Essential yoga anatomy with Jason Crandell

Ever wonder: How do you make that whispery sound with your breath--and, why? How do you get your foot all the way between your hands when stepping forward from down-dog? How do you figure out if you're moving too slow or your teacher is just plain insane for having you move so fast? Yep, you've probably had these questions and more. If you want to understand vinyasa yoga more skillfully, here's your vid!

This comprehensive shoulder practice is part workshop and part flow. Spend some time geeking out on shoulder anatomy to get more clear on verbal cues and learn how the shoulders move in different arm positions and poses. This is a must-watch for teachers or anyone who wants to improve their alignment and overall shoulder health.

Students (including yours truly) often approach difficult poses by simply working hard. While hard work is often required, postures are much, much easier when you actually understand them. This practice will teach you the main actions of bakasana and guide you into this essential pose in a smart, effective, accessible sequence.

This practice will teach you the fundamentals of backbending by focusing on creating a deeper, safer urdhva dhanurasana (upward facing bow, or wheel pose). You will learn how opening your upper-back--not your chest--may be the key to unlocking greater space, freedom and integrity in this pose. Of course, you will also learn how to prepare your legs, hips and spine for this essential, majestic posture. Prop: 1 block

It is essential to learn headstand from an experienced, qualified yoga teacher that can see your body and give you direct feedback. Therefore, this tutorial is only designed to supplement your practice and education. Also, due to the impractical nature of watching this tutorial while actually doing this particular pose, I recommend that you bake some cookies, grab some warm almond milk, and watch this tutorial rather than throwing yourself aloft. Then, allow sometime for the cookies, milk, and information to digest before practicing. Enjoy.

Should you grip your glutes in backbends? No, probably not. Should you engage your glutes in backbends? Yes, definitely. Understanding the key role that the glutes play in backbends--especially bridge pose, upward-facing bow pose, and camel pose--is essential. This practice will teach you how to use your glutes and adductors to create stability, support, and integrity in all of your backbends. This understanding is key to healthy, happy backbends. Prop: 1 block

Make sure that you are getting the most from this all-levels, utilitarian twist. This tutorial will prepare your hips before showing you the optimal alignment, pelvic position and various arm-positions needed to maximize this posture's benefits.

This lecture, demonstration, and quick practice will help you understand the mechanics of knee pain and troubleshoot common challenges with the front of the knees in yoga. Learn short and long term strategies to support healthy knees then break down poses that can trigger discomfort like bridge, bow, and natarajasana.

This tutorial provides you with a clear understanding of how to approach and practice forearm balance (pincha mayurasana). It begins with a few simple preparatory steps before showing the most effective way to place your hands, use a block and transition into the pose. It continues, by giving you some of the key instructions for practicing the posture.

Most students have a significant gap in their education when it comes to chatturanga and up-dog. Although these poses form the backbone of vinyasa yoga, they are rarely taught. This tutorial is designed to help you practice these poses more safely, slowly and patiently. Yes, these poses require strength, but, even more, they require understanding. If possible, I encourage you to watch this tutorial once, then watch it a second time and practice along.

The first episode of our 4-part practice and tutorial dedicated to developing lotus pose (padmasana). You will emphasize opening your inner-groins and learn how to fold your legs into lotus with greater safety, comfort and skill (read, your knees will probably be much, much happier with this approach). Of course, you will also open your outer-hips and glide through a couple of sun-salutations and relevant standing poses.

Learn to manage hyper-extension in your knees by working skillfully with your feet, quadriceps and hamstrings. Explore ways to do more than simply micro-bending your knees when working with hyper-extension. In particular, this class troubleshoots some common postures that exacerbate hyper-extension such as triangle pose, pyramid pose, standing forward bends and seated forward bends. Also great if you are without hyper-extension and want to improve the alignment and strength of your legs.

This tutorial breaks explores "ujjayi" breath--the most commonly practiced method of breathing in contemporary hatha and vinyasa yoga. You will learn how to regulate the sound of the breath along with it's texture and volume. An absolute essential tutorial for all yoga practitioners.

