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Posted on April 27, 2014 by

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The Magic is in the Movement…Keep the Magic…Keep Moving!

Enjoy this Fall Meditation to cleanse Toxic thoughts, from your Mind & Body & replace them with empowering loving thoughts.

Posted on September 4, 2021 by

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Press Play Below to Start the Meditation

Yoga Poses to promote a healthy transition into Spring.

Posted on March 17, 2019 by

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Spring Poses to complement your sense of renewal and promote movement based detoxification.(Consult with your physician before beginning any exercise program, including the poses listed below)

Childs Pose

Forehead can also rest on clasped hands.




Cat-Cow

Starting on all Fours on your mat, Stack your shoulders over your wrists and your hips over your knees, Inhale and lift your chin and tailbone as you fill your belly with your breath. Exhale as you start to draw your naval toward your spine, tucking your chin & tailbone as you round your back. Keep wide spread fingers (starfish hands). Also maintain your head and neck in line with your spine by keeping the space of a medium size apple between your chin and throat, Repeat 5 to 10 times.

Kneeling Lunge (both sides)

Image result for drawings of kneeling lunge pose
Keeping shoulders stacked over hips, front knee stacked over ankle. Sweep arms out to the side above head palms together. (If protecting your shoulder, keep the arms bent and make smaller sweeps in front of your chest. Perform on both sides.

Lunging Prayer Twist

From all Fours bring your right foot forward stacking your knee over your ankle. Keep your back leg extended, top of of foot on floor. With your hands in prayer position & elbows our to the sides, inhale while lengthening the spine, then exhale as you rotate from your naval, ribs, and shoulders to the right Never force a twist. Rotate your neck within a comfortable range of motion. Repeat on both sides.

Revolved Triangle Pose in Standing or Kneeling

Standing Left foot is forward and right back heel is aligned in a little wider stance and shorter than arm length apart from left foot. Place right hand on a the floor or a block. If you feel any discomfort in your hips or spine, use a block in a position that eliminates the discomfort. As you start to twist your torso to the left, create the rotation first from your naval, then your ribs, followed by your shoulders. Your arm can be extended as shown above or with the elbow bend and hand on your waist. Go slowly into and out of your twist using breath and mindfulness. At first flow your twist by coming into and out of it. After a few reps, then hold the pose for 3 to 5 breaths. Come out of the pose if any discomfort.

Plank Pose Modified or Full

Full plank from Downward Facing Dog: Inhale Flow forward to stack shoulders over wrists, maintaining a neutral spine curled onto your toes. Exhale back to Downward Facing Dog.
Modified Plank from Child’s Pose: Inhale, keeping knees bent, flow the shoulders to stack over your wrists and hips ahead of your knees.


Half Bow Pose

The key with this pose is to avoid strain in any part of your spine by use props as necessary. Start on your belly reaching with both hands or with a strap with both hands. Lengthening the front of the body while pressing the front of your pelvis towards the floor. Lifting your front body off the floor from the naval upward, keeping the belly relaxed. This is pose best done at the cool down part of your yoga session, where you hold your longer stretches for 5 to 8 breaths.

Seated Twist

Starting from Seated Staff Position: draw your right leg into towards your torso, Push down evenly through your sit bones, lift up through your ribs and the crown of your head while your shoulder blades drawn back and down toward your hips. Bring your left elbow to the outside of your knee. Inhale lengthening your spine from your tail bone through the crown of your head, Exhale as you first rotate from your naval using your oblique muscles, then rotate from your ribs, then your shoulders, If your neck can turn further without discomfort past your sternum, feel free to rotate to your available neck range of motion. Otherwise keep your nose over your sternum or in a position that is comfortable while you maintain your head and neck alignment with your spine. Hold for 5 to 8 breaths. This Pose is best done during the cool down of your yoga session,

Seated Forward Fold

Starting from Seated Staff Position. Inhale lengthening from your sit bones through the crown of your head, then exhale as you hinge from your hips maintaining a neutral spine , including your head and neck. Continue inhaling as your lengthen your spine with hinged hips and then exhaling either being more comfortable where you started or moving your naval closer to your upper thighs as keep your heart lifted. You can flow several times by inhaling while rounding your spine back up to seated staff position, and exhaling while hinging back into forward fold. On your final rep hold the seated forward fold for 5 to 8 breaths in the cool down phase of your yoga session.

