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Notes on Yoga, Breathing, Pilates & Hypopressives

May Focus  - Root Chakra (Muladhara) & Feet to Hips

3/5/2021

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Root Chakra Muladhara Yoga Pilates Poole
Root Chakra - Muladhara
Welcome to May!
This month our focus is on our Root Chakra - Muladhara in our Yoga classes (think Mula Bandha lock, pelvic floor) and also including our feet legs, hips!  Pilates will also link into these same areas.  We will be adding in the stretchy bands again, also mini loop (booty) bands & a soft ball for foot massage (our feet are our foundation).  If you don’t have any mini loop bands, either tie a long stretchy band into about a 1ft diameter mini loop or use this affiliated link to purchase some (they are great to add into other workouts that you do & they’re on offer!)
Our Root Chakra is our first Chakra (in Yoga, outside of Yoga there are a lot more!), it is located at the base of our spine, our perineum.  It is associated with security & safety, our foundation, our identity & our grounding connection from ourselves to our world around us.  It’s colour is red.  Gemstones or crystals linked with it are deep red garnet (one of my favourites!), bloodstone, smokey quartz.  Key essential oils are bergamot, vetiver & ylang-ylang.  The Sanskrit translation for Muladhara is:  Mula means root and adhara means base or support.  When this chakra is balanced we feel stable, connected and grounded.  If it is out of balance we may feel anger, over worrying, insecure and physical feelings of pain or discomfort in our lower back or sciatica, gut related issues such as constipation.  Think of all that tension you physically hold when you are upset or stressed (my lower back tightens up every time there is a shift in our lockdown status!)
Key tips for engaging your pelvic floor (Mula Bandha) - this is the group of muscles in your pelvis, they are a bit like a bowl as they hold everything up inside you (or at least they should! Join in the my beginners Pilates & Hypopressives classes if you need more).  They should work a bit like a trampoline & should mirror the movement of your diaphragm.  They shouldn't be held tight all day, but should naturally engage & relax with your movements & breath throughout your day.  To consciously engage them, imagine you are trying to stop yourself from having a wee & trying to stop yourself from breaking wind! That GENTLE drawing in & up is what are aiming for.  You should still be able to breathe.  If you can’t then you are holding on too tight!  As we go through our Yoga & Pilates flows/classes we want to think about not pushing out into our belly or down into our pelvic bowl but instead a gentle feeling of drawing in & up.  Lengthening through your spine, growing tall from your hips.  For example in a Warrior pose, lift out of your hips without moving your legs & you might just feel a slight tension switching on in your lower abs.  In Pilates when we are doing our basic ab preps, toe taps or single leg stretches fro example, we should be thinking about that drawing in and up feeling, so as you lift your head/shoulders or stretch a leg out we are hopefully not seeing our bellies rise.
Keep an eye out for my new Chakra Box being released this month.  A mini at home Yoga retreat which includes 2 exclusive Yoga and Meditation videos along with a box of goodies - including a wrist mala (red garnet), soap, notebook, a card with journalling prompts and affirmations.
​
Pranayama breath work for our Root Chakra
This is a slow calming and balancing breath.  If you feel like it is too slow, breathe at a slow but comfortable pace to you and see if over time, you can work at this pace.  Breathe through your nose.  When I talk about a deep breath, I mean that your breath should travel deep down in your lungs.  The best way to get your breath to the bottom of your lungs is to breathe via your nose.  Mouth breathing tends to be a very short, shallow breath into the top of your lungs.
  1. Sit comfortably & scan your body for your stress & tension levels
  2. Try to sit tall, with your, hips, ribs & head stacked
  3. Take a couple of slow inhales/exhales whilst rolling your shoulders backwards
  4. Rest your hands on your tummy (just helps with feeling what's going on)
  5. Inhale, via your nose, for 3 seconds
  6. Exhale, via your nose, for 3 seconds
  7. Inhale, via your nose, for 4 seconds
  8. Exhale, via your nose, for 4 seconds
  9. Inhale, via your nose, for 5 seconds
  10. Exhale, via your nose, for 5 seconds
  11. See if you can keep going for 5 minutes, inhaling for 5 sends and exhaling for 5 seconds
  12. However you are breathing, stay with your counting, maintaining awareness of any tension - try to relax that area
  13. When you have finished, notice how your mind & body feel.

