Yoga is a joy for me, and my intention with each class is to give you the opportunity to breathe deeply, stretch deeply, and re-energize your body. I will always give you gentle reminders about proper spinal alignment during class, but if you really want to eliminate back pain and experience profound integration in your back, core, and hips . . .

Core Integration is the class to attend! Also starting February 22, I’ll be adding a new 6:30 p.m. Core Integration class to my schedule.

I hesitated to add new classes to my weekly schedule, given my upcoming Italian retreat and my plans to help establish yoga programs abroad this summer. But I love Balanced Movement Studio and it just felt right to add more opportunities to spread the love and wellbeing.

Just be sure to come to class early and often before the travel season begins. I want to see all of your smiling faces soon! (Note: Registration is not required. Just show up!)

Click the image to sign up for any of Sara's 3 classes at Balanced Movement Studio!

In what has to be the most exciting news since the announcement of my newest workshops in Hillsborough and Raleigh, two new yoga classes have been added to my weekly teaching schedule.

And get this: You don’t even have to leave your home to be in my class!

That’s right, I am finally becoming an early adopter after years of being the slowest technology adopter around (Facebook friends, you know how long it took me to finally get on board).

Due to advances in audio, video, and wifi, it’s easy and oh-so fun for you to join me for complete, real-time yoga classes in the comfort of your own home. All you need is a computer with a camera (quality not important), a reliable internet connection, and registration before the class begins.

Each class runs for 4 consecutive weeks and each is strictly limited to 8 students. (You can register for and attend more than one class in a week, though.)

Click here to sign up today! Classes start February 12. With such limited enrollment, they are sure to fill fast.

Starting February 12, you can practice yoga with Sara without leaving home!

Should you really be doing this pose at the beginning of yoga class?

What is spinal flexion? Flexion of the spine occurs when your rib cage rounds closer to your pelvis or thighs. In most yoga classes, flexion is achieved by performing common Forward Folds, such as Balasana (child’s pose), Uttanasana (standing forward fold), and Paschimottanasana (seated forward fold).

However, there is no anatomical support for yoga teachers’ choice to put students with low back pain immediately into a forward-folding position. Flexion does not alleviate dysfunction in most cases of low back pain. (Notable exceptions are the rare conditions spondylolisthesis and sponylolysis, affectionately known as “Spondy,” in which vertebrae have fractured and slipped forward, rather than backward.)

A quick anatomy lesson: The spine and pelvis are meant to float slightly above the heads of the femur with the help of beautifully constructed soft tissue (tendons, ligaments, muscles, fascia, etc, etc.) that is designed to be flexible enough so that our legs are free to move us forward (think “walking”). But when we sit all day and have not ever used our deep abdominal support system effectively, our bodies simply collapse into our hip joints, which become tight and inflexible. Our lower back falls into flexion, losing its natural, anterior curve. The muscles of our hips (hamstrings, glutes, hip flexors) get shortened and tight, while the muscles of our back get stretched and weak.

A tight hip complex, and a low back that lacks stability, are directly implicated in most cases of back pain. Therefore, what the vast majority of low back-pain sufferers need is NOT, as you will frequently hear in yoga class, “space in the low back.” There’s too much space in the low back already; what the back is crying out for is strength.

So why would most yoga teachers instruct back-pain students to do forward folds immediately at the beginning of class–and sometimes throughout class–without doing some serious back-strengtheners and hip-stretches first?

One reason: Lack of extensive training in, or experience with, functional anatomy. They’ve heard that space in the low back is good, so that’s what they teach.

If you have back pain, please be careful with your yoga class selections. Even better, take one of my workshops, and then join me for my online streaming yoga classes designed just for people with back pain . . . coming in February.

A few important notes:

• The villa at which we are staying (pictured below) is not the one mentioned in the article, but it is nearby. There are at least 150 such villas in Puglia, many of them glorious in their own special ways.
• We will NOT be rising at 7:45 for two hours of yoga. Yowza! Instead, we’ll get up at a sane 8:30 a.m. for optional meditation, and we’ll practice yoga in the afternoon after warming up our bodies and our senses with excursions, massages, play time–or lounging.
• My style of teaching is a little more playful than that described in the article. Check out my YouTube videos to see what I mean.
• My retreat costs much less than the one featured by this writer–and most other retreats I’ve seen in the area! Why is that? I chose the right villa and we just happen to want to make it affordable for you, that’s all.

Enjoy the read, and e-mail me with any questions about my retreat. The menu is set, the excursions are coming together, and I’m already getting hungry for the locally grown organic olive oil . . .

The front view of the Trullo Solari, where we'll stay. Yes, the pool and yoga deck are in the back.

By the way, you’ll each get a complete list of the pranayama, meditations, and asana that we’ve practiced after the fourth class, so make sure I get your e-mail address for that.

