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Thumbs Up - how yoga helps with stiffness and pain in the hands

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  You might be like many people over 50, who has found that as you age, arthritis in the hands , stiffness and general aging in the joints of the fingers has created certain weakness or discomfort when you try to use your hands for certain tasks.   I often have students ask me about the painful joints in their fingers and hands, could be the thumb joint, could be overall arthritic hands.    One task I often refer my students to is the Jam Jar Exercise .  How easy do you find it to open a jar?  Believe me, the manufacturers of jam jars have not made them any more difficult to open than 20 years ago!  But your hands might well have lost the strength they once had to open a jar.  Many yoga methods or approaches do not give specific attention to the hands or fingers, which is why in my joint renewal approach (which is designed specifically for folks over 50) I spend a lot of time teaching my students how to deal with strengthening and developing grip and dealing with other issues in their
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How Yoga Can Help with Hip Issues

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How yoga can help with hip function is by creating stability in the pelvis.   Good healthy hip function is achieved not by doing what most people think they need to do.  Stability in the pelvis is often overlooked when it comes to hip issues.    Most will try to open, expand, stretch their hips, and actually this is not dealing with the joint, but rather the muscles, ligaments and tendons around the joint. And often these movements and stretches are done without any regard for the foundation of structure and tone.  Although it might look as though you have more more flexibility in the short term, actually without creating a stable foundation in the pelvis, there can be instability in the long run. The Joint Renewal System is revolutionary as it looks a hip function from a much wider perspective.  How you move your ankles, your feet, and how you create stability in the pelvis all impact the healthy function of your hips.   A lack of stability in the pelvis is transfered into the hip joi
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International Day Of Yoga - Special Yoga Event for Folks Over 50

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   Wednesday 21st of June-  U.N. International Day of Yoga.  It is also summer solstice (in the Northern Hemisphere).  What a bright ray of sunshine it is to see yoga celebrated in this amazing way.  It truly is so wonderful that globally, yoga is recognized as a healing modality.  Yoga is a powerful way to help heal and connect people to their breath, their body, their mind and their spirit.  I will be celebrating the U.N.  International Day of Yoga 2023  by offering a yoga workshop for new students to my Joint Renewal System of yoga.  Based on both Kaiut and Scaravelli traditions, I offer this joint renewal method to folks over 50 who want to live a long and healthy life. This is for Folks who don't want to get old and stiff, who want to do something positive about their joints.  And who realise that having healthy joints requires moving in ways that not only extend range of motion but also restore function.    The Joint Renewal System is not  repetative movements like what you
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Earth Day: How To Celebrate with Yoga

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4 simple yoga moves for Earth Day Earth day 2023 is Saturday 22nd April  Earth Day is a global initiative created to promote environmental awareness and to celebrate the natural environment. It was first celebrated on April 22, 1970. Earth Day is celebrated annually with events around the world. As the world faces more and more climate change issues and challenges,  yoga is able to give great benefit for the Earth.  Yoga is Ecological Many people don't think of yoga as particularly ecological, however I believe it is a fundamental practice we need for tacking these pressing environmental challenges that we currently face on Earth.   Yoga helps people to be more mindful of their bodies and their surroundings. Because we are approaching and practicing in a mindful way, yoga increases awareness of the breath, movements, and postures. With increased awareness there is more consciousness.  More consciousness is needed now more than ever for every single person, to ask themselves how ar
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Yoga For Chronic Pain

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  More and more doctors are starting to precribe Yoga for Chronic pain.  However,  most people  think that yoga can help because you are moving your body, and whereever the pain is located you might be able to bring relief to that area through gentle movement. But the underlying reasons, the less obvious reasons why yoga helps is because of neuroscience.  And these reasons may not be immediately obvious.  I recently listened to Dr. Rangan Chatterjee interview Dr. Harold Schubiner for his podcast Feel Better Live More podcast.   They were talking about chronic pain. No evidence of Chronic Pain  If you take a random group of healthy 30 year olds, and do an MRI scan, and these are people with no pain at all , 40% of them will show to have degenerative disc disease in their spine.  30% will have bulging discs. These are 30 year olds and none of them have pain.   These are normal findings that occur with aging.   And what happens when you are 50?  At 50 years old, 80% of people have deg
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How can I keep my joints healthy?

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How can I keep my joints healthy? When it comes to healthy joints, there are a few key things you can do to help promote mobility and reduce the risk of arthritis. One of the most important things you can do is exercise regularly. Many doctors will have different ideas, medications, supplements they recommend, and there is a wide variety of treatment plans they offer.   The one consistent thing that doctors all agree on to ensure that your joints stay healthy is to prescribe regular exercise.  Staying mobile and flexible is to participate in a variety of movements that target different parts of your body.  Yoga is key for this.  But not just any type of yoga, a lot of yoga, especially if it is taught by young teachers who have little experience of an older population, is taught in a way that might be too painful or dangerous for older people who suffer from arthritis.  Unfortunately, this is why many people who could greatly benefit from yoga tend to avoid it.  There are many knee arth
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How To Safely Bend Forward In Yoga To Avoid Injury to the Spine

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  Sometimes health care professionals tell people to avoid doing yoga, or at least doing forward bends or forward flexions of the spine. But there are ways how to safely bend forward in yoga to avoid injury to the spine and not risk further degeneration of an already fragile spine.  Indeed in some cases, yoga is the best and only safe way to overcome fragility and build strength and regain lost mobility and more functionality of the spine.   This can be achieved with care, awareness and consistent practice.    Function of the Spine  The spine is a series of interconnected bones that run from the base of your skull to the tips of your toes. It is desgined to move your body in all directions, forward bends, backward motion, twists and turns.  The spine supports your head, neck, and back. When you lengthen your spine, it gives you more flexibility and range of motion in your joints.  Let's first ask, What is the natural health of a spine? How does it move? When we think of the n
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