Take a day for yourself to focus on your body and mind this September – we’ve already planned it for you. 

September brings with it a lot of changes. The changing weather, the back to school season, and the lead up to the holiday season. It can be easy to get caught up in all the outer expectations of the world in this period of time. That’s why we’re encouraging you to find a day this September where you can take a solo day to focus on your mind, body, and spirit. What will this day look like? A solo date to read a new book and relax by yourself followed by a workout class where you can connect with the new community at our studios. To get you started on your September Solo Day, here’s five class and book pairings we’d suggest you try out, depending on you and your mood this month. 

 Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors and Hot Box Fusion

If you like complex family dynamics, especially sisterhood stories, Blue Sisters is the book for you. Coco Mellor’s new release will take you on a journey with three estranged sisters, one of whom happens to be a boxer. So after you find out whether these sisters can work through their relationships together, work through your punches at our Hot Box Fusion class. This class combines shadow boxing, kickboxing, fusion, core, and cardio so you can get in an intense full body workout while imagining yourself in the world of one of your new favorite characters. 

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney and Hot Candlelight Deep Stretch & Relatation

If you’re a Sally Rooney fan, or hater, you might be aware of one unusual peculiarity in all of Sally Rooney’s books – there’s no dialogue around quotations, which puts us as the reader in the place to reevaluate how we tell and enjoy stories. Likewise, our Hot Candlelight Deep Stretch & Relaxation class gives you the space to rethink how you’re working with your mind and body. The first half of the class goes through seated stretches and flows while the second half holds yin postures to increase flexibility and stretch your connective tissues. The class gives you the opportunity to zero in on your inner peace, much like Rooney’s characters in Intermezzo zero in on their chess strategy. 

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig and Hot Tone & Sculpt 

Coined as a “story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning” Matt Haig’s new novel about a retired math teacher looking for a long lost friend will start your day off with a reflective look back at life followed by a consideration of all the different places life could still go. When we’re not sure where we’re going next, we like to take it back to basics. That’s why we think you should follow this read up with our Hot Tone & Sculpt class. This unique sculpting session using weighted toning bars will give you the basic strength you need for any workout through a brand new experience. It’s the perfect mix of old, new, and what’s to come, just like The Life Impossible. 

Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan and Hot 20/20/20

If Lies and Weddings is the book you’re picking up for this fall, we think you love a fun time filled with a myriad of options of interesting things – romance, friendship, social commentary – there’s so much to be found in these books. We’d hazard a guess you might like fun and variety in your workouts as well, which is why we think you should try the Hot 20/20/20 class. In this class, we divide our hour into three periods, cardio-based training, strength training, and targeted strength training so that you can get in a workout for every part of your body, just like you’ve just utilized every part of your brain. 

Counting Miracles by Nicholas Sparks and Hatha Yoga

Nicholas Sparks is a classic. You know what you’re getting when you pick up one of his books, and you know why you love his books. So if you’re a Nicholas Sparks fan, we think you might want to try one of our classic workouts as well. Hatha Yoga is a slower class focusing on basic alignment and listening to your own body. It’s a great class for everyone from beginners to experienced practitioners, just like Counting Miracles is a great read whether you’re an avid reader or if this is the first book you’ve picked up in years.

If your September read isn’t on our reading list, don’t fret. You can still find the perfect class to match up with your reading experience in our full class list here. We’ll look forward to seeing you in the studio soon!

Yoga is a well rounded sort of exercise. It’s not only good for your physical health but also your mental and spiritual wellbeing. Yoga practitioners have a long history of spiritual connection, and in fact it’s thought that yoga has been spread as a spiritual practice since the nineteen hundreds. Yoga has also been found to have mental health  benefits such as improving your sleep, relieving stress, and improving your mood. The wide variety of benefits you can get from a yoga practice is one of the things that makes yoga such a special workout. One of the ways we connect with these benefits in our yoga practice is through our breathing. Here’s seven ways to connect with the benefits of breathwork during your yoga practice. 