And now, the asana from lessons 1 and 2:
[Performing all with bandhas engaged]
Tadasana (mountain pose)
Vrksasana (tree pose)
Utthita hasta padangusthasana (standing big-toe pose)
Natarajasana (dancer)
Salabhasana (locust)
Dhanurasana (bow pose)
“Moving” cow pose
Upavistha Konasana (seated wide-angle pose)
Savasana

Virabhadrasana II (warrior II)
Trikonasana (triangle)
Tadasana
Dwi Pada Pitham (two-legged table)
Apanasana (the “vital air” pose, with legs crossed over)
Jathara Parivrtti (belly twist, with legs extended)
Savasana

Remember to practice with excellent spinal posture, deep and full breathing, and your bandhas engaged, and these should feel great! See you next week . . .

If you're taking Yoga without Back Pain, you know why I'm smiling in Salabhasana!

Just click this link and drag the horizontal, gray scroll-bar to reveal layer after layer of human awesomeness!

The illustration is not so terribly detailed as to make the transversus abdominus (your most important structural muscle) visible, but still . . . If you drag the scroll bar so that it covers the fist and wrist of the arm icon on the scroll panel, and then zoom in with the “+” sign, you can get a great view of the internal and external obliques. They’re two more sets of muscles crucial for spinal movement and stability. We worked them a lot in Yoga without Back Pain class today (think, Trikonasana)!

Click the image to go to Zygote Body and see your 3D body!

Be aware, though: If you watch her segment on Yoga for Back Pain, two of the four moves she advises doing are not usually good for low-back-pain. If you’ve been my client or taken any of my Yoga without Back Pain classes, you know exactly which moves I am talking about!

When I post my upcoming YouTube video “How Gentle Yoga Misses the Boat for Back-Pain Sufferers,” you’ll learn which of Dr. McGonigal’s four exercises you should do, and which you should hold off doing until you’re stronger. You might be surprised which ones they are, because most yoga teachers make the same mistake she has made! That reality was the inspiration behind my posting of this video on my YouTube channel. My functional fitness background continues to serve me well as I delve deeper and deeper into the worlds of yoga and back-pain management . . .

Enjoy and prosper!

The entire article is worth a quiet, concentrated perusal.

The section of greatest interest to readers of this blog may well be the section on back pain. Lehrer discusses the oft-documented finding that vertebral disc damage (such as herniation and bulging discs) is not correlated with pain. Medical journals have been reporting these results for more than a decade, yet physicians have continued to use MRIs and x-rays to “diagnose” back-pain patients with disc damage–even when that diagnosis does nothing to explain the pain a patient is experiencing or guide their treatment.

A quick search of PubMed.gov (where everyone should look when they want access to scientific research abstracts) reveals dozens and dozens of research showing no basis for the use of diagnostic imaging for low back-pain patients. I have 2 bulging discs in my neck and 2 severely degenerated discs in my lumbar spine due to the presence of my spinal fusion and hardware. But I never have back pain.

Scratch that. I never have back pain due to the physical “abnormalities” in my back.

The only time I experience back pain is when

1. I am inactive for an extended period of time, thus neglecting what my body was designed to do (ie, move!),
2. I neglect some basic, simple, deep-core strengtheners and hip stretches that every body needs to be healthy (see The Hauber Method), or
3. I am under stress due to forces out of my control.

The same is true for my clients and students.

What does this mean for you? Simply put:

1. Your body is designed to be active; when you are more active, your back has less of an opportunity to gather stagnancy and pain,
2. Every body is equipped with a simple, beautifully designed system of back support that loves to be used, but none of us learns how to activate and use this system in school or from our doctors,
3. Stress management is a critical component of any back-pain treatment designed to be effective for the long-term.

So why is my back pain-free, but my neighbor with a perfectly clean MRI has debilitating back pain and sciatica almost daily? I have dedicated my life to addressing the three points outlined in the list above. If my neighbor wants to be pain free, I can teach him exactly what’s necessary to get rid of the pain. And I don’t need an MRI, an x-ray, or any kind of diagnosis to do it. A solid foundation in functional-movement, anatomy, and body-mind fitness is all I need.

Click the image to link directly to the back-pain section of Lehrer's Wired article.

Puglia as a region is “the most beautiful in Italy,” according to my Italian teacher, and “untouched by mass tourism,” as Ms. Ferrari reveals.

Beauty, tranquility, and a luxurious traditional trullo that only our small group will share? What better place to turn inward as we explore yoga asana (postures), pranayama (breathing), and meditation.

The best part about the region and our trip there? The food is amazing, as illustrated by Helen Graves’s blog post about cibo pugliese on her Food Stories blog.

There’s still time to join us next spring! Why deprive yourself any longer?