will be busy. Not that it's a bad thing mind you. I love when people walk in stressed, aching and grumpy and leave feeling relaxed and refreshed. I love that I get to be a part of their healing process. However, it means this blog might get neglected from time to time. Sorry blog!

So since I'm here and I have a lot I want to share, I'm going to use this entry as a boilerplate to update you on some interesting things around the studio lately.

Recently, a friend of mine asked me if I was familiar with barre workouts. Nope, I hadn't heard of them. She suggested I Google it and search YouTube for some examples. I did and realized that it was very yogaesque and in fact I had been incorporating many of the exercises into my classes already.

These past few years I've been adding more and more movement to my yoga in an effort to warm up the body at the beginning of class and also strengthen different muscle groups in new ways. The Iyengar style can be a bit challenging for the body since often it launches into the "big work" right from the get-go. I find a little movement can help ready the muscles and make the poses easier. Adapt or die as they say.

What I also found appealing about barre work is that it focuses on core and hip strength, two things that we tend to lack as a society. In general, most people have overly tight hip flexors and weak glute muscles. Combined with a weak core, it can reek all kinds of havoc on the lower back.

So I've decided to give it a go. On Wednesday at 6 PM, I'm offering a yoga-barre fusion class using chairs and the built in ledge around the studio wall as a barre. If you have issues with either your hips or you lower back or just want a little more of a workout with your yoga, come check it out. The worst that can happen is you hate it, right?

Speaking of lower backs, I've been given the opportunity to be a presenter at the Northwest Yoga Conference this February at the Lynnwood Convention Center. On February 10 at noon, I'll be leading a workshop on yoga for lower back care. Come learn how to prevent and help alleviate lower back issues through yoga. It's been suggested that just about everyone will at some point experience lower back pain during their life, so everyone could use this workshop.If you decide to attend the conference, please use me as a reference. I really appreciate it.

I realize that was a bit of shameless self-promotion, but I've been told that if I don't promote myself, no one else will.

Since I'm shamelessly promoting myself now, I wanted to let you know about another class I've added to the schedule or rather, got talked into teaching. (I'm a big pushover, I know.) On Thursdays at 9:30 AM, I'm offering a new yoga class for those who like their yoga in the morning. It's an all-levels-welcome class with the understanding that it's OK to come to class sweaty from your pre-yoga jog, elliptical workout, etc.

Many of those who requested the class mentioned that they like the idea of being able to get their cardio in before class. I said that I'm fine with that as long as everyone is all right with me coming to class post-run as well since Thursdays are one of my scheduled running days. Perhaps we will have to call this one "Stinky Yoga."

So whether I see you at Stinky Yoga Thursdays, at Barre Yoga Fusion or the Northwest Yoga Conference, I do hope to see you soon. I'm always here if you need me unless I'm in Germany or other places far flung of course. And hopefully, I will be able to do a better job of updating this blog from now on.