Want less stress in your life, a better ability to focus, improved health and a fitness routine that you truly enjoy? You may be surprised to learn that yoga provides all of these benefits. Award-winning yoga instructor Heidi E. Sormaz, Ph. D., makes yoga accessible and achievable for people of all skill levels by combining science with the art of the vinyasa. You’ll explore a range of practical techniques and exercises for calming, cardiovascular fitness, pain relief, mental healing and so much more.
Meet Heidi Sormaz and begin by exploring the roots of hatha yoga, a form of yoga that's widely practiced in the West. Focus on three main principles: breath, physical postