What is Restorative Yoga?
When is the last time you can remember feeling like you had a great night sleep? Did you have trouble falling asleep? Staying asleep or have trouble getting up in the morning?
Do you feel like you’re multitasking and never finishing a project, or finding that a project was left undone and still not getting to bed when you need to or having to wake up early to try and finish something?
You are NOT alone!
Let us help your body and brain come down from that ‘fight or flight’ feeling. Reduce a level or three of the stress you’ve been under and allow your shoulders not to be your earrings anymore. No need to hike those shoulders up! No need to feel that tension in your gut, your jaw and the back of your head and your shoulders. Let that weight lift off of your shoulders from the messages piling up in your email, the to do list that is never ending (btw-that to do list means you are needed and still have a few years to live so that is also a good thing lol).
Take it from me and my husbster-RESTORATIVE YOGA IS FOR YOU! We both disliked yoga before we found this.
Let me let you in on a secret… I took yoga certification classes because it would force me into good habits so that I would do yoga on a regular basis, which meant that, I only did yoga during classes, so I kept taking classes….. over and over so the obligation was there (we all know it’s good for us).
Is every type of yoga good for you? Some may not be good for all issues BUT LET ME TELL YOU, restorative is FANTASTIC for almost everyone (check in with me if you have Elhers Danlos personally and we can discuss-this may be the ONLY thing contraindicated for restorative yoga).
Over the years, our community is starting to learn the detriment of the ‘no pain-no gain’ type exercises. You may not have damage at the moment (that tension is telling you that it’s coming) but as we add on layers of injuries, emotional stress and less and less down time, we find that ‘I just lifted this light box and THREW MY BACK OUT!”. I hear this ALL the TIME as an advance therapeutic medical massage therapist!! It drives me crazy. We don’t ‘throw my back out’ it isn’t ‘lifting this light box”. It is the years of things that start when we are children that we blew off because our body could shift a little here, then a little there until we have so many twist, turns and shifts that our bodies have taken that they have no ‘give’ left to give!* & **
Restorative yoga can be incredibly healing, mind and body. It can help build strength, decrease stress levels, help with high blood pressure, anxiety, inflammation and more. It is also a great complement to your current routine such as strength training, running, cycling, rock climbing, hiking or ANYTHING. It allows your body to get stronger by relaxing away several layers/years of stored stress in your life. Take this opportunity to ground yourself and improve your quality of life. We want to educate you through a healthy means to be able to be stronger than ever and more in tune with your body so that you restore old injuries and prevent new ones! We want you to live your life, be in the moment and be able to be present for those that you love, work with and are in a community with!
We have been implementing a few poses in our bodywork and personal training sessions and received such wonderful feedback and demand for a regular session that we are offering a PILOT PROGRAM.
What to Expect from Restorative Yoga…
All poses in restorative yoga will be held for 4-7 minutes, and a session will be made up of 4-6 poses depending on the length of the class. The poses will be gentle twisting, seated forward folding, back bending with support. All poses will be with support as needed. You can find our preferred products for this class here
Your instructor will help you with detailed instruction to assist you in getting into the perfect position for you. They will help you with the alignment that your body is ready for and the perfect position for each stage that you are experiencing. This allows you to improve naturally and gently for each pose. You will feel that your body can comfortably ease into positions that you aren’t normally used to for more flexibility and lessen pressure on your joints, muscles and fascial tissue.
The positions are not going to seem challenging and you may think that you may have more of a challenge with your mind wandering. You will be focusing so much on easing into the best position for you with such detail that the time will pass quickly and the position will be gracefully challenging. You will feel challenged once in the position, you may even break a sweat. You are always in charge of the depth that your practice takes you and the practice that you create but it isn’t to be a force or strain. By allowing your body to gracefully move into a position with each breath, your body will fall into place quicker and hold that longer even after your session is over.
If a posture ever feels a little out of your reach, let us help you learn how to use props to get into the best position of you with our program-yoga blankets (or regular blankets), yoga blocks, bolsters of different sizes. You can even go with household items-paper towels rolls, rolled up hand towels, standard size towels, sofa cushions, throw pillows and coffee tables (you can get really creative).
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In Health and Wellness,
Michelle S Krause LMT
Scott Goldberg
Owner of Vital Fitness Holistic Center
www.vitalfitnessholisticcenter.com
President of the Severna Park/Baltimore Holistic Chamber of Commerce
www.holisticchamberofcommerce.com
*Our bodies have been taking on an overload and having to change so quickly that our mind and body are not able to process quickly enough to evolve and make adjustments without holding high intense tension causing aches, pains, inflammation and more sickness on a day to day basis and we call this ‘aging’ or ‘life’.
**By relaxing your muscles (skeletal muscles are not to be engaged and working unless you call on them to act, they get depleted if they are always engaged) you allow your muscles to be able to build more endurance and strength. Having your tissues relaxed and allowing space for your brain to openly connect with your organs-clearer thinking, better heart health, better digestion and even your fingers and toes won’t go numb and get better communication!