Listen to Your Teacher’s Guidance

Breathe in, breathe out. If you’re a regular at yoga class, these commands probably sound all too familiar. 

But if you’re a yoga newbie, you may be surprised to find that in many yoga classes, you’ll find your instructor will actually tell you when to breathe. You might not think you need direction on when to breathe, but know that your yoga instructor’s directions in regards to your breathing are far from random. The breathwork directions are synced with the movements and flows you are working through and by breathing as directed, you’ll be able to connect deeper with the movements, wit your body, and with yourself. 

Breathe Into Your Movements

Even when your instructor isn’t telling you when to breathe, or if you’re practicing on your own, you can use your breath to connect more deeply with your movements. Test it out for yourself. Pick one of your favorite poses and try leaning into it while breathing in. Then, reset and try leaning into the pose while breathing out. See how different it feels and find the alignment between your breath and movements that feels most right for you.

Practice Meditative Breathing

One of the most unique aspects of practicing yoga as opposed to other workout classes is the focus placed on meditation. Breath meditation, otherwise known as simply focusing your attention on your breath, is a great entryway into meditation. Meditation, the practice of calming our minds, has many great benefits like reducing pain, reducing anxiety, and helping you sleep better.  If turning your mind completely silent sounds too daunting, maybe you can wrap your head around focusing in on your breath. You’ll get the benefits of meditation and learn that you can take your mind to that quiet place, which will open you up to a whole other world of meditative possibilities. 

Try Box Breathing

If you want a specific type of breathing to focus in on, why not try box breathing? Box breathing is a great way to lower stress and delve deeper into relaxation. You might have tried this practice in class before, but if you haven’t feel free to ask your instructor about it or try it out on your own time. To practice box breathing, you simply inhale for four seconds, hold your breath in for four seconds, exhale for four seconds, and hold your breath out for four seconds. Then, repeat. 

Take A Lion’s Breathe

One of the most powerful types of breathing you may have the chance to experience in yoga class is Lion’s breath. Lion’s Breath is, as explained by Healthline, “a type of pranayama that’s said to alleviate stress, eliminate toxins, and simulate your throat and upper chest”. To accomplish this type of breathing, you breathe in through your nose and then make a deep ‘ha’ sound while exhaling through your mouth.  Don’t worry if you feel silly enunciating like this at first – let yourself work through the feeling. Everyone else in your class is right there with you. As you practice lion’s breath and let the feeling reverberate through your body, you can almost feel the stress and toxins leaving, so we think you’ll come to love this sort of breathing in the long run. 

Keep Breathing

Above all else, remembering to keep breathing will have a huge impact on your yoga practice. This might sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how often people accidentally hold their breath when they hit a tricky part of their practice. But while this may feel like a way to keep control of your body, it’s not an effective way to keep your balance, push yourself further, or just in general to be your best self! There’s been health risks associated with holding your breath while exercising, it can be a hindrance to your performance, and simply put, you can’t stay alive and well long without breathing! If everything else seems too much to focus on, simply take the time to remind yourself to keep breathing, or to check in with yourself in tough moments of class and see if you are breathing, and see how big of an impact this can have on your practice. 

Take a Full Body Breather

Remember, breathwork is a great way to ground ourselves through our movements, but sometimes it’s important to let yourself do nothing but breathe instead. If you’re feeling like it’s what you need, you’re always invited to take one of your rest poses like a child’s pose and focus on nothing but breathing for a little while.

If you want to learn more about your body, your breathe, and how it affects your practice, check in with our Oxygen Yoga & Fitness team next time you’re in the studio. 

You don’t have to do sit ups to see progress in your core strength. 

We’ve covered the importance of ab strength, but how do you go about strengthening those muscles? We know that ab strength includes far more muscles than you may have first thought and that these muscles have many integral functions. Unsurprisingly, these many muscles can also be strengthened in many ways. The traditional options like sit ups or planks have their place for sure, but if you really want to strengthen your abs to the fullest extent and so that they are as functional as possible, you’ll likely want to expand your repertoire of ab workouts. That’s why we offer specialty classes like Hot Power Core and Hot Corelates. 

