Easter Class Schedule and Kids' Yoga!

Greetings, all! We have some news of the scheduling sort. First, there will be no classes on Good Friday (3 April) or Easter Monday (6 April). However, on 4 April we will be holding our regular 75-minute Saturday-morning Power Yoga class, starring Drew. We'd love to see you!

Second, Kids' Holiday Yoga! We have a special four-class term lined up for your holiday break. The classes run on two consecutive Wednesdays and Fridays, April 8, 10, 15, and 17. These classes are for kids ages 3 1/2 to 10, each with parent or caregiver, and cost $15 per class, $25 for two classes, or $40 for all four. These classes will be held at Healium from 10 to 10.45 am, and are taught by Isa.

The next regular term of Kids' Yoga follows soon after, running Mondays from 3.30 to 4.15 pm at Owhiro Bay School. The nine-class term runs from 27 April through 29 June (skipping the 1 June holiday). Also for kids ages 3 1/2 to 10, with parent or caregiver, these classes cost $72 and are also taught by Isa.

To register for either (or both) Kids' Yoga terms, email us at hi@healium.co.nz or call us on 04 499 0334.

We look forward to seeing you, and wish you all a very Happy Easter!

New Yoga Classes + Free Yoga Day 2014 + More Russell!

Spring is upon us at Healium and we're exited to have the lovely Russell teaching a lot more classes from 13 October! Russell has been teaching Power Yoga on Wednesdays at 5.30 pm and Thursdays at 7.15 am, and he'll still be doing those as well as several more classes on our schedule - freeing up Sylvia to attend more classes/plot world domination/do admin.

We're celebrating the energy of the season with the addition of two more weekly classes: a lunchtime Power Yoga Basics on Tuesdays at 12.15 pm and Power Yoga on Thursdays at 6.30 pm so you can make the most of those long summer evenings! For the youngsters, we also have a new seven-week term of Kids' Yoga starting on Monday, 13 October at 3.30 pm.

While we have your attention, remember that Labour Day is coming up on Monday, 27 October, and we have a great schedule of FREE classes as part of Wellington's first Free Yoga Day. We have the following classes for you -

• Family Yoga at 10 am
• Pregnancy Yoga at 11.15 am
• Power Yoga Basics at 12.15 pm
• Power Yoga at 1.15 pm
• Gentle Yoga at 2.15 pm
• Kids' Yoga at 3.30 pm

- all of them free!

We hope you're full of the joys of spring, and we'll see you in class soon!

Team Healium

Meet the Teacher: Katia Guiloff

This week - on Thursday, 2 May - morning yoga classes begin at Healium! They run from 7.15 to 8.00 am every Tuesday and Thursday, and they're taught by Katia Guiloff. Here's a bit about Katia in her own words.

1. What is your favorite thing about yoga?

The calmness that it brings to oh so many aspects of life.

2. What is your favorite yoga pose?

Nowadays: Sarvangasana, shoulder stand!

3. What is your favorite thing to teach?

The relaxing feeling of finding yourself, your breath in a pose.

4. What is your favorite posture to teach?

Tadasana, mountain pose.

5. What is your favorite thing to do other than practice and teach yoga?

So many! Read, watch films, cook, eat. :-)

Randomly Asked Questions: Teaching from Behind?

You know, if you look back over many of my childhood photos, many of them are pictures of my mother, sister and me walking away from my dad - pictures taken from behind. It's rather funny, honestly, and I never knew why he did that. Now that I have a little boy, I can see how that happens . . . he usually runs ahead of us, and so we mostly see him from behind!

Of course, in yoga class, you are on mats and not walking away from me, and I'm marching around like John Wayne or something, poking you on occasion and working on my stand-up (or march-around) comedy routine. So why am I usually behind you?

Well, it's one of the easiest ways for me to see a large group of people, scan them and get a sense of where the alignment of the posture is. From behind, I can see what's happening in each student's body, and make a mental note so that I know what to focus on as the class moves forward. I also scan the class from certain sides of the room, too - for postures like triangle pose - where I can best see what you're up to.

