Feel like challenging yourself- your body, your muscles?
For me, I love backbend poses, because they are chest openers. And opening your chest, is an experience you feel both externally and internally.
When we are sad, stressed or upset, we tend to fold in and lock ourselves up from what is hurting or bothering us. So, we do not show it to others and pretend to be a-ok. Because that is what we learned. 
Doing some sort of backbend or something where we open up our chest, we open-up our locked in stress that just spreads in our bodies like a virus. Chest opening poses can release that stress or locked-in feelings and sometimes, it can release emotions with either tears, or less tension or a feeling of releasment.......Ahhhhh.
If you're a growing yogi or already calling yourself a yogi or just an active person, maybe you find this video challenge something interesting to try. I only did 3 push-ups in vid, but can do more. What is nice is after doing so many in a row and then slowly coming down (maybe into childs or mini savasana), that feeling of release in mind and body. But, then that happens in many yoga poses. 
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Tell me how you feel when doing backbends and chest-openers? I'd love to hear your share!

I'm excited to be adding a couple yoga with weights to my class repertoire!
Back when I was just a simple yoga student, then teacher, I thought all those additions to yoga were not doing yoga. But, now, it is nice to add that variety in your yoga practice- as long as you still do the traditional yoga. 
I think, now, it is nice to do a bit of it all:

• Beginners - take take you back and bring you to simple things- keep you focused on balance, alignment, flexibity, tools: drisht (focus point), ujjaya (breathing in and out of nose) and core (engaging in your stomach muscles). 
• Power - to build your inner core, body and muscle ability, as well as increasing your natural muscle tone.
• Flow - to keep your body & muscles moving fluently
• Yoga with weights - to build that bit of extra muscular tone for your body & it makes you think more of how your body is moving and the different muscles to use in each pose- that you wouldn't normally think about in your regular yoga practice.

The 4 poses I am doing with weights are: camel variation, dancer pose, pigeon pose variations and wild thing pose. All using just 5 pound weights. It may not seem like much. But, if you are using it mostly throughout your hour yoga practice, you will definitely feel the difference in the end!
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If you haven't done yoga with weights, maybe try a couple poses at home, or come to a class, or if you would like personal training session, feel free to contact me!

And feel free to share your questions or comments! :-)

Namaste!
     =The light in me honors the light in you!

There are soooo many different lunge poses you can do! This picture just shows a few. That is why the post is called Part 1. Because I will post more!
Lunges are so great! Opens, opens the hips more and more. We need that! So, our hips stay open and flexible as we get older.
The lunges in this pic are: high & low crescent lunge, side lift lunge, lizard lunge and a bit of a creation I call bird in flight lunge (big pic). 
That's what great about doing yoga. There are no strict rules, no one way to do a pose! It is freeing! :-)
​(psst....thought I'd share that I loooove doing yoga outdoors!)

This summer I added moon salutation to many of my classes. Mostly, my outdoor classes by the lake.
The series of poses consist of: standing crescent moon pose, goddess squat, star, triangle pose, pyramid, low crescent lunge, side lunges, goddess pose and mountain pose. These poses double as we go through them twice- to form a moon-like flow.
(Pictures were taken where I have my outdoor lake class- at Veteran's Memorial Park in Avon Lake.)

I came up with 9 variations to my wide-legged pose. But, there are many more!
Wide-legged helps open the hips, stretches the leg muscles, invert you to make you more calm-less anxious and much more!
I do a blend of these in both my beginners levels and mid-levels classes. You can always just do what you can!
As I say in all my classes.....you do your own yoga, your way!
​(These were taken back in the early spring at Vermilion YMCA.)

This is just a few variations of plank pose one can do.
Plank increase balance and stability while building strength in our arm and legs. 
​Beginners adjustment would be to bend the lower leg down.
The pictures were taken by Burke Lakefront Airport (Cleveland) that is part of the Lakefront bike trail and by the Cleveland metroparks.
This is definitely one of my favs to hang out at! :-)