While these classes are an important tool in your ab strength toolbox, we encourage you not to reserve your ab strength training for these targeted classes. Ab strength affects us all the time. Whether you’re balancing on one foot in tree pose or kicking up into a handstand, you’ll need your abs engaged. In fact, even when you’re standing or laying down, you’re likely to some extent using your core. Your core is important beyond its strengthening capacities in yoga too – you’ll feel it as you focus on your breath and as you stretch through cobra. As the center of our bodies, it plays an integral part in finding our center, physically and mentally through class. So the next time you step onto the yoga mat, try these six poses to focus in on your core strength. 

1. Triangle Pose

Triangle pose is, like it sounds, an opportunity to make a triangle with your body. It’s a pose that requires balance, and any pose that requires balance will ask you to engage your core to stay steady. To practice triangle pose, you’ll start with your feet around leg distance apart facing the side of your mat. In this position, you’ll notice one triangle already – between your legs and the floor. But to complete the pose, you’ll add another. You’ll reach forward over your front leg, placing your hand near your foot either on your leg or the floor and in doing so create another triangle with your torso, arm, and front leg. Once you try this pose you’ll likely find balancing at this angle is more challenging than you might initially think, which is why it’s a great chance to utilize your core and practice engaging your abdominal muscles to improve your stability. 

2. Locust Pose

When practicing locust pose, there’s really no way around having to engage your abs. In fact, unlike some of the more stealthy core workouts in this list, odds are you’ve thought about engaging your abs every time. To practice locust pose, you’re going to start laying face down with your entire body flat on the floor. Then, by engaging your core, you’ll lift your chest, arms, and legs up off the floor, performing a sort of mini-backbend into the air. This pose is especially great for core strength because of how many parts of your core you have to engage. You’re not only lifting your upper abs up, but also engaging your lower core to raise your legs and the sides of your body to keep it all steady. 

3. High Lunge

This pose is a great entryway into yoga focused core work if you’re coming to the yoga studio from another form of exercise as lunges are likely an exercise you’re already familiar with. The high lunge is a specific lunge with your front leg bent and both legs facing forwards and with your hands raised by your ears pointing directly to the sky. Holding your core during this pose will allow you to move further into your lunge, to hold your hands up in the air, and generally to stretch your body into this pose to your fullest capacity. Try focusing on how your core moves through your legs and your arms in this position and then once you gain this awareness see how you can carry it with you throughout the rest of your practice. 

4. Boat Pose

One of the incredible things about core strength is how varied its uses are. For example, boat pose could almost be seen as the inverse of locust pose, higher up on this list. But if that doesn’t clarify what you’re doing in this position, imagine your boat as a body with your butt and hip bones at the bottom and your legs and torso creating a v position while you reach your arms over. You may have done ab exercises starting in this position before, but sometimes staying still in a position is the hardest part of all. Test your core’s endurance by seeing what it’s like to balance in this position. 

5. Dancer’s Pose

Dancer’s Pose might look like a stretch, but like many stretches it also requires a fair bit of strength. To practice this pose, you’ll take the ball of your foot in one hand and then kick into said hand, creating a triangle of space between your leg, arm, and back. You’ll need to hold your core tight to keep from tipping over, to keep your leg up, to keep your arm up, and just generally to avoid toppling onto the floor. But once you figure out how to engage your body to hold this pose, you may be surprised by how relaxing and graceful it can feel. 

Practicing each of these poses gives you a focused opportunity to think about your core strength, but everything you ever do in yoga will also use your core. Pay attention to how your core muscles are engaging in these positions and then carry that skill of engaging these muscles throughout the rest of your practice. For a full list of options of classes to strengthen your core, check out our class offerings here.