Also, when giving assists, I usually come in from behind because I like to pretend that I am a ninja.

Typically, standing behind a student is the most stable position from which to assist. Usually, the student is in a stable position, and I'm gently entering the space to make minor adjustments to improve the alignment structure of the posture so the student can get the most benefit. It's very difficult - and often very intrusive - to approach the assist from the front. It's also distracting.

A side benefit of all of this "being behind you" stuff is that other, more subtle cues are happening. First, I'm deemphasizing myself as much as possible. Yoga is not about me, what I can do or what have you. Yoga is yoga, and yoga is what you do on your mat with your body. I'm just guiding you through the process and teaching you the skill of how to do yoga. It actually belongs to you. And, second, at the emotional level, I'm behind you 100 percent in your process and your practice. I'm there to support you, exactly as you are, where you are, right now in this moment, as the teacher. I'm backing you up, and that is all.

Healium Yoga and Movement Classes: Updated Schedule

Hi ho! Yesterday Jenifer took you through some of the wherefores and whyhows of our yoga classes, and somewhere in there she mentioned that our website has been updated, complete with a slightly tweaked class schedule and corresponding class descriptions. It's true, it's there, and you can go see it for yourself in all its digital glory.

However, we like to be thorough; and so for anyone who comes to the blog for the latest timetable, we're reproducing it here, as well:

And of course you're always welcome to take a paper schedule home with you too. See you around!

Yoga Evolution: Iteration No. 973

So we started this process wherein we co-created some sequences and transitioned classes to new teachers. And out of this we've received a lot of great feedback from you, and from each other. Here's what we've figured out a lot of things weren't working!

As ever, business is responsive. We want to provide the best possible experience for you - our amazing clients - so you can get what you want out of our classes. It's a value that all of the teachers and practitioners share: that you are getting a high-quality experience whenever you're at Healium!

Thus, it was back to the drawing board to figure a few things out!

Teachers

A lot of new teachers came on board, and it's great having them. Each one is a great teacher. But several of them discovered that commitments to teach every week were a bit much and as such needed to pull back a bit. They want to be able to provide the best experience for you, and a teacher who is feeling burnt to a crisp isn't going to provide that.

As such Jenifer (that's me!) will be returning to teach two evenings a week, alternating Monday/Wednesday one week and Tuesday/Thursday the next. The other teachers are going to go on the alternate days. And, there's a new teacher in town whom we'll introduce to you very soon: Britt!

Classes

We had several sequences. We discovered that some of them were . . . not-great. They weren't bad, but you told us you didn't really care for them; and on our end they just seemed not to work.

So, we've opted to liberate the sequences a bit. Teachers will decide what the sequence will be for their class, but elements of each class will be the same. The OM and opening and closing sequences will be the same. You'll see a lot of familiar postures throughout the teaching, but each teacher is a bit more independent and chooses the order of the postures.

We'll also just call all of the classes "Power Yoga" again, and then Power Yoga Basics, Gentle Yoga and Pilates will be their thing.

As we move forward into this new process, I look forward to your ongoing feedback! This way, we'll always be able to adjust to what you guys are looking for in your classes!

Saturdays

Last month, we started first and third Saturday classes at $18 for the 75-minute class. It was great to see so many of you keen to practice on Saturdays! So, we've opted to provide a class every Saturday at 9.30 am! We're also dropping the class price because, quite honestly, having two pricing schemes was confusing for us! Thus, Saturday classes will run on your class concessions. If you have a concession, you can use it on Saturday, or just add it as as  drop-in at your locked-in rate. And, of course, for anyone not on concession, it's a $12 drop-in!

One pricing scheme to rule them all! Except this one serves good, not Sauron.

Class Schedule

There are a few changes to the class schedule coming up in November - you can see the current timetable on our website. The basics are that the Monday and Wednesday 12.15 classes will now be Group Private.

Online Booking System

We're currently still working to get MINDBODY set up. We're really excited about this system because it provides us with a lot of great information and it provides you with a lot more ease in making payments.

