Move with Purpose
The yoga practice is not just a series of asanas linked together to break a sweat or find a little more space in your body to improve your golf game. Can a yoga practice accomplish these things? Yes. Is that its primary function? No. The word ‘yoga’ means “to yoke” or “to unite.” The purpose of the practice is to unite the mind and body. This involves becoming more self-aware. This may sound like an obvious concept, but many people do not maintain a quality connection with their bodies. These individuals are either totally unaware or struggle with understanding what their bodies are doing in space and why. The purpose of this class to learn how to use the yoga asana practice for self-reflection.
This Jedi Vinyasa Flow style yoga class emphasizes mindful movement. Instead of moving through these familiar poses on autopilot, students are encouraged to pay attention to not only the sensations in their bodies, but how their minds approach each pose, how their bodies enter each pose, and what their bodies do and how their minds react while experiencing the pose. This deliberate, slow style of movement and time under tension also helps to build strength and stamina.
Questions are not only permitted, they’re encouraged!
At the end of class, students will be offered a period of time to either sit quietly and reflect on their experiences with this practice or to journal about their experiences, followed by a brief class discussion. Students will not be forced to share if they don’t wish to.
A pen and small notebook will be provided for students interested in journaling. Please bring your own yoga mat and if you use yoga blocks or any other props in your practice, bring them with you. Plan on wearing layers or bring a blanket for your reflection period and class discussion time if you’re someone who tends to feel cold.
This workshop is designed for individuals who:
- Struggle with understanding what their bodies are doing in space
- Struggle with focus
- No longer feel connected to the stereotypical, generic yoga class
- Are looking to build strength and stamina
- Searching for a more thoughtful practice
- Interested in a more in-depth understanding of yoga poses and movement
- Interested in learning body control
Class Duration: 120 minutes
Early Bird Pricing: $55 (ends 3/14)/Day of Pricing: $70
Location: David Paul Spa, 36 W Village Green, Hicksville, NY
Date/Time: Saturday, March 18/2-:4:00 pm
If you are a studio or gym owner who would like to book this workshop for your own business, please contact serena.ahne@gmail.com.
The Deeper Dive Workshop Series
with Serena Culoso, 500-Hour Trained Yoga Teacher, Personal Trainer, & PNL1
& Gina Montera, 200-Hour Trained Yoga Teacher, Licensed Massage Therapist
**MORE INFORMATION COMING SOON**
The Deeper Dive Series are workshops designed to take your practice to the next level. This series is ideal for both individuals ready to begin their yoga journey and seasoned practioners looking to deepen their practice. Traditional poses will be covered from both an anatomical and practical aspect in order to help you to maximize the benefit of these poses during your own practice. We will cover best practices and why they’re best practices, anatomical alignment and muscle recruitment, how to accommodate poses for your body, common misalignments and injury prevention. This will be both a lecture and practical class format, so be sure to wear comfortable clothing. Classes will conclude with a relaxing savasana that includes essential oil and a manual compression by Gina that will help to aid in recovery.
Questions are welcome and we encourage you to bring a pen and paper if note taking is a technique that helps you learn. We also encourage you to bring your phone and a small tripod (propping your phone against the wall or a water bottle works just as well) in order to film yourself in these poses so that you can better understand your body’s alignment and follow your progression. Please bring your own yoga mat and if you use yoga blocks or any other props in your practice, bring them with you.
Please note: In order to register for the Arm Balances and Inversions workshops, you must take at least The Vinyasa workshop as a pre-requisite. We also recommend taking the Putting the Pieces Together workshop as well.
- The Vinyasa – in this workshop, we will break down the poses in the vinyasa – plank, chaturanga, cobra, upward facing dog, and downward facing dog.
- Standing Postures – in this workshop, we will break down mountain pose, warrior 1, warrior 2, crescent lunge or high lunge, triangle pose, and side angle pose.
- Standing Balances– in this workshop, we will break down tree pose, dancer’s pose, standing big toe grab, standing split, warrior 3, and half-moon pose.
- Floor Postures – in this workshop, we will break down seated forward fold, seated straddle fordward fold, butterfly pose (or baddha konasana), pigeon, and half-split (possibly full split).
- Backbends – in this workshop, we will break down locust pose and its variations, sphinx pose, camel pose and its variations, bridge pose, and wheel pose.
- Twists – in this workshop, we will break down seated spinal twist and its variations, revolved lunge and its variations, revolved triangle pose, revolved half-moon pose, and reclined twist and its variations.
