It is important to maintain an open chest especially if you sit at a desk all day or if you are an athlete. If we’re hunched over a computer all day or not sitting in the correct chair, sharp pain between the shoulder blades or chronic feelings of tightness in the back may occur. This can create poor posture. So when we huch over, we are compressing the lungs, making them harder to expand with deep breaths. If you are an athlete, activities like lifting weights or strength training can shorten, tighten and dehydrate these muscles which can cause poor posture, which can in-turn, inhibit breath function.

Don’t worry though! Some studies show how chest openers can help correct overly rounded shoulders and upper back pain, resulting in better posture, which can lead to better breathing.

You can use our Search Feature to search through all of our Yoga for the Chest classes on your own. To get you started without searching, we’re highlighting six chest classes in a variety of styles, levels and durations that will be sure to help open the chest and upper back to create freedom and space around your heart.

• Open Upper Chest, Shoulders & Spine with Stephanie Snyder: This sequence is designed for the athlete (or anyone) who has tight upper chest, shoulders, and spine. Activities like swimming, weight lifting, and strength training can shorten, tighten, and dehydrate these muscles. This can cause upper back pain and poor posture that can inhibit breath function which will limit you in all ways. We will move through a vinyasa-based class that will open the shoulders, chest, and upper back to create freedom and space around your heart!
• Open Your Upper Body with Jason Crandell: A class for all the desk workers, cooks, baby holders, body workers, car commuters–and, we’ll just about everyone else out there! This class is designed to open the chest while strengthening the upper-back, arms and neck. Consider this your “go to” 30 minute practice for balancing your upper-body from the day-to-day challenges of the modern world.
• Open Up to New Possibilities with Kia Miller: Open your chest and heart with this strong kriya designed to open you up to new possibilities! This is a strong practice. Please go at your pace and modify if you need to.
• Rhomboid Strength with Tiffany Cruikshank: This class focuses on rhomboid strength to open the chest, cultivating awareness around the back of the heart to expand the chest. For those who struggle with backbends, learn how to use your strength to create the opening needed for the big chest opening postures and for those looking to work deeper into their backbends & chest. Useful for learning how to cultivate the strength needed to open yourself up to life.
• Camel Poses Tutorial with Kathryn Budig: This chest opening tutorial focuses on Camel Poses and all of its close friends. We begin in a chest opener and get right into business. 2 versions of Camel followed by a Camel drop-back, Pigeon Droppings and two versions of Half Camel. Get ready to open your heart! Prop needed, block.
• Rhomboid Flow with Jo Tastula: ’Rhomboids’ is the buzz word for this class. The rhomboid’s function is to pull the shoulder blade (and with it, your shoulder/arm) back and inwards toward the midline of your body, and in doing so bringing space and openness to the chest, lungs and heart. We do some very specific exercises to ‘switch on’ and activate these muscles (there are 2 each side) which may be very helpful to those of you with upper back stiffness, tightness and general lethargy. Get into Cow Face pose (gomukhasana) and postures with hands interlaced behind the back and twists to open the shoulders and chest. With this a nice steady flow through sun salutation variations (surya namaskar) to build head and strength.

A recurring theme that comes up in a lot of our classes is self-talk. You know, the internal commentary that goes through our heads non-stop, EVERY. DAY? You know you do it, right? We all do it! We talk to ourselves so often that we don’t even realize that we’re doing it!

Self-talk isn’t a problem when the commentary is benign, but when it turns negative, it can have a huge affect on how we feel and how we behave. Let’s face it. We can really be our own worst enemy and the truth is that most of our commentary consists of cruel, inaccurate, unhelpful, unsupportive, negative statements about ourselves and others. How many times have you said to yourself “i’m never going to be good at this” or “this person doesn’t like me” or “you’re such an idiot, how could you have locked your keys in the car,” etc? We can be really hard on ourselves and when we are hard on ourselves on the inside, it shows on the outside.

So this weekend we challenge you to get your negative self-talk in check!

Take this class with Marc: http://bit.ly/17xoOoo

Whether you are new to yoga or have been practicing for many years, we all have a “moment.” A moment where something shifted and our practice allowed us to see ourselves and the world around us in a different way. A moment where we fell out of a pose and laughed and it was everything. A moment that showed us we’re stronger than we realized. A moment where we finally kicked up into headstand on our own and couldn’t believe it. A moment where we could finally let it all go and just be.

That “moment” is different for everyone and this summer we want to celebrate YOUR yoga moments. We also want to acknowledge the many yoga studios all over the world that make so many incredible yoga moments possible.

Here’s how you can share your yoga moment with us:

1) Share a yoga moment (up to 350 words)

2) Share a link or name of the local yoga studio where you had this yoga moment

3) Email this info to hello@yogaglo.com by May 31st.

We can’t wait to celebrate all of your yoga moments together and shine a bright light on the wonderful studios that have helped us all along the way!

All of your favorite teachers have done you one significant disservice: they’ve made teaching yoga look easier than it is! Teaching yoga—or any subject for that matter—is a wonderfully fulfilling experience, but it also requires a major learning curve. Here are a few tips for navigating the unfamiliar—and sometimes rocky—waters of being a new teacher.