This system will include an online credit card system as well as an auto-debit system. So in addition to cash and EFTPOS, you'll now have the option to use your credit card. You'll also be able to pay for your new concessions, workshops and private lessons all online in your underpants at 2 am if you want!

I'm (Jenifer, you know) particularly psyched that the system will manage our concessions. When you book for your last class, it will tell you! And, then you - clothed or not - could get your next concession right then if you wanted! The system will tell us that you've paid. No more weird paper thing on the desk! No more weird confusions about start and end dates. We'll be able to hold concessions for sickness and whatnot, suspend payments if you're on an auto-debit, and everyone will get reminders about everything. (Well, maybe not everything.)

I never knew that I could be so excited about a booking system. It's like having ice cream AND cake AND fireworks during a concert by Eivør in Denmark when the temperature is perfect and your hair looks super-awesome! Yeah, I'm that excited about it.

We are a week, possibly two, from the arrival of this super-awesomeness. We're kind of slow learning to use it - which we need to do before we have you using it or it would be more like falling down in a big pile of goose poop in your best jeans on your way to your high school reunion where you're going to show all those popular girls how amazing you turned out and aren't they sorry now, but NO because you are covered in goose poop and the rain made your hair frizzy and you got food poisoning.

So, we'll learn it first, and let you know when it launches.

See you in class.

Gentle Yoga: Why You Should Do It!

In April we added a new kind of class to our schedule: gentle yoga. Most of you are power yogis, and it's likely that, just like I once did, you think gentle yoga is not for you. Oh, but it *is*.

I know it looks like just lying around on pillows, but that lying around is doing something we can't really do any other way: releasing the deep tension of the muscles.

Why is this important?

Well, let's talk a bit about how muscles work. In general, muscles are recruited in concert to provide us with mobility - the ability to move. Throughout our lives, adhesions develop in the muscles and fascia (connective tissue throughout the body) due to injury - large or small - and our bodies, being naturally amazing, create compensatory movements around those injuries which create unique movement patterns.

These adhesions - which often feel like lumps in the muscle - make it difficult for the muscle to move. The rest of the muscle - around the adhesion - is limited in its movement, in its ability to recruit the fibers needed for movement.

And so we compensate, and eventually that compensation can become another area of pain or injury. At the same time, the area where we have that adhesion and corresponding tension becomes more and more tight and less and less mobile, until - quite honestly - we can hardly move at all.

I'm sure you've seen people of various ages barely able to move. They can't get up and down off the floor easily, for example. Or even in or out of a chair easily. They've tensed and compensated and injured and compensated until there's nothing left to recruit.

Now, enter power yoga.

What we do in our regular, power yoga classes is develop the strength and flexibility of the muscles in an active way. And it works, certainly. It's the consistent, diligent practice over time of strengthening muscles not used to being worked (because of compensatory movement - we all have a stronger side, for example) which creates muscle balance and agility.

But what power yoga doesn't get to are the adhesions and the tensions.

Now, enter gentle yoga.

We prop our bodies up into a nicely modified version of the posture. It's usually a "deep" modification, which allows us to align both the physical and energetic bodies properly. At the physical level, the alignment prevents us from falling into our common vulnerabilities (where we tend to compensate) which would lead to further injury. At the energetic level, postures create a certain flow of energy in the body, just as the acupuncture needle creates a specific flow or release of energy in the process of Traditional Chinese Medicine. So, the alignment is still important. We do both of these things in our power yoga, too, just in a more active way.

Once in the proper alignment, we simply work on relaxing. The long holds with the support of the props allows our bodies to systematically relax, allowing the muscles to release tension around the adhesions. Over time, even the adhesions themselves dissipate through consistent, gentle stimulation of these long holds.

This release, therefore, allows for greater mobility in the muscle, which makes it more efficient in doing what it wants to do - move! This greater mobility also means we aren't falling into compensatory movement patterns - our tendons and ligaments are no longer taking up the slack - and we steer clear of injury. We are able to recruit more muscle fibers to support the movement of our active, power yoga classes as well as the movement of our daily lives.

