Despite our best intentions, most of us tend to overdo it during the holidays. By the time the New Year roles around we are left feeling completely depleted and in need of a serious mind/body overhaul. The good news is that some studies show how yoga helps facilitate your body’s natural detox process, wringing out all of the excess we accumulate during the holidays.

This week’s featured classes will help to release the toxins and stress that build up in your body during the holiday season.

To get you started without searching, we are highlighting six classes in a variety of styles, levels and durations that are designed to deeply rinse and cleanse you on every level.

• Clear Away Holiday Excess with Tiffany Cruikshank: A vigorous class to clear out the excess of the holidays. This class will give your metabolism a boost and balance out all the holiday indulgences.
• Deep Rinse & Cleanse Practice with Noah Maze: This sequence of twists and inversions will deeply rinse and cleanse you on every level. This sequence thoroughly prepares you to twist and invert, and deepen familiar poses as well as introduce some less familiar. Yoga turns us inside, to the source of wisdom, so that we can embody and live this wisdom to the fullest.
• Twisting Flow for Detox with Dice lida-Klein: This flow is aimed at detoxing the body via twists, hip and low back opening, as well as a decent amount of core work from our hands and backs. Tossing aside our usual Warrior 2, Parsvakonasana and Ardha Matsyendrasana, we explore Anjaneyasana, Crescent pose, revolved Crescent and revolved half-moon along with twists upside down and standing. Handstand options are given throughout of course! A light forward fold sequence follows to top it all off. No major backbends in this flow my fellow yogis. Enjoy!
• Reduce Excess Kapha Dosha with Felicia Tomasko: Need to stimulate your immune system? Need to remove internal stagnation? Need to open the heart and flush the lymphatic system? This practice combines supported backbends with twists and sequences that increase circulation through all the far-flung spaces in the body to support detoxification and cleansing any time of the year. This class incorporates principles of Ayurveda to reduce an excess of the kapha dosha and encourage greater lightness and internal space.
• Keep The Body Radiant with Kia Miller: This short detoxing kriya can make you a different person. Tap into your own inner radiance. This is a great set to do before meditating. It strengthens your thighs, opens the hamstrings and balances your energy.
• Mental Clarity Flow with Stephanie Snyder: This is a beginners flow that focuses on twists. A quick detox and wringing out that will create some fire and also balance. A great practice for mental clarity.

The family is gone, the presents have been opened, the parties are over and the stress is finally starting to subside. A new year is about to commence, bringing with it a new wave of resolutions, intentions and transitions. Several studies show how practicing yoga can help you stick to your resolutions, honor your intensions and help make transitions a lot smoother.

This week’s featured classes will help you transition into the New Year with grace and ease.

To get you started without searching, we’re highlighting six classes in a variety of styles, levels and durations that are designed to help you start off 2013 with stamina and strength!

• New Year Flow with Kathryn Budig: Happy New Year! Set your intention and then stoke the fire through this strong flow intended to keep you on track.
• Transition into the New Year Gracefully with Steven Espinosa: Transitions – making a graceful transition into the New Year through a steady but strong asana practice, incorporating graceful transitions between poses with fluid breath and body movement. Standing postures include Crescent, Triangle, Warrior Two and Extended Side Angle. Hip opener with Pidgeon and thigh stretch. Finishes with Backbend in Urdhva Danurasana (Upward Facing Bow)
• Strength and Stamina for the New Year with Jason Crandell: Do you want to start the New Year by cultivating strength and stamina in your body, while also committing to a practice of seated meditation? If so, here’s your practice! This vigorous morning sequence will lead you through 4 different types of sun salutations before guiding you through a wide-array of standing poses. Toss in an inversion, some hip-opening, twisting and mild-backbending before a 5-minute seated meditation and you have the formula for this nourishing, balanced practice.
• Firm Resolution with Harshada Wagner: Set your resolution and declare it to the universe.
• Set Your Intentions for the New Year with Noah Mazé: Authoring Your Story: This class features the myth of Ganapati, to inspire you to manifest your highest aspirations in the dedication of moment to moment practice. Using a Vinyasa strategy and progressive sequencing, this class explores a variety of standing poses and side-plank (Vashistasana) variations. As you set your intentions for the New Year, this class will explore and provide you tools to manifest the changes you are committing to, so that your new year may be that much more fulfilling.
• Refine Your Yoga Practice in the New Year with Dice lida-Klein: The New Year always brings new resolutions, but most likely your “new” resolutions are goals or ideas REFINED from the year before. This class is geared towards REFINING and retouching the practice, getting back to the breath and refining the asanas via the breath and slow movements.  My goal for this class was to do a slower “Dice” class…hopefully I succeeded:) Either way, a yogi is always refining his or her practice and I’m always refining my sharing abilities with my fellow yogis.Class includes modified Surya A, dancing warrior, handstands, lizard poses, pigeon prep (single pigeon), half-lotus in standing forward fold (ardha padma uttanasana) and hollowback handstands and forearm balance for backbends. Happy New Year yogis!!!

Ate too much at last night’s pre-holiday party? Over-indulged on the big day? Family stressing you out big time? There’s a class for that.

Over the years, we’ve added several classes to help you through the holiday season for whatever situation you find yourself in:

• Yoga Before Big Meals with Jo – This is a great pre-holiday class, perfect to take before eating any big meals!! Before we start the flow, take a moment to allow the atmospheres around you and within you to mix and merge. Becoming one with your space.  Happy Holidays!
• Post-Turkey Yoga Flow with Dice - An all-around flow that geared towards burning off the bird, post turkey day! We begin on our backs to wring out the laziness and make our way into a modified Surya Namaskar A. From there we continue through quite a few standing postures and incorporate our tripod headstand into the flow. We breakdown tripod headstand and a few of the transitions in and out of it. Using danurasana for backbends, we finish with janu sirsasana and paschimottanasana. Down with tryptophan my fellow yogis!!!!
• Celebrate the Bird with Steven – Bird Poses – basic warm up gradually building to vigorous standing pose flow to heat the body. Leading to a series of various “bird poses” to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. Instruction includes sanskrit to english translations for bird poses.
• Nurture & Detox Holiday Yoga with Kathryn – Learn how to nurture and detox your body through the holidays. This class focuses on core work and twists to aid in digestion, detox and deep core appreciation. Enjoy the decadence of the holiday season with the balance of your practice. Trust your gut!
• Antidote Yoga for Holiday Excess with Felicia – Antidote for holiday excess? Stimulate healthy digestion and elimination with a gentle sequence of twists alternating with abdominal strengtheners and forward folds. Take a break two hours after or one hour before you eat to enjoy your food even more.
• Yoga During the Holidays with Kathryn - Step away from holiday planning and reconnect to your breath and practice. This flow breaks down the elements of lightening our jumps forward, handstand hold, core work and deep twists such as Revolved Half Moon and Side Crow variations.

If you’re experiencing a more generalized holiday madness/goodness, you may also want to check out our Travel Yoga classes and our Stress Reduction classes designed to take you from pre-flight to your hotel room  to your mat in a way that nurtures your body and your mind. Here’s to rolling out that mat at least once over the next few days so you can be present in the moments of joy (without guilt!), knowing you’ve got your trusty YogaGlo classes waiting for you when you’re ready. Enjoy!

Photo: Kathryn Budig shares her “Trust Your Gut” t-shirt as theme for her Nurture & Detox Holiday Yoga class