Hatha Yoga Classes
Hatha Yoga is the name given to all physical yoga postures and breathing techniques to prepare the body for meditation. However, hatha yoga is commonly known for yoga with an emphasis on steadiness, so expect more static poses and longer yoga pose holds. The slower pace of Hatha classes makes it suitable for beginners, however it also provides a focus for more advanced practitioners and the possibility to explore the merging of breath, mind and body. Hatha Yoga provides the basis for many other forms of yoga including ashtanga yoga, vinyasa yoga, power yoga, yin yoga and restorative yoga. You may wish to follow your practice with yoga nidra, meditation or relaxation.
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01:04:24Stress Relief: Diaphragmatic Breathing
In this stress relief class, we bring a sense of ease to our body by using our full lung capacity to breathe and allow our diaphragm to move freely. This is key to stimulating our vagus nerve and inviting a sense of peace to our body. We will systematically release tension in the rib cage area with seated stretches and supine positions, and practice slow diaphragmatic breathing. You will need 2 yoga bricks or books.
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35:15Yoga for Beginners: Prepare for Meditation
This yoga class is the last in the beginners yoga course and prepares us for coming into stillness. Class starts with a vinyasa flow, moving through sun salutation B and playing with new standing and seated poses. It then ends with a ten minute seated meditation, mantra and mudra. This is the ideal time to consider your yoga journey over the past few weeks and how you wish to move forward with your practice. You have learnt many news skills, but perhaps what you will have learnt is to follow your heart, which is your own best teacher. You may need a yoga brick and a blanket.
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12:22Tutorial: How The Shoulders Work
This yoga tutorial looks at how the arms and shoulders help to support movement, expression, circulation and spinal health. Learn how to move and open your shoulders for greater connection to your body. This is also a great tutorial to help counter the effect on the shoulders of chaturanga and to support those with previous injuries to their shoulder such as tennis elbow, frozen shoulder or bursitis. No need for a yoga mat, this tutorial can be done anywhere!
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36:57Yoga for Beginners: Explore Playfulness
This beginners yoga class focuses on balances and experimenting with our yoga practice with a sense of playfulness. In this balancing sequence, it's OK to wobble and fall! The point of yoga is not to be perfect, but to embark upon a journey of exploration and curiosity. After moving through classic sun salutations with balance play, expect to experiment with eagle pose and half moon pose. You may wobble and fall, but have fun with it any enjoy the process. You will need a wall and two yoga bricks (or books!).
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19:28Tutorial: Explore Standing Yoga Poses
A short yoga tutorial using a chair/wall as an option for support while exploring warrior one, warrior two, triangle pose and extended side angle. These poses are very common in a yoga class, but they are actually very complex. Explore these poses and discover versions which work best and feel good for your body so you can take them into future yoga classes.
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17:51Tutorial: Intelligent Body
Learn to be more sensitive to your body and enrich your practice in this experiential yoga tutorial. We invite you to explore your body from the feet up and give you tools to take with you into whatever movement practice you have, whether that be yoga, walking, running, cycling, dancing or the other million ways our human bodies like to move. This yoga class also asks us what are the components of an intelligent body? When we become more sensitive to our body's intelligence, we can work and move with our own body in a safer and subtler way. We can make more grounded, more embodied decisions.
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05:28Short Shoulder and Neck Relief Class
A quick but powerful class, done standing or seated, with just a strap. Create relief and release in the neck, shoulders and upper back - amazingly effective if you've been hunched over a computer.
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32:35Yoga for Every Body: Hips and Legs
Targeting the hips in every direction, this inclusive yoga class will help the hips and legs will feel freer. The class is entirely floor-based and opens the front, back, sides and inner hips so is great to wind-down after a long day. You will need blocks, bricks and a strap.
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41:25Yoga for Beginners: Embodied Breath
In this beginners yoga class, we explore the notion of embodiment. This exploration will specifically focus on the breath and lungs as we move through yoga poses. Class starts with a breath practice to connect to the body, then moves through half sun salutations and poses learnt in the classes at the start of the yoga for beginners course, presented with new variations. You will need a strap, blanket, brick and cushion.
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40:27Yoga for Beginners: Exploring Connection to Earth
This yoga class focuses on the body’s connection to the earth and the exploration of bandhas, or seals. In this class we discover how connecting to the earth brings tone and support to our yoga practice. Discover more about the earth seals (hasta bandha and panda bandha) while bringing more stability and energy to the body. Using balancing poses, such as tree, and seated poses, we explore the feelings of support, being present and being grounded. This class also introduces the hip opener, pigeon pose, and mudras (hand gestures). You will need a thin block or pillow, and a belt.