Taking your practice off the mat
  1. Keep red around you or wear something red to bring you back to the security & grounding of the Root Chakra
  2. Go barefoot outside if outside if you can to connect with the earth
  3. Try the above meditation, 5 minutes first thing in the morning can be good - before your thoughts really get going
  4. Meet with people (in person or online) to having that connected feeling re-affirmed
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April Focus - Solar Plexus Chakra and Core Strength

5/4/2021

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Picture
It is April - Happy Easter! 

We are continuing to work our way through the Chakras & working in that same region in Pilates.   This month we are working with our Solar Plexus Chakra or Manipura.  It also gets called the Naval Chakra.  It means 'filled with gems'.  It is located in your upper abdomen, somewhere between your naval and solar plexus.  It is bright yellow in colour (maybe this will help the sun come out!) It is associated with our self esteem, insight and discipline as well as our digestion and adrenal glands! It allows you to make decisions and move forward in your life, which in conjunction with working our core and improving our posture will help you to feel more attuned to your self and self confidence.  Associated essential oils ginger, peppermint, grapefruit (see the digestive theme!) and the ever present Lavender.  Gemstones that are linked to this chakra are citrine, topaz, jasper and one of my favourites the tigers eye.  

Low core strength or poor posture (hands up who has been sitting at their desks for too long?) can all lead to digestive problems, with everything being squished up, lack of movement and breath means that your insides are not getting their massaged and moved as much as they could.  We will be working on our core strength with, twists & posture being key this month.  So think obliques, i.e. your waist.  

I hope your arms & shoulders liked all of the extra focus that they had last month? If anyone didn't notice, I completely forgot to add & then progress any push ups!!

Our breath work practice will be our 360 breath (rib cage breath, diaphragm breath, lateral thoracic breath) - really feeling for the expansion of your ribcage, especially in our standing Yoga poses.  Your pelvic floor should mirror the movement of our diaphragm, so if we have poor posture or are mouth breathers, or sit a lot of the time we will be taking shallow breaths into our upper lungs which doesn't use our diaphragm as much as our bodies need us to.  By breathing through our nose we naturally take our breath deeper into our lungs, pushing down & massaging our internal organs & getting a bit of movement in our pelvic floor.
​

Taking your practice off the mat

  • Can you take the choice that seems a bit uncomfortable, weigh the risks of course but can you push yourself out of your comfort zone?
  • LTA's - Little Tiny Actions - can you make a small change & keep doing that 1 small thing every day (maybe don't look at your phone messages or SM for the first hour of the day)
  • Can you find your neutral spine (seated/standing - doesn't matter) and take 2 minutes every hour to breath slowly and quietly in for 5 and out for 5

Pranayama breathwork Kapalabhati or Breath of Fire!

This is an invigorating breath, fast paced that has short strong exhales with a passive inhale.  It raises your sympathetic nervous system but because you are controlling it, it shouldn't leave you feeling more stressed or anxious, but more like you've had a strong cup of coffee.  It is also known as Skull Shining breath.  Note - if you have a cold or stuffy nose you will have to mouth breath, or maybe just save it until you can breath through your nose! You might feel a bit light headed.
  1. Sit comfortably & scan your body for your stress & tension levels
  2. Take a couple of slow inhales/exhales whilst rolling your shoulders backwards
  3. Rest your hands on your tummy (just helps with feeling what's going on)
  4. Take an inhale
  5. As you exhale, imagine you are trying to blow a feather off of the end of your nose, you are strongly puffing your breath out with short, sharp puffs.
  6. Try 10 puffs, you should feel your tummy moving/engaging under your hands
  7. Take a conscious inhale & notice what you notice
  8. Repeat your exhales, maybe try 15 exhale puffs this time
  9. Take a conscious inhale & notice what you notice
  10. Repeating your exhales, maybe try 20 exhale puffs this time
  11. Take a conscious inhale & notice what you notice
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March Focus - Throat Chakra (Vishuddha) & Shoulder/Arm Mobility (strength & flexibility)

