Using Strength Training to Support your Yoga Practice and Vice Versa Part 1

People usually stick to what they are comfortable and good at.  I mean if you have a few hours a week to workout you are going to do what you enjoy...right?

Yes of course it is FAR better than doing nothing at all, but what you like isn’t always what you need.

OR what is good best for your body J

Take for example an already super bendy girl doing yoga 4 times a week… shits gonna hit the fan!

Remember at the beginning of this year the NY TIMES article about how Yoga can wreck your body?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/magazine/how-yoga-can-wreck-your-body.html?pagewanted=all

Just as we as humans has evolved over the years so too must yoga. Those instructors stuck in the strict constraints of the past may in fact be damaging their students.

Here at South Boston Yoga the instructors come from a wide variety of backgrounds.  Our influences include bodywork, personal training, dance, and martial arts.  These styles collide to create something wonderful. I assure you it is some of the best “yoga” you will get in the Boston area.

Since the majority of my clients practice yoga I don’t have to spend much time on mobility or flexibility in general.  My focus for them is teaching SELF MYOFASCIAL RELEASE, STABILITY and STRENGTH through a safe and solid range of motion.

After all most Yogi’s have a PHENOMENAL amount of body awareness without EVER having lifted a weight!

Here are just a few things to think about:

Teach students that it is ok to have anterior tilt sometimes such as in the deadlift, as opposed to continually cueing a “tucking of the tail”

       

In addition, teaching rack and overhead carry variations develops strength and stability in the upper back and shoulders as well as the core

-Allow your downward dog to achieve thoracic extension as well as hamstring stretch, cueing chest back to thighs with bent knees as opposed to cueing heels down.

(Notice how this causes a rounding in the low back)

Teach that lunging with both knees bent creates more strength and stability, such as in the banded knee lunge below. 

    

Versus constantly sitting into the stretch with the following Exulted Warrior Lunge.

Create single leg and hip stability along with glute strength by bending at the knee in single leg deadlifts.

As opposed to simply hinging at the hip with a straight base leg in Warrior III.

There is not a whole lot of supported lateral movement in yoga. Sure we forward fold to the left and right but the core is not involved there.  In order to teach the upper back and core to the support the torso I teach with the assistance of a suspension trainer.

Lateral Lunges with an exaggerated vertical torso for erector and core involvement.

My Biweekly Update...PROGRESS NOT PERFECTION ;)

I strength train three days a week and yet I continue to gain strength and skill. 

Yes and you can too :) 

I have gotten to a point in my life that I don't want to spend more time in the gym then I need to. 

I need time to run a successful business, keep up with life, as well as spend with family and friends, and its SUMMERTIME :) 

In the past I have been guilty of losing sight of all that is important to me in order to pursue my goals. 

I have said this before and I will say it again...you can have it all.

Most of you now as a trainer myself, with a specialty in strength training with kettlebells, suspension trainers,body weight exercises, along with a focus on corrective exercise.  I run my business within the largest yoga studio in Boston.  I don't train athletes, I work with everyday folks looking to gain stability, get stronger and stay pain free. 

I do however continue to have my own strength goals to keep me learning and motivated rather than stagnant  because in this industry your job is never done :)  I don't believe in "talking the talk" if you yourself don't "walk the walk".  Therefore when I post videos of myself, this is not a direct reflection of what I would do with my clients.

As promised here's my biweekly update on training ;)

As usual my workout begins with 10-15 minutes of SMFR; focusing my attention on areas that I know will need to be open on that given training day. I then move into mobility and stability exercises that target my weaknesses ie ankle, hip and thoracic mobility as well as glute and scapular stability. I prepare for traditional deadlifts with medball slam and box jump variations.

A1:Deadlifts 205X 8 with 60 sec rest

A2:I usually do some sort of hip mobility drill to ensure I rest for the given time period.

B1: Pullups 4x6,

 B2: GHR 4x10 (banded and UGLY)

C1: Bent over rows 5 x8 @ 105lbs

C2: Single leg hip thrusts with chains 4x6,

 D1:GHR sit up3x 10 @ 45lbs,

D2: Prone Trap Raises 3x10@ 5lbs

A Tasty Threesome

While I cannot always please everyone, I promise that you will love one of the next three EASY PEASY recipes! One for dinner, one for desert and one for those of you who may need to go a long time without food and aren't necessarily Intermittent Fasting!

I got a VITAMIX for Christmas and its pretty much become my BESTIE.  A few weeks ago I bought my first grill and I have been a grilling machine ever since :)

I prefer to eat fattier meats and fish at night so that I am satiated, I have found this to work best for me,  I am also the DISHWASHER so anything that is easy clean up is always a bonus. Oh and the fact that my apartment doesn't reek of fish...hahah I consider this a bonus too.

Goals... Who needs em anyway?!?!

Apparently, I do.