My recommendation? Consider adding a gentle yoga class to your regular exercise routine. Just one gentle yoga class a week in concert with your power yoga classes and your regular sporting and life activities will make a world of difference! If you just can't add another thing to your schedule, put gentle yoga into a regular rotation - perhaps every third or fourth week.

Give it a try, and you'll experience the amazing benefits this style of yoga provides. Gentle yoga classes are on Tuesdays and Fridays at 11.15 am and are led by Jenifer (that's me!).

Awesome Yoga Announcements!

There are always cool things happening at Healium with our Yoga and Movement program.

New Teachers! As you already know, we have a whole bunch of *new* teachers joining us at the studio! We've had bios from Alanna, Sylvia, Val, Neva and Jenifer (that's me), and we have more little five-question interviews coming from Trudi, Elissa, Oli and two other new teachers who are joining us - Elaine and Maggie! Be on the lookout for these fun blogs, and swing by to meet the new teachers in the evening yoga classes, Sylvia in Pilates at 11.15 am on Mondays and Thursdays, and Oli in Feldenkrais at 12.15 on Thursdays.

Congratulations to Val! Val got an awesome new job! Of course, this job has a meeting every day at 11.30, which means that Val won't be able to teach the Tuesday/Friday 11.15 am Gentle Yoga classes. Why didn't the job check with us first before settling their standing meeting?!

So, starting in October, Jenifer (that's me), will be taking on the Gentle classes! These classes will change a bit in flavor. It's a gentle class, but we'll focus on long, supported holds of floor postures using our props. This will stimulate connective tissues, releasing tension in the muscles and joints, and developing safe, stable flexibility.

Saturday Classes Start in October! On the first and third Saturdays of the month, Elissa and Jenifer (me again!) will be teaching the Saturday class: Yoga Explorations. This 75-minute class will be tons of fun, exploring more postures than in our shorter sequences! It's an $18 drop-in only and starts at 9.30 am!

FREE Power Yoga Theory Class! Our next free Power Yoga Theory class - for students who have been coming six months or longer - is on Saturday, 13 October at 9.30 am. We'll be going through the whole sun salutation sequence, providing clear instruction on the vinyasa (flowing sequence of postures) as well as modifications to make the sequence work for your body! This class is also 75 minutes. We need as least eight of you to hold the class, so let me know if you want on the list!

First-ever Healium Yoga Workshop: Feel-Good Hamstrings! Due to popular demand, we will have our first-ever yoga workshop on Saturday, 27 October from 9.30 am to 12 noon! We'll study the basic structure of the hamstrings, discuss what makes the hamstrings tight, and learn the proper alignment of the body that helps both strengthen and stretch the hamstrings effectively. We'll finish up this discussion with a great, 75-minute class that emphasizes the hamstrings, and also have a another 20 minutes for Q&A! Cost for this 2.5-hour workshop is $40 if you register by 1 October; $45 if you register later.

Space is limited to 15 participants, and several people have already signed up - so register early to get your spot!

See you in class!

Feel-Good Hamstrings Workshop!

We all know how Tim feels. Yes, he looks happy, but dude is tight!

But aren't we all? I feel tight. I sit a lot at this computer writing blogs and emails and being on Facebook. Sure, I do yoga, but *still* my hamstrings feel tight.

And they feel *so good* when they are stretched out right!

And so I am totally psyched to offer a workshop on how to accomplish feel-good hamstrings!

In this workshop, we will:

• discuss the basic anatomy of the hamstrings and the different things that can cause hamstring tightness;

• go through the underlying alignment theory to get us into the best positions to begin to liberate those hamstrings; and

• dive into an amazing, all-levels (beginners welcome!) feel-good hamstrings yoga sequence!

You'll have plenty of tips to take with you to your home practice as well as to your regular classes. Look at the price - you can't go wrong! You know you want this hamstrings workshop! Register soon, as space is limited to 15 students!

Where: Healium.

When: Saturday, 27 October, 9.30 am to 12 noon.

How Much: $40 early-bird registration (before 1 October); $45 thereafter.

What: Feel-Good Hamstrings!

Who: Jenifer Parker will be leading this workshop - that's me! She's been teaching yoga for 16 years now, enjoys teaching yoga and currently is learning how to fail at parkour and roller derby.

