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LAUREL BEVERSDORF

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laurelbeversdorf

Yoga with Resistance Bands
Body of Knowledge
Online Classes
Workshops & Trainings

IF...your goal is to feel good in them and after t

IF...your goal is to feel good in them and after them, in the short term and the long term...
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But definitely, the SAID principle applies with asanas like everything else. Which is that if you’re looking to get better at...
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Performing asanas...
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Well then yes, do them, specifically the way you want to perform them better.
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Wanna balance in handstand? Better practice in the center of the room. Wanna balance with your eyes closed? Better close your eyes in Vrksasana. Wanna jump back to chaturanga without making a thud sound, better jump back a lot.
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SAID
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Specific
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Adaptations
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to Imposed
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Demands
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Or SAID another way, we get precisely better at the ways we precisely do stuff.
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But to complicate this little nerdy Friday PM ditty, do we do asanas to get better at doing asanas or to feel better in them and after them? This is a question about yoga, I think.
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If you answered the latter, then asanas might not be the best preparation for asanas.
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Doing stuff like lifting weights, Pilates, Feldenkrais, gyrotonics, might enhance your asana practice (and as an extension, your yoga practice) more than the asanas themselves.
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Why do you practice at all?
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#varytheloads

PELVIC FLOOR, CORE, and MORE! is coming back to @a

PELVIC FLOOR, CORE, and MORE! is coming back to @alisonwestyoga’s @yogaunionnyc as a workshop for the 300hr program of this prestigious yoga school.
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This workshop is open to the public and it’s happening soon — MONDAY NIGHT (yes, that’s right!) from 6-9p on Feb. 10th. Space is limited so book your space soon. This workshop sold out last time I taught it.
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Link in bio 👆
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Here’s the deal: our pelvic floor is an integrated team member (not an island of kegels and mula bandha) moment to moment, every day of our lives — with each breath, or anytime we need to manage loads — the pelvic diaphragm like any group of muscles needs to be able to contract and relax in a reflexive, anticipatory way.
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Let’s acknowledge that taboos thrive in silent ignorance, and acknowledge that while complex reasons exist for this to be an area in need of special care and attention - biologically, psychologically, socially - (PT referrals always abound after the practice) in a movement class, we can be allowed space to notice this area, to observe its path of movement while we breathe, and to explore how it is involved in movement (and involve it more by moving, too!)
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We’ll hold space for this group of muscles to be like the whole person we are - ordinary and special, mundane and unique.
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We’ll explore the powerful impact that prioritizing movement (rather than some illusory “correct” position) can have in awakening our felt sense of this area both in its specialized function as a diaphragm, as well as its integration with all the other muscles that manage pressure & move the hips and spine.
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If you feel confused or intimidated by the pelvic floor or you want to learn practical tools to help enhance your connection to this area AND...you are ready to move beyond kegels and mula bandha...
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Then this workshop’s for you! Get ready to learn about pelvic floor anatomy and physiology, build your internal awareness of this area using therapy balls and resistance bands, discover the pelvic floor’s connection to breathing and abdominal bracing, and practice ways to instill relaxation, fluidity, and control to your innermost core.
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Link in bio to register! 👆#yogawithresistancebands

BACK-bending or FLAT-bending? Depends on the curve

BACK-bending or FLAT-bending? Depends on the curve!
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More 🤓👇
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...but real quick, if you’ve been fence-sitting on the Franklin, TN @tuneupfitness Certification 2/16-2/23, TODAY is the LAST DAY to save $$$ on enrollment. We dig into the nitty gritty (see below) and big picture of movement and teaching. I don’t know when I’m teaching this training again.
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Okay, where were we? 🤓
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The thoracic spine can’t bend backwards at all. In general, you probably wouldn’t want it to - the lungs need that space to respire + many other structural reasons!
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Due to the T-spine’s convex shape from the rear (hill rather than valley) it can only reverse out of its hill-like shape into a plateau. Meanwhile, the lumbar and cervical spine - concave from the rear - are quite capable of deepening their valleys to bend the body backwards.
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Prone backbends like cobra illustrate this anatomical detail best, while in backbends like Ustrasana, the eye is drawn to the rounder-shaped side of the rib cage (the front chest region) which fools the eye into believing the curve of the chest is produced by a reversed curve of the T-spine. Not so! The T-spine flat-bends more than it back-bends.
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One way in which to practice isolating as much active strength in thoracic extension is to uncouple scapular retraction (squeezing the shoulder blades together) from thoracic extension. Over-reliance on scapular retractors may DETRACT from your fullest exploration of thoracic extension and make the muscles between your shoulder blades - the retractors - crampy and sore on the regular.
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To highlight strengthening your thoracic extensors, instead, consider protracting the scapulae (slide them apart like patio doors) to inhibit their tendency to retract (slam shut) as the thoracic spine extends. How much thoracic extension can you find without the mask of scapular retraction? Notice if you find yourself working different muscles in baby cobra or salabasana. (2 TIPS: Actively work a posterior pelvic tilt if you find yourself crunching the lumbar. Tuck the toes under and dig your heels into a wall for greater leverage.)
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#teachsmarternothardet #ytutrain @mcwmovement

