ANDREA - a full time Yoga, Pilates and Tai Chi instructor.

I fell in love with yoga over seven years ago, when I got a Nintendo DS and bought a game called Let's Yoga. From then, I began 'playing' yoga everyday, sometimes twice a day. At first, the practice was more physical for me, but after few months I started to really count on yoga to bring me a sense of calm during especially chaotic days. Soon after, I began recognizing the benefits of a regular asana and meditation practice and continued to incorporate yoga daily - not just during times of chaos. I found myself feeling more energized, more compassionate, happier, and with more awareness. Now, I teach full-time and couldn't be happier to do what I love. What began as a physical practice for strength and flexibility quickly became a lifestyle. I teach my students to take their yoga off the mat and apply the principles learned in the class to their lives outside of the studio. I do not only teach my philosophy, I live it.

Tuesday 11 November 2014

Arm Balances 10/11/14

Arm balances can be some of the most fun and exhilarating yoga poses to practice, but for a lot of people, they can be scary and intimidating. For one, most people have a fear of falling. Even though we constantly say that yoga is a practice and that it’s ok to fall, people automatically correlate falling with failure. Second, a lot of people shy away from arm balances because they feel like they don’t have the balance or the upper body strength. If you think about it, we don’t use our arms, shoulders and chest that often. We are on our feet most of the time, so it’s pretty common, especially for women, to lack the upper body strength that is needed to do some of these poses.

A great way to start building balance and upper body strength for arm balances is practicing plank pose (maybe adding in some mini push-ups) and downward dog. Practicing plank is great because it forces you to engage your arms, strengthening the weight bearing muscles of the arm that are crucial for succeeding in more advanced arm balances.

Arm balances have a few very important benefits. They can help build upper body strength which in turn, builds bone density which over time, can prevent the loss of mineralization in the bones in the upper body – also known as osteoporosis. Arm balances also require a certain amount of balance which can prevent falls and broken bones which is important especially as we get older.





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