Carrie Owerko – Iyengar Yoga for Strength and Agility

Carrie Owerko – Iyengar Yoga for Strength and Agility

Check it out: Carrie Owerko – Iyengar Yoga for Strength and Agility

Want to feel strong and resilient—and have a lot of fun while you’re at it? Join Senior Iyengar Yoga teacher Carrie Owerko for a unique series of dynamic video practices designed to build strength and keep your joints healthy.

In this series of 11 classes you’ll learn how to move with more fluidity, mobilizing and stabilizing your joints in sustainable ways. We’ll practice fun and functional asana, along with other movements to help you feel more at home in your body—on and off the mat. Whether you have 5 minutes, 60 minutes, or somewhere in-between, you’ll find a practice to fit your schedule. Consider this your guide to better form, fluidity, and function—and here’s more about what that means:

Form

We often think of yoga as asana, and those asana as having distinctive forms. But yoga—and asana—can be much more. Yoga is integration. It can be an effective means to increase your body’s capacity for variability and adaptability and to realize your fullest movement potential.

Fluidity

Watch an athlete or a dancer move and you’ll see fluidity. This type of smooth integrated movement requires motor control. We develop some motor control when we do asana, but in order to really become more fluid in our movements, we need to do more than the static shapes.

Function

Functional movement is often multi-planar (moving through many planes of motion), multi-jointed (utilizing many joints simultaneously), and demands the use of the body’s core musculature.

In these classes, you’ll explore…

Playful Ninja
1 hour
This fun, fluid, and functional class begins with an active and thorough warm-up on the floor then playfully progresses to standing poses and arm balances.

Active Gomukasana 
45 minutes
A sequence to help you activate and enliven your “whole-body core” and improve your balance and motor control. You’ll explore active hip movements of Gomukasana (Cow Face Pose) and play with variations of Garudasana (Eagle Pose).

Fun on the Floor
35 minutes
Children play on the floor. Why can’t you? This practice will nourish your feet, ankles, knees, hips and spine and help prepare you for just about any of your favorite yoga poses or physical activities.

Gliding Lunges
20 minutes
Try a dynamic practice to stretch and strengthen your lower body. You’ll learn how to use a blanket to provide resistance and help your legs and hips develop strength and control though a full range of motion.

Unwind 
30 minutes
This class will bring you down to the ground and help you unwind and let go of unnecessary tension in your upper back, shoulders, hips and entire nervous system. It is like a long exhalation at the end of the day.

Quick Movement Scale
10 minutes
Wake up your whole body from head to toe. This short sequence will get your joints moving and help you move more like a kid again.

Balance Challenge
8 minutes
Learn novel ways to increase your capacity to balance. This class will vary in tempo, dynamic, and direction to help your body get better at responding to the unexpected.

Shoulders + Brain 
5 minutes
This is perfect for days when you feel sluggish and need a quick energizing practice. It will get your blood flowing and your brain firing in a super playful way.

Flying Pigeon Play
35 minutes
This sequence will help mobilize and strengthen your entire body, preparing it for many things—especially the arm balance Eka Pada Galavasana (Flying Pigeon Pose).

Rolling Play 1
20 minutes
In a dynamic workshop-style class you’ll learn about your “whole body core” and explore all kinds of rolling patterns.

Rolling Play 2
20 minutes
A short, playful sequence that utilizes different types of rolling movements to help bring mobility and stability to your whole body. These movements can help increase your capacity to move (and get up and down from the ground) in a smooth, integrated, and coordinated way.