Do you get pain in your shoulders or upper back? Do you feel pinchy sensations in the joint when you go to lift your arms up? Do you experience weakness, or a slow recovery from shoulder exercises? Do you use your arms regularly throughout the day? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are likely in need of some shoulder repair and maintenance! The human shoulder is and incredibly complex joint, and in this class we will take a multifaceted approach to it's care, learning how to decompress and realign the joints, hydrate and repair their fascia and musculature, and mobilize and balance their range of motion. When our shoulders are healthy and mobile, our upper back and neck can relax, our ribcage can function better, and we can enjoy the enhanced vibrancy and enjoyment that only happy shoulders can provide! Join me for this upper body exploration and learn what yoga therapy can do for your shoulders and your life!

Mental health is a crucial component for human well-being, influencing how we think, feel, and act. It plays a significant role in our relationships, productivity, physical health and affects how we handle stress, relate to others, and make decisions. Mental health is the single most important element in our overall wellness and vitality, and yet an overwhelming amount of people struggle in this area and fail to find the inner peace they need and deserve. In this class we will discuss yogic techniques, philosophies, and strategies which will help you to become the master of your own mind, and the creator of a healthier and happier future you!

Are you experiencing tightness, stiffness, or discomfort in your hips? This virtual yoga class, "Holistic Hips," offers a balanced approach to healing and releasing tension in this crucial area of your body. Taught by experienced yoga therapist, Erin Jacob, this online class is designed to address the root causes of hip pain, promoting lasting relief and greater freedom of movement. Addressing your hips from a holistic perspective is essential for long-term health and well-being. A purely mechanistic approach may offer temporary relief, but it often fails to address the underlying causes of pain and stiffness. By embracing a holistic approach, you can find greater ease in your body and a deeper connection to yourself. Try this class and start your journey toward happier, healthier hips!

Join me for a class dedicated to celebrating and nourishing the most solid and fundamental element of our bodies - our skeletal structure! In this class we will discuss some interesting concepts about your bones and joints, their make-up, their repair processes, and their needs. Learn to prevent and care for arthritis and osteoporosis as we explore stretches, strengthening, and mobility exercises to improve your bone density, health, and happiness!

When was the last time you used your feet? When was the last time you prioritized their care? (Pedicures and washing aside, that is) The average person takes over 200 million steps in a lifetime - an immense amount of useage which carries us a very far way in life. Your feet contain more bones, joints, and ligaments than any other part of your body, and they play a critical role in mobility, balance, agility, stability, and environmental and situational awareness. Strong healthy feet are the foundation for everything else which possible in human movement, alignment, and connectivity. So, when was the last time you gave them the care and attention they deserve? Join me for this foot fixer journey and learn how to get the most of your feet now, and in the future!

SI Joints & Hips’ is our most popular and often requested class topic. Since so many of us or working on this area as a top priority in our wellness routines, I like to dedicate numerous videos to the topic so we can keep learning new perspectives, insights, and inspirations as we continue to give our SI Joints and Hips the care they need and deserve! This class will teach you to understand where your SI Joints are and how they function, and will allow you to explore and consider an important question: Can your SI Joints move through their full range of motion? We will explore techniques to stabilize, decompress, mobilize, and repair the key areas that affect SI Joint and hip function in a routine that can be repeated regularly for maximum benefit!

Join me for a day dedicated to the maintenance and improved function of our knees, IT bands and upper thing musculature, and our hips. Through a combination of fascial rolling, long hold stretching, stabilizing techniques, and accessible anatomy concepts, this class will give you key insights into what is happening in your own knees, how you can improve pain and restore / maintain healthy mobility and strength, and why your IT bands and hips are important in the process of caring for your knees!