Inhale, hands come closer, exhale, hands move apar

Inhale, hands come closer, exhale, hands move apart...
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Here I use this banded breath corset in 2 orientations to gravity:

1️⃣ SEATED — in addition to providing a tactile AND visual compliment to the internal experience of rib elevation/depression during breathing this simple but sexy band arrangement also targets the external rotators of the shoulder.
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For bracing: inhale hands come together (rib loop expands) retain breath, hands pull apart (rib loop tightens) BRACE (like 360 core engagement, juts like the band wraps) then...exhale.
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2️⃣QUADRUPED — now this same arrangement provides valuable proprioceptive awareness of the positioning of the rib cage (aka core control) during a frontal plane variation of tricky cat (or maybe you call it bird dog.)
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💡 HOT TIP TUESDAY: do you teach with bands? When you plan your classes, try using the same band arrangement in different orientations to gravity. This minimizes complexity and helps teach what feels the same/different and requires the same/different effort depending on the relationship to gravity.
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This simplifies having to teach too many band arrangements while also diversifying the effects of a single arrangement. Minimal inventory, maximal variety! The stuff of motor learning...
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ALSO! @stronger_human just posted a similar way to attune to the 2 halves of the rib cage and lungs for posture and other benefits using a yoga belt! Check her out! (Her posts are fantastic and I’m hard pressed to find a better mover on IG than Isabelle.)
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I’m heading to @freeportyogacompany to teach my weekend of Yoga with Resistance Bands workshops THIS WEEKEND! I hope I see you there. Link in bio 👆Or go here — https://laurelbeversdorf.com/event/freeport-me-freeport-yoga-company-yoga-with-resistance-bands-weekend-of-workshops/
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#yogawithresistancebands #bandedbreathing

💥 BOOMerang! This active static stretch is 🔥

💥 BOOMerang! This active static stretch is 🔥🔥🔥 - Sound on 🎧 for cues and jokes.
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This is one of dozens of moves you’ll do and learn to skillfully teach in the Yoga Tune Up®️Teacher Certification training. Want to take this training with me Feb. 16-23 in Franklin, TN? THIS WEEK is the LAST WEEK for the early bird discount. Save $100 if you sign up by this Saturday 1/18.
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Link in bio 👆 or go here — https://laurelbeversdorf.com/event/franklin-tn-yoga-tune-up-teacher-certification-training/
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I don’t know when I’m teaching this training again. This might literally be your last chance...Get on it!
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@mcwmovement @movementlabtn @tuneupfitness @yogatuneup

I stepped out this past Friday night! I wore jeans

I stepped out this past Friday night! I wore jeans and makeup and looked cute #momlife with some of the people I admire the most.
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@yogaisdeadpodcast wrapped their absolutely impeccable podcast season in which each episode they killed it (yoga? podcasting? listen to find out). Be prepared for witty, smart, researched discussions on hot button yoga topics all of which were in desperate need of smart dialogue and a thorough unpacking - and then @tejalyoga and @yogawalla stepped in and took the 🎤) You can listen to Yoga is Dead wherever you get your podcasts.
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I got to catch up with my friends @markellalos some of the brains 🧠 behind @unionize_yoga and @caitlincasella the brains 🧠 behind Cross-Fade (the online teacher mentorship my Body of Knowledge body science content is a part of.) These two 💜💜and I stayed up LATE (my bedtime is 9pm) and I came rolling in at 1:30am like who do I think I am?
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I didn’t get much sleep Friday night but it was worth it. Thanks for a much needed night out of female badassery!

