Hip Hop Yoga Music Mix

Yoga + Hip Hop = Power Flow Yoga Class

I've taken my two favorites and combined them together. I teach a wide variety of people each week and I try to cater my music to everyone's liking. I create a wide variety of yoga mixes and this is just one of the many.

I don't play lyrical hip hop in my Gainesville yoga classes ( as much as I want to) but I do play instrumental hip hop from great artists like A Tribe Called Quest, Beastie Boys, and Atmosphere mixed with some Afrobeat artists like Fela Kuti.

Good music mixes for yoga are hard to find, so I've taken artists' music I love and brought a whole new element of movement to it.

1 - Sabrosa - Beastie Boys
2 - The Woman With Tattooed Hands (instrumental) - Atmosphere
3 - Mama's Always on Stage (instrumental) - Arrested Development
4 - Jeun Ko Ku (Chop N' Quench) - Fela Kuti & the Africa 70
5 - Track Name Unknown - Mr. Mind
6 -Shambala - Beastie Boys
7 - Electric Relaxation (instrumental) - A Tribe Called Quest
8 - Lebanese Blonde - Thievery Corporation
9 - Party for the Fight to Write (instrumental) - Atmosphere
10 - Track Name Unknown - Nujabes
11 - Downtempo Track - From mrbluthc
12 - Downtempo Track - From mrbluthc

Still gonna keep the Gainesville community alive with some good tunes and hip hop yoga style...send me any suggestions my way.

Days 2 & 3 of Yoga for Detoxification

Day 2's menu consisted of:

Breakfast: Fruit smoothie made with blueberries, strawberry's, vanilla yogurt and apple juice (yummy)

Lunch: Fresh greens with veggies and organic basalmic dressing, left over quinoa with raw veggies, juice

Dinner: Black bean stew and salad

It was challenging to maintain this detox diet into day 3. I ate oatmeal for breakfast, and then went on a great bike ride with my friend Allie, owner of Allie Bags (who designs handmade yoga bags).

The bike ride had worked up such an appetite we went to The Swamp for some delicious Blue Moon (hey that's made of hops and barely right) and chips and salsa. And that's when I converted back to my regular diet of mostly healthy meals ;)

During the detox I would do a yoga practice. Day 2 I practiced in my studio space a vinyasa flow routine and it was wonderful release. I definitely noticed a difference in my body and mind from the detoxification. It was an experience and I look forward to trying it again, maybe once a month or something. Either way, it made me more conscious of what I consume.

Yoga Detox Diet: Getting Started with Day 1

Imagine your body full of petrochemicals and industrial toxins. These toxins come from pesticides, plastics, flame retardents, and heavy metals from the environment---you name it and you've probably consumed it at one point in time.

I recently returned from a 4 day snowboarding trip in West Virgina and a pit stop in Atlanta. My belly was full of delicious food the entire time and now I feel janky, toxic and over weight. When we travel, we consume alot of processed foods and fatty foods and I am I certainly feeling the effects.

I was reading the newest Yoga Journal and there's a detox article in there with a yoga practice and a yoga diet. I figured now was a good of time as any to give it a try. Some of the recipes have pretty lengthy ingredients so I may stray away and have something else for that meal, we'll see. As for the yoga practice, I'm incorporating the reccomended poses to squeeze the body of toxins in to my classes this week.

- High Lunge

- Parsvottanasana

- Utkanasana (Variation with a twist)

- Locust

- Reclined Twist

- Reclined Bound Angle

- Legs-up-the-wall

- Savasana

Day 1

Breakfast: (which I'm eating now) consists of cooked quinoa, a grain and some trasil mix with pistachios, pecans, cashews and dried cranberries. It's not very flavorful but it's edible. Water with lemon is my beverage.

Lunch: On the menu is herbal tea, Kitchari (which I may just pick up at the local health eatery in town) and steamed collards with Lemon Miso dressing.

Dinner: Bowl of mixed fruit, broccoli, kale, onions, chick peas sauteed in olive oil, and a baked sweet potato.

Snacks: Almond Milk, Fresh fruit, homemade fruit smoothie, baked beets (ick!), vegetable juices, oatmeal, raw carrots, celery, cucumbers, and radishes, salads with Lemon Miso dressing.

Gentle Yoga Class (Using the Wall as a Prop)

I've been incorporating more props, such as blocks, straps and blankets into my Gainesville gentle yoga class. But today, we used the wall, which in my opinion is one of the best props to use. People come to gentle yoga classes because that's the yoga they want. They may have back, neck or knee issues, or even recovering from surgery. Keep that in mind when you're teaching. Use props and get off your mat when teaching and remind your students to breathe.

Here is the gentle yoga class routine I taught this morning in case you'd like to teach it yourself. This routine is great for beginners and seniors. It's not a vigorous yoga class but a gentle, restorative, energizing class. Don't forget to remind your students to breathe.

And remember, it's not how yoga looks, but how it feels.

Floor Work
- Breath Awareness
- Sacral release (rock the the clock)
- Shoulder and upper body stretching
- Easy pose forward fold

Core Movement
- Cat/Cow spinal movements
- Side Gate
- Forward fold (hold elbows release tension)
- Surya Namaskar A (Sivanada style) (start with left leg back, repeat right, use blocks for lunges)

Wall Work
- Downward dog (walk hands up and down, legs out and in, play around with it, chest towards floor and pull arm pits in, engage arms into shoulder sockets)
- Warrior 3
- Forward Fold
-Chair (shoulders reach back, start with hands on hips, then raise arms by ears, extend through chest)
- Forward Fold
- Dancer (using strap around one ankle and wall for hand, play around with it, try a short dancer first then a long, extending through arms)
- Wide Legged Forward Fold

Floor Work
- Wide leg seated foward fold
- Pigeon on back (great alternative)
- Reclined twist
- Restorative Bridge (use block under sacram, palms face up, eyes close and practice breath awareness)

Yoga Nidra
- Svasana (corpse pose)
- I usually end my gentle classes with yoga nidra, which is yoga sleep. 1 hour of effective yoga nidra is equivalent to 4 hours of sleep. I recommend the Yoga Nidra book (Paperback)by Swami Satyananda Saraswati

Join me on Fridays from 8 - 9 AM for my Gainesville gentle yoga class at Haile Plantation. The cost is $15 for non member and $10 for members.

Anyone can do yoga. Explore the benefits and live a healthy life. Namaste.

Get your Valentine Partner Yoga at Sanctuary Yoga

Valentine's Day is just around the corner...looking for the perfect something for your friend or loved one?

On February 7th, from 1:00 PM - 3:30 PM, Sanctuary Yoga in Gainesville, FL will be having a Partner Yoga Workshop.

"Partner Yoga is a unique physical and spiritual practice that uses specific movements and poses (asanas) to focus the mind and increase strength, flexibility and stamina. Partners rely on each other’s support to keep correct body alignment, balance and concentration. Partner Yoga is uplifting, inspiring and delivers a diverse range of benefits to a wide range of people at all levels of yoga practice from beginners to advanced practitioners. Some knowledge of basic yoga postures is helpful but not necessary.Join Ann and Lori in this fun experience of using the support of a friend or loved one to take your practice to new understandings and depths."

You can register and find more details here: http://www.yogagainesville.com/workshops/

You can check out partner yoga here: http://tinyurl.com/ckkry8

If you just want to try yoga on your own, come to my yoga classes in Haile Plantation. (click on Yoga Classes)

Namaste.