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!

Dorsal scapular neuropathy is characterized by pain, numbness, or weakness in the upper back and shoulder blade region. It commonly occurs from compression or irritation of the dorsal scapular nerve, which supplies sensation and muscle control to that area. Repetitive movements, poor posture, or direct trauma to the nerve often cause this condition, and as such, the condition commonly evolves over time, worsening if the pattern in the associated fascia surrounding the nerve pathway is not properly loosened and repaired. Symptoms typically include achiness, cramping, burning, or deep-seated painful tension in your upper back and shoulder blade that worsens with activity. If you have ever had these sensations or symptoms in this region of your upper back, there is a good chance your dorsal scapular nerve was involved. If you have experienced this unpleasant phenomenon more than once, or it happens regularly as the area ‘flairs-up’, then it’s time to do something about it before the situation worsens and becomes much more painful. If you are already at the point of constant symptoms and pain, fear not! With gentle and consistent care, you can downgrade the situation quickly and overtime still completely heal from this unpleasant ordeal! Dorsal scapular neuropathy usually responds favorably to a combination of fascial rolling or massage, therapeutic stretching, and gentle mobility exercises. Once the nerve impingement releases, efforts to safely restrengthen can begin. In this class, we focus on step one – releasing the nerve impingement on the dorsal scapular nerve and repairing the damaged fascia which is causing the issue. Join me on this anatomical exploration as we each learn to determine what is going on in this region of our back, and how we can help to keep it mobile and healthy!

From the tips of our fingers, up through our elbows, and into our shoulders, this class will take you on a journey of your upper limbs as we learn to balance the fascial pressures which coordinate all of the many joints contained within the structure of your arms. Learn how to keep your hands healthy and strong, improve your grip strength, prevent and repair arthritis and tendonitis, improve your posture, and learn how we can use our arms to release stress, reduce guarding, and let go of anger, resentment, and anxiety.

Do you get pain in the back or side of your hips? Does that pain get more agitated from long periods of sitting rather than moving? Do you ever feel that pain radiating down your outer leg? If so, you may have a chronic glute activation, adhesion, imbalance, impingement or all of the above! In this class we will discuss the 3 gluteal muscles (minimus, medius, and major), their fascial connections, the reasons they may be experiencing pain or limitation, and most importantly, how to repair them, get rid of the pain, and get your glutes moving in the balanced and powerful way for which they were intended! Our muscles can only be as strong as they can be relaxed, and it is incredibly important for our glutes to be able to both engage fully and relax fully in order for them to do their job correctly. For some people, chronic glute pain is caused from an inability to engage the correct tissues. For others, the same kind of pain can be caused by an inability to relax these tissues. Many people (including therapists) often assume the pain is coming from other areas such as the piriformis muscle deep in the back of the hip, and end up pursuing the incorrect therapy to no avail. In this class we will be able to experience the differences between all of these possibilities and determine what is going on in our own body, and how best to repair the situation and move forward in the direction of healing and personal growth!

Join me for a class celebrating the human spine through a therapeutic journey dedicated to decompression, balance, and liberation of our body's most important movement structure! Designed with an intricate balance between tension and compression structures, your spine has over 120 different muscles, around 220 ligaments, 100 joints, 26 bones, and 23 discs. When functioning well, these parts come together to enable an almost limitless potential for movement from a place of comfort and ease. However, when certain areas get tight, over compressed, our out of sync with the rest of the system, pain, degeneration, and injury often occur. In this class we will learn to use therapy balls and long-hold stretches to decompress our spine from the bottom all the way up to the top. We will seek to understand where the tensional tissues of the spine are out of balance and how this incorrect tension can lead to compression and damage. Most importantly, we will uncover what it is that you need to do to rebalance, decompress, and bring your spine to a place of freedom!

In this class we will take a deep exploration beginning in the IT Bands travelling up our outer thighs and into our hips, and then we will follow this fascial line up through the stabilizing tissues of our hips and into our lower back. When tight or out of balance, pressure or adhesion in these lines can often be a hidden trigger for deep hip pain, knee degeneration, and chronic lower back pain. By learning to balance the tension in these fascial structures, we will learn to balance our own center of gravity, realign our hips and knees, and liberate our lower back so it can start enjoying the stability and mobility with which it is designed to function. This class will help you learn to not only recognize where you are out of balance, but will also empower you to know what to do about it!

