Hatha Yoga › Therapeutic Benefits
If you've got a body part that's giving you trouble you've come to the right place! Bad back? Painful knees? Ouchy Hips? This is your SOS toolkit for when something hurts.
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41:38
Hip Opening Yoga Flow
Our hips can suffer if we live a sedentary life, if we drive a lot, or we're athletic. This gentle, all-levels hip-opening slow flow is perfect for a prenatal practice (in any trimester), or for any of us with hips! This beautiful class gently mobilises and opens the hips and strengthens the lower body with wide legged forward bend, goddess pose and poses to open, strengthen and stabilise the hips, wonderful for pregnancy and for all of us. Suggested props: 2 bricks. If practicing pregnant please contact your healthcare provider to check the suitability of this class.
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36:20
Hatha Yoga To Feel Strong and Empowered
A Hatha yoga class to strengthen, enliven and feel empowered to start the day. An energising boost to start your day with a bang. This class starts on the back with core strengthening work, and continues on to a strengthening flow. This class is full of awakening and energising movements to make us feel strong and motivated to continue into the rest of our day.
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22:11
Hatha Yoga To Feel Grounded
This morning hatha yoga class is sequenced designed to start your day feeling really grounded and settled. When we are grounded, we can make better decisions, and can be more present to the here and now of whatever may arise in the day, so that we can respond to the events of the coming day clarity and focus. The class focuses on the breath and with the connection on the ground starting with standing in mountain pose. Learn to cultivate a slow, steady breath through class and throughout your day, to create a grounding feeling. There is a focus on the breath and poses that really enhance a grounded and rooted experience, helping you cultivate clarity and focus for the rest of the day
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37:48
Gentle stretching to cool and unwind
This gentle, all-levels hatha yoga class works with forward bends and pranayama (breath work) to cool the body and calm the busy mind. A perfect class to take as a middle of the day work-break, if the day is feeling overwhelming, or to gently calm at the end of the day. Gentle stretching is a wonderful way to destress and enhance feelings of safety in the body. Stretching triggers a host of physiological reactions including increased blood flow and oxygen to the muscles, hydrating surrounding connective tissue, releasing feel good chemicals such as endorphins and activating the parasympathetic nervous system - the rest and digest mode. Props needed: yoga mat, chair, blanket
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56:19
Love Your Body: Affirmations, Breath and Flow
Connect to your body, gain more confidence with your body. In this class we work with the power of affirmations, breathwork and a gentle slow flow vinyasa yoga to learn to appreciate all the amazing things our bodies can do. Our bodies go through a lot of change during our lives and especially during menopause - so much so that you feel your body has let us down or betrayed. Yoga teaches us that our bodies are “sukrta” or well-made just the way they are. You might need a Journal, pen, yoga mat and bolster/cushion
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26:23
Calming Anxiety and Overwhelm
Low oestrogen affects ability to produce the hormones that make us feel happy and calm, and causes low brain energy that affect our mental focus, memory and make us feel overwhelm. Join Petra for this simple class to calm anxiety and overwhelm. It includes gentle movement to improve vagal nerve tone, Ocean breath with sound to soothe your nervous system, a restorative Supported Child’s pose with the option to ‘retreat from the world,’ and two breathing and meditation practices: Mind Meets The Breath and Ladder Breath.
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26:07
Hatha Yoga To Feel Openness
A sense of open body and mind is essential to get the most out of life. Being open to all that life throws at us, as well as being physically open, flexible and strong helps us to feel like we can take on all of life's challenges. This hatha yoga class is designed to create openness and spacious in the body and mind. Starting with a bridge pose sequence for a feeling of openness in the chest and heart, moving to supine twists and gate pose to open up the side body. Then a beautiful sequence of gently paced standing poses, giving plenty of time for long breaths in all yoga poses, to connect with the spaciousness in the body. The class explores both openness within the body and that can support an openness to our mind and how we move forward from our practise into the rest of the day.
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41:24
Hatha Yoga To Feel Stillness
Dropping into stillness at the start of the day can be a wonderful way to start the day, especially if we haven't had such a restful night's sleep, and we're wondering how we'll get through the day. If we look to start the day when we're tired with an energising class, this can easily deplete us. This very gentle hatha yoga class is, however, designed to cultivate a sense of relaxed stillness and steadiness. The class teaches us how to conserve and hold our mental, as well as our physical energy. There is the invitation to focus on the breath and hold poses, focusing on the breath. Holding poses, focusing on gaze in some poses to find stillness in body and closing eyes in others to find stillness within. This class will start and end with a period of quietness and stillness, exploring how much value that can bring into our practise and how we feel for the rest of the day.