Supported Shoulder Stand (legs up the wall)

Can be modified with props , as in the picture above . Start near a wall lying on your side. Bring your hips as close as possible to the wall. Then come onto your back. You may have to wiggle forward toward to wall if your buttocks are not touching the wall. Palms can be on your belly, or out to the side with your palms up. Hold for 5 to 10 minutes as you mindfully observe your breath and any sensations you feel in your body. This should feeling very relaxing. If it is uncomfortable, as with any pose, come out of the pose and try again.

Seated Easy Pose or Final Relaxation Pose (Savasana)

End your session with Seated Easy Pose or Final relaxation Pose (Savasana)
For final relaxation choose a comfortable position maintaining good alignment of the entire spine, as well as supporting joints comfortably (eg. roll under neck, bolster under knees, eye pillow, rolls under arms). Close your eyes, slow your breathing and take a few minutes to integrate the benefits of your practice from today.

Spring is in the air. A time of Transition!

Posted on March 15, 2019 by

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Spring is a time of change. We may find ourselves feeling the warmth of the sun on our faces and saying ahhh! As evening approaches, and it is still light at 7:15pm, we feel a sense of lightness, renewal & energy. As our energy level increases we are ready for a change in our activity levels. Yoga is a great way to honor the longer daylight, renewal of our spirit and increased energy. Come join us for YogaFlow at Keene Fitness.

YogaFlow Classes are on Tuesdays at 9am and Thursdays at 1pm. Classes are about 90 minutes. The class type is gentle, slower paced, vinyasa yoga flow.

Keene Fitness is located on Route 73 in Keene Valley, directly across from the Noon Mark Diner.
From Exit 30 off the Northway (I-87) follow Route 73 northwest to Keene Valley. (about 10 miles from the Northway).

Retirement – What does it mean to you?

Posted on November 27, 2018 by

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The joys of retirement can be elusive for some and easy to embrace for others.  The thought of retirement can be scary.   My feeling is that it really comes down to establishing new habits and patterns that include more time to enjoy activities that are difficult to do when you are working full time.

 

Let’s start a conversation.  Share Ideas, thoughts, concerns & solutions regarding Retirement!

 

Eastern Adirondack Home & Design

Posted on March 27, 2016 by

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Eastern Adirondack Homes & Design

Yoga Quotes

Posted on August 11, 2015 by

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“The most important pieces of equipment you need for doing yoga are your body and your mind” – Rodney Yee

Store ~ Purchase Gift Certificates ~ for Personal Training Session(s)

Posted on June 14, 2015 by

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Session Packages
1 Hour Personal Training $50.00 USD
4 Pack of 1 hr Sessions $175.00 USD
10 pack of 1 hr sessions $450.00 USD

Give the gift of Wellness & Fitness

$50 for 1 hour session

$175 for 4 sessions

$450 for 10 sessions

Body Mechanics & Yoga for the Sustainable Gardener

Posted on May 10, 2015 by

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Keene Valley Library Gardening Series

Tips to maintain a sustainable gardener.

  1. Set a time limit to avoid overdoing.
  2. Set an area in your garden to focus on.
  3. Perform a simple warm-up to prepare your body for the gardening tasks you plan to do.
  4. Within the area of focus switch tasks every few minutes (ie. weeding, pruning, planting, raking, etc.)
  5. Take frequent active rest breaks to perform movements opposite of those you used gardening. Yoga is a great way to do this.
  6. Use proper body mechanics performing any task, the rules of proper body mechanics includes:
    1. Plant your feet side enough to create a stable base.
    2. Bend your knees, keeping your knees back behind your toes
    3. Maintain good spinal alignment by keeping a long spine, maintaining the natural curves, hinging at your hips, and keeping your head in line with your spine.
    4. Keep shoulder hugged in to the back rib cage, to reduce tension in the neck and shoulders.
    5. Shorten the Lever Length: Keep arms in close to body. If lifting something move up close to the object perform lifting it. Lift/lower object with bent arms. When weeding avoid over-reaching.
    6. Pivot turn vs. twisting.
    7. Use your core muscles when lifting (4 abdominal muscles and scapula muscles)
    8. Protect your skin to avoid skin damage that could eventually lead to skin cancer using protective clothing/gear, such as, sunscreen, sunglasses, hats, sun protection clothing, and gloves to protect your hands.

