Gentle Yoga › Women's Health

Vanessa Michielon

A wonderful class for Prenatal back pain, suitable for all trimesters. This class can also suit most of us for most stages in life! Back pain and back stiffness is common during pregnancy, but also for all of us who live sedentary, modern lives. This class is the perfect antidote! Embrace gentle movements like thread the needle pose, open twists, oyramid pose and Happy Baby, which promote spinal flexibility and tension relief. The practice gracefully closes with heart-opening poses like Camel Pose and Bridge, leaving you feeling rejuvenated and empowered to navigate the physical changes of pregnancy with ease. Suggested props: 2 bricks. If practicing pregnant please contact your healthcare provider to check the suitability of this class.

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Vanessa Michielon

A beautiful prenatal yoga sequence to open your entire body with a slow and gentle sequence of seated and standing poses promoting mobility and strength, full of mindful variations to adjust your practice to what feels best to you today. Explore movements that help you create space in your pelvic floor and hips, such as Staff Pose, Dragonfly and Lizard Pose, and build safe stability with supported Side Plank and standing balances, such as Half Moon. You will close with a moment of contemplation and connection to your breath and your baby in a peaceful guided meditation. Suggested props: 2 bricks. If practicing pregnant please contact your healthcare provider to check the suitability of this class.

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Vanessa Michielon

This Prenatal Pilates class for all levels, up until second trimester). It is also just a wonderful Pilates class for all round strength, for any body. This class integrates a variety of safe Pilates exercises to engage the full body to maintain optimal mobility and stability through the joints. Enjoy different abdominal strengthening exercises in a variety of position, to target all the core muscles without uncomfortable crunches. Also activate hamstrings and build up strength in the glutes with side laying leg patterns focusing on internal and external rotation in your hip joints. This is a complete and balanced Prenatal Pilates practice to practice a couple of times a week to uplift your mood and maintain wellbeing during pregnancy, but also for all of us at any time the body needs to be given a full body glow! If practicing pregnant please contact your healthcare provider to check the suitability of this class.

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Vanessa Michielon

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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Gabriella Espinosa

Anger and rage are common during menopause. This may surprise to you and those around you. We've been taught to believe that anger is a negative emotion that shouldn't be expressed so we bottle it up until it explodes or mask it and this can cause us internal conflict. In this menopause yoga class we learn to work with anger as a positive force for healing, empowerment and healthy communication. Using the power of breath, sound, somatic enquiry and movement we will give space to our anger and allow it to be felt, moved, and released. The class will take place seated and standing, the first part of the class takes place entirely seated. You can also lie down for this part. The second part has us adopt yoga poses accessible to most bodies. Transform your anger into fierce power!

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Gabriella Espinosa

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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Gabriella Espinosa

Anxiety is nervous system’s way of keeping us safe and out of danger. Due to the hormonal fluctuations in peri-menopause and menopause, women often begin to experience anxiety for the first time impacting the ability to cope with everyday life. This class is mostly seated and also includes a restorative yoga pose. The class encourages us to lean into our anxiety from a place of curiosity and compassion to listen and learn how and why it’s trying to protect us. The first part of the class is seated, and we use touch based somatic exercises to soothe our nervous system. In the second part of the class we simply lie on our backs with legs over a chair or sofa, to down regulate your nervous system and shift into a sense of feeling at ease and safe in your body. Props needed: Chair, yoga mat and blanket.

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Gabriella Espinosa

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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Petra Coveney

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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Petra Coveney

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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Vanessa Michielon

Perfect for keeping strong in the first two trimesters of pregnancy, but a really great, and pretty tough, strengthening Pilates class for all of us. This is a pretty challenging class, so please do go at your own pace and modify and take rest when needed. Centered around core strength, this Pilates class incorporates a small Pilates ball , or you can equally use a small cushion or pillow, to support your back in some of the abdominal work sequences and to activate your inner thighs. Connectt deeply with your breath and move mindfully through Side Planks, Supported Planks and variations of High Curl that will challenge your stability and maintain your centre powerful, so you can reduce the risk of back pain and better support your growing baby. Suggested prop: a small Pilates ball or bolster or small cushion. If practicing pregnant please contact your healthcare provider to check the suitability of this class.

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Vanessa Michielon

Strengthen the upper body, arms and back. Using an elastic band, or a long strap, or tins of beans work just fine too, this class targets your arms and back muscles. You will begin with standing arm exercises, such as biceps curls and triceps work, and explore further upper body focused patterns, including safe modified press-ups on your knees and triceps dips, with variations to suit your energy levels. The practice will help you improve your posture and strengthen your back, so that you can better accommodate the changes your body is going through, and reduce back discomfort and weakness. Suggested prop: long elastic band or tins of beans! If practicing pregnant please contact your healthcare provider to check the suitability of this class.

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Vanessa Michielon

A wonderful class for Prenatal back pain, suitable for all trimesters. This class can also suit most of us for most stages in life! Back pain and back stiffness is common during pregnancy, but also for all of us who live sedentary, modern lives. This class is the perfect antidote! Embrace gentle movements like thread the needle pose, open twists, oyramid pose and Happy Baby, which promote spinal flexibility and tension relief. The practice gracefully closes with heart-opening poses like Camel Pose and Bridge, leaving you feeling rejuvenated and empowered to navigate the physical changes of pregnancy with ease. Suggested props: 2 bricks. If practicing pregnant please contact your healthcare provider to check the suitability of this class.

Read more

Vanessa Michielon

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.

Read more

Petra Coveney

Hot flashes are not just physical sensations of heat - they start in your brain. Low oestrogen can make your internal temperature gauge over-sensitive to small changes causing either hot flashes or cold chills. These symptoms can also be triggered by stressful thoughts, and if you feel embarrassed by your hot flash, this stressful feeling can make the flashes hotter and last longer. Join Petra for this class to both cool your body and calm your mind. She shows you two simple cooling breath techniques and subtle versions you can practice in public. This is followed by her Hot Flash Wave guided visualisation, Ocean breath and a restorative supported reclined cobbler pose to release heat and relax.

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Gabriella Espinosa

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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Gabriella Espinosa

A steadily paced hatha yoga class focusing on balance as one of the key pillars of bone strength. This class is great for everybody, but is especially important for women to help protect against osteoporosis. This yoga class establishes a steady foundation through the pelvis, hands and feet to help feel more connected to the body and the surrounding world. Developing balance and stability helps build agility, equilibrium and mental focus. It also helps improve proprioception - your relationship with space and the environment around you and how you move within it. You will need 2 cork bricks, a blanket, two tennis balls and a chair (optional).

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Petra Coveney

A simple visualisation exercise to help to manage hot flashes often associated with the menopause. This yoga class is one simple pose, breathing deeply whilst lying in a constructive rest position. You can do this any time when experiencing uncomfortable feelings of heat. Expect a short demonstration of Petra’s Hot Flash Wave, with Ocean breathing and 3-part breath. If you practice this daily to reduce stress, you will also develop the simple skills for managing hot flashes, as you learn to allow the heat to flow calmly through you, rather than resisting it.

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