Focus on developing greater core, arm and shoulder strength while building up to handstand. This flow practice will awaken and rejuvenate your entire body while teaching you tips to refine your handstand or approach it for the very first time. Students that are new to handstand will be given a brief tutorial on the getting into the pose while seasoned handstanders will get to bypass this tutorial and dig deeper into this pose and many others.

In this accessible yet demanding practice, Jason counts down his ten strongest postures for new students, explaining proper alignment and introducing techniques that make them safe and beneficial. These ten essential poses will strengthen your entire body and prepare you for a dynamic, balanced practice for years to come.

Starting a yoga practice is exciting, but it can also be confusing. In this talk, Jason discusses five important things beginners should keep in mind, based on over 20 years of teaching experience.

The common assumption is that jumping back to chaturanga is safer than jumping back to plank. In this discussion, Jason outlines the biomechanics of jumping back to both poses and shows that they are equally safe if done well.

Learn about the subtle and gross anatomy of the yogic action, mula bandha. Examine it from both a historical and contemporary perspective, keeping in mind that there is no such thing as a "mula bandha muscle."

There's an entire family of arm balances that focus on picking up your body and lifting it off the ground. In this challenging yet accessible sequence, learn bhujasana, astavakrasana, tolasana, lolasana and more. Develop your shoulder, arm, and core strength and learn the technical nuances of these postures. Expect a strong, smart, all around flow that will develop your arm balancing repertoire.

Balanced strength and flexibility of the psoas is essential for hip and spine health. This dynamic practice focuses on deep psoas strengthening and stretching in sun salutations, low lunges, standing postures, core strengtheners and arm-balances.

Learn the essential techniques of binding postures with this hip and shoulder-opening practice. Learn how to prepare your hips, shoulders and spine in order to make binding more accessible. Explore standing binds, seated forward fold binds, and seated twists with binds. And, hey, if nothing else, you will get a thorough stretch in some of the areas that need it the most! You may need a belt for this practice if binding is difficult for you.

This flow practice focuses on the five movements of the spine. It's designed to keep the spine healthy, balanced and supple and clarify your understanding of these 5 essential spinal movements. The sequence includes a bit of everything including sun salutations, standing poses, side-bends, forward bends, backbends, and twists. Think of it as a back-care practice for students that are fortunate enough to not have any back-pain!

This practice focuses on using the leverage of the hip-flexors and abdominals to fold you body more deeply into forward bends. With a soothing start that stretches your hamstrings and hips, this practice proceeds to awaken your abdominals, hip-flexors, and quads. It continues with salutations and standing forward bends and concludes with seated forward bends. Expect to open your hamstrings and learn the hinging action of your front body.

A class for all the desk workers, cooks, baby holders, body workers, car commuters and just about everyone else out there! This class is designed to open your chest while strengthening your upper-back, arms and neck. Consider this your "go to" 30 minute practice for balancing your upper-body from the day-to-day challenges of the modern world. Props Suggested: A blanket, a block and a strap.

Using props to enhance the efficiency of your practice isn't cheating -- it's smart. That said, "the cheater's series" has more ring to it than "the smart series." Whatever we call it, this practice is designed to maximize your comfort and depth in backbends while minimizing your output by using a few well-placed props. In particular, you will explore new ways of doing cobra, up-dog, bow, bridge, upward-facing bow. Try it, you'll like it (unless you're an extreme rugged-individualist type, in which case you're more than welcome to make things harder on yourself than you need to).

Think your arms are too short to do bindings? Well, friends, it's time to bid that excuse good-bye. This thorough, vinyasa practice will teach you the mechanics of binding while preparing your shoulders, hips and spine for it adequately. You'll wring your entire body, learn how to make binding more accessible and feel like a million bucks afterward.

Build strength with this short yet potent sequence that works your arms and core. Practice four variations of bakasana (crow) in a flow that also includes an activating navasana (boat) and lunges. Move through supine, seated and revolved crow variations before peaking with eka pada bakasana (one-footed crow).