Why We Love Strengthening Our Arms & Our Favorite Ways to Do It

Arm strength might feel like one of the most obvious workouts. After all, when you think of the stereotypical displays of strength, flexing your arm muscles are probably one of the first things that come to mind. On the other hand, maybe you’re someone who doesn’t aspire to build up muscly arms and this has held you back from focusing on arm strength or you’ve just prefer workouts that aren’t too focused on your arms. No matter your workout goals, you should consider making arm strength part of your workout routine. Strengthening your arms doesn’t necessarily mean getting buff. Plus, there’s many reasons you may not have considered that strengthening your arms could improve your life. 

What is Arm Strength?

When we talk about arm strength, the two main muscles that likely come to mind are probably your biceps and triceps. Both muscles are on your upper arms, with the biceps being the shorter muscles on the inner arm and the triceps being the longer muscles on your outer arm. In fact, there are also two more main muscles in your upper arms, the brachialis and the coracobrachialis, both of which are under your biceps. 

You also have muscles in your lower arm of course, lots in fact. It’s easiest to discuss them by dividing them into anterior and posterior muscles. Anterior muscles are the ones that, as WebMD explains “help you turn your forearms and bend, or flex, your wrist and fingers”. So when you’re using your hands or moving your wrists, this is using your anterior muscles. But, like always, your muscles work together. These movements are also using your posterior muscles. Specifically, your posterior muscles help extend or straighten your wrist and fingers. 

Why Do You Want Arm Strength?

Aside from the aesthetic of toned arms, what is arm strength good for? For one, as we just covered in our discussion of anterior and posterior muscles – having strength in our arms is responsible for a lot of our ability to move our wrists, hands, and fingers. Without this strength, accomplishing many of our day to day tasks would be made much harder. Our upper arm strength is also important for many day to day activities, like opening doors or carrying things. 

Why Strength Training?

You may be wondering, if I’m using these muscles every day, why do I need to take the time to specifically focus on strengthening them? For one, our arm strength declines as we age. As explained by Harvard Health, “beginning at around age 35, strength and overall muscle mass start to decline by 1% each year”. While 1% may not sound huge, if you consider that between 35 and 65 you’d then be losing 30% of your strength, you can see how this starts to feel more important. 

Moreover, the fact that you have some arm strength today doesn’t mean you might not want stronger arms. Strengthening your arms may contribute to your ability to participate in fun activities like rock climbing or improve your tennis game. It may make you more able to do heavy lifting or help you achieve other fitness goals like learning to do handstands. 

Where to Start

If you’re looking to focus in on your arm strength, Hot Amazing Arms & Shoulders is a great place to start. The first half of the clos focuses on your shoulder strength, with the second half dedicated to arms. Hot Box Fusion would also be a great place to work your arm strength alongside your coordination and cardio. Or, slow it down and choose a Yoga class like Hot Yoga Freedom Flow where you can work through your arm muscles in each flow. 

If you have any question about how to best target or utilize your arm strength, please don’t hesitate to ask your local instructor and we’ll look forward to seeing you in a class soon!

Clear your mind on the mat and keep it clear all week long. 

Have you ever had the thought that your mind just isn’t as clear as it used to be? You might not even have noticed the mental state you were living in before to be particularly clear until all the second you realize it has become way hazier. If any of this sounds familiar, you could be experiencing brain fog. Brain fog, as explained by the National Institutes of Health is comprised of “a range of neurocognitive symptoms that can include forgetfulness and problems focusing, concentrating, and paying attention”. So if your attention span or your memory has lessened recently, learning more about brain fog and how to combat it could be worthwhile. 

Overcoming Brain Fog

If you’re feeling like you might have brain fog, then you might be wondering what you can do about it. Neuropsychologist Kamini Krishnan explained to Cleveland Clinic that there’s no “known medications or treatments” for brain fog, but still would suggest sleep, nutrition, and exercise habits as having an impact. A couple of the ways Bangkok International Hospital suggests treating brain fog includes regular exercise, positive thinking, and reducing stress. So while there might not be any clear answers about what can fix brain fog, some of the practices and focuses thought to combat it are, essentially, focusing on our mental and physical wellbeing. Yoga, as a practice that balances mind, body, and spirit throughout the practice, might just be a perfect place to fight your brain fog. 