Join me for a class dedicated to the foundation of the human body - our ankles and feet! The foot is an intricate part of the body, consisting of 26 bones, 33 joints, 107 ligaments, and 19 muscles. They provide our connection to the Earth, our sense of grounding, as well as the base of support which stabilizes and makes possible all movement of our body. With so many parts and so many movement potentials, its amazing how low the average mobility of the modern human foot is! The truth of the matter is that most of us simply don't move our feet and ankles enough. In a world of paved roads, leveled stairs, carpet, chairs, and cars, the modern human foot just doesn't need to move very much to make it through the day. Add in the comfort and confinement of shoes, and it's no wonder why so many of us suffer from pain, misalignment, and weakness in our feet and ankles! In this class we will explore posture, strengthening, fascial release, mobility, and joint stability in regards to our foundation. We will also explore the basics of biomechanics in walking - skills that will be sure to change the posture of your entire body as your awareness of your feet and ankles transforms!

Do you get tightness, pain, or cramping between your shoulder blades? Do your neck and shoulders feel stiff and sore? Do you work or spend your day in a primarily seated or hunched forward position? If so, then this class is for you! In this class we will take a look at the posture and mobility of our upper backs and shoulders, and learn to assess which areas have become 'long-locked', causing them to experience excess strain, fatigue, and weakness. We will also explore which tissues have become 'short-locked' and are now resisting your body's ability to find balance and ease of posture. We will learn techniques to correct both areas and help them find their way back to a place of integrated equilibrium, restoring healthy mobility and function while reducing pain and strain.

In this class we discuss Polyvagal Theory as we learn to understand what is happening in our nervous system when we are experiencing sadness, depression, a lack of motivation, grief, hopelessness, numbness, or dissociation. All of these emotional experiences happen within the part of our nervous system which controls our 'fawn, freeze, or play dead' instincts and has evolved to help us survive trauma or difficult experiences. Learn to understand the wisdom contained within this oldest evolutionary construct of your nervous system, and learn what causes us to get 'stuck' in these emotional experiences when this system become over-engaged or out of balance. Most importantly, we will learn an array of techniques that will help to 'upregulate' your nervous system, helping you to get unstuck, able to create closure, regain motivation, increase your energy, and get moving back into a healthy mental state of peace and ease.

In this class we discuss Polyvagal Theory, the nature and process of stress and anxiety, and the role of the vagus nerve in helping to regulate and balance your nervous system, as well as your mental and physical health. Learn to understand the wisdom of your stress response, gain skills to increase your stress resiliency, and discover how to not only recognize when your sympathetic (fight or flight) system has become unnecessarily engaged, but also what techniques can help you to downregulate and get rid of these unpleasant, unwanted, and unneeded feelings.

Breathing is one of our most essential and versatile functions in the human body. Much confusion exists over the 'right' or 'best' way to breathe, and modern breathing masters seem to all offer different and contradictory definition to what this even means. The truth is, there are hundreds of 'right' ways to breath, and only one 'wrong' way. In this class, learn the differences between belly breathing, thoracic breathing, 3 part breathing, slow breathing, fast breathing, and everything in between. Learn to determine what kind of breath pattern is most suited to which situations, and learn to recognize the only wrong way of breathing - 'paradoxical breathing.' Learn to create more space in your ribs and diaphragm for maximum oxygen flow, and learn how your core and pelvic floor can support your breathing process and bring added benefits to all of your internal organs. We take 25,000 breaths every day, and in this class we will take the time to learn the best choices for the 'how', 'when', and 'why' of choosing the breathing pattern to meet all of life's needs!

In this class we will honor the human heart with a class dedicated to its health, happiness, and awareness. This incredible organ beats 100,000 times and pumps the equivalent of 2000 gallons of blood through your body every day. Travelling through more than 96,000 kms of blood vessels, our blood delivers our oxygen, hormones, and nourishment to everyone of our 70 trillion cells, removing waste and maintaining the flow which keeps us alive. Incredibly, it takes a each blood cell on average only 30 seconds to complete it's cycle from heart, to target cell, and back again, completing thousands of circulatory cycles per day. The heart, however, is more than simply an impressive pump enmeshed in a massive matrix of tubular, fluid filled vessels. It also happens to generates powerful electromagnetic fields that allow us to connect deeply with our environment and other beings, contains it's own mini brain and can inform the brain in our head and make it's own decisions independently, supports it's own microbiome, and has been considered the center of human love and compassion by all races and generations to walk the face of this earth. Join me for this class as we connect inward to our own heart, learn to care for it through breathwork, stretching, and mindfulness techniques, and empower ourselves to start living a heart-centered life!