I've heard people say that you should always hold your foot in a certain way in dancer pose. And I've heard other people say the same thing, but about a different way of holding it! My view is that, as with everything with the body, it depends on what you are trying to achieve and how it feels when you try it. This quick video talks through the different ways you might or might not hold your foot, and considerations for each of them. Note that this video discusses the version of dancer where you are reaching one arm back to hold a foot, not the arm overhead version ..read more

Out of the questions that students ask me after class, asking about discomfort in the yoga pose warrior 1 isn't an uncommon one. And if you're feeling that, it doesn't mean you're doing it wrong! It's just your body's way of asking if you could do it a bit differently, and here a few tactics you could try. We look at foot placement, the angle of your feet and the position of your upper body. Let me know if this helps either you or your students, or if you have any other yoga questions ..read more

Knee pain in bridge pose is something that people have asked me about quite a few times over the years. If you experience that, this quick video describes the different ways you can place your feet and activate your leg muscles to see if we can make it go away. Even if you don't experience pain, you may want to try these variations anyway because you might well find a new way of experiencing bridge pose that you prefer ..read more

Do you find the yoga pose half moon a challenge to balance in? You are not the only one! This quick video gives tips on when you may want to use a block and also *super key for balancing* where you should place it ? Give it a try and see how your ardha chandrasana feels afterwards. Let us know and ask any questions in the comments ..read more

Probably the most common question I get asked after class is something like “when we’re in downward dog and you say step your foot forwards I can’t step it very far and I’m not sure why… am I doing it wrong? Is there anything I could do differently?”. If that sounds like something you might say then: you’re not alone - loads of other people feel the same! you’re not doing it wrong there might be another way you could try that would make it easier This quick video summarises your options, and also looks at how to take a long step back from a standing forward fold ..read more

Teaching anatomy at Mudra Yoga in London I teach yoga classes, and I also separately teach anatomy classes to yoga teachers or people training to become yoga teachers. Those classes are different from each other even though they overlap. Here are my thoughts on anatomy and its place in yoga. Yoga is a practice of self-discovery and transformation. A key tenet of this practice is increasing awareness of our unconscious patterns of behaviour (in Sanskrit called samskaras) and replacing those that do not serve us with different, conscious patterns in order to prevent future pain from manifesting ..read more

We've started this year by focusing on feet. There are two techniques we've been working with: firstly, imagining three main points of contact between the sole of your foot and the floor (the base of your big toe, the base of your little toe and the centre of your heel) and feeling how the weight is distributed across those three points. Secondly, trying to feel the arches in your feet - particularly your inner arch (on the image here called your medial longitudinal arch) and outer (aka lateral longitudinal) arch and seeing if we can engage the tissues in the arches of your feet. If you’re no ..read more

Tbh I’m not amazing at keeping New Years resolutions. I normally make them at the beginning of the month and they gradually drift by about March. So this year I’ve taken a bit longer to think about them, and since today is meant to be Blue Monday (the depressing day in January, not the New Order classic ?) I reckon if they seem like a good idea today maybe these ones will last. I’m setting myself three, and have added the names of the wonderful teachers who they’ve been inspired by in case you want to check them out too: Do more training with teachers that don’t look like me and/or have dif ..read more

At the beginning of each new year I spend a bit of time thinking about where I want to take my students over the 12 months ahead. And, using a process I picked up fromone of my own teachers (Jason Crandell), I’ll think about what mental, physical and emotional qualities I want to help people cultivate in class. Then whatever we’re working on throughout the year - postures, techniques or anything else - everything will be underpinned by those elements. So (only a few days late) here’s what I’m aiming to develop with you lovely people this year.... 3 mental qualities Agency – I got this idea ..read more

The UK Government has said that indoor exercise facilities can reopen in England towards the end of this month. So I’m really happy that I’ll be able to see some of your lovely faces in person again when I restart our Tuesday evening classes on Tuesday 4 August. I’m only going to restart on Tuesdays first to see how we go and have agreed with our venue owners that we will restart Thursdays in mid-September. But, if Tuesdays prove popular, we’ve always got the option of starting again on Thursdays a bit sooner than that! I know some of you will have questions about coming back to class so here ..read more