28/2/2021

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Throat Chakra ImageThroat Chakra for March
Picture: www.lemonloco.com

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We have made it to March!! We will be incorporating a little more focus on our shoulders & arms this month as well as our Throat Chakra.  If you have any Yoga blocks (or paperback books) & a long resistance band - we will also be using these in class.  If you don’t then don’t worry the class will work without them, just use your imagination!  If you would like some links on where to buy resistance bands scroll down to the bottom of this post.
Our throat chakra is located in our throat & is related to sound, self expression & self confidence plus listening to & receiving information & others thoughts.  It is the 5th chakra.  Its colour is a bright blue, aquamarine & is also associated with our jaw, neck, tongue & thyroid gland.  Common feelings of imbalance are insecurity, introversion, shoulder pain, an inability to express ourselves, jaw pain (TMJ), sore throats.

A Mudra (there are over 500 mudras or hand gestures) for this chakra is The Akasha Mudra - it is formed by touching the tip of your thumb & middle finger whilst keeping the 3 fingers straight & relaxed.  The middle finger is said to represent the element ‘ether’ which is the element for our throat chakra.  

We can also add in some sound vibrations & different pranayama practices for our throat chakra.  Don’t worry I definitely won’t be singing at you!!  Think more of the humming bee breath & breath of fire.  Feel free to sing to yourself though!
​Our other focus for March is on our shoulder & arm strength & mobility.  So yes - naturally pushups will be featuring somewhere ?!  But also working on hour shoulder mobility in all directions - do you remember the tea cup flows that we have done (in the distance past) with blocks, we can do those with blocks or (light) books.  Some of stretches & movements for shoulders from Hypopressives will appear.

Having a good controllable range of movement in our shoulders will help with our day to day life.  Building strength & movement into the musculature around our shoulder blades & finding some really nice stretches for our chest area.  Check out your own neck range of movement.  Look over your right shoulder & notice how far round your can turn your head.  Then look over your left should - do. You have the same range side to side, or can see further round on one side?  If you have a different side to side, then maybe make a note of where your range is at the start of March & see if there’re is any change by the end of the month?

Here are some links for resistance bands, which need to be 2 meters long (or as close to) & Yoga bricks.  Please note with the bricks,  you seem to get 1 of each colour! 
As an Amazon Associate I may earn from qualifying purchases.

Taking Your Practice off the Mat

Taking your practice with you, off the mat
  • Sing or hum - as well the vibration being cleansing for this chakra, singing is a great exercise for your diaphragm & the vibration from humming is great for increasing our para sympathetic (rest & digest) nervous system.
  • Really listen (without interrupting) to other people.  Sometimes when we are talking to other people we just want to be heard without having an opinion.
  • Spend at least 1 day a week without criticising anyone (yourself included), instead give positive responses only.
  • Wear something blue & or eat something blue (think blueberries!) to remind you of this months Chakra.

Throat Meditation

Humming Bee Breath (Brahmari) - we will be practicing this one in class as well (Zoom classes work really well for this as only you can hear yourself!)
  1. Sit comfortably & scan your body for your stress & tension levels
  2. If you are happy to, gently close & cover your eyes with your fingers & close your ears with your thumbs (to close off external intrusions)
  3. Close your mouth, without clenching your jaw
  4. Breathe in through your nose
  5. As you exhale make the sound of the letter M.  Keep exhaling for as long a you can, without making yourself gasp for breath
  6. Repeat for a few minutes
  7. Sit & scan your body again for your stress & tension levels - noticing any changes
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Breathing in Yoga & Pilates

20/11/2019

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What is so special about breathing – everybody does it naturally and most of our breathing is done involuntarily.  So ... why do I talk about it & ask you to practice it at the beginning and end of Yoga or at the beginning or Pilates?