While we aren’t medical professionals and recommend you consult with your own doctor if you think you do have brain fog, if you’re already at the step of overcoming your brain fog or if you simply want to work on improving your memory and concentration and think yoga might be a place to do it, look no further. Here’s our guide on how to utilize your yoga practice to combat brain fog. 

How to Utilize Yoga

Yoga is an unique form of exercise in that it brings together a combination of focus on mind, body, and spirit. Yoga has many physical benefits such as increased flexibility, increased strength, better circulation, and injury protection. It also has mental health benefits including boosting mood, creating clarity and calm, and relieving stress. In case all those benefits weren’t enough, yoga is also often thought of as deepening spiritual connection. So, if you’re hoping to find a way to focus on improving your mind and body, yoga could be a great option. Yoga is great for brain health and has even been connected specifically to counteracting decline in memory and cognitive skills, two of the areas thought to be affected by mind fog.

Poses to Combat Brain Fog

The benefits yoga can bring can come from any yoga classes. But, if you’re looking for specific ways to focus your yoga practice on overcoming mind fog, there are some things you may want to consider. For example, Brandt Passalacqua discussed yoga and brain fog with Bustle and suggested “poses that turn you upside down are especially helpful” because of their effects on your circulation and energy. So if you’re trying to make it feel like your head is screwed to your shoulders once more, you might want to start by flipping it upside down. Downward dog and headstands have been suggested as especially helpful. Breathing techniques may also be helpful, such as Breathing Fire which Jazz Psychiatry suggests.

Most importantly, listen to your body. Since brain fog can be different for everyone and can affect us all differently, different practices might help each of us more. Maybe a slow class will give you the time you need to connect with your mind and body like Hot Candlelight Deep Stretch & Relaxation. Or, maybe a quicker paced class that gets your blood flowing will help more, such as Hot Fast & Furious Fusion. For a full list of class offerings to try, you can check our website here, and we can’t wait to see you in the studio soon!

Your strength will be more stable if you can use it through flexibility: a greater range of movement.

When focusing on strengthening and toning, we’re often faced with a double edged sword. Strength training can leave our muscles tight and, if done with solely a focus on aesthetics or for other reasons without consideration for how we use our muscles or what smaller muscles we need to support them, we might find the strength we are building does not have the effect we hope it had. That is because, like so many aspects of our fitness, flexibility and strength go hand in hand, as do flexibility and many other aspects of our fitness. So if you have fitness goals outside of your flexibility, you may want to consider including flexibility training in your workout routine as well. 

What is flexibility?

Flexibility, as defined by UC Davis Health is “the ability of a joint or series of joints to move through an unrestricted, pain free range of motion”. In other words, flexibility is how able we are to move our bodies freely. While what might spring to mind when you think of flexibility is gymnasts tumbling in the Olympics or ballerinas kicking their legs above their heads, flexibility is not only stretching to these extremes. There’s lots of ways that flexibility is important to us on a daily basis. 

Are we born flexible?

You might remember back in elementary school when taking stretch tests in physical education classes or warming up for sports with your friends, some people could flop right over and touch their toes while some people would get nowhere close. It is true, genetics can affect our flexibility. But that doesn’t mean that there’s no reason to work on your flexibility if you don’t consider yourself someone who was born flexible. Flexibility can be improved through consistent focus on posture, stretching, and strengthening.

Why flexibility matters

Apart from a cool party trick of impressing people by sliding into the splits, why should you even want to be flexible? As it turns out, there’s a lot of reasons. For one, stretching can help improve your range of motion. If quality of life is one of the reasons that fitness is important to you, range of motion should be an important consideration in your workout planning because in order for your strength training to work for you, the strength has to be able to be used through the movements you want to do. As we age, range of motion can also decrease which means you may want to consider focusing more on flexibility.