The diaphragm is a dome shaped muscle at the base of your ribcage which separates your lung cavity from your abdominal cavity and functions as your primary muscle of respiration, controlling over 75% of your capacity to breath. Since breathing is our most vital function, we can immediately appreciate how important the diaphragm is to living life! However, your diaphragm allows you to do more than just breath. It also acts as part of our body's core support system, helping to control our posture, it aids in digestive processes, mobilizes your abdominal organs, helps your kidneys filter toxins, controls internal pressure, prevents acid reflux, aids in lymphatic movement, and helps to control tone in our parasympathetic nervous system. This single muscle is the master of many important body functions, and yet it rarely receives the attention or care it deserves! In this class we will learn to strengthen, stretch, and mobilize this critical muscle, as well as exploring ways to remove fascial adhesions, increase efficiency, and repair any areas that have opportunities for better health and diaphragmatic happiness. This class will leave you feeling more relaxed, more alive, and more connected to your breath and the possibilities it brings to life!

In this class, we return to the basics and do, in Erin's opinion, one of the most important routines needed in maintaining full body health - stretching the '6 directions of the spine.' Join us as we explore the natural functions and ranges of movement which indicate a healthy spine, learn to detect and understand where our spinal tension is out of balance, explore ways to rebalance and repair it's tissues, discs, and nerves, and find relief in the knowledge that even severe spinal damage can be improved or healed. Learn this simple and effective process of spinal restoration and help get your spine back on track so you can live your best and healthiest life!

Your hips and their movements are not isolated experiences within your body. In reality, every movement of the hip joint requires movement of the both the pelvic bones and their associated sacro-illiac joints (which connect your hips and pelvis to your spine.) As such your hips are greater than the sum of their parts in the fact that they are part of a much broader system. Like all systems based approaches, improving the functional efficiency of each individual part will, in turn, improve the function and efficiency of the whole. When our hips are stiff, inflexible, or injured, we require more energetic and muscular effort to move or stabilize our body. When the tissues surrounding our hips are flexible and easy to move, we can accomplish the same tasks with less effort and resistance, increasing our pelvic efficiency, reducing strain and fatigue, and improving all elements of our mobility! Join me for this Hiponomics class which will give your hips, pelvis, and entire self more freedom to move and enjoy life!

The health of our ribs affects absolutely everything in our body! In today’s class we will take a deep, therapeutic look at the function and health of our ribcage and its many interactions with our neck. We will seek to decompress, mobilize, and balance the tensions and forces that stabilize and move our ribcage, in turn balancing the tension forces that affect the alignment of our neck, as well as the movement possibilities for our lower back. We will hydrate and mobilize our fascia, improve space for healthy breathing, stretch and release our upper back, chest, shoulders, and neck, and leave class feeling open, vibrant, and balanced!

In this class we will explore the power of our own heart and allow it to guide an intuitive practice of connection and self-healing. With a multi-focus approach, we will learn some interesting anatomy of the human heart, discuss it’s influence on our brain and nervous system, consider its role in stress, joy, and all elements of mental health, and learn to listen to its inherent wisdom as the inner path to vitality, harmony, and healing. Whether we are thinking about blood pressure, heart disease, or other physical heart conditions, recovering from a ‘broken heart’ or experiencing inner turmoil, or speaking about our energetic flow and sense of vibrancy, our Heart Space affects all elements of our life. When we are connected to, and at peace in our heart, we find a space of unity, abundance, and ease from which to enjoy the many experiences life throws our way! I invite you to step into your own Heart Space and join me for this kind and curious exploration!

Here is a quick video dedicated to practicing your Sun Salutation A. This sequence is the basis of all yogic flow. Master this and find your groove in any movement based yoga class!

Do you have poor vision? Are you prone to headaches or migraines? Do you get neck or jaw pain, or have an injury or condition in these areas? Do you feel fatigued and unfocused, even after a good night's sleep? Do you feel stressed or overwhelmed regularly? If you experience any of the above, there is a very good chance your eyes and jaw may be contributing to these symptoms more then you may realize! The musculatures which control our eyes and jaw are often overlooked and under-appreciated. However, when they are in balance and healthy, we can dramatically improve both our physical and mental health as we learn to see the world more sharply, stress and strain less, and improve our vitality and the felt sense of ease in our body!