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19:33
Hatha Yoga To Feel Gratitude
This short and gentle hatha yoga class combines movement and holding poses from standing and on the floor and incorporates a variety of ways to integrate gratitude into our practise. With a lovely, long gratitude meditation to round off the class. A really gentle way to start the day and provide balance when moving through life's challenges.
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27:04
Hatha Yoga To Feel Inspired
A Hatha yoga and somatic movement class which is perfect to set ourselves up for the day feeling inspired. Ideal for those mornings where we will feel a bit stuck and need an uplift. This somatics and yoga class is designed to explore the spaces in our practise where we can be creative, curious and find new potential in our practice. Expect a more challenging, fun class where we'll be encouraged to move in new directions.
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17:49
Awakening to Yourself
Oestrogen is an anti-inflammatory, so your perimenopausal symptoms can include sore joints and muscle stiffness, especially around the hips, shoulders, wrists and ankles. Join Petra for this simple morning class with somatic movement to help you limber up, lubricate joints and set a positive intention for your day ahead. You can even practice this class in bed.
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21:47
Strength and Empowerment
Join Petra for this energising Hatha class designed to build bone and muscle strength while also boosting your brain and heart health. This short sequence includes modifications for osteopenia and lower back pain as well as frozen shoulders, which are common menopause symptoms of low oestrogen.
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29:23
Yoga for Sacroiliac Stability
Sacroiliac (SI) pain can be common in many yoga practitioners. This series of movements, all done on the back when done daily can help address instability and discomfort in the sacroiliac area. It’s also ideal if you’re short on space and time. You’ll need a blanket, block and strap.
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50:03
Menopause Yoga: Befriending Your Body
A soothing and calming yoga class to cool hot flushes and help you surrender to the natural process of change associated with the perimenopause and menopause. Expect hip opening stretches and simple somatic movements through the spine which lead to a restorative yoga practice, followed by a deep relaxation, a guided meditation and a mantra. This class is taught wholly on the floor and is very gentle and grounding. It is designed to help you befriend your body with kindness and self-compassion at a time when your body is transforming and can feel out of your control. You will need a yoga mat, a strap or belt, 1 bolster and 2 cushions (or household equivalents), and 2 blocks (or thick books). NB - Modifications: take extra care with hip and knee injuries. Osteoporosis: avoid flexion rounding your back in forward folds; keep your spine straight. Trauma: please note that hip opening poses and stretches across the chest can release tension but may also trigger trauma. Follow your own breathing pace, pause the practice when needed and find a comfortable resting pose.
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44:07
Menopause Yoga for Strength
A gently strengthening yoga class to re-energise and empower by building strong bones. This dynamic hatha yoga class with poses that are held for 10 rounds of breath helps build bone mineral density and muscle mass, and raise the heart rate. This class has been designed to help prevent osteoporosis (weakened bones), sarcopenia (muscle loss) and cardiovascular disease, which can develop post-menopause. Expect a range of simple heart-lifting backbends to energise, breath work, a restorative yoga pose, relaxation practice and seated meditation. You will need a strap or belt, 2 bolsters, a cushion, a blanket, and 2 blocks. NB - Osteoporosis: avoid flexion rounding your back in forward folds; keep your spine straight. If you have previously experienced panic attacks, avoid holding your breath and instead follow your own breathing pace.
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03:33
Yoga for Osteopenia
This is a brief yoga tutorial of some of the ways you can use a chair to modify your yoga practice if you have osteopenia (weakened bones) which can affect women as they go through the menopause. If you have osteoporosis, you must always consult your GP before practising yoga, and ask your osteopath or physiotherapist which range of movement is suitable for your body.
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01:13:18
Yoga for Pelvic Floor Health
This yoga class brings awareness to the pelvic floor and lower body through breath, gentle movement and deep relaxation. Starting with a long relaxation, we then bring gentle movement to the body, practicing yoga poses to bring tone and range of movement to the pelvic floor. Class ends with a guided lower body relaxation. Pelvic Floor health is essential as we transition into Perimenopause and Menopause. As our levels of oestrogen begin to fluctuate, this can have an effect on the tone and elasticity of the pelvic floor. Increased levels of stress and anxiety during this time can also lead to hypertonic or overactive pelvic floor muscles caused from too much tension or tightening of the pelvic floor. Pelvic floor muscles can also be weak or hypotonic meaning the muscles are not providing enough support for the bowels, bladder, and uterus. You will need a bolster, blankets, two cork bricks (if you have them, or books), a belt, sandbag or weights (optional).
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08:04
Three Yoga Poses to Support Digestion
It might not be easy to find time to move our bodies or practice a yoga flow in our busy lives, but it is important to aid our bodies and help support our digestive system throughout the day. In this quick yoga class, Gabriella will guide you through her top three poses which can help support our digestive systems along with a diaphragmatic breath technique to help create calm. These will only take a few minutes and can all be done at your desk!