• You will feel very raw and exposed

Teaching yoga requires you to be transparent. It requires you to speak to a group of students and orchestrate sequencing, verbal cues, manual adjustments and—perhaps—a playlist. It requires you to give direct commands about the position of the body while encouraging your students to notice the sensations, feelings and thoughts that arise. No, your class is not about you; but, in fact, you are the medium for the teachings and if you feel deeply enough about them you will feel raw and exposed. This is not always easy, but it’s an intrinsic part of your job. Allow yourself to notice these feelings if they arise and go with them—learn about yourself from them. And, get used to them, they aren’t going to go away if you continue to teach from your heart.

• Practice being clear, simple and straightforward

Clear, simple, straightforward teaching is timeless. New teachers often feel compelled to be tricky, edgy and complicated in order to validate themselves and show “authenticity.” But, remember, teaching is an actual skill that takes a ton of practice. Even more, bypassing the fundamental skill of being clear, cohesive and cogent with your teaching will lead to a confused hodgepodge of offerings. The feedback that I give 95% of new teachers is this: “edit yourself, simplify your sequence, and trust that the practice is strong enough that you don’t need to force it.”

• Repetition is a good thing

You will say and teach the same thing many, many more times than any given student will hear it. So, you are going to feel like you’re repeating yourself all the time, but it’s not going to sound this way to your students. You may have said the same thing 10 times this week, but any given student probably only came to 1 or 2 classes so they’ve only heard what you said once or twice (if they were even paying attention). Even more, most students love repetition—and, aren’t there some things in your life that you need to hear time and time again?

• Teaching skillfully requires you to make many, many mistakes

Teaching requires several specific skills and developing these skills comes from making mistakes. New teachers are often afraid to make mistakes because they are insecure, and they worried that their mistakes may lead to injuries for their students. If you are a sane, reasonable, semi-adjusted person your mistakes are probably not going to lead to injuries. If it’s an issue of your insecurity—or perfectionism—well, you just have to put mistake making in it’s proper context: remember that mistakes are normal, natural things and you will learn more from them than anything else. Relax and be accommodating with yourself.

• You need to practice more, not less (it’s your research and education)

If you get so overwhelmed that you are practicing less and less you’re headed in the wrong direction. Sometimes we get a little lost and this is okay. In fact, many of our best changes come from realizing that we’re off our path and we need to correct our course. The problem is that teaching yoga without practicing yoga is unsustainable. If possible (and, it probably is), stay committed to at least one weekly class with your teacher and find make time to do your home practice several days of the week.

Jason Crandell was recently named one of the next generation of teachers shaping yoga’s future by Yoga Journal for his skillful, unique approach to vinyasa yoga. Jason’s steady pace, creative sequencing, and attention to detail encourage students to move slowly, deeply, and mindfully into their bodies. Jason credits his primary teacher, Rodney Yee, teachers in the Iyengar Yoga tradition such as Ramanand Patel, and ongoing studies in Eastern and Western philosophy for inspiring to him bring greater alignment and mindfulness to Vinyasa Yoga.

Jason is a contributing editor for Yoga Journal and has written over 13 articles for the magazine and website – many of which have been translated internationally (including Japan, China, Italy and Brazil). His integrative and accessible teachings support students of every background and lineage, helping them to find greater depth, awareness, and well-being in their practice – and in their lives. Follow Jason on Facebook and Twitter.

Looking for a way to relieve wrist discomfort or just looking to give your wrists a break? Well, yoga to the rescue! This week’s featured classes will help to build strength and flexibility in the wrists, as well as help to eleviate any tension or discomfort due to overused wrists.

You can use our Search Feature to search through all of our Yoga for the Wrists classes on your own. To get you started without searching, we’re highlighting six wrist classes in a variety of styles, levels and durations that will be sure to help you build strength and flexibility in your wrists.

• Wrist Love with Amy Ippoliti: Have wrist issues or trouble doing things with or on your hands? This sequence may be used regularly to help build strength and flexibility in your wrists. Opens the shoulders and neck, and includes a restorative with a blanket. Have a block and a strap available if you like.
• Give Your Wrists a Break with Jason Crandell: Back by popular demand–and, even longer! This 45-minute practice will take you through a strong, satisfying vinyasa practice without bearing any weight on your wrists. If you’ve been wanting a strong practice and you’re giving your wrists a break, this is tailor-made for you.
• Help for Your Wrists with Tiffany Cruikshank: Ten minutes of help for your wrists. This is a quick series of exercises for your wrists. You can use it every so often preventatively or as needed for tension or discomfort. This practice is helpful if you spend a lot of time at the computer or play sports that use the forearms or wrists a lot. It is also helpful if you are new to inversions or are doing a lot of inversions in your practice.
• Eleviate Wrist, Hand & Elbow Pain with Elena Brower: If you’re having wrist/hand/elbow pain and would like to explore a practice to alleviate the issue, this 20 minute practice may help. We’ll explore ways to strengthen shoulders, elbows and wrists, using only a couple of carefully instructed weight-bearing postures, and some standing poses without hands/wrists at all.
• Suffer From Computer Hands? with Felicia Tomasko: Stretch out the forearms, wrists and shoulders: parts of the body that get overused when we’re on the computer all day (or text messaging profusely).
• Listen to Yourself & Accept Yourself with Christina Sell: This level 1 class is great for those days when you need to rest your arms and take the weight-bearing load out of your wrists and shoulders. With focused work in the legs and plenty of alignment cues, this practice offers encouragement to listen to yourself, to accept yourself, and to practice yoga in a way that is mindful and healing.

Take this class with Tiffany: http://bit.ly/11n6woK