People tend to either love or dislike poses like Pigeon. Regardless of which camp you inhabit, keep in mind that Pigeon can help safeguard your knees and low back and make other poses infinitely more pleasant. Here’s a look at the tremendous benefits of hip openers.

Open hips can mean less back pain – Tight hip flexors pull your pelvis forward and exaggerate the curve in your lower back. Picture your entire pelvis as a bowl of water spilling toward your toes, with the back side of the bowl raised up. When your lumbar becomes shortened, you’re likely to feel compression and discomfort over time. You’ll notice it in your poses, too. If your hip flexors are short in a pose like Warrior I or Camel, your lower back will overdo the arch, and you’ll feel pain. Open hip flexors help bring the pelvis back to neutral and mitigate pain.

Hip openers help your knees – Here’s an example: When your outer hips are relatively open in a pose like Warrior II, you’ll be able to rotate your front thigh out and line up your front knee toward the pinky side of the toes. But if that area is tight, your knee will buckle in toward your big toe, which can strain the inner knee. So if you’re unable to externally rotate the femur bone in the hip socket (which is one result of tight hips), the smaller and more delicate knee joint can become overworked.

The hip is a ball-and-socket joint constructed for movement in a whole slew of directions – Including rotation (as opposed to the knee, which is a hinge joint that it is supposed to bend and extend but not rotate). The great thing about Pigeon is that if you practice it on both sides, you get flexion and extension of your knees and your hips. The added bonus is that you get external rotation of the femur in your hip socket, too. Barring injury, it’s a good idea to regularly take your joints through their full range of motion in your yoga practice—you’ll move through your daily life with more ease.

What are the benefits of one to one yoga sessions?

• Fundamentals of yoga
• How to do a specific posture
• Adjusting to in juries
• Progression in your practice
• Stress reduction
• Specific alignment corrections
• Progression in your practice

A forty five minutes practice a day

A regular daily practice is the cornerstone of yoga. A yoga practice every day sustained over time is far more effective than longer yoga practices done now and again. Of course, longer yoga practices can yield more powerful results, done regularly. A life enhancing practice can take as little as 45 minutes a day. Your yoga practice will be fitted to suit your current situation. Over time we can alter the yoga practice and progress step by step towards your goals. A daily yoga practice is a enriching experience. Also, one to one yoga sessions create an opportunity to correct problems that have arisen in class and have perhaps gone unnoticed.

A step towards overall Wellbeing

A yoga practice develops according to a plan. It progresses in steps, and will be constantly refined and reassessed over time. In this way we can improve fitness and wider health, but also address specific health matters and injuries. Yoga done in this way, will help to heal lifestyle issues, practical and psychological problems. The solutions offered to these problems are based on teachings found in the yoga scriptures and alive in this rich tradition of teachers, through our experience, insight and intuition. There is a supportive network of other highly experienced teachers who are applying yoga in this way.

In the past we have been asked to outline what a private yoga session would include. So we decided to put together a little example of what will be integrated in the session. We now offer private sessions for all age ranges.

• Asana (physical postures)- helping with joint mobility,muscle flexibility, strength, balance, circulation and digestion.
• Pranayama (breathing exercises)- to aid respiratory problems, stress.
• Mantra and Affirmations – to help with worry and negative thought patterns.
• Mudras (hand postures)- that focus and direct energy
• Visualisation - to relax and refreash
• Relaxation and Meditation

Some Yoga Wellbeing class focuses

Alignment Based

Sessions with detailed physical alignment are good for beginners who want to start out with a safe practice or existing yoga students who feel they want to go deeper into their bodies through accuracy and awareness.  Classes will involve a great deal of “hands on” adjustments.

For stress related complaints –Langhana practice

This type of practice is great for anyone suffering insomnia or digestive problems. It’s a cooling calming practice that focuses on relaxing the nervous system and helping to move away from a place of agitation. Postures are more likely to involve twists and forward bends.

In need of energy  – Brahmana Practice

For those who lack energy, feel sluggish and may experience depressed moments, this practice is more vigorous and uplifting. Sessons may focus on standing postures and backbends designed to expand vitality to all parts of the body.

Immune boost – Inversions

Those looking to boost their body’s natural defences could try this upside down class! Inversions bring the feet over the head, or the heart below the hips which stimulates circulation and encourages lymphatic drainage help white blood cells to be more efficient.

If you have anymore questions then please get in touch.