 Poses to Warm-up the body:

  1. Mountain – Stand in mountain pose, grounding all 4 corners of our feet. Palms forward at your side, Core engaged. Breathing in through nose and out through nose (if you can). Inhale into the belly, chest and throat. Exhale as you tighten your abdominals.  Feel your connection with the earth. (Center and focus on your intentions for yourself and garden)
  1. SunFlowers – inhaling sweeping arms out and up, exhaling taking our tailbone back, hinging at our hips, drawing hips in line with knees. Sweep arms towards floor. Purpose to build heat in entire body.
  1. Swan Dive to Fwd Fold to Reverse Swan Dive (Continuing to build heat- release tension in hamstrings, spine and neck)Bend knees, hinging at hips reach towards floor or shins with hands, then lengthen legs into forward fold, lifting tail bone toward sky. Reversing the swan dive, reach arms out to side, bend knees, lift from your navel arm and gaze, slowing return to mountain from the power of your legs and core.

Chair Flow to Extended Mountain (Warming up the legs): inhale sweep arms up into extended mountain. Exhaling, sit into a chair: pressing our tail bone back, lifting our arms to shoulder height or keeping them on our thighs. Repeat Inhaling into extended mountain, exhale into chair.

“The level of your gratitude promotes the level of your attitude”

Posted on March 23, 2015 by

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Give your self a promotion this week by:

1. smiling more from the inside out, or outside in, until the smile becomes yours

2. performing more acts of kindness

3. Saying thank you more

4.Remembering Rule # 6: Don’t take yourself so seriously” – unknown (there are no other rules)

5. Love more

6. Dream more

7. Give more

….and you will become more!

Safe Snow Shoveling Tips!

Posted on December 29, 2014 by

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Safety Tips for snow shoveling:

Start with 1. preparing your body for the activity, 2. using good body mechanics when actually shoveling, and 3. stretching after the activity.  Staying hydrated and properly dressed is also necessary for safety.  Keeping redundancy of effort to a minimum will also save you time and energy.  This means avoiding shoveling the same snow twice by planning where to deposit the snow in advance, not throwing snow long distances, and by shoveling in a pattern that allows for depositing the snow below shoulder height. (1)

  1. Preparing your body for the activity of shoveling can start with some gentle yoga based flowing movements that warm up your body including:  Standing Cat-Cow(Dog), Head & neck movements, Shoulder Shrugs, and gentle arm movements. This followed by a chair flow series that includes 1. Mountain Pose with gentle spine extension followed by 2. Chair pose. Steps 1 and 2 are repeated 5 to 10 times. Hydrate with water before going out to shovel.
  2. Good Body Mechanics involve proper lifting techniques which includes using your body with good spinal and limb alignment, bending your knees, engaging your core, alternating sides used to shovel, lifting smaller snow loads, taking mini stretch breaks, avoid twisting and using an ergonomic shovel if possible (for more information on shovel types see the Consumer Reports reference below. They have a nice list of shovel types and their benefits.  They even recommend more than one shovel type for different snow removal activities. (2))
  3. Stretching and De-stressing your body after shoveling can include yoga based stretches and movements to counter balance the muscles and movements used for shoveling, such as standing cat-cow(dog), gentle back bends, hamstring stretches, lateral side bends, lunges with front leg on ground or step, gentle spinal rotation poses standing, seated or supine.  Make sure you replace fluids with water after shoveling.

References from Web:

1. http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/improvement/outdoor-projects/16-cardinal-rules-for-snow-shovelling

2.http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/01/best-snow-shovels-safe-snow-removal/index.htm