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The Case for a Gratitude Practice (Just not the One that Came to Mind)

It’s the season of gratitude, and this week we are dropping tidbits about the science of gratitude.  It turns out that the neurophysiological effects of gratitude are profound. Inducing a state of gratitude is one of the most powerful, speedy ways to change your heart rate and markers of positive neurotransmitters in your body.  Gratitude […]

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Surrounded by Pseudoscience

Pseudoscience is everywhere in the yoga world.  It happens when a natural curiosity about a phenomenon — for example, whether emotions may get “stored” in our hips, or “20 minutes of headstand reverses aging” — becomes passed on as fact. Thus begins viral circulation of a falsehood throughout yogaland. Does that sound harsh? “Falsehood” is, […]

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How Yoga Can Help with Covid-19 Recovery (Including for long-haulers)

yoga therapy for covid 19 recovery ceus

The knowledge of foundational yoga therapy for Covid-19 recovery is vital for studios, teachers, and yoga students. No, returning to your yoga studio won’t bring back your sense of smell after Covid-19…but it could improve lung function, reduce inflammation and safely help physical recovery from Covid-19. Yoga Anatomy Academy is pleased to announce a guest […]

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The Body Is Intersectional

Text image stating "The Body Is Intersectional"

Bodies are intersectional.  Yoga is intersectional.  The experiences and bodies that each of us bring to the practice of yoga contain multitudes: Multitudes of social identities like race, class, gender / gender identity, age and able-bodiedness. We at Yoga Anatomy Academy have always known this but have not always acted publicly to actively uplift all […]

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Yoga Butt – a.k.a. Hamstring Tendinopathy in Yoga – According to a Physical Therapist

Monica smiling in paschimottonasana

High hamstring tendinopathy (tendinopathy = an updated version of “tendinitis”) shows up as an ache, burning sensation or other pain near your sitting bones. The sitting bones, or ischial tuberosities, are the upper attachment point to the three hamstring muscles on each side. In the yoga world, this uncomfortable sensation has a name: “Yoga Butt”. […]

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Functional Fitness: What it is, What it isn’t, Why it Matters

In my early thirties, I noticed something that shook my self-concept. Many of my friends had infants and toddlers. Although I was a doctor of physical therapy and had been teaching yoga for over a decade, it was sometimes uncomfortable to hang out on the floor with babies. WTH.  To play with these little ones […]

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Do We Serve the Poses or Do the Poses Serve Us? (Science Yoga Sundays episode)

Julie Tran of Science Yoga Sundays graciously invited me to speak on her program. I chose a topic that has been on my mind a LOT lately — Are we serving the yoga or is the yoga serving us? “We are here to enhance our lives, we are not here to bow down to some […]

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Anatomy-Informed Yoga (Podcast Alert!)

I had the pleasure of talking with Shannon Crow of The Connected Yoga Teacher, and we had a great conversation about Anatomy-Informed Yoga. Anatomy-informed yoga (a term I made up) takes the best of yoga, the best of what we know from Western medicine about how the body works, and merges them to offer foundational […]

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