If in not getting ready for a certification, training for a competition, or prepping for a photo shoot, I've got limited motivation.

Sure I get in and train but I feel my drive lacking.

 Do I need a lifting partner? Do I need camaraderie?

What is going to keeping me pushing, hold me accountable and most of all get me FIRED UP?!?!

Since I am no longer working with my trainer in person, I send him videos of my progress.  This in itself keeps me accountable :) This week I decided to record most of my workouts...here is a sample day!

Training Day

Each day I start by foam rolling for at least 10 minutes. If it's an upper body day I have specific areas that I focus on, same goes with lower body. I then go into my mobility and stability warmup. On deadlift day this block I would perform overhead heavy medball slams and box jumps.
The session went a little bit like this.
Deadlift from Blocks: Singles at 135, 155, 175, 225 and 245. In between each single I would perform wall marches to keep my hip flexors open.

Split squat from deficit-3x10 @ 65lbs
T-pushups- 3x 10 with 15lb DB

Single leg slide board leg curls- 3x 10 with 20lbs
3-point DB Row- 3x10 @ 55lbs

Reverse Crunch- 4 sets of 10 with 12kg
Half kneeling face pull-3 sets of 12 @ 65lbs

Since this was week 4 in my block my sets were lower and my reps higher on accessory work. I also didn't perform my usual 7-10 minutes of interval work at the end.

Thanks for keeping me focused :D

Rambling and a special thank you

So once again I find myself saying "Hi again, it's been awhile."
The truth is I don't feel like myself when I am not writing.
One can never use the excuse that you don't have time because you make time for things that are important to you.
I just read an article A LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF that really spoke to me.

What is a Strength Cruise?

Good question.

As trainers, continuing education is important to us and our time is valuable

…time away from our clients is money lost.

Being the hard workers we all are; we also could use a little R & R from time to time.

Coach Nick Tumminello decided to combine the best of both worlds and BOOM The Strength Cruise was born!

The weekend was put on by Coach Nick Tumminello and featured presenters Jon Goodman, Cassandra Forsythe-Pribanic,  Jose Antonio, and Bill Sonnemaker.

Our time together went something like this

Daily lectures from 7:30/8am to 12pm each day, then we had free time to explore the Bahamas together!  

We had group dinners, hit the beach, worked out, did yoga, and some of us had fun into the wee hours of the morning! The long weekend was the perfect time frame, not too long and not too short.

AHHH the pelvis...to TILT or not to TILT

I want to spin off of an article I recently read.  The following topic is something I encounter weekly if not daily, now that I run my business out of a yoga studio.

The issue of a neutral pelvic tilt…what is it?

A natural neutral pelvis supports a small arch in the low back so that your body is able to support and connect your upper body and lower body, as well as move you.

Therefore to state that a neutral pelvis is actually in an anterior pelvic tilt is in fact correct.

Men and women differ in degrees of what is considered a neutral pelvis in each gender. Women can get away with slightly more of an anterior tilt since a women’s pelvis is designed to support pregnancy, while a man’s pelvis does not.

Now I am going to go ahead and make two generalizations here. 

*If a client or student works at a desk or sits all day the likelihood that their pelvis will be posterior is greater.

*On the other hand if you are teaching a group of high-level athletes, then chances are higher that you will see more anterior tilts.

In reality every pelvis is a little different. One exercise could work wonders for one individual while causing pain for another.

Your best bet as a health professional is to get comfortable palpating the bony prominences that together create the “pelvic tilt”.  Eyeballing is simply not enough. The PSIS is at one end point of the iliac crest on the back side, they appear as two small bumps. The ASIS is the end point on the front side of your pelvis, these are larger and easy to find with you follow the iliac crest all the way forward.

Chances are if your ass is as flat as a pancake you have a posterior tilt going on and your hamstrings do all the work leaving you with a sad excuse for an ass. HOWEVER I have had female clients with nice C shaped bums that would appear to most to have anterior tilts …that were actually posterior!  Ahhh you see I am full of contradictions  :P

Get comfortable, touch yourself so that you can in turn palpate others or instruct clients and or students to get a little “hands on” with themselves.

That being said I see a ton of former dancers, gymnasts, as well as yoga enthusiasts at the yoga studio.  I work to create pelvic stability both bilaterally and unilaterally so that the core is able to fire properly and clients are far less likely to complain of SI Joint discomfort.  In addition I strengthen their posterior chain so that the hamstrings and glutes are firing properly as well as to protect them from a hamstring strain.

Here’s where I confuse some yoga practitioners.

I instruct yogi’s to arch hard when they dead -lift. This throws them for a loop seeing as “tucking your tail” is so common in the yoga world.

As you can see NO ONE RULE applies to every situation…such is life :P

As long as we can create strength and stability through a sound range of motion we will be activating the core musculature that is necessary for supporting a healthy pelvis.