This second session of our neck care series we will explore the relationships which exist between the structures of our ribcage and neck, learning to understand how fascial tension from one affects the other. A body with a mobile, stable, and healthy ribcage generally doesn't experience neck pain or misalignment. However, when things in the rib region go out of balance (especially in certain key areas we'll be exploring), the results can create chaos and pain for both the neck and the shoulders! Join me for this upper body exploration as we explore, learn, and uncover some of the hidden causes of your neck pain!

The ankles and feet are amazingly complex parts of the human skeletal structure with 26 bones, 33 joints and over 100 muscles, ligaments and tendons controlling the vast majority of our capacity for locomotion, balance, stability, and grounding. The ankle is an often underrated and under cared for joint. It is responsible for much of the movement that we are capable of, yet, we rarely give it a second thought, unless we are injured or in pain. As with any injury, prevention is key and creating healthy habits surrounding these complex joints can reduce future risks. After any injury, proper fascial care and retraining are critical to prevent chronic recurrences. Understanding how your ankle works and how to care for it is the key in all circumstances, and the topic of this class! Join me live online as we explore everything to do with our ankles! Have a chance to ask questions, explore within the safe boundaries of your unique ankle situation, and learn simple and effective ways to improve one of the most important movement structures in your body!

In yogic philosophy, digestion is considered to be controlled at the level of our manipura chakra, the solar plexus chakra. Its associated color is yellow and its element is fire. Yogis consider the digestive fire of manipura chakra to be the element that transforms matter into energy - burning away the impurities of our food and converting nutrients into fuel and new supplies from which to build our cellular structures. This digestive fire is also considered to be the element that allows us to digest life, working through struggles and difficulties, processing our emotions, assimilating new experiences, and allowing us to actively transform ourselves and our surroundings in the direction of our dreams. On all levels, our digestion and our ability to process life are intertwined. When we take the time to care for our digestive system, to regulate it, and to help achieve maximum efficiency by increasing our inner fire, not only do we enjoy healthy happy guts, but we also start to notice and exercise our will to transform ourselves and take control of the direction of our lives!

The term 'hip flexor' actually refers to an entire group of muscles located at the front of your hip which allow you to lift your leg and knee upward towards your chest. Hip flexor muscles include both muscles from our legs (quadriceps, sartorius, and pectineus) as well as large muscles groups from our core (psoas and illiacus), who work together to allow us to complete actions such as standing, walking, running, kicking a ball, or climbing stairs. When the hip flexors start to become to short or adhered (which commonly happens for both people who are inactive or sit a lot, as well as for highly active people who have strained them from improper warm up or intense physical activity), they can create pain and movement limitation in our hips, knees, sacro-illiac joints, and lumbar spine. In this class we will learn how to lengthen and repair our hip flexors to get them feeling great again and to help heal the many other areas of the body they affect!

Did you know that the #1 cause of knee pain in today’s world is caused by damage to the ‘meniscus’? The meniscus is a c-shaped pad of cartilage in the knee that acts as a shock absorber. Each knee has two menisci, and it is the one on the inner side of the knee which is the most common to see damaged. Whether the meniscus is torn, frayed, or just worn down, there is plenty that you can learn to do outside of surgery to help get rid of the pain, improve the function and range of motion, and retrain your muscles and joints to better support your knee cartilage in a way that stops the degeneration and improves the situation considerably! No knee pain? Great! Implement these techniques to make sure you maintain the health of your knees for many years to come. Prevention is always the best medicine! Join me for this class where we learn about how the cartilage in the knee works, how to care for its fascia and ligaments – keeping tension and torque balanced, and how to strengthen your hips, feet, and thighs in a way that will lend support, reduce strain, and get to a point where you no longer need to be afraid of knee pain, now or in the future, when you go out to use your legs!

This class is dedicated entirely to making our neck happier and healthier! Through an understanding of alignment and function, we will explore WHY the neck hurts in the first place, and will look in some of the most common and least common causes of that pain. Through posture correction, fascial care of the ribcage and upper spine, and correct stretching and decompression techniques we will relieve tension and pain and help liberate your neck and get it feeling great again!

