Saturday Special: Protecting Your Lower Back

On Feb. 16, Roddy offered a Saturday Special where she described key alignment tips that serve to engage core support muscles and create a lighter, more stable posture -- in and out of our yoga poses. We learned stretches to release the back, and ways to approach poses in order to protect the back. Roddy shared how she has learned to take care of her back within her yoga practice and throughout her daily life. Creative use of props, helpful partner work, and time to explore individual questions rounded out an engaging and informative Saturday Special!

Our Saturday Special series offers students a mini-workshop experience -- a chance to more deeply explore various yoga topics without having to invest a huge amount of time on a Saturday morning. We have a really interesting set of Specials still on tap, which will start up again after our Break Week. Check out the link on our web site to read about Saturday Specials still to come. Hope to see you!

"Foot Notes"

From the handout that Lynette provided at her Saturday Special focussed on the feet and ankles (See Greetings! post for a report on the class):

The average American takes 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day, bringing a force of several tons to bear on the feet and spanning several miles.

We walk about 115,000 miles in a lifetime - more than four times the circumference of the globe.

A 150-pound person walking one mile exerts the equivalent of 63.5 tons - 127,000 pounds - on each foot.

Walking on cement can give each foot a 180-pound jolt with each step.

There are approximately 250,000 sweat glands in a pair of feet, and they excrete as much as half a pint of moisture each day.

Walking is the best form of exercise for the feet.

There is an important relationship between our feet and our overall health and well-being! (Courtesy of the American Podiatric Medical Association)

All good reasons to take care of and appreciate our feet as the foundation of our yoga poses, our posture, and our connection to the good earth!

Greetings!

Welcome to the occasionally regular Inward Bound blog! Here we will post Inward Bound news, reports of workshops, upcoming events of interest, and articles and information to inform your yoga practice.

First report from Lynette's Saturday Special on the Feet and Ankles:

It was yoga spa day as eighteen happy students massaged their feet with scented arnica oil at the close of Lynette's Feb. 9 Saturday Special. Prior to that, we learned important anatomical sites to support our best foot alignment, revisited our walking style to the tune of Madeleine Peyroux's "Walkin' After Midnight", and experienced our posture and poses with new foot awareness. We explored focused stretches to support foot and ankle flexibility and also refreshed ourselves on the words to "This Little Piggie Went to Market!" An upbeat and informative morning -- thanks to Lynette and to all the students who contributed their interest and energy!

Feb. 16 -- Join Roddy for "Protecting the Lower Back." 10:30-noon, drop-in, $12.00.