All the Yoga
It can be tricky to navigate the Substack archives and dig up yoga videos from past emails, so here are all of the yoga and movement videos that I’ve shared to date. Each time I email out a new video, I’ll update this post as well. You can return here any time to find a practice that suits your needs. As always, please feel free to send me requests (for example: more hip openers, more seated poses, more strengthening exercises, shorter practices, longer practices, etc.)! If you want to say thanks and have a few bucks to spare, you can buy me a coffee below.
Explore Sensation - 28 minutes
In this gentle, meditative yoga practice, we will play with shifting our awareness from areas of our body that have a lot of sensation to areas of our body that feel quiet. We will also stretch, with particular emphasis on the legs. You will need a strap or similar object (tie, scarf, etc). A bolster (or large pillow or stack of blankets) and two blocks (or thick books) are also helpful but not strictly necessary.
Easy Yoga for Hard Days - 23 minutes
No special equipment or yoga experience required! Put on some comfy clothes and join me for this very gentle, completely recumbent yoga practice. I designed this with my fellow Covid-19 long-haulers in mind. My hope is to offer you a way to move your body, stretch, and release tension even on days when you feel too crummy to be up and around.
New Yoga for the New Year - 27 minutes
Enjoy our first new yoga practice of 2021! We will be seated or lying on our backs for the entire sequence. We’ll open our hearts, lengthen our spines, and release tension throughout our bodies. It’s helpful to have a yoga block or a thick sturdy book for this practice. If you don’t have one available, you can try the poses without the block - they just won’t feel quite as juicy!
Rainy Day Yoga - 23 minutes
It’s rainy and cold in Kentucky today! Join me in this gentle practice to warm the body, deepen the breath, and restore the soul.
Gentle Seated Yoga - 21 minutes
Here is another very gentle offering for my fellow Covid-19 long-haulers. We sit cross-legged for most of the practice, so if that’s uncomfortable for you, please have pillows or folded blankets handy that you can sit on for extra cushion or support!
Gentle Yoga for the Whole Body - 28 minutes
We will spend some time on our backs, some on our stomach, and some sitting up as we open the heart and hips, connect with our core, stretch the hamstrings, and lengthen the spine. Only do as much of this practice is feels good for your body today! Even two minutes of intentional breath and movement is a success worth celebrating, so please don’t push beyond what feels right for you.
Yoga Mini: Leg Strength - 8 minutes
Many long-haulers find exercise more accessible and sustainable when broken into small chunks. Here’s a short sequence of exercises to help you rebuild leg strength. If it’s still too much, you can break it down further and try half now, half later. Want more? Follow this up with “Yoga mini: core strength.”
Yoga Mini: Core Strength - 6 minutes
Many long-haulers respond to the challenge of exercise intolerance by breaking exercise down into bite-size chunks. Enjoy this short, gentle practice to rebuild core strength!
Release and Recline - 28 minutes
We’ll breathe, stretch, and strengthen while lying down on our backs (mostly) and belly (briefly). Give some or all of this gentle practice a try on a day when you’re craving movement but know your body isn’t up to walking, erranding, etc.
Active Yoga - 36 minutes
Wait until you’re consistently well enough for short walks and light housework before you try this slightly more active yoga practice. We will stretch, tone, breathe, and balance! Be sure to let me know what you think - would you like to see more practices like this one?
Love for the Neck and Shoulders - 22 minutes
Enjoy some gentle stretching for the neck and shoulders, followed by self-massage and trigger-point release using a ball. You'll need a firm ball of roughly tennis ball size for the massage portion of this practice. While a tennis ball is better than nothing, most people find more benefit from a firmer ball. In this video, I use the hi-bounce pinky ball, which is a good and affordable option - it's $6 for 2 of them, last I checked Amazon. (I'm not getting anything - not even free balls - for telling you this.) I hope you enjoy this and find these techniques as helpful as I do. If you want to see more practices that incorporate self-massage, let me know, and I'll keep the videos rolling!
Long Spine, Open Heart - 24 minutes
This seated and recumbent yoga practice offers gentle tools to help you improve your posture. By properly aligning the spine, we can create more space in which to breathe, boost our mood, and even improve blood flow to the brain!
Free Your Spine (And the Rest Will Follow) - 20 minutes
Craniosacral therapist Stanley Rosenberg and osteopath Raymond Perrin both assert that illnesses like ME/CFS and POTS can have their roots in structural or mechanical issues of the spine. A tight back can compress nerves or impede lymph drainage, either of which can lead to dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system. Though their theories and techniques differ, both practitioners offer self-help exercises that focus on the thoracic spine. Here I demonstrate a few of these exercises, which I’ve recently incorporated into my daily routine. It’s too early to say whether freeing my spine will free me of my long covid symptoms, but if nothing else, my mid and upper back feel better than they have felt in ages!
Yoga for Fatigue - 29 minutes
This sequence of poses was designed by researchers investigating the efficacy of recumbent, isometric yoga in reducing fatigue for ME/CFS sufferers. The exercises that make up this yoga practice may help those who are bed-bound to maintain muscle strength without triggering post-exertional malaise. Please note that each exercise should only be performed at 50% of your max effort - this is especially important if you are bed-bound or suffer post-exertional malaise after small amounts of activity. As always, listen to your body (and your doctor)! If you are struggling to find ways that you can move without exacerbating your symptoms, then I hope that this practice will offer an answer.
Chair Yoga - 20 minutes
Too tired or stiff to get up and down from the ground? Want to learn a few simple poses that you can do while seated at your desk? Join me for this chair yoga practice!