Meet the Teacher: Jenifer Parker

Jenifer Parker, Director of Healium and teacher of a number of lunchtime and corporate yoga classes, has a Kraken in her hip, a snail in her spine, and several other mythological or imaginary friends who facilitate her yoga practice. 

1. What is your favorite thing about yoga?

Yoga keeps me sane. Y'all know I'm cray-cray.

2. What is your favorite yoga pose?

Triangle pose is my absolute favorite. I just love the way it works me completely. It always takes me to my "edges" - physically and emotionally. It forces me to really focus on that present doing-of-triangle-pose. And, I don't know, I think the first time I "got it" it was like . . . the universe expanded or something.

Like I said, cray-cray.

3. What is your favorite thing to teach?

I love how the practice develops awareness. I love to teach people this awareness - an awareness of their bodies, an awareness of how their mind is working (like that drama queen who lives in my head - she might not be exactly . . . accurate in her representation of what is what). Ultimately, I love how this awareness just starts to expand into people's broader lives. I love it when they share that with me. It's cool.

4. What is your favorite posture to teach?

Mountain pose is probably my favorite to teach. That which seems so simple is actually a lot of little details. And once it's right (or even just heading in the right direction), it tells us a lot about ourselves. It also means that we've started to heal up a lot of physical vulnerabilities that we might not have been aware of, but which caused us pain.

And it's sort of integral to who we are - we stand up. When you stand up, it says a lot of things on a lot of different levels - not just physical. We often talk about "standing up for what is right" - and in a way, too, mountain pose helps us to discover what that "standing up" means.

I could teach a whole workshop just on this posture, but the poor students would be toast afterwards. It's a lot to cover in two hours. But if you want such a workshop, let me know, because I'm a total geek on this posture, and I love to teach it.

5. What is your favorite thing to do other than practice and teach yoga?

It is really wrong of me to say sleep? 

I love to sleep. Sleeping is awesome. It's like the second-best thing ever. Possibly third. Maybe fourth. I'm not going to legitimize my list, but . . . let's just say that I love to sleep. I usually get about eight or nine hours a night, unless things have gone nuts in my life - like the kiddo wakes at 2 am needing a toilet and then a banana.

Sometimes, I like to be all kinds of luxurious and sleep in for, like, 12 hours. And one time, when I was in Sweden, I was jet-lagged, and I slept for 14 glorious hours. It was so awesome.

Yeah. I really love to sleep.

Healium Yoga and Movement Evolution!

I'm so excited to announce our new classes, schedule and teachers as we head into spring! The teachers and I have been working diligently all winter, and we're so psyched to provide something new and fresh, something we've never come across before in the yoga world!

At most yoga studios one of two things typically happens: either (1) the owners determine the sequence/style for all the classes or (2) the teachers operate completely independently, teaching whatever they want. At Healium, however, the teachers have come together as a group to create consistent, cohesive sequences across all of our classes.

The really cool thing is that the teachers have a lot in common but also slightly different expertise and "takes" on the material - with the result that our new classes really just "riff" off of what we're already doing. Each class takes elements from different directions and builds on the great yoga you know and love.

And we have two more exciting developments:

• Pilates! Starting Monday, 3 September we'll be offering Pilates mat classes twice each week.

• Saturday Yoga! Starting 6 October we'll be offering 75-minute classes on the first and third Saturdays of each month. Mark your calendars!

So here are the new schedule and class descriptions effective Monday, 27 August:

Power Yoga and Power Yoga Basics will be as they have been so far - no changes there.

Power Yoga Elements goes into the small details of our postures and deep, intrinsic muscles by developing awareness of and support for safe mobility in the joints.

Power Yoga Dynamics emphasizes the connection between breath and movement, the flowing dynamic of Power Yoga.

Power Yoga Explorations is longer than the other classes by 30 minutes, giving us more time to explore the postures we know more deeply as well as expand into new, complementary postures to develop new strengths and flexibilities. Held the first and third Saturdays of each month, starting 6 October.

