Oh, Inversions. They can be intimidating to attempt, but when practiced correctly, they can work wonders on your mind and body. Several studies show how inversions can benefit your spinal discs, strengthen your ligaments and soft tissues, relieve muscle spasms, help with sleep and digestion, reduce stress and headaches and improve mood, focus, and mental clarity. Inversions can regulate hormones, improve circulation, stimulate your lymphatic system and, in turn, strengthen your immune system – to name a few!
This week, we are focusing on inversions for all levels:
You can use our new Search Feature to search through all of our Yoga Inversion classes on your own. To get you started without searching, we’re highlighting six classes in a variety of styles, levels and durations that are designed to help you reframe and reposition yourself internally.
- Integrating Every Day Life into Your Yoga with Marc Holzman: My Life is My Practice. Exploring how to integrate our everyday lives into our yoga practice. And Vice Versa. Standing poses and shoulder openers sequenced to prepare for a press-up handstand. A few back bends and a longer cool down.
- Kick Up Tutorial with Dice Iida-Klein: Kicking up into handstand is one thing, but truly kicking up with control both on your ascent and descent into handstand another. This short tutorial uses a blanket and a block and teaches yogis how to kick up into handstand with control, moving from the core center. With a block between our legs and sliding the blanket back and forth to our mat, we start to engage the belly in ways we never thought possible. From toe tips to finger tips we find full engagement. Fly on my fellow yogis!
- Shoulder Stand Sequence with Jodi Blumstein: Jodi explains the traditional shoulder stand sequence that is taught in the Ashtanga yoga system and then a modified and safe version for students of all levels. These are important closing postures in the Ashtanga system.
- Explore Major Inversions in One Class with Kathryn Budig: Flip your perspective upside down with a taster menu of all the major inversions! We touch upon the 7 Ashtanga headstands, forearm balance, funky + funkier forearm balance and handstand. You’ll learn how to drop from tripod and handstand to keep your transitions smooth and light.
- Celebrate Transformations with Steven Espinosa: Celebration – yoga as a celebration of your evolution and transformation. Basic warm up with standing poses and inversion at wall. Followed by hip openers, arm/leg balances and basic back bends.
- Mythic Yoga Flow – Hanuman with Sianna Sherman: Inversions are expressions of asana where the head is lower than the heart as an act of humility and a symbol of devotion leading the way in our lives. This sequence has multiple inversions, including handstand, headstand and shoulderstand with a few hanumanasanas sprinkled along the way. Hanuman is the eternal devotee of the heart in service of Love.