When @clayton.moves tagged me this morning in his

When @clayton.moves tagged me this morning in his post about practice spaces, I was just about to start clearing mine.
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I live in a small apartment in NYC with my husband, 14-month-old daughter, and two cats.
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Soooooo much has changed for all of us since Eliana arrived. (Like my whole identity - more on that later).
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One of the biggest things that changed for us in our living space. This room here used to be devoted exclusively to practice and study for @blomnathan and I. It’s now our bedroom (and also where I practice). Our old bedroom became Eliana’s.
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When I found out I was pregnant, I started researching Murphy beds and wall beds. My home practice is really important to me. I knew it would become more important while home more with my daughter. I was right.
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She also benefits from this wide open space to move and play, like I do. When we set this up in the morning it stays this way all day. We spend more time playing around with her cars and balls while the cats make do napping all day on the couch in the living room. Poor kitties...
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This routine of clearing the space is part of our morning routine. After we have breakfast, we clear the space, brush teeth, play a little, read books, and then she goes down for her morning nap.
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Then...I practice.
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Sometimes making space means establishing a routine. Routines are containers for time. They help us do the things that matter.
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This is my practice space.
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Want to practice with me in person where I share so much of what I discover here in this space? Check out my teaching schedule — link in bio 👆 or go here: https://laurelbeversdorf.com/events/category/workshopsntrainings/
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#makespace

Beware of the snark web. Or rather, be careful whe

Beware of the snark web. Or rather, be careful when surrounding yourself with people who only offer a cynical or sarcastic perspective on yoga, asana, or life in general.
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I get these people, though. I do.
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You see, when I started to have pain from my yoga practice, I was angry. I felt like everything I worked for was suddenly working against me.
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I couldn’t teach what was hurting me. And yet, I didn’t really know what else to teach.
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I admittedly spent a couple of years basically trashing everything I had learned. When I talked about yoga asana, the snarky, eye-rolly, judginess took hold as I framed everything with a snide twist.
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And this attitude was not only addictive, it was infectious.
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I loved getting together with my snarky yoga buddies where we could all trash asana and the yoga industry and talk about what a total crock of shit it all was.
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Not that parts weren’t (or aren’t) but I was missing a bigger picture perspective that my limited experience precluded.
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I was in a very snark place...😬😎
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And then something happened. I started doing other stuff beyond asana. My pain went away.
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Later, I went back to practicing asana, and it not only felt better, it felt good - like what I had been missing after a long period of only strength training. (Which is similar to how strength training felt after a long period of just doing asana.)
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🤷‍♀️
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That’s when I realized what a waste of time all that snark had been. And how during the Snark Ages, I had been closing myself off from the possibilities of what was right there in front of me - a practice that offered balance, just not on its own. It offered balance in conjunction with other practices.
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If you are living in the snark and you can’t find your way out, get on my list. I promise you down-to-Earth nerdy earnestness with a penchant for not taking any of this stuff too seriously.
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Link in bio 👆#snarkweb #snarkages #livinginthesnark #fromsnarknesstolight

I was a beginner. Black & white rules were my jam.

I was a beginner. Black & white rules were my jam. They made things simple while I lost my mind surviving a class.
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I'd wager all beginners love rules—the more black and white the better. Because being a beginner means cognitive overload.
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Think about something you don’t know how to do. I don't know my way around a kitchen. Say I gotta bake a cherry pie and you’re my teacher.
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One tip: you better tell me ➡️the right way to do it ⬅️. Don't go telling me that there's “lots of options” 🙄 or “it depends on how much flour you add.” Seriously?
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Just tell me what to do!
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For a beginner, black and white rules help lift the cognitive load of figuring everything out for the first time.
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As a new teacher, I loved this rule about the shoulders: I would teach that as much external rotation as possible was the only correct amount of rotation when the arms were overhead because...
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it's correct
(I got to be right.)
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and stable
(I got to help people.)
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and if people don't, impingement!
(I got to save shoulders.)
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Cue superhero music...🦹‍♀️
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It was through studying the human body & experience (both tend to lend a taste for nuance) that I stopped following rules, and started to think critically.
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Because the rules had started to interfere with my ability to help.
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If I’ve been blindly following the rule to max out external rotation overhead, what do I do with the student who says that hurts? I've never considered other options so I might feel wrong exploring them...Worse, I might bypass my students’ experience.
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I can’t consider what I don’t believe. So if my beliefs are narrow, I can’t consider much at all.
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When I left the rules behind and committed to studying body science, I discovered something amazing—my desire (and ability) to solve problems rather than follow rules.
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For this, I’m pumped to announce that I’ve partnered w/ @caitlincasella to bring you my Body of Knowledge Anatomy content with the Cross-Fade Mentorship in one dynamite online learning opportunity. (More in comments.)
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Interested in diving in? Link in bio 👆Save $300 now. Price goes up Thu 1/9.