Power Yoga Theory is our special free class (formerly "Power Yoga Exploration"), also 75 minutes long, for those who have been practicing at Healium for six months or longer. Held the second Saturday of each month.

Gentle Yoga is our only yoga class without the word "Power" in its title, but don't let that fool you - it's still a deeply powerful practice! Using props, this class develops deep flexibility through supported long holds, releasing tension in muscles and joints.

Pilates. A series of mat-based exercises which cultivate beautiful posture, strength and flexibility, from the core to the extremities. Starts Monday, 3 September - watch this space for details!

Feldenkrais is a mindful practice that creates new connections between body and brain, leading to greater self-awareness and more graceful movement.

Group Private Class is a private movement class designed specifically for your organization or team.

Finally, the nitty-gritty fine print:

• All of the classes Monday-Friday are available under the normal pricing structure ($12 drop-in and monthly concessions). This includes all 45-minute yoga classes, Pilates and Feldenkrais!

• The Saturday Power Yoga Explorations will be held on the first and third Saturdays of each month. Drop-in rate only at $18 per class.

• The Saturday free class, Power Yoga Theory, will continue on the second Saturday of each month, so long as we have eight or more confirmed people. Class time moves to 9.30 am. 

Coming soon: our new teachers!

Crow Pose: Learning to Fly!

Our Power Yoga classes have been featuring a fun new posture - the arm balance called Crow Pose - and there have been several questions about it, and in particular how to practice it at home so that you can really "get" it in class!



I did this video some months ago that goes through the structure of Crow Pose, so now you have a step-by-step guide for how to use the posture. If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to to ask - and let me know how it goes!

Free Stuff!

Hi, all!

This is our second blog post in response to the yoga survey, and while you didn't ask for it, I was thinking about ways to THANK YOU! for being such amazing clients - dedicated to your practices and providing us with the opportunity to do work that we love!

So, I thought I would create opportunities for you all to get some more yoga and other movement offerings at Healium!

First, as I said in the last blog, we'll be offering a Free Yoga Class once a month to any student who has been coming to the studio for six months or more (October 2011 or prior) and is on a current concession!

This class will be one hour and 15 minutes, held on the second Saturday of the month. The first one is 14 April at 9:00 am until 10:15; and if that class fills (18), then we'll hold a second class from 10:30 to 11:45!

Please let me know if you are coming to this class so I can book your spot!

Second, so many of you are inviting your friends to join in class, we thought we'd give back to you for your recommendations.

If four of your friends sign up for four classes for $40, then you'll get four classes free (one per week for four weeks) in addition to your current concession! This means you'll be on your normal concession, but you'll get one free class per week!

And third, as the classes have gotten larger and we are adding more to the schedule, I need a bit of help making sure that our studio stays neat and tidy! I'm looking for volunteers who will dedicate themselves to a given class each week to tidy the mats and vacuum the room, if needed, at the end of class. The job should take only a few minutes - 10 at the most - because the teacher will also help you sort it out. The class that you work is the class that you get for free.

Volunteers must be students for three months or more as well as still maintaining a concession.

All classes are eligible, so if you are curious about Chi Power or Feldenkrais, those are options for you too!

This is a great way to extend your practice into a second, third or fourth day!

Be sure to let me know if you want to participate in any of these programs. If you have recommended a friend, be sure that your friend tells me your name so I can keep a record. If you're coming to the free yoga class, let me know as soon as possible - as we already have a couple of spaces booked! And if you want to volunteer, you can start next week with one of the classes currently on the schedule, or I can set you up for a class that's coming in April!

55 Monkeys!

A great big Thank You to everyone who participated in our yoga survey! The information you provided and your unique insights have given us a wealth of information on how to move forward. Today's post is the first in a series of blogs that we'll publish over this week and next to let you know how we are implementing your suggestions.

For me, the most exciting development is how we are expanding the class schedule. It's not simply expanding into new times, but really responding to a common sentiment: more diversity!

Foremost, everyone wanted more lunchtime offerings. So we are expanding from the current 5 lunchtime sessions up to 12.

I know, right? From 5 to 12? How can that be?

