Retreating to Italy: A Feast of Yoga, Hiking, and Culinary Adventures

In September, I’m heading to Italy to feast, hike, and teach yoga. Fair warning, this is no pious detox retreat. But it’s not about mindless gluttony either. The trip combines delights for the palette, the potency of skillful yoga, and beauty of the mountains for deep nourishment. We’re using a unique recipe: local chefs, bakers, and sommeliers with yoga imported from California. Alice, my close friend for over 20 years, is an award-winning chef and will lead our food adventures. � Continue reading →

Finding the Reset Button

Ah, the holidaze. Torqued schedules, buffets of indulgence, and hunting for the ideal sparkly accessories. As a Leo lady, I relish the full social calendar but need my reset workout more than ever. Beyond the din of festivities, the superego insists on punishing cardiovascular atonement. Yet as I settle into practice, a calm emerges. I submerge into down dog and crawl through standing poses. Squat. Vinyasa. Lunge. Handstand for an upside down. Backbend for an inside out. Lay down. Breathe. � Continue reading →

How to Teach “Broga”

As the In-house Yogi at Clif Bar & Co, I have enjoyed the challenge of introducing many dudes to yoga. After instructing sarcastic, athletic guys I now understand how to capture their attention and respect. 1. To build locker-room style camaraderie, refer to everyone by their last names. 2. Don’t hand out blocks. Use an underhanded toss. Anything that resembles playing catch will build competency. 3. Bring extra towels for the puddles of sweat. During abdominal breathing at the start of � Continue reading →

Sensory Motor Amnesia: What Have We Forgotten?

Soap operas invoke “amnesia” as a clichéd plot twist that leaves the character vulnerable to old adversaries. Hours of sitting in front of screens generates a less dramatic but possibly more insidious forgetting: sensory motor amnesia. Thomas Hanna coined this term for the neuromuscular atrophy that results from a lack of movement. Increasing stiffness limits our ability to consciously contract and relax our muscles. Hanna questioned the inevitably of aging and suggested that SMA causes our decline. When teaching, I � Continue reading →

Are You Fit to Serve?: Enlisting into Parenthood

Traditionally the question, “Are you fit to serve?” scrutinized young men’s grit to execute their country’s military agenda. During the birth of my second niece I considered fitness and service very different context: parenthood. Instead of battling into an idealized body or fighting an opponent, what about training the body and mind to nurture? As Clif Bar’s perinatal yoga teacher I’ve witness the unique path women take into motherhood. Although I’m not yet a mom, watching my friends and clients has revealed � Continue reading →

Why’s Getting to Yoga So Difficult?

As a yoga teacher I perpetually have these two conversations: Scene One: Around town I run into a former student. They profusely apologize and confess, “Forgive me o’ yogi for I have sinned. It has been three months since my last class.” Then I hear about life’s onslaught: The kid’s soccer practice, work schedules, the sub teacher, the studio is too far. We declare ourselves victims of “busy.” Scene Two: Meeting someone who has heard the yoga PR but hasn’t � Continue reading →

My Ode to the (Self) Serving Artist

The last few weeks I sculpted the shoulders of potters, carved back mobility in boatbuilders, and loosened weavers’ knotted necks. As a resident instructor at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina I taught yoga, did bodywork, and delivered doses of movement medicine to the various studios. I lived among sweaty, grimy, & sleep-deprived folks gleefully exposed to torrents of creativity. They endure elaborate pieces crumbling after hours of work. Or worse yet, someone calling their work “cute.” Yeah,the brooding, � Continue reading →

Yogis: Let’s Get Loaded

After over a decade of yoga and traditional fitness training, the kettlebell rocked me. It literally threw me off balance. I immediately realized how this training could improve my core and endurance. If you have never heard of kettlebells, they look like a cannonball with a handle and range from 4 to over 100lbs. The rigorous Russian Kettlebell Challenge offered an experience as profound as my yoga trainings. The advanced techniques of the RKC have reshaped my practice, my teaching, and � Continue reading →

The Only Fitness Goal: Take Care of My Crap

The fitness industry always promotes goals. The bikini body. The final score. Achieving “results” constantly invokes finite competition. As if one day we cross a finish line, arrive at perfection, and no longer need to exercise. No such luck. I want to win this game: Make it to 95 years old. Wake up energized. Walk to the bathroom. Squat on the toilet. Take a triumphant poop. Wipe myself. Stand up. Wash my hands. Head out into a productive day. Actually, that is pretty much � Continue reading →

What Do Calories Count?

Last week I trained a client who recently lost a substantial amount of weight. She called on me for active recovery from the intense exercising. We opened tight shoulders, mobilized locked up hips, and reactivated her core. I wove the pieces together with standing yoga poses and a deep relaxation. She moaned with “delight” as we released and realigned her achy parts. I relish theses moments when my work provides immediate relief. Then she asked, “How many calories did we � Continue reading →

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