Ever wonder how yoga helps your feet? Your knees? Your head? Your heart? Ever taken an “all around” class that touches on each part of the body in sixty minutes but found yourself wanting more when it was over?

If you are interested in exploring the ways in which yoga can expand and enlighten every part of your body, Tara Judelle‘s seven-part Toes to Top series is for you. In this series Tara explores the architecture of the human body through yoga:

• Toes to Top: Feet – Exploring the architecture of the human body through continuous movement, centering awareness in the stability and the mobility of the feet.
• Toes to Top: Knees – Continuous movement focusing on this largest joint in the body and initiating movement from the base of the tibia: Includes Garudasana, Ardha Chandrasana to Ardha Matsyendrasana, Agnistambhasana, and Gomukhasana.
• Toes to Top: Pelvis – This class will explore, in detail, the bowl of the pelvis, its movement, its stability and mobility and its seat as the center of our weight bearing self.
• Toes to Top: Core – The core is not only the organization center for our power and locomotion but in this journey of the vertical construct, our energy springloads with fire as we ignite the solar plexus, kidneys, and center for digestion and intuition.
• Toes to Top: Heart – Building our body architecture upwards, we use the tools from the previous centers: Feet, knees, pelvis, core in order to localize our energy and movements into the heart space.
• Toes to Top: Shoulder Girdle – Working upwards from the heart, this class focuses on the construct of the shoulders in order to help facilitate the upward moving energy from the heart to the brain.
• Toes to Top: Head – This includes headstand, shoulderstand, pranayama and meditation.

There you have it: seven sixty-minute classes exploring the body. Set a goal for yourself to take this series and let us know what you learn about your body, about yoga, about yourself. Enjoy!

Have you ever gotten halfway through a yoga class only to realize the teacher is about to do a pose you’ve never seen, certainly never mastered, and don’t know how to do? Ever wanted to perfect a pose you’ve fallen in love with but can’t quite get into? Wondering about the best way to transition from one pose to another? We’ve been there.

We’ve started a tutorials series to help break down some key poses – the big challenge/peak poses and some of the basic poses that never get taught – in short instructional videos that you can play again and again to practice. In several cases, variations on getting into the pose from other poses are offered so the poses can become more and more accessible to you as you practice.

We’ll be adding more tutorials on a regular basis, so check the Tutorials section regularly.

Until then, here are some tutorials you might want to explore to get started:

• Chatturanga and Up Dog Tutorial
• Downward Facing Dog Tutorial
• Jumping Forward from Down Dog Tutorial
• Lotus Pose Tutorial Series
• Yoga Transitions Tutorial
• Bakasana Tutorial
• Getting into Handstand Tutorial

If there are other tutorials you’d like us to create, please let us know and we’ll do just that! Enjoy!

Ah, Lotus Pose. Padmasana. The pose you think of when you think of yoga. The pose that is elusive to many though it looks like it should. just. be. so. easy.

Thanks to Jason Crandell, it eventually will be. His four part tutorial on Lotus will get you ready, help you develop approaches, and ease you step-by-step into the pose. Here are each of the four classes, ready when you are:

• Lotus Pose Tutorial: Part One – The first episode of our 4-part practice and tutorial dedicated to developing lotus pose (padmasana). You will emphasize opening your inner-groins and learn how to fold your legs into lotus with greater safety, comfort and skill (read, your knees will probably be much, much happier with this approach). Of course, you will also open your outer-hips and glide through a couple of sun-salutations and relevant standing poses.
• Lotus Pose Tutorial: Part Two – The second episode of our 4-part practice and tutorial dedicated to developing lotus pose (padmasana). In this segment you will prepare for lotus by focusing on opening your outer-hips and deep hip-rotators. You will also learn a second way to approach folding your legs into lotus. And, again, you will work on a few relevant standing poses, open your inner-groins, and drop into a few sun salutations (I even sneak a couple of mellow backbends into this one!)
• Lotus Pose Tutorial: Part Three – The third episode of our 4-part practice and tutorial dedicated to developing lotus pose (padmasana). In this practice you will prepare for lotus with a combination of outer-hip and inner-groin opening. And, here’s how this practice is significantly different from episodes 1 and 2: you will do quite a bit of deep opening while laying on your back. You will develop an even more refined understanding of the neuro-muscular pattern of lotus by working on folding your legs without using your hands. A third method of coming into lotus is presented.
• Lotus Post Tutorial: Part Four – The last episode of our 4-part practice and tutorial dedicated to developing lotus pose (padmasana). Now that you’ve developed steadiness and ease in lotus, what’s next (other than sitting quietly, of course)? This sequence is your answer. After practicing several deep hip and groin openers you will transition into a series of half and full-lotus variations, including lotus in handstand.

Get out there and get your lotus on!