We're adding four classes at 11:15 am and opening two former classes to the pubic. And, our Feldenkrais - Awareness Through Movement class will now be open to you under the current concessions, rather than being a separate course.

Two of those 11:15 classes will be Gentle Yoga, and the two other 11:15 classes will introduce Chi Power - a blend of conditioning techniques and movement exercises from karate, qi gong and tai chi that provide a powerful energetic boost!

To diversify the Power Yoga classes, three of the lunchtime sessions will be Power Yoga Basics. These classes will take our normal all-levels Power Yoga and provide more detail on the practice. It's perfect for beginners, but those of you who have been doing yoga with us for awhile will benefit too!

The remaining four lunchtime yoga classes will be our all-levels Power Yoga classes - adding in more postures, trying new directions and sequences, and essentially providing a more diverse, fun practice!

In addition, we'll be starting our family-focused classes. Monday mornings at 10:15 am, we'll be starting our Antenatal Yoga class for new mothers to come and practice with their babies. Wednesday mornings at 10:15 am we'll hold our Prenatal Yoga class for those mums to be! And finally, on Friday mornings at 10:15 am, we'll hold Fertility Yoga - a class designed to support fertility and a place for those women trying to conceive to come together and share their experiences.

The diversity doesn't end there! We are bringing in new teachers as well! Al, one of our amazing massage therapists and energy workers - as well as a karate sensei - will be teaching Chi Power. Valerie Love will be taking on Gentle Yoga - but because of her extensive travel schedule I will be sharing the class with her until July, when she takes on the class full time. Elissa will continue to teach on Mondays at 5:30, now leading Elemental Yoga, an exploration of the energetic elements of Air, Water, Fire, Earth and Ether through yoga postures that release, invigorate and rejuvenate the whole person!

But, wait! There is one more class we are adding to the schedule!

With a great deal of gratitude, I want to give something back to those of you who have been here and supporting us over the past year. I feel very grateful to have each of you in my life - those new to us and those who have been with us from the beginning.

As a further opportunity for you to explore the yoga practice in more (and intermediate!) ways, I am offering a FREE once-a-month yoga class for students who have been with us for more than six months (if you started coming to us with the the last Groupy deal from October of last year or before) and who are currently on an active class card (or a regular drop-in). It also includes those of you who are corporate clients!

These free classes will be held the second Saturday of each month from 9:00 to 10:15 am. Classes are one hour and 15 minutes so that we have enough time and space to really explore and have some fun with our postures. We'll also get a longer relaxation time and a bit of time to go deeper into the practice - how yoga works and why we practice!

If the 9:00 class fills (you'll need to let me know that you're coming - we won't be using ezybook since we pay per booking), then we'll hold a second class from 10:30 to 11:45 am on the same day. If the first class doesn't fill, then there's no second class. Just let me know as soon as you know that you want to come!

So when are all of these things starting?

The new schedule begins the first week of April, with the first FREE class on 14 April. Look out for our new printed schedules - as well as the updated timetable on our blog and website (coming soon!), as well as on ezybook so you can make your bookings!

I hope you are as thrilled as I am - and look out for more blogs about our new developments right here . . . based on your suggestions!

Yoga Posture Clinics at Healium!

Many of our long-time students are looking to deepen their understanding of the postures and deepen their practice. At the same time, our new students want greater insight into what we are doing and how they can modify our most common postures to their specific needs.

To meet this interest, we are holding a series of 10 yoga posture clinics. We'll dive deep into each posture that we commonly do in our practice, as well as a few "cousin" postures related to our main postures just for fun! Here's what we'll be studying:

Each two-hour workshop will start with an opening sequence to prepare the body to work the postures. We'll spend some time discussing the basic structure and most important elements and principles at work in each posture, and learning how to the work the posture specifically for your body - the modifications for your best alignment. Finally, we'll spend the last 45 minutes of class doing a yoga sequence that pulls together all the elements of what we workshopped!

All 10 sessions run on Saturday mornings from 9 to 11 am. You can explore all of the postures or just your favorites! Take one, five or all 10 clinics.

a. Any one clinic: $65 prepaid.
b. Any five clinics: $250 prepaid.
c. All 10 clinics: $450 prepaid.

