ASANA BREAKDOWN // wild thing

Welcome to this week’s Asana Breakdown post, featuring Wild Thing!

Sanskrit: Camatkarasana

. . .

Difficulty: Moderate

Wild thing is a beautiful and strengthening pose with numerous benefits to the body and mind.  

Benefits:
- heart opener

- brings spaciousness to hip flexors and quads

- upper body strengthening

- increases balance

- decreases fatigue

- decreases mild depression

Getting Into The Pose:

Beginning in downward dog, breath in and sweep the right foot to the sky into 3-legged dog.

Exhale bending into the lifted knee and stack the right hip up on top of the left.

Inhale and reach the knee-cap higher and lifted heel to the glute. Anchor the left heel down and square the shoulders to the front of the mat.

Exhale and come on to the outside edge of the left foot and begin flipping the front body to face the sky, landing the right foot off the left side of the mat and lifting the right hand off the floor.

As you inhale, press the chest upward, straighten through the left leg and charging out of the right foot, while reaching through the lifted hand towards the front of the mat.

Contradictions:

- carpal tunnel syndrome

- rotator cuff injuries

Follow up Poses:
- downward dog

- plank

- child’s pose

- full wheel (advanced)

The photos in this post feature my amazing friend and mentor, Randelle Lusk, mama of Blacksmith Yoga Community. An ERYT-200, RYT-500, and lululemon ambassador, you may find her teaching one of her juicy and powerful vinyasa classes in Calgary or FSJ, or you might join her in one of her upcoming retreats! (Spa, wine and yoga over May long anybody??...)

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ASANA BREAKDOWN // extended side angle

Welcome to the very first edition of the new Weekly Asana Breakdown post, featuring the oh so sweet

Extended Side Angle!

Sanskrit: Utthita Parsvakonasana

. . . 

Pose Level: Beginner

Extended Side Angle is a beautiful and strengthening pose which goes hand in hand with Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II), one of my favourite standing poses. While Side Angle is considered a beginner pose, it has many creative modifications to increase the intensity and difficulty should you desire the extra challenge.

Benefits:

- strengthening for the legs, knees, ankles and core

- stretches the groin, thighs, spine and waist

- stimulates the abdominal organs and lungs

Warrior II

Getting Into The Pose:

Beginning in Warrior II, with your front heel intercepting with your back foot arch, and your arms reaching in opposite directions, inhale as you lengthen your front hand forward. As you exhale, lower the front elbow to rest softly upon the front thigh and reach the back arm directly up towards the sky. As you do so, roll the top ribs open, turning the the front body to face the side. For a little more side body stretch, bring your top arm to hover over your ear, reaching towards the space in front of your mat and rotate the wrist as though you were reaching to turn a door knob. If it's comfortable for the neck to do so, take your gaze up to the sky.

Extended Side Angle with Modification #1

Common Adjustments:

Watch that as you transition from Warrior II into Extended Side Angle that the knee remains directly above the ankle. Take care to evenly distribute your weight between both feet by strongly engaging the legs, the core, and pressing your back pinky toe firmly into the mat.

Contradictions:

Use caution when directing your gaze if you have or have ever had a neck injury. If you feel discomfort looking upward, please direct your gaze to the side.

Extended Side Angle with Modification #4

Modifications for Increased Intensity

#1 - move the bottom elbow off of the thigh and softly rest the palm onto the heart.

Benefits:

- core strengthening

#2 - lengthen the bottom hand directly down to the floor, stacking shoulder over wrist.

Benefits:

- side body stretch

- core strengthening

- deepened groin stretch

#3 - to achieve a half bind, wrap your top arm around your back and tuck the hand into the hip crease.

#4 - to achieve a full bind, wrap your top arm around your back, and your bottom arm in front and underneath your front thigh, endeavouring to clasp the hands.

Benefits:

- side body stretch

- core strengthening

- increases stamina

Avoid caving in forward in the full bind, but instead lean back and roll the heart open to the sky.

Extended Side Angle with Modification #5

The photos in this post feature my amazing friend and mentor, Randelle Lusk, mama of Blacksmith Yoga Community. An ERYT-200 and RYT-500, you may find her teaching one of her juicy and powerful vinyasa yoga classes in Calgary or FSJ, or you might join her in one of her upcoming yoga teacher training retreats! (Mexico anybody?...)

