Tune Up Fitness® Self Care 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…

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.  …

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. …

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…

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…

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…

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…

I have always been fascinated with the “under layer”. This fascination later became central to my approach to helping students understand the complex movement patterns and poses found within the Hatha Yoga repertoire. As a child, a favorite activity of mine…

Calf tightness and pain can be annoying and even debilitating for someone who loves activities or sports that require being on their feet. Many people assume calf tightness and pain to be emanating from their gastrocnemius, soleus and/or Achilles tendon, the…