- Putting the Pieces Together – after a brief review of what we’ve covered so far, we will put together all of the pieces we’ve been working on in a vinyasa-style sequence.
- Arm Balances I – No arm balance exerpience is necessary! After a discussion regarding body aligment and mechanics in arm balances, we will participate in brief vinyasa-style warmup before breaking down crow, side crow, firefly, and if time allows, flying lizard.
- Arm Balances II – Students must have foundational knowledge and experience with crow pose before taking this class. After a brief vinyasa-style warmup, we will break down flying pigeon, eight angle pose, grasshopper, and if time allows, baby grasshopper.
- Inversions – after a discussion regarding body aligment and mechanics in inversions, we will participate in brief vinyasa-style warmup before breaking down headstand, tripod headstand, handstand, and possibly forearm stand if time allows.
Workshop Goals:
- Better understanding of individual poses
- Learn modifications for injury and your individual body
This workshop is designed for individuals who are:
- New to yoga and intimidated about attending their first yoga class at a studio or gym
- Seasoned practioners looking for a deeper understanding about their body and yoga poses
Class Duration: 120 minutes (Arm Balances & Inversions: 150 minutes)
Price: TBD
Location: TBD
Dates/Times: TBD
Yoga for Athletes
**MORE INFORMATION COMING SOON**
Professional athletes have started to turn to yoga as a way to recover following intense training workouts and in between competitions and there’s are many good reasons as to why. Yoga has a wealth of benefits for athletes. Flowing through poses and connecting breath with your movement can help you gain strength, flexibility, balance, and enhance coordination and concentration. It can also help improve your range of motion and mobility, all of which can boost your performance and prevent injury.
The focus of this Jedi Vinyasa Flow style yoga practice is to compliment your current training program and to help enhance your performance.
Please bring your own yoga mat and if you use yoga blocks or any other props in your practice, bring them with you.
Workshop Goals:
- Release tension across the chest and shoulders
- Release tension in hip flexors
- Release tension in forearm and calf muscles
- Strengthen back
- Strengthen glutes and hamstrings
- Strengthen core muscles
- Improve rotation
- Improve overall stability
- Improve imbalances in the body (right side vs. left side)
This workshop is designed for individuals who:
- Participate in athletic activities such as golf, tennis, running, hockey, baseball, kick-boxing, etc.
- In search of strength and mobility conditioning
Class Duration: 120 minutes
Early Bird Pricing: $55/Day of Pricing: $70
Location: TBD
Date/Time: TBD
If you are a studio or gym owner who would like to book this workshop for your own business, please contact serena.ahne@gmail.com. While there is overlap across all sports and athletic activities, this workshop can be tailored to a specific sport or activity, if desired.
Combating Corporate Life
The average human spends approximately 8 hours a day at work. This does not include any commuting hours the average person may undertake to get to and from their job. Unfortunately, this puts a lot of strain on our mental and emotional health as well as our body’s physical needs. During the early days of mankind, we were hunters and gatherers. We searched for our food and crafted our shelter. In short, we lived a much more physical lifestyle than we do today. The car, the desk, and the mobile devices all put our bodies into a compromised posture. This tends to lead to tighter pectoral and hip flexor muscles, weakened back and core muscles, and neck and lower back discomfort or pain.
The focus of this Jedi Vinyasa Flow style yoga practice is posture and stress management. The first section of the class covers calming breathing techniques while the second portion of the class focuses on strengthing the posterior chain (back of the body) and core, while finding space in the anterior chain (front of the body). The final section of class covers tools that you can take with you to the office or during your commute to help countract some of the negative effects you may be experiencing during your work day.
Please bring your own yoga mat and if you use yoga blocks or any other props in your practice, bring them with you.
This workshop is designed for individuals who:
- Spend a lot of time in front of a computer and/or mobile device
- Spend a lot of time in the car or commuting
- Spend a lot of time sitting
- Works with their hands in a forward-facing capacity (i.e.: nail technicicans, hair stylists, mechanics, lab technicians, etc.)
Class Duration: 90 minutes
Early Bird Pricing: *SOLD OUT*
Location: David Paul Spa, 36 W Village Green, Hicksville, NY
Date/Time: Saturday, January 14/2-3:30 pm
January 14, 2023 at David Paul Spa
If you are a studio or gym owner who would like to book this workshop for your own business, please contact serena.ahne@gmail.com.
What Should I Eat?
If you are an office, studio or gym owner who would like to book this webinar for your own business, please contact serena.ahne@gmail.com.
The Yogi Jedi 