Tune Up Fitness® Self Care Blog

Cycling and running are exercises in planar movement.  In the case of cycling, you make circles with your feet clipped into pedals and that action propels you forward.  You move through space but in only one plane, the sagittal plane. In…

If you think about your legs—actually don’t think about them, look at them. Your legs are three-dimensional.  Cylindrical in shape, with feet at the bottom and a pelvis at the top.  Seems utterly elementary, no?  Well, maybe not.  As I sit…

The Yoga Tune Up® solutions for strengthening shoulder external rotation are brilliant, self-contained solutions. I say self-contained since they don’t need any equipment. The first pose, one of my all-time favorite Yoga Tune Up® poses is Pin the Arms on the…

Chaturanga dandasana and arm balances are a strong foundation to power and ashtanga practices. These types of postures can create strong pectoralises, triceps, anterior deltoid and, when properly executed, serratus anterior. There are also many resources online describing how to execute…

SCENE: A yoga class. Students are standing in Mountain Pose like a Buddhist “army.” Teacher: Breathe in… Class: (A subtle, yet audible “sucking” sound is heard.) Teacher: And breathe out… Class: (A subtle, yet audible “whooshing” sound is heard.) Teacher: Good. Now…

Why make a passively shortened muscle shorter by actively contracting it? I’m so glad you asked.  First of all, how much a muscle contracts is a major determinant of its size and rate of cellular regeneration.  Decrease muscle activity and the…

Maybe not today.  Or tomorrow.  Or very soon.  But eventually. During the recent Level 1 Teacher Training in L.A., an excellent question was posed by one of the outstanding Yoga Tune Up® Teacher trainees:  I have fabulously tight psoas.  Wouldn’t warming…

When I was an 18-year-old yogini, I was also an active bulimic. I was in college studying dance, training to be a shiatsu therapist (Japanese pressure point massage), making sandwiches and slicing salami at Jimmy John’s Deli, racing around Chicago learning yoga, and using…

A few days ago, I noticed a Web article that claimed a good dose of stress and anxiety to be a healthy and even a necessary component of a healthy existence. Yes, we all experience some anxiety here and there. But…