Refresh & Rejuvenate During Your Stay

Simple Keys to the Shoulders

There’s a link between our shoulders and our breath capacity: our breath capacity peaks at age 20-25, and begins to decline noticeably around age 35. A big part of this is tied to reduced shoulder and upper body mobility. But when we move our arms, we can breathe — and have less shoulder and neck pain too!

There some secrets to knowing how to move the shoulders well for the sake of greater freedom — and it comes down to knowing how the shoulder joints work. This session is about learning a few basic principles for moving your shoulders well — and finding freedom not just in your shoulders, but in your breath!

This evening session is simple, with fundamental yoga poses for better shoulder movement and breath, and will include simple practices for the breath that you can repeat any time that you have time to breathe! And it will end with a deep and nourishing relaxation.

The ideas and exercises covered in this session will provide the foundation for a fuller practice that goes further into the shoulders on Sunday.

Dynamic Alignment is about Healthy Joints

Words like ‘alignment’ and ‘yoga poses’ can make yoga sound very static, while ‘yoga flow’ can make it sound like something you struggle to keep up with. But the yoga practice is really about getting your joints to move well, reducing wear and tear as well as reducing pain.

This session is about getting the joints of your lower body — your hips, knees, and feet — to move more smoothly in a healthy way, and at a pace that allows you to appreciate and remember the experience. And you’ll find that muscle tightness comes from locking up your joints. Focus on moving your joints well, and flexibility naturally flows from that!

In this practice, you’ll experience how the point of yoga asanas is to teach your body how to move better, starting with your feet, knees, and hips, and the lessons get put into practice as you leave the class. Your body will thank you for it!

Your Low Back and Your Breath

We’ve known for some time that the breath is an important key to overcoming (and preventing) low back pain, but rarely is the connection explored in a way that helps us understand it. But they go hand in hand: your breath helps keep your back more pain-free, while the freedom of movement of your spine helps you breathe.

This session explores finding greater movement in your spine — not in extreme yoga postures, but rather in asana movements that help you breathe more freely — and vice versa: breathe in the movements, and you’ll move more freely!

The practice will explore the movements of the spine in connection with the breath in yoga asanas, and will lead into relaxing breathing practices that both refresh and increase vitality — and we’ll explore just how the breath does this for us, from a modern science-based perspective, as well as in experiential ‘yoga’ terms.

Essentials for Shoulder Freedom

The shoulders are the most mobile joints in our body, and yet most of us get tight — causing pain in our neck and back, as well as suffering pain and limitation in the shoulders themselves. Even flexible people can have shoulder and neck pain!

This session goes deeper into shoulder movement, including the elbows and wrists, in a more wide-ranging practice that reinforces the basic ideas set forth in Friday night’s session. we’ll explore fundamental principles for working with the shoulder joints safely and effectively in all of the different ways we move our shoulders in yoga.

And importantly, we’ll integrate the movements of the shoulders with the rest of the body, exploring the link between healthy shoulder movement and the health of your neck, low back and even your hips!

With the shoulders especially in yoga, there are lots of variations and exercises that keep the practice interesting and accessible. With Doug’s guidance, you’ll understand the purpose of these actions, poses, and variations, and will easily remember them so you can incorporate them into your yoga practice, or just into your day!