Oh hey, Pittsburgh! See you tomorrow @yogaupgh! He

Oh hey, Pittsburgh! See you tomorrow @yogaupgh! Here’s what’s happening —
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Yoga Balls, Bands, and Bliss a series of workshops to help you sense, strengthen, and de-stress!
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the deets—
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Sat. 9-11:30am | HAPPY, HEALTHY FEET AND HIPS
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Sat. 1:30-4p | SHOULDER AND NECK EFFERVESCENCE
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Sun. 9-11:30am | REDEFINE YOUR SPINE: CURVES, SPIRALS, AND UNDULATIONS
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Sat. 1:30-4p| A VOYAGE INTO INNER SPACE: SELF-MASSAGE, CONSCIOUS BREATHING, AND YOGA NIDRA
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Link in bio 👆or go here to register: https://laurelbeversdorf.com/event/pittsburgh-pennsylvania-yoga-balls-bands-and-bliss-weekend-of-workshops/
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#yogawithresistancebands #yogaballsbandsandbliss #varytheload #selfmassage #resistancebandstrengthtraining

S P I N A L W A V E #banded . A sea of possibiliti

S P I N A L W A V E #banded
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A sea of possibilities opens up with bands...
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I didn’t like spinal waves until I started being able to feel my spine and sense how it was moving with the help of bands.
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Sort of like I didn’t like my classes in school until I got glasses and could see the board.
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Here I’m using a stirrup band (see my latest IGTV for cutting and tying) to drop a pin on the cortical map of my lumbar spine.
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🗺 #whereareyou?
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Discover the world you live in through the surface of your skin.
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Wear a band. Drop a pin. Locate yourself.
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I’m teaching several weekends of workshops all over. Experience the power of self-administered tough and external resistance with bands. I promise you it will be a total body nerd fest 🤓
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Jan 4-5 | Pittsburgh @yogaupgh | Yoga Balls, Bands, and Bliss
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Jan 17-19 | Freeport, ME @freeportyogacompany | Yoga w Resistance Bands
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Mar 7-8 | Charlestown, MA @asanacharlestown | Yoga Balls and Bands
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May 16-17 | Helena, MT @thelotushelena | Yoga Balls, Bands, and Bliss
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July 5-7 | Dublin, IRL @hotyogadublin | Yoga with Resistance Bands Teacher Training
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Oct. 3-4 | Mill Creek, WA @yogainthecenter | Yoga Balls, Bands, and Bliss
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#yogawithresistancebands

D I F F E R E N T I A T I O N . Does the spine bet

D I F F E R E N T I A T I O N
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Does the spine between your head and bra/bro strap move like a stiff garden hose or segmentally?
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Figuring out ways to parse apart movement of thoracic and cervical segments is a useful pursuit for clarifying body-brain maps. It also feels good because tissues that otherwise weren’t getting squeezed and tugged on, rinsed and soaked, get their loving dose of novel mechanical stimulus.
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It can feel like a massage happening underneath the surface of your skin.
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Resistance bands are oh so incredibly helpful for being able to move your spine differently, which is often dependent on being able to move one region differently from another.
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Here I’m showing a mobilization of the cervical spine (neck semi-circles) from an extended T-spine then a flexed T-spine. Then neck circles through dynamic flexion and extension of the T-spine.
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The positioning of my hips in a child’s pose-esque position helps lock down my lumbar spine to prevent it from stealing my T-spine mobilization thunder, which in turn helps me contact under contacted tissues of my C-spine. As my C-spine gets to move more, this movement transfers force into my upper T-spine C7-T4, a place that feels particularly stiff, like a garden hose left out in winter.
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The resistance band provides feedback, yes, but also assistance (elastic recoil) in extending my T-spine (a more challenging position to access) and resistance (I’ve gotta work against the elastic) in flexing my T-spine.
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If you find light, direct, clear, and consensual hands on assists from a teacher helpful in sensing your position and finding new ways to move from your joints, you will likely also appreciate the self-administered touch of wearing resistance bands.
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#eyesonthesurfaceofyourskin #makeyourbodyblindspotsseen #yogawithresistancebands

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