Tag Archives: savasana

The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Yoga

You can’t find a hair tie, your yoga mat is packed away in a box somewhere, and dinner has to be on the table in 45 minutes. Don’t have time for yoga? Yeah, me neither. Thankfully, though, our resident yoga expert Jill Lawson has provided a few tips and tricks for those of us “lazy girls” who want to practice yoga more regularly but sometimes lack the time, resources and know-how to do so.

What would an at-home routine look like for someone who can’t afford to join a yoga studio?
Just as it is in a yoga studio, the environment is an important part of the at-home yoga experience. Light up some incense or candles, play some soothing music, and turn up the thermostat just a bit. Setting the mood and creating an environment as peaceful as the yoga studio can be just as profound when practicing yoga at home. Always begin with a warm-up of some sort. For more vigorous practices, 5-10 rounds of sun salutations will get the blood flowing. For more gentle practices, a few rounds of cat-cow pose will suffice. The bulk of the practice can take many forms, but each session should still end with a few minutes of final relaxation, otherwise known as savasana, or corpse pose. (more…)

Posted on March 15, 2024 by Dana

At-Home Yoga Practice is Beneficial When You Can’t Make it to the Studio

You might come home from work with the intention of grabbing your yoga mat and heading to the yoga studio for an evening flow class, but sometimes life gets in the way.

Perhaps you learn right before you pick up your car keys or hop on your bike that there is a traffic jam clogging your route, or an impending storm that persuades you to stay inside. Maybe you think you will be just a little too late to make it before the start of class, so you opt out.

Whatever the circumstances, there is always a way to stay loyal to your yoga routine. The following is a simple guide that will give you some tips on how to practice yoga for 20-30 minutes at home when you can’t make it to the studio.

Start

Getting started is the biggest challenge. There are a million distractions that can keep us from taking care of our bodies, but usually once we get started, those deterrents fall away and leave us with the wherewithal to forge ahead. One suggestion is to find something that gets you excited about practicing. If putting on some soft music or lighting a stick of incense sparks your motivation to roll out your mat, do it. (more…)

Posted on May 1, 2024 by Jill

The Most Popular Yoga Poses

Downward Dog

With the myriad of styles to choose from it can feel a little overwhelming to know which yoga classes to take. It might be of comfort to learn that each style shares in a lot of commonality. Unless you are choosing between a super advanced inversion class and a passive restorative class, you can bet you will find some crossover in the occurrence of poses.

The following is a list of the top five most popular yoga poses with special tips on how to perform each correctly, plus their benefits for the mind and body.

1. Downward Dog

With both hands and feet on the mat, this pose affects all the muscles in the body. It is often revisited over and over again in class, therefore considered the number one most commonly practiced pose.

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Posted on August 11, 2024 by Jill