Do you get pain in your shoulders during certain movements or rotations? Can you lift your arms overhead without hiking your shoulders up to your ears? Do your arms fall asleep or feel pain when you sleep on your side? Do your shoulders feel that they are consistently weak and never able to gain strength or stability despite your best efforts to train them? If you answered yes to any of these questions, there is a very good chance that you are suffering from a fascial dysfunction condition somewhere in your shoulder girdle. Sometimes we know an exact moment or two from the past when an injury began - 'that old rotator cuff injury' - 'ever since my car accident' - 'and then there was the time fell funny and re-injured it.' Sometimes the pain and limitation starts small and intermittetently and builds consistency and intensity over time from small repitive strains - 'it started 6 months after I started playing pickleball' - 'Ever since I had to start working longer hours at my desk' - 'at work I spend a lot of time doing this specific movement with this arm and it gets really sore'. Or, sometimes, we can't quite figure out when or why our shoulder started hurting and are facing the uncertainty of 'mystery pain', which usually results from compensation from imbalances in the fascial tension or muscle strength somewhere else in the body. Regardless of what the cause of the pain is, there are simple anatomical principles that apply to all shoulder experiences and if we learn to recognize what is causing the fascial dysfunction in the first place, we can learn to fix the issue as well as the habits which are causing it! In this class we will discuss the many causes of shoulder pain, learning to assess what approach is best in repairing various shoulder injuries and pains, recognizing and reversing compensatory patterns, realigning and repatterning, and ensuring that we prevent future injuries from returning or developing. Join me for class and start the process of reclaiming the comfort and mobility your shoulders were designed for!

We can’t really talk about one of these areas of the body without talking about all four because the joints of the lower body not only share long continuous lines of functional fascia connecting them as a solid chain, but they also share some very precise relationships in shape, alignment, and function. A knee injury is rarely caused by a knee. A hip injury is very rarely caused by a hip. A misalignment in the foot, an imbalance in the leg, or a particular habit in posture or weight bearing position could all lead to the complex chain of events that result in lower body joint pain. It is crucial for the healthy function of the body that we understand the functional and positional alignment of our feet, knees, and hips as a system rather than a series of parts if we hope to heal pain or injury in any of them. In this class, we will explore this relationship and learn how to rebalance, realign, and reintegrate our many lower joints into the cohesive whole that they were naturally designed to be!

Join me this week for an upper body exploration that will take us through a deep understanding of the nature of the ribcage's needs - a balance between mobility and stability. Decompress your upper back and ribcage, improve your shoulder mobility, and reduce pain in your back, ribs, shoulders, and neck. Through an anatomical lens, we will learn to understand fascial and functional connections that will allow us to view our upper spine, ribcage, and shoulder girdle as a system, rather than a series of individual parts. It is through the unity and balance of these structures together that we learn to affect healing in all of them. Through a combination of therapy ball work, fascial rolling, and gentle-but-targeted stretching, we will loosen our shoulders, ribs, and upper back and leave class feeling great!

This this class we will complete our 3-week exploration on the causes of back pain and how to get rid of it! First we looked at the health and balance of our spine in class 1, followed by a deep exploration of how our pelvis and hips tie into this issue, and finally we are ready to address the 3rd important element that every healthy back needs - a strong and functional core! In this class we take a look at Core Fundamentals as we seek to understand how adequate support from various core muscles can stabilize, support, and protect our back in a way that promotes healing and the reduction of pain in our back. Learn simple, effective, and accessible techniques that will help you gain strength, remove inches from around your waist without agrivating other injuries, and heal your back pain in the process!

Last week we began an exploration of Yoga for Back Pain by taking a look directly at our spine and addressing it's needs for hydration and movement, decompression, as well as stretching fascial care to help balance it's tension on all sides. However, back pain is a complex topic, and as we discussed last week, involves complex communication between the tension levels and movement of the upper and lower back in relation to each other, as well as with your core and hips. In this week's class we will be taking a deep dive into the lower back / hip connection as we continue our exploration for the causes of back pain. With many direct and indirect fascial connections travelling from our hips up into our lower back and core structures, imbalances below can often lead to pain above. Join me for class this week and take the next step towards healing your back pain!