Moreover, flexibility can help us avoid injury. As described by Very Well Health, “tight muscles can cause poor posture and increase the risk of injury” so therefore if we focus on loosening our muscles through flexibility training we may also be able to loosen muscles, increase posture, and decrease risk of injury. Flexibility can also increase our circulation and improve coordination. 

Classes that target flexibility

Here at OYF, we have plenty of options for targeting flexibility. To start, yoga is a great place to target flexibility, so any of our yoga offerings like Hatha Yoga, Hot Yang Yin Yoga, or Hot Yoga Freedom Flow could be a great place to get started. If there’s a specific area of your body where you’re most interested in growing your flexibility, look for a class with a focus on this region. Additional classes that are great for flexibility include Hot 20/20/20, which ends with a twenty minute focus on stretching, and Hot Candlelight Deep Stretch and Relaxation. 

Find the class that works right for you at our full schedule here, and don’t forget to keep up your strength training while you’re improving your flexibility too!

What are Sun Salutations, Why are they Important, and Why You Should Care

There’s many different types of yoga around the world and even within our studio. Signing up for a yoga class could mean a focus on breathwork, relaxation, and connecting body to mind like in our Hot Yoga Freedom Flow class. It could also mean a focus on strength training, building your core, mixed in with a balance of flexibility like in Hot Yang Yin Yoga. We think this variety is a great thing because it allows room for variation between workouts and provides options for everyone to find the class that is perfect for them. We also know that if you haven’t jumped into one of our options, or if you’re looking to try something new, this might make it feel like there’s a bigger hurdle to jump over. The good news is, there’s similar threads through many classes, from poses that pop up frequently to flows you almost never get through a class without. One of those, that you’ll see in many variations of yoga classes, is the sunset salutation. 

Sun Salutations, as explained by Masterclass, are also called Surya Namaskars or “Sun Salutes”. The origins of this flow is uncertain, but the practice has been recorded since the mid 1930s and it’s also been suggested there may be even earlier roots. Amy Lewis explained sun salutations in Byrdie as having been used for “morning prayer and worship rituals” by Hindus in ancient tradition. The practice has traditionally been practiced at sunset or sunrise facing the sun, likely because of its connotation as a greeting to the sun, but will also pop up in yoga classes regarding the time. 

If you’ve been to a yoga class, you may have done this flow before without even realizing you’re doing it. Some tentpole moments in the salutation that you might recognize include flowing from downward dog, a pose in which you have your feed and hands separated on the ground to form a triangle like pose with your body, through push up position and into cobra, a pose performed by lifting one’s chest off the ground from a position laying facing the floor. The entirety of the sun salutation is made up of 12 poses which you flow through. 

There’s a myriad of benefits to practicing sun salutations. Sun salutations target many muscles in your body, including your arms, neck, shoulders, back, abs, hamstrings, quads, and calves. In addition to the broad physical focus of the flow, studies have suggested practicing daily sun salutations can lessen stress, put you more at ease, and even increase joy. Studies aside, you may find pleasure in sun salutations because of the balance of challenge, relaxation, and enjoyment. Simply put, you may find flowing through sun salutations one of the most rewarding moments in class if one of your goals in class is to get your body moving and to feel like you’re connecting your mind and body throughout movements. 

Look out for sun salutations in your next yoga class, and ask your instructor about how you can best utilize sun salutations to achieve your goals both in and out of class.

Why you should incorporate leg strength into your workout routine. 

Have you ever seen a bodybuilder who skipped leg day? While leg strength can, for whatever reason, be easy to forget and as so has been a running joke of fitness memes, there’s more than only aesthetic reasons to focus on leg strength during your workout routine. Even during fitness practices you don’t think are focused on your leg strength, your legs come in handy. They are your base, providing support and stability. They allow for movement 

What are you focusing on during leg day?

