10 Basic Yoga Poses That Benefit Everyone (Including You)
No matter where you are in your practice, these fundamental postures provide you with everything you need.
Rachel Land is a Yoga Medicine instructor offering group and one-on-one yoga sessions in Queenstown New Zealand, as well as on-demand at Practice.YogaMedicine.com. Passionate about the real-world application of her studies in anatomy and alignment, Rachel uses yoga to help her students create strength, stability, and clarity of mind. Rachel also co-hosts the new Yoga Medicine Podcast.
No matter where you are in your practice, these fundamental postures provide you with everything you need.
Because different poses ask you to use your core in different ways.
You've been strengthening your core all along.
No, flat abs are not a true indicator of how strong you are.
The answer, as with so many things in yoga and in life, depends.
There’s a lot of controversy in yoga around whether you can safely move from “closed hip” to “open hip” transitions. The answer? It’s complicated.
Here's what you can do to overcome it.
Not stretching as much as you know you should? What's revealed by this research will change that.
3 ways to train your body for steadiness—in yoga and in life
Your wrists will thank you.
Your lower back does enough. Here's how to move more efficiently in your practice—and in life.
This language misstep can have a tremendous effect on your students' practice.
An exploration of the intention behind an anatomically incorrect instruction.
Four reasons you might not be seeing the results you expected—and why that might not be such a bad thing.
Because there's more to life than hip openers.
This is the prop you didn't know you needed.
Plus, how to fix each to stay safe when you practice.
Want to challenge your stability and coordination? Grab a yoga bolster and try these four surprising moves.
Props aren’t just for beginners; they can be used to develop and even deepen dimensions of asana practice. The humble yoga block, for example, gives us countless ways to vary our practice—highlighting sensations that help us experience a pose in a new way. Here are 10 to try.
Senior Yoga Medicine teacher Rachel Land created our Yoga for Flexibility Challenge but explains why it’s not all about about “stretching.”
There’s a myth that a strong muscle is a tight one, and a flexible muscle is weak. It seems counterintuitive, but identifying and strengthening weak areas can actually help tight areas release their grip. Your challenge for this week is to address one or two of your dormant areas with targeted strength work. Share your progress on social media with #YJflexichallenge for a chance to be featured on our @YogaJournal Instagram page!
Senior Yoga Medicine teacher Rachel Land breaks down the anatomy of fascia and four effective ways to keep it fit through yoga practice.
Senior Yoga Medicine teacher Rachel Land says don’t worry if you’ve never considered the health of your fascia before. As a yogi, you may already be taking good care of it anyway. Here, she outlines what it takes.