Yoga for Migraines

Sometimes, migraines just happen. There are quite a few people who get migraine headaches at some point in their life. Some migraines even cause nausea and tingling of your extremities. No matter what kind of migraine headache it is, I have found that, surprisingly, yoga helps.

We may not think that moving and stretching would help something that seems to be worsened by, well, moving and stretchy; but it does. Whenever I get a migraine headache, I try to lay down for a bit, take a bath or a shower to help it, then I finally accept the fact that doing some yoga could be great for me.

Ali K. created a great yoga sequence for headaches a few months ago. There is plenty of stretching and absolutely no strength building movement. Just what the doctor ordered. I would recommend doing this sequence after warming and relaxing the neck and back muscles. This can either be done with a heat pad, or by taking a nice, hot shower or bath. Taking some extra time in savasana tends to help as well!  

5 Yoga Positions to Tone the Bum

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I have been taking a lot of yoga classes the focus on toning the arms and the core, but sometimes, you just want some poses that will tone the bum. This could be no more true that it is now that all the bikini's are coming out and all I am seeing are commercials/workouts/people talking about ways to get back in bikini ready shape. One of my biggest trouble areas is my bum; it does not seem to care how far I run or how many squats I do, the thing just hates change. Except with these yoga poses. These poses are some of the few things that make my muscles so sore that sitting is an exercise all on it's own. 

Chair Pose

Chair pose is great for the bum beacuase it works all the glute muscles, the inner thighs, and the outer thighs. Oh, and let's not forget about how great a workout this is for the core!

This position is one of my favorite yoga positions. Twisting chair is also great for detoxing and getting a bit more of a workout. Try adding five breaths in chair pose to your vinyasa and repeat five times. You will have buns of steel in no time! 

Warrior Three

This one is sure to make you sore everywhere! Warrior three is asking you to, pretty much, form your body into a "T" with your arms, torso, and leg parallel to the floor. For an intermediate option, start with your arms out to the side, or, in prayer position at your heart. This are a bit easier renditions that will make balancing less of an issue. Be ready, you will feel this from your toes to your shoulders. 

Bridge Pose

Oh Bridge pose, such a wonderful way to relax while burning fat. It is common to see bridge pose at the end of a yoga flow, usually, before resting. A common rendition of this pose that will burn some major fat is to get into bridge pose, then slowly lower your back so you are almost touching the ground. Hold, then rise back up.

For a more advanced and serious glute workout, try raising one leg straight in the air. You can even add in the dips for a sure-fire glute toning. Any way you do it, this pose is guaranteed to help your rear defy that pesky gravity!

Here is a workout completely devoted to Bridge poses! 

Goddess Pose

This pose is a little like a seconds position plie, but your legs should be a bit wider and stay lowered for quite a bit longer than a plie. Last week's arm workout had a goddess pose rendition that also worked the arms.

Try staying in this pose for ten breaths. Chances are you legs will be shaking, but I know you can do it! Channel your inner goddess and ignore the urge to stand up. This will work the outer thighs, inner thighs, all those tiny groin muscles, and the bum. 

Warrior Two

Oh, how I love warrior two! I fell in love with yoga by doing a Yogamazing warrior sequence and now have Warrior Two in every flow I do from home. It does not matter how many times I do warrior two, it always works something better than I thought it would. This pose is great the ilio and abductor muscles of the leg, the arms, shoulders, core, thighs (just, all of them), and the bum. 

Yoga for Hangovers

First off, Happy St. Patrick's Day! Are you wearing green today or celebrating tonight? We will be doing both by way of some cute BR green jeans on my part and an Irish Pub for some celebration. If you are planning to go crazy tonight, this post is just for you (and possibly me) tomorrow morning.

Sometimes, we do go a little crazy and pay for it the next morning in the form of a hangover. Whether or not that will be your tonight, chances are it will happen at some point. When I was younger (am I really that old now?) hangovers were not a thing. Now, more than two glasses of wine and I am in the zone of possibly waking up in a haze. But hey, that's ok as long as I get some yoga in and plenty of water. Usually, no matter what haze I wake-up in, water, vitamin B12, and yoga will fix it.

Tara Stiles released a yoga how-to for all of us who had a bit too much fun the night before. This flow is wonderfully short and focuses on getting blood flowing to our brain and cleansing our bodies. At first, the idea of doing any sort of inversion sounded like the worst thing I could do when my world is spinning. Turns out that Tara Stiles is right again. Inversions will help! Here is another great Tara Stiles hangover flow for all those fantastic, overachieving yogis out there!

P.S. In case you mix last week's run down on which drinks are better for you, you can find them here and here! Here are a few yummy (and healthy) St. Patrick's Day recipes as well.

10 Quick Tips for a Successful Handstand

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This last week I was able to accomplish my first handstand with some massive help and a few fantastic tips from my new favorite yoga instructor. Of course, one handstand does not make me an automatic headstand master of yoga awesomeness, but it did help me figure out a few quick fixes that have been blocking my progression. Hopefully, these ten tips will help any newbie to handstands get rid of those mental and physical road blocks that can hold us back from accomplishing your inversion dreams and anything else. Turns out, handstands do no have to be super difficult, and they can actually be quite fun!

The Shoulder, Shoulder Principle

Keep hands directly under shoulders and shoulder width apart. If you are not sure exactly where that means, try placing a yoga block length-ways between your thumbs, this should be about the right amount of space.

Bend the elbows

Apparently, having flexible elbows and arms is not what you want when doing a handstand. Keeping my arms super straight massively increased my risks of overextending them and reduced the weight they could support.

Use all your hands

This is one I am so guilty of not doing. Place weight evenly from the back of your palm all the way to the fingers. Fingers should be active here and can even be curled downward a little to help activate every portion of the hand.

Activate the arms

This may seem quite obvious, but it was my biggest problem. The arms should be activated and elbows should be pushing towards the mid-line of the body. A good visual that my instructor gave me is to pretend you are squeezing a yoga block between your upper arms. Hands should be facing forward and elbows facing back, not out.

Shoulders down

When we activate the arms outward, the shoulders kind of naturally do this on their own. Be sure that your shoulders are staying down and back to ensure proper posture. This also helps make sure your spine does not banana.

Feet on wall

This is great for those not quite ready for a total handstand attempt. Stand leg distance from a wall and place your foot flat on the wall parallel to the ground. Turn around and adjust the leg so hips are even and the foot is facing downward, then hinge at the hips and place both hands on the floor and both feet on the wall. Practice all of the other tips here as well :)

Hips should lead, not legs

Guilty, again. When popping up to a handstand, it is super easy to kick the legs up and hope something sticks. This tends to lead to messy falls and not so graceful flops. Instead, keep hips even with one leg on the ground and able to push-off. Having the hips lead will give you more control.

Keep back straight

Balance is balance and keeping things straight helps balance. Curving the back can make handstands much harder because we are not gravitationally centered. Keep the back activated to stop from the banana effect.

Keep the back to the wall

Start against a wall to get your balance right. The way that my instructor told me is to get the head about 1-inch away from the wall, maybe less, and try a handstand from there. When you get into the handstand, you should almost be completely against the wall. This makes finding the center of gravity much easier. You can kick off the wall as you get more comfortable.

Overcome that fear

Handstands are so much more mental than physical. The best way to overcome that mental road block is to start practicing against a wall, with friends, or in a class. Our bodies are pretty amazing and can do incredible things, let's add handstands to that list together!