Typically, in the West, our breath pattern is quite restricted.  We tend to have a shallow breath that only takes the air into the middle to upper third of the lungs.  Keeping our ribs and tummy areas fairly flat but sometimes allowing our shoulders to rise and fall with the breath.  This kind of breath doesn't provide us with lots of oxygen, makes us stressed and tired as the body is tense.  Notice how you are breathing now – are your shoulders moving, is your tummy moving – where do you feel the breath in your chest area? Are you breathing through your mouth or your nose? Try to breath through your nose as much as possible - it's why it's there!

Breathing patterns can be in our sympathetic nervous 
system (fight or flight, anxious, stressed) where we breath into just the top region of our lungs (often inhaling through the mouth), or our parasympathetic nervous system (down regulated, relaxed) where we breath into the lower region of our lungs.

Breathing patterns or exercises in yoga are known as Pranayama.  The breath patterns below promote relaxation because as the lungs expand on the inhalation the vagus nerve is stimulated, which slows the heart and breath rates down.  The vagus nerve runs from the brain to below the chest, into our lower body.  The breathing should be relaxed, if you find the breath becoming forced, ragged or you feel dizzy, just come back to a gentle relaxed breath.  Taking the breath through our nose also releases a gas called Nitric Oxide which helps to clean the breath, it also allows the blood vessels to relax & by breathing through our nose the air tends to go deeper into the lungs where there are more blood vessels, allowing for greater take up or oxygen.

By relaxing and taking the breath, via our nose, down into the lower lobes of our lungs we are doing diaphragmatic rib cage breathing.  Our diaphragm is doing the job the it is designed for.  As you inhale through the nose the diaphragm muscles contract pulling the centre of the diaphragm down, which pushes the contents of your lower abdomen down and out slightly, massaging our internal organs & relaxing our pelvic floor down. This allows your lungs to stretch and to fill up with air.  Exhaling, through the nose, the diaphragm relaxes and the centre of it moves back up, pushing the air back out of the lungs, our internal organs move back to place & or pelvic floor engages as it rises up.  The breath rate becomes slower and calming.  You can experience this breath by standing, sitting or lying down with your hands placed gently on your lower ribs, thumbs around your back.  As you inhale, you should feel a 360° expansion.  You might only feel a centimetre or so of movement.  Your shoulders shouldn't rise with your inhale.  Allow your exhale to become 1.5 to 2 times slower than your inhale to help activate your parasympathetic nervous system. 
​

3 part breath – this breath incorporates the diaphragmatic rib cage breathing as above, but also brings in full breath.  We start by inhaling through the nose, think about breathing down into the bottom third of your lungs, then inhale again into your ribcage, then finally inhale again to the top of lungs.  Exhaling back out through the nose, we go in reverse order, so the air is expelled from the top of the lungs, then from the chest area and finally from the bottom of the lungs  You shouldn't feel like you are about to burst, you should feel comfortably full.  This breath utilises the whole of the lungs, enhances your self-awareness and is calming.  The exhalation should be longer than the inhalation.  This breath mobilises your ribcage, stretches the muscles between your ribs (intercostals) and energises you.

​Diaphragmatic rib cage breathing can also be known as lateral thoracic breathing (If you have taken my Pilates classes we do it standing at the beginning), except in yoga the inhalation and exhalation are both through the nose,  I cue to exhale through the mouth in Pilates as it engages your core a bit more.  Try it - can you feel the difference when you exhale through your moth or nose? With practice, this kind of breath can help you to deepen your inhalation and strengthen your diaphragm. 

If you are looking to improve your breathing - whether just to change your current breathing habit, to improve your pelvic floor or to improve your running why not try out a Hypopressive session with me?

Here is a link to a really good YouTube video on breathing clips by Core Exercise Solutions, Dr Sarah Ellis Duvall, PT, DPT, CPT.
https://youtu.be/AKNCwuNaPyE


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At home, in private sessions Yoga, Pilates, Personal Training, Hypopressives.  Helping Pelvic floor dysfunction in Poole, Dorset. Including Canford Cliffs, Lilliput, Wimborne, Oakdale, Canford Heath, Parkstone, Broadstone, Core Mullen and Sandbanks.  New Pilates for Golf course!