So much activity is going on in your body from your fingers all the way to your toes when practicing Adho Mukha Vrksasana, the handstand! And the mighty handstand is definitely a pose that many of us want to perfect, so I'll start to offer some tips from my upcoming handstand workshop at The Yoga Shop!

Are you forgetting about your backside? If you spend most of your day sitting, there's a good chance that you are suffering from glute amnesia.

What are muscle agonists and antagonists? Here's a short video and review with a little help from Batman and Robin. A massage therapist named James introduced me to this superhero analogy some time ago, and I've used it to teach this topic ever since. Thanks James!

The world can be tough and stressful place that causes us to "hulk out" sometimes. If you're not familiar, the Hulk is a comic book hero who is a genius scientist that turns into a huge, monsterous rage machine when he gets overly stressed or irritated. He then goes about wreaking havoc and destroying everything in his path. Maybe that sounds familiar to you sometimes? The good news is yoga can help! Let's look at how a little yoga knowledge can soothe your inner Hulk.

I've had many students come up to me after a class saying, "My [fill in body part] is really tight! What is a good pose or stretch that I can do to loosen it up?" This or some variation of this question will inevitably come up at some point in a yoga teaching career. A general understanding of the mechanics of a stretch will help you find a quick answer and keep your yogic composure!

Here's another yoga teacher question that I recently recieved:
"Does rocking side to side in happy baby pose massage your kidneys? Does it compress the kidneys, and when you release does it send them fresh blood? I am curious about this in regards to compression of the organs in floor bow as well! 'Fresh blood'- is that a thing?"

Does burning or shaking during a yoga pose mean that "good things/change is happening"? I was recently told that this is a common idea in the yoga world, but I honestly have never heard it before. Now that I have heard it, here's my two cents on the topic.

I received a few questions last week about twists. Do twisting postures wring the toxins out of our spines, and are there toxins in our spines? Or do twists provide just a digestive benefit? How big is this benefit? If you twist left instead of right will it constipate you? What's a yogi to do!?!?

My fellow yoga teacher, Taylor, recently asked,

“What is your take on Legs Up the Wall Pose? Articles and teachers say that it reverses the blood flow and makes your heart have to work a bit harder because it is pushing blood up your legs instead of down. It is supposed to be the MOST restorative yoga pose. Doing it will stop you from aging, remove wrinkles from your face, make you immune to disease and you will NEVER die. Thoughts?”