Let’s back up a little and consider – when we say leg strength, what exactly are we talking about? There’s a lot of muscles in your legs. Some of the main leg muscles to consider when working out are our quads, the large muscles on the front of your thighs, the hamstrings, the large muscles on the back of your thighs, the adductors, the muscles on the inner thighs, the shins, the muscles on the front of your lower leg, and the calves, the muscles on the back of your lower leg. 

Already, just discussing the main muscles, as you can imagine there are already plenty of exercises you can do to target each of these muscles. But remember, a well rounded workout will not only focus on these leg muscles, but also the smaller ones in between. Small muscles affect stability, balance, and muscle control so don’t forget to explore how you can work out these muscles as well and be sure to ask your OYF teachers and staff members if you’re not sure!

What do we use our leg strength for?

Just like we have a large variety of leg muscles, our leg muscles have a large variety of uses. The main use of the quads is to extend at the knee and flex at the hip, while the hamstring helps us extend at the hip and flex at the knee.  Calves help you move your ankles and feet and adductors provide stability. These are only a couple of the many ways each of these muscles help us and it’s also important to note that for many of these exercises, the muscles work together alongside each other and the smaller muscles. Some of the main functions of the smaller muscle groups, as described by Shape, includes bending a joint, straightening a joint, twisting movement, and moving toward the midline of the body.

Where you can focus on leg strength at OYF?

If you are looking to work on your leg strength at OYF, there are plenty of options. Hot Barre Fusion, with its unique blend of Athletics style yoga, ballet barre, and endurance training gives a great opportunity to focus in on the leg muscles. Likewise, hot tone & sculpt uses weighted toning bars to work your arms, core, and legs in new and innovative ways. Once you’ve gotten used to identifying and strengthening your leg muscles as they are isolated, then transition into full body workouts like Hot Box Fusion and our new strength class O2 Pump to figure out how you can best utilize your leg strength alongside the rest of your body!

If you’re focusing on your leg strength, stop by and chat with our instructors to find out how you can best identify and utilize your muscles in the classes you’re taking, or what new classes you may want to add to your schedule to build their strength!

Deadlifts aren’t the only way to strengthen your upper body. 

Over the past couple of months, we’ve explored the importance of stretching and strengthening some different areas of your body. But now, let’s take it a step further. What yoga poses should you focus on if you want to stretch or strengthen this area? This week, we’ll be starting off with the upper body. While many yoga poses may on the surface look like they focus more on your legs or your core, don’t be fooled. There are plenty of ways to strengthen your arms, chest, and shoulders within your yoga practice. Whether you’re looking for something to accompany arm day at the gym or a way to strengthen your arms that you find more enjoyable or easy to work into your lifestyle, these poses might be just the thing you are looking for.

1. Downward Dog

While often referred to as a rest pose within yoga, as anyone who is new to yoga or arm strength training can attest, performing a proper downward dog requires arm strength. To achieve downward dog, you start with two feet rooted about hip distance apart and then reach your hands in front of you on the ground, far enough ahead that when you push your hips back you can create a triangle-like pose with your body. Your arms, neck, and shoulders being in alignment are an important part of this pose. This pose is also often a part of flows, such as sunset salutations, which will challenge you to push through the range of motion of these muscles. 

2. Pike Push-Ups

If you want to further extend and push your strength from downward dog, you might want to continue into a pike pushup. The starting position for this pose is not unlike downward dog, if you raised onto the ball of your feet in this pose. Then, while holding the rest of your body in this pose, perform the arm motions of a typical push up. This variation on a typical downward dog or pushup will allow you to target different areas of your muscles and create a more well rounded strength throughout your upper body. 

3. Side Plank

One pose that requires a strong collaboration between your upper body and core muscles is the side plank. To perform the side plank, one typical starting point is a regular plank pose and then lifting one arm off the ground and rotating to the side so that you have a triangle between your foot on the floor, your hand or forearm, and your shoulder. Side planks work your obliques, glutes, hips, and shoulders, and you’ll likely feel this pose in the arm and shoulder supporting your balance. 

