TuneUpFitness Blog

Laura teaches Zumba Dance, she has been complaining of aching feet and has a neuroma (an inflammation of the nerves between the 2nd/3rd and 3rd/4th metatarsals). She also has a bunion forming on her right foot (a bump on the base…

TuneUpFitness Blog

A few years ago I had a bunion removed with surgery.  A bunion is a bump on the base of the big toe joint that causes pain, reddening and/or inflammation.  It can cause the formation of blisters and or calluses in…

TuneUpFitness Blog

By the way, how are your six-pack abs?  You certainly don’t need washboard definition, but bear in mind that having a weak rectus abdominis is like breaking the legs off a table – no support from below for what’s above.  When…

TuneUpFitness Blog

Not that long ago, “planking” was all the rage across the social media landscape.  From a yoga practitioner’s standpoint, it looked like a Face-Down Shavasana.  But as this pose’s English translation – Corpse – suggests, like all fads, it died out.  …

TuneUpFitness Blog

If you’re not breathing, you’re not living. Literally. And if you’re not breathing well; you’re not living as well as you could be. If you pay attention to your breath, you can learn a lot about how you’re taking life in. …

TuneUpFitness Blog

If you’ve been around the yoga block a few times, you will no doubt have heard the instruction to ‘breathe into your belly’ – and that direction may have had you stumped.  After all, your abdomen doesn’t have lungs (they’re housed…

TuneUpFitness Blog

My manfriend accompanied me on my recent trip to New York City for the YTU Integrated Embodied Anatomy training. We were both excited – you see, we hail from small town, Canada and we had big plans for our trip to…

Under a mentor’s guidance, two women perform knee-to-chest stretches to improve flexibility.

A few minutes before I was about to teach a recent yoga therapy class a middle-aged woman named Fran shuffled through the studio door, her shoulders slumped and demeanor apologetic. I could immediately sense Fran’s discomfort and fear that she wouldn’t…

TuneUpFitness Blog

Here’s how I apply my deconstruction principle to teaching a pose. Before I teach Vasistasana, I take my students through a step-by-step process that prepares the body-mind for the classical pose. Each gradation can be the final destination if the previous…