Hope you've learned a little something! Check back next week for another Asana Breakdown! If you've got a pose you're curious about and you'd like an in depth look at it, let me know so in the comments!

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quickly create a YOGA MAT CLEANING SPRAY // namaste bitches

i'm gonna make this short and sweet, because after taking an hour or so to type out this entire blog post, i mistakenly clicked the refresh button (assuming blogger had autosaved) and was much dismayed to find it had disappeared. there's an hour i will not get back... UGH doesn't that infuriate you?

so to the point! why are we all here? we're here for this awesome yoga mat spray cleaner that is super quick and easy to make and works really really good!

what makes it a better mat cleaning spray than the other million essential oil mat cleaners you might have seen? it's the witch hazel! this natural astringent will help to wipe away all the oil and sweat left behind on our dirty ass yoga mats, while the essential oils will take care of the bugs. double the cleaning whammy.

so lets make it! gather your shit:

• liquid measuring cup
• empty spray bottle (mine held about a cup)
• witch hazel
• essentials oils
• water

the cleaning solution ratio is 3/4 water and 1/4 witch hazel + oils

after determining how much liquid your spray bottle will hold, pour enough water into your measuring cup to take up 3/4 of the bottle. my spray bottle held about a cup of liquid, so i used 3/4 cup of water and 1/4 witch hazel (pretty straight forward, hah)

next you'll add your essential oils! experiment with different smells and strengths, giving a test sniff every now and then. don't forget to use some of the oils that are known for their cleaning power, oils like:

• tea tree (fights germs, bacteria and viruses)
• lemon (antiviral and antibacterial)
• eucalyptus (germicide)
• peppermint (antibacterial)
• sweet orange (tough on grease)
• lavender (antibacterial)
• rosemary (antibacterial and antiseptic)

then you'll pour carefully...

and label accordingly...

and bam! you've got yourself one handy dandy fast acting, germ fighting, magical mat cleaning spray! and why not spread the love? make one for a friend! or do as i do and make this sweet smelling citrusy cleaner for your lovely yogi students post savasana!

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wanderlust wednesdays 00

this is an excerpt from my yoga teacher training travel journal from mexico

july 5th 2011, day 14

so i made it through my vision quest in once piece. craig and tearza drove giulia and i just about all the way to our spots, then we walked the rest of the way. once i got to the giant fig tree, i found an ant free area underneath and laid my yoga mat down. then i crawled in the sleeping bag but soon came to realize it was sweltering inside that thing, but i didn't want bugs all over me! how the night basically went down was walking up every few hours, 2:00 AM for rain, i just went with it, embraced the wetness, and bit by bit i creeped out of my sleeping bag until come 7:00 AM i was splayed out on the jungly desert floor bugs or not bugs. i didn't know what to do when i first woke up, but then i decided to climb my big tree friend with my mat and towel, found a perfect spot to sit and didn't come down until 1:00 PM. so i sat and thought about things, contemplated, put things into perspective for five hours. i came to the conclusion that my car accident wasn't my fault, i spent some time thinking about presley, had a much needed cry for her, thoughts about my other relationships, promising myself to endeavour to make the most of my friendships while i have them. i thought about danny a lot, missing him, feeling excited to see him in 5 days! i watched the birds, the goats, the cows, the ants, the hummingbirds. it went by so quick and the next thing i know it's 1:00 PM and i get down out of the tree and make my way back to yandara. we had an uplifting breathing exercise and then shared our experiences at the beach pavilion. after was dinner, delicious lentil soup, and then satsang, and finally came sleep.

- ashley

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Blacksmith Yoga | Richmond Steel Yard & Charlie Lake

So this RS shoot could have possibly ranked first in my most favourite sessions of 2013. Randelle and I got the OK from Richmond Steel to use their location as our photo playground and we namaste'd all over that junk yard. The lighting, the weather, the help, everything was amazing and I'm so pleased with not only the way the shots turned out, but how wicked they look up on the new website.

The second session was a toasty little quickie out on Randelle's dock in Charlie Lake. Some warm and beachy shots were needed for some promos so we snapped away until the sun went down over the hills.

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