Back pain is the #1 complaint that brings people to seek out holistic wellness practices such as yoga, massage, chiropractic, and physio therapy care, and is something most adults have had personal experience with at some (or many) points of their life. However, the term 'back pain' is a broad term covering many different regions, functions, musculatures, nerve supplies, etc. There is a lot that can go wrong, and figuring out what has happened and what to do about it can be a very overwhelming experience. In this class we will seek to understand the nature of our back pain as we get curious about it's causes, it's relationships and effects on other areas of our back and body, and most importantly, what to do about it. Through an anatomical lens, we will learn to view our spine as a 'neutral' or 'balance-seeking' structure, and will use an exploration of decompression, movement, stretching, and fascial care techniques to help us understand the role our back plays in maintaining our balance, and what we need to do to improve those parameters and remove back pain from our lives!

In this class we will take a deep dive into our ribcage and learn how key fascial connections between the ‘serratus anterior’ and ‘rhomboid’ muscles, when tight or adhered, can often become a source of pain for both our ribs and neck. Loosening and mobilizing these tissues around our ribs can not only create easier breathing and less shoulder and upper back pain, but it can also increase the range of motion and health of our neck and shoulders. Our neck and head have an incredible amount of compensation that they are subjected to since they are the highest part of our body in the field of gravity. As such, they have to adjust to every misalignment, adhesion, and injury that is below them. Without restructuring the ribcage, it can be almost impossible to get the neck to heal, but when the ribcage improves, the neck will automatically benefit from the space created which, in turn, allows it to recognize new opportunities for better alignment with less compensation. Through decompression, fascial rolling, mobilization, and long-hold stretches, we will learn to give our ribcage what it needs to restore the natural movements which should be available to it, and set the foundation for what our neck needs in order for it to be able to heal and feel better!

Of all of the incredible functions our body performs everyday, none are more important and necessary than breathing. We perform this action roughly 25,000 time a day to provide the needed oxygen that sustains our life. How well we breath affects absolutely every element of our life from the physical health of all our bones, tissues, organs , and their capacities to repair and grow, to our energy and vitality, stress resiliency, and mental/emotional health. Our breath is the foundational function that connects and coordinates our body, mind, and spirit. In this class we will work to improve our respiratory process by addressing it on numerous fronts. First, we need to consider 'how' to breath - debunking some common misconceptions about what truly is 'the best way' to breath, and instead recognizing that our breath is as versatile as our body and how we choose to use it can either help or hinder our health. There is only one 'wrong way' to breath, but there are many 'right ways' depending on what you are doing in the present. A healthy breath for resting or watching TV is very different than what a healthy breath for running a marathon, lifting heavy items, or freediving would be. By learning healthy processes of breathing, we can learn to mindfully adapt our breathing to meet the needs of our body. However, knowing how to breathe effectively is only half the picture. We also need to consider the fact that the action of breathing is controlled muscularly and through pressure, and thus requires flexibility, strength, and mobility in the canister that surrounds our lungs - our ribs, back and chest, as well as our core and abdominal organs. Through stretching, strengthening and fascial care techniques we can learn to create more space and efficiency, reducing respiratory resistance and creating a fuller, easier breath!

Do you get pain in your backside? Pinchy sensations in your outer hips or near your rear? Do your hips become painful after or towards the end of a long walk or run? Do your hips feel stiff or immobile when you get out of bed or after sitting for a while? If so, there are likely some deep fascial layers in your hips that are in need of more length, lubrication, and balance! In this class we will take a in depth look at hip movement and rotation, and will examine the many common (and some not so common) triggers for what I like to call - 'Pain in the Ass Syndrome.' Through fascia rolling, long-hold stretching, and an attitude of curious exploration, we will learn how to bring our hips back into balance and kiss our hip pain goodbye!