This blog post was first sent to Jenni’s email list as an email newsletter. Sign up for the JRY email newsletter here! Jump to video Jump to written article Half moon (ardha chandrasana) is one of my personal favorite yoga poses! In addition to classic half moon, I also like to practice and teach variations of half moon that add novelty and load to the pose. Here are my top 3 challenging variations of half moon – in both video format and written format! Choose the form of content you prefer – or learn from both! :) VIDEO   Top 3 Challenging Half Moon Variations Variation 1: The Half ..read more

This blog post was first sent to Jenni’s email list as an email newsletter. Sign up for the JRY email newsletter here! I’ve been taught many times that a strong core is the key to handstand. Have you heard messaging like this, too? The idea is usually that in order to practice handstand well, we need to make strengthening the core our top priority. I question this line of thinking, though. While the core definitely plays a role in handstand (adho mukha vrksasana), I don't think it's the top priority or "the key" to this challenging pose. [Disclaimer: in this post, I’m re ..read more

This blog post was first sent to Jenni’s email list as an email newsletter. Sign up for the JRY email newsletter here! Spoiler alert: Yes, closed-to-open hip transitions are safe, and in this article, I’ll share a new and very important insight that definitively closes the case on this question! If you’ve followed my work for a while, you probably know that many of the alignment rules we’re taught in yoga are simply not supported by movement science. Thankfully, some of these old-school alignment rules seem to be fading in their prominence these days (e.g., “never place your foot on your knee ..read more

This blog post was first sent to Jenni’s email list as an email newsletter. Sign up for the JRY email newsletter here! We often hear yoga poses like side plank and plank pose described as "core stability" exercises. But are they really? Before we answer this question about core stability, let’s take a step back and examine what the term “stability” in and of itself means. From a technical standpoint, *stability* can be defined as our ability to maintain or return to equilibrium in the presence of a perturbation. A good analogy for this phenomenon is to picture a bowl with a mar ..read more

This blog post was first sent to Jenni’s email list as an email newsletter. Sign up for the JRY email newsletter here! When we stretch, do we mainly stretch muscles or tendons? This is a great yoga geeky question ?, and before we dive into the answer, let’s establish some quick anatomical definitions first: Muscle: a tissue of the body that contracts and relaxes, creating (and preventing) movement Tendon: a type of connective tissue that transmits force from muscle contractions to bones When we learn about tendons, we typically learn that they “connect musc ..read more

This blog post was first sent to Jenni’s email list as an email newsletter. Sign up for the JRY email newsletter here! Table of Contents – Eagle Pose Alignment and Anatomy: Introduction Hip joint alignment in eagle pose Shoulder alignment in eagle pose Video: What’s the Anatomical Position of Eagle Pose? Introduction The alignment of yoga’s eagle pose (garudasana) is an inherently confusing topic. :) In this pose, we intertwine our arms and legs as we sit back into a single-leg squat. This results in a tangled assortment of limbs that can easily confuse our movement eyes! Am I right or ..read more

This blog post was first sent to Jenni’s email list as an email newsletter. Sign up for the JRY email newsletter here! Here’s the most foundational insight that helped me a TON when I was beginning to learn about how to apply movement science to yoga. Our society’s everyday language – and also much of the language in many yoga teacher trainings (!) – implies that the human body operates pretty much like a *machine*. Examples of body-as-machine beliefs are phrases like these: “X” movement will cause “wear and tear” in your joints   “Misalignments” will place  ..read more

This blog post was first sent to Jenni’s email list as an email newsletter. Sign up for the JRY email newsletter here! As a member of my online community, you probably know that I approach yoga, the body, and movement through the lens of movement science. But what does that actually mean? Here's one way of describing it that I think can be quite helpful! Many people think biomechanics is a field of study that's focused on “good,” “proper,” and “optimal” movement and alignment. They assume that applying biomechanics to yoga means figuring out the “right” alignment in yoga asanas (and daily life ..read more

This blog post was first sent to Jenni’s email list as an email newsletter. Sign up for the JRY email newsletter here! We never internally rotate our hips in yoga! I know this may sound like a bold statement, but hear me out. :) We never (or to be technical about it, we very rarely) internally rotate our hips in yoga. In case you're new to the anatomical movement of hip rotation, here's a quick guide: When we're standing, if we turn our toes to face out (away from us), we are externally rotating our hip joint. And if we turn our toes to face in (pigeon toed), we're internally rotating o ..read more

This blog post was first sent to Jenni’s email list as an email newsletter. Sign up for the JRY email newsletter here! Here's a great question I recently received about pigeon pose: "I asked a few different yoga teachers what is the 'correct' way of doing a pigeon pose, but I got a lot of different answers like 'the focus is keeping your hips forward', 'the focus is bending the leg 90 degrees', 'the focus is having your bent leg tight on the ground' and more... What is your opinion about it? Thanks :)" I receive a lot of questions about pigeon pose (it's quite a confusing yoga asana, right ..read more