Yesterday I was sitting together with another senior yoga teacher to catch up after some time of not seeing each other.
Invariably at some point the conversation spiralled back to yoga practice and teaching.
What we had noticed was a continued rise of the popularity of Pilates training,...

Yoga is a holistic practice that emphasizes the integration of body, mind, and spirit. Some of the fundamental postures of yoga are forward bends, which are essential for the stretching and releasing of the spine, hamstrings, and hip flexors. However, like any other physical activity, there are...

Are you still making this mistake?

Warrior 3 can be a strong pose. Both as a challenging balance and to lift the body horizontally into a line or slight back bend.

We might feel the muscle engagement in the hamstring area of the lifted leg, most people might also notice the gluteal muscles working...

Upward facing dog was amongst the first yoga postures we practiced when I began taking yoga classes many years ago. With it came the spinal extension, the compressive feeling in the lower back and the instruction to tilt the head back and look up.

Over the years I learned this pose supposedly has...

What are you really challenging in boat pose / navasana?
Hip flexors, hamstrings, thigh muscles, or your back?
The leg position has a big influence on what the focus of the posture is for many of us.

This video explains why practicing with bend knees is more likely to direct the effort to your hip...

Any yoga posture is an adjustment of our posture. From a more generalized perspective that is.
The question if adjustments make your practice better or worse, we’ll leave for a different discussion.
Think of yourself standing somewhere, in line to get a beverage maybe. Would you be like a...

There is an interesting and very important difference between living and man-made structures.
While it may seem obvious, some of these differences are still neglected today when movement and postures are considered, as for example, in modern yoga teaching.

Right now, I’m building a little...

The movement we think we are doing, how we imagine our posture looks like, and the reality are often quite different.
This disconnect between perception and reality is based on the integration of specific nerve receptor information in our body.

Watch the video to learn how you can train these...

Lower back compression is a common occurrence in back bending postures. This can be one sided back bends such as front splits, or warrior one, as well as two sided back bends like camel or wheel.

Pain in the back in back bends arises from joints or tissues running out of space to move before the...

As it turns out, not very much.
Alignment can look good.
Sometimes it makes postures and movements easier.
But what get’s us to a certain alignment?
It’s the actions and engagements of muscles.
Maybe let’s focus on that. Engagement is important.

Let’s take a step back to...

Oslo Yoga, www.osloyoga.no  hosted a panel discussion on yoga anatomy as part of their international yoga festival www.yogafestivalen.no on January 4, 2021.
On the panel were:

Mark Stephens www.markstephensyoga.com

Anna Kristina Kavli www.iyoga.no,

and me, Chris Kummer ...

Modern hips.

Modern hips are hips used to sitting on chairs. Or simply sitting a lot.

How many people have told you already that sitting too much can make your hip area tight? This tension can include the hip ligaments, the hip-flexor muscles and a lot of  other associated muscles and fascia...