To ensure that everyone gets lots of hands-on, individual attention, each posture clinic is limited to 15 students. Bookings and pre-payment essential.

This series is a great way to learn more about how common postures work, develop greater awareness in your body in relation to these postures, and then take these skills back into your classes to deepen your practice.

How Yoga Works: Relieving Back Pain

There are many claims about yoga, and one of my favorite quotes about yoga is: "Yoga works; it just does."My experience bears this out. But, to be sure, it is not a satisfying answer. I always like to know how something works, and so I'll attempt to answer these sorts of questions in this blog series, How Yoga Works.

Recently, the New Zealand Herald published an article on a study showing that yoga helps to alleviate back pain. The article doesn't describe many specifics about the study - such as which style of yoga was practiced, which may have impacted the study's results - but I can describe my experience of teaching students with different sorts of back pain.

At the most basic level, the common cause of back pain is repetitive movement - or, more specifically, repetitive lack of movement. In our modern culture we spend a lot of time sitting. You might take a moment now to notice how you are sitting.

If you are like me, you will notice that you are crunched forward, back rounding. If you are very much like me, you might notice that you are also curved over to one side or another - I curve toward the left and typically lean on my left arm. It's a rather ridiculous contortion!

When I am in this position for hours on end, this is what happens: the back muscles become overstretched and weak due to lack of use. When I then try to do something out of the ordinary - such as lift a bag of groceries - this weakness becomes immediately apparent: it's easy to pull my back, leading to pain. But, what is even more common, and less immediately clear, is the slow onset of discomfort over time, until the discomfort becomes chronic, and that becomes pain.

So, the real fix for this is not necessarily finding an ergonomic balance for the workspace. That can help a great deal. But what makes a real and lasting difference is bringing back the strength to the back and torso muscles. And in this, stretch cultivates flexibility in the spine as well.

In our yoga practice, various movements are sequenced to strengthen the torso and back. Most people immediately think of "core work" or variations on crunches or sit-ups, as well as backbends. Yes, these are beneficial and included. But there are other postures in the sequence that facilitate the process of creating a strong back and flexible spine.

One of the things that people overlook is everything around the spine - hips and shoulders - and how they affect the ability to align the spine. The first goal, then, isn't backbending, but the basics of back lengthening and opening the hips and shoulders.

One of my favorite postures for working these elements is Warrior I (virabhadrasana I). It comes just about one-third of the way through our power yoga sequence taught here at Healium, which emphasizes hip opening, shoulder release and spine lengthening. The work of the core is strong - without the "rounding" nature of crunches or other specific core work which may only exacerbate the rounding of the spine and thereby the origin of the back pain. The strength of the back muscles - particularly the spinal erectors, the rope-like muscles on either side of the spine - is developed through the lifting of the upper body away from the floor, out of the hips. The shoulders are then externally rotated, opening them up at the neck as well as moving them deeply into the thoracic spine by drawing the shoulder blades down the back.

Thus, Warrior I creates a long, balanced spine, which will help us develop strength that creates flexibility and prepares us for deeper core work and back bends - all of which work together to prevent back pain.

Healium Yoga News: Updated Class Schedule

Hello, and welcome back to yoga, to Healium, and to a new year. We're really excited to see everyone returning after the holidays - as well as lots of new faces - and eager to hear of your adventures.

We've been busy too. If you haven't already seen, we've expanded the studio, doubling the space and adding a bunch of beautiful new Manduka mats for your use. And our full yoga schedule has resumed with teachers Jennifer Parker (Power Yoga) and Elissa Jordan (It's Just Yoga). Here it is:

Remember, if you've bought a class concession, you can attend any class listed except for the Group Private classes (marked with an asterisk). If you'd like one of these for your organization, however, let us know and we'll work something out! As always, we recommend booking your classes through our Ezybook page.

Finally, if you're into Feldenkrais, the next session of Awareness Through Movement group classes starts up on Thursday, 9 February. These are led by Oli Wiles.

We'll see you soon!