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Why do our hip flexors seem to be getting TIGHTER over time, even though we stretch them regularly? First, the anatomy: psoas is a name commonly used for the main hip flexors, and actually refers to 2 muscles, the psoas major and the iliacus, sometimes jointly called the iliopsoas. The ilicaus originates on the inner edge of the hip bones, while the psoas major originates at vetebrae T12 and L1, L2, L3 and L4. They s

Dear Yogi, I thought of myself as an indestructible, bionic woman in 2007. As a professional aerialist, I could bench press my body weight, do more pull-ups than most men I knew, and was getting booked by an agent for dramatic shows on my red silks at casinos, art museums and the like. I was a certified yoga teacher lauded in my Midwestern community as an archetype of strength and fitness. I had plans to move to Phil

Dear Yogi, We’re back! We have added a few in person classes to our schedule this week and will continue to add more over the next several weeks. Here’s a look at our in person schedule for the rest of this week. WednesdayAll Levels & Roll w/ Ashley 6:15-7:30PMThursdayAll Levels w/ Joan 10:00-11:15AMAll Levels w/ Nadia 5:00-6:00PMAll Levels w/ Jess 6:30PM-7:45PMSaturdayBasics w/ Nadia 9:00-10:00AMAll

ON THE SHORTEST, DARKEST DAY OF THE YEAR, I TAKE TIME TO REFLECT ON THE CYCLES OF THE PAST YEAR.  It’s easy to be glib here, and simply state that 2020 has been one continual dumpster fire.  It has obviously been a very, very tough year.  I viscerally remember scrambling this spring and summer, and how scary it was both to have this invisible threat of the virus while also staring down personal ba

As the pandemic spread, small businesses everywhere were decimated. I spent the spring and summer in terse negotiations with a difficult landlord, and in a fortunate pairing of tenacity and luck, secured a new location for our studio that meant we would survive this crisis.  Yoga studios were shuttering their doors left and right. Many neighborhood studios closed permanently. For those among us who didn’t have e

Dear Yogi, EVERY YEAR AROUND THE WINTER SOLSTICE I TURN MY AWARENESS DEEPLY INSIDE.  The short, dark days are the perfect time for introspection. When looking back over this past year, I am simultaneously overwhelmed with grief and also endlessly grateful for the lessons and insights.  The pandemic has caused such profound suffering, and it is difficult to reckon with. It has also, for me, clarified what I hold most

Dear Justicia, 2020 HAS JUST BEEN INCREDIBLY STRESSFUL AND IT IS NOT LETTING UP. With the world in an absolute tailspin, I’ve felt a deep disruption in my nervous system. My holidays look different this year, as I know yours do. I’ll be sheltering in place for the remainder of 2020, and imagine into early 2021. It’s all exhausting and it is challenging each and every one of us. The pandemic is bringing new records of

Dear Yogi, Yoga is connection, to ourselves, and the world around us. I myself am a hodgepodge of lessons, experiences, teachings and ideas from a lifetime of seeking, and my practice is a connection to all these parts. I’ve always been a curious sort. In my early 20’s I found Rodney Yee’s ‘Moving Towards Balance: 8 weeks of Yoga.” At the time, I knew very little about yoga, except what I picked up from delving

Dear Yogi, Practices to support ourselves need repetition again and again over the long haul. What we do repeatedly – good or bad – gets embedded into our body and these patterns impact us (often without our knowledge). That’s why consistency is SO important. There will be days or weeks that we fall off our routine (hello upcoming holidays), but that doesn’t mean that we throw in the towel and wait until

Dear Yogi, What a year to own a small business! If you had told me ten years ago that I’d need to transition Maha to an all-virtual studio, and learn about lighting, audio, and video technology, I imagine I’d tell you I didn’t want to open a yoga studio at all. Tech stuff puts me in the spook zone, and although students had asked us for online classes for years, my technology overwhelm prevented us from creating onli