4. Handstand

A pose you’re probably familiar with, whether from the playground in childhood or from yoga class, you’ll probably find if you haven’t tried a handstand in a year or twenty, it might require many more muscles than you remember. Handstands strengthen deltoids, serratus anterior, traps, triceps, glutes, and abs. A tip for beginners, use the wall to handstand against for balance and slowly work up to taking your weight off the wall and into your arms. 

5. Chair Pose

More so than any of the other poses on this list, chair pose is a hidden upper body exercise, or potentially even an upper body exercise yet to be uncovered. To accomplish the chair pose, you begin standing with your feet hip width apart and then sit back as if landing on an imaginary chair behind  you. To do so, you’ll undoubtedly have to activate your core and your lower body muscles. But next time you’re practicing this pose, think about what your upper body is doing. As you’re leaning back into your imaginary chair, your upper body will be balancing you out. What are those muscles doing? Try lifting your arms up to be in alignment with each of your ears and you’ll find activating your upper body muscles can help give a more full and upper body focused workout to your pose. 

Check out our full class offerings here and ask your instructor next class how to engage your upper body muscles in these poses.

There’s a lot of important reasons to raise your heart rate in your next cardio workout. 

We love helping our members find their favorite workouts and learning more about how to strengthen their bodies and themselves. We know lots of you love to focus on strengthening and toning, which is why we’ve carefully crafted our classes like Hot Tone & Sculpt, Hot Absolutely Burning Butts, and Hot Amazing Arms & Shoulders. We also know that one of the main reasons many people workout is to stay fit for their everyday lives. To achieve this goal, it’s important to focus not only on strength, but also cardio training. 

What is Cardio?

Cardio, simply put, is exercise that depends primarily on aerobic exercise or, in the words of VeryWell Fit “exercise that gets your heart rate up”. Some examples of cardio training include cycling, running, rowing, swimming, hiking, and skiing. 

Why Cardio Training is Important?

If you have kids to keep up with or a dog that loves to hike, you’ve likely considered how important keeping up with your cardio is before. But no matter how active or sedentary your day to day lifestyle is, cardio is important. In fact, if you work a desk job or don’t get the chance to move much in the day it could be even more important to devote some time to cardio, because you aren’t getting the chance to move as much throughout the rest of the day.

One of the main benefits that has been associated with cardio is health heart. Your heart health can be improved through cardio because, as explained by Hopkins Medicine, “improves circulation, which results in lowered blood pressure and heart rate”. These benefits can have important health impacts, but they are far from the only way cardio can improve your body. Cardio, also known as aerobic exercise, has been linked to improving our memory and ability to learn. Cardio training has a multitude of benefits including for your brain, joints, skin, muscles, digestion, and lungs as explained by Cleveland Clinic. 

How Cardio Helps Your Strength Training

Even if your main fitness focus right now isn’t cardio based, you may want to incorporate cardio workouts into your schedule. For one, cardio increases oxygen supply to our bodies including all of our muscles, which in turn affects all of our workouts. Cardio also helps fight osteoporosis and manage arthritis discomfort, which helps you “maintain range of motion” as explained by Cleveland Clinic. So even if targeting muscles is your goal, cardio may help you facilitate these goals. 

Cardio Classes You Can Take at OYF

If you are looking to add some cardio to your workout schedule, Hot Fast & Furious Fusion may be a good choice for you. The class is high energy, mixes athletic yoga and endurance, and aims to challenge, shape your body, and detox your system. Likewise, Hot Box Fusion is a high intensity class combining shadow boxing, kickboxing, Fusion, core, and cardio where you can learn a new skill while getting in your cardio workout. Or, if you’d still like to fit some yoga in with your cardio, try Hot Fit Flow to combine athletics yoga with endurance. 

Watch out for our upcoming blogs to learn about other aspects you may want to incorporate into your workout routine, or check our full class listing schedule to find the right cardio option for you.