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35:41Your Calming Yoga Practice
This yoga class helps to ground and calm an anxious body or mind and bring us back to the present moment. Start with some grounding self-massage, then move gently with simple, repetitive, and breath-led movements to stabilise the nervous system. Additionally, we will pay particular attention to releasing tension in the head, neck, and shoulders to bring about a profound sense of relaxation and ease. This class is perfect after a long day or when we're overwhelmed. You will need a narrow block or a folded blanket and a brick.
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38:02Yoga to Rest & Digest: The Vagus Nerve
This yoga class uses simple practices to resource and reset the nervous system using breath, sound, gentle movement and massage to stimulate the vagus nerve and encourage deep relaxation. Either follow the class in full or learn the practices which resonate with you to be done in your own time. The vagus nerve acts as a “super information highway” communicating between the brain and our body’s systems regulating our mood, digestion, heart rate and hormones. The vagus nerve balances our nervous system by switching on our parasympathetic 'rest and digest' mode and influences how we connect and feel safe with others. You will need a bolster, blanket, tennis ball and/or soft pilates ball. Gabriella uses a Yoga Tune Up Coregeous Ball.
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32:05Yoga for Beginners: Conscious Attention
In the final class of the third week of the yoga for beginners course, we’ll explore the idea of noticing and consciously paying attention. After flowing through some lunge salutations, we’ll move through poses such as crescent moon, puppy pose and eagle arms. Class is approached gently, with great consciousness and attention. It ends with a meditation and body scan to notice how the mind and body feels after conscious movement.
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36:43Yoga for Beginners: Go Slow
The focus for this hatha yoga class, the next in our beginners yoga course, is on finding a sense of ease in our practice. Class starts with breath work and gentle seated stretches. After flowing through a mindfully paced sun salutation B, the sequence further explores familiar poses. Often, when working through balancing and strengthening poses, we find areas of the body gripping. Therefore, we experiment with different hand and food placements to see if there is a more easeful way of moving and holding poses. Sometimes, when the body relaxes it can find more endurance and comfort. Class ends with a long constructive rest and savasana.
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43:02Yoga for Beginners: Finding Steadiness
The second yoga class in the yoga for beginners course this week focuses on steadiness and exploring new standing poses. The placement of the feet is so important for a solid, steady foundation. Class starts with breath work to help us feel grounded and centred. Move mindfully with the breath through a slow sun salutation A, before we introduce warrior one and pyramid poses. Expect a gentle pace and to learn different variations of these poses, transitions between them and variations for standing balances. Class ends with a long relaxation. You will need two bricks and a blanket.
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03:50Introduction to Body Intelligence: Living In Our Bodies
A real wonder of yoga is that we learn more about our body’s innate intelligence. We learn to acquaint ourselves with how our bodies and minds feel, as we go through the day and as we go through life. We hold three sources of knowledge: the mind, the heart and the gut. But we are often disconnected from some or all of these. Body intelligence helps us to listen to the whole of our inner knowledge and use this to connect with ourselves, our world and the present moment. Learn to tap into and feel all parts of the body to create a sense of safety, presence and embodiment. Too often we move through life mindlessly, so this series of yoga classes will help you reconnect with yourself, be present and be self-compassionate so you can discover how to be receptive to what your body is telling you and rebuild the wealth of healing within the body.
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43:57Yoga for Beginners: Get Grounded
To begin week three of the yoga for beginners course, this hatha yoga class starts by finding our gentle, steady and grounding breath, before moving into some self-care foot massage. Then expect a gentle yoga flow through variations of half sun salutations to get the spine moving in all directions. Then, new standing poses are introduced - chair pose and tree pose. These poses require a firm footing, good grounding and a sense of balance. You will need two bricks, a block and a blanket.
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35:57Yoga for Beginners: Your Full Yoga Practice
This yoga class is the final class of the second week of the yoga for beginners course. The focus of the class is completing a full practice and reviewing alignment. Expect a flowing class where we’ll join poses together with the breath, then move through standing poses, and finishing with seated twists, bridge pose and relaxation. Take this opportunity to choose your own intention for the practice before moving through all the poses and transitions learned this week in a way which feels good for your body today. The most important lesson in this class is listening deeply to how your body is responding to the practice and taking cues from your own body. You may need a couple of bricks.