Yoga & Pilates

Yoga: For All Folks and All Faiths As the old Beatles’ song proclaims, “All together now!” When it comes to yoga, can we say that the family that practices yoga together, stays together? Ancient wisdom and new evidence alike says we can. But is yoga accessible to everyone? Let’s explore how it may be good…

This post appeared in Carolina Salt magazine in Ginger’s column, The Balanced Life, September/October 2013 issue. Why Every Child Can Benefit from Yoga “Mom!” I heard my middle son call out to me from the basement of my parent’s home in central North Carolina, where I was visiting with my family for a weekend this summer. I…

Yoga is one of the top 10 CAM modalities used in the US today, according to the 2009 Health Status Report, “Costs of complementary and alternative (CAM) medicine and frequency of visits to CAM practitioners in the US.”  $6 billion alone was spent on yoga and yoga related products in 2008, while the number of…

Today’s post is written by journalist and yoga columnist, Virginia Cunningham.  Why You Should Do Yoga With Your Kids When most people think of yoga classes, they often think of adults working to build flexibility and strength, while decompressing from a stressful, busy life; however, children’s yoga classes are becoming more and more common, and…

Yoga Is Powerful Medicine for Health Care Providers More than yoga can deliver alone, a medical professional is able to evaluate, diagnose, and prescribe yoga as medicine. Licensed medical professionals, for this reason, are ideally suited to deliver yoga as medicine. The PYT Certification Program merges yoga with evidence-based practice in medicine and rehabilitation. The PYT program…

Medical Minimalism Using Yoga (Part Two) In Part One of this blog post, I shared my story of the “aha” moment that led me to use yoga as medicine.The benefits of yoga as a proven medical therapy are numerous and growing. Yoga is my minimalist medicine. I have been using it on myself and my patients for the better…

Yoga in Medicine:  An Ancient Solution for Modern Illness More than 2000 years old, yoga is just beginning to gain respect in conventional medicine and practice. It is being used in medicine, and is now receiving much attention as a 21st century ‘ancient solution’ for modern illness. The ancient lifestyle practice of yoga predates written…

Why Yogic Breathing & Mindful Meditation are Powerful Rehab Tools (VIDEO) Integration of yoga-based practices, like yogic breathing and meditation, can be effective in the treatment of a broad array of disorders exacerbated by stress, according to researchers at Boston University’s School of Medicine.  Two studies support the effectiveness of yoga in correcting parasympathetic nervous…

Breathing For A Safer Spine: The Yogic TATD Breath The deeper stabilizers of the trunk are well supported in the literature, such as transversus abdominus (TvA), to be the major players of lumbopelvic force closure.   They are responsible, as part of a global stabilizing system, in conjunction with the multifidi and other synergists such as the respiratory diaphragm and the…

Work Smarter Not Harder in the Shoulder…Use Yoga If you practice yoga or know much about it, you’ll have seen the yoga pose “chaturanga dandasana” or four limbed staff pose. You will also know it is not an easy pose to do. It requires significant global strength and motor control (aka finesse and body awareness). What…

The Minimalist Physical Therapist: Using Yoga as Medicine? A minimalist pares away all unnecessary things “in order to expose the essence or identity of a subject.” Twelve years ago I decided to try that path.  I had been raised with a “Depression Era” ethic, that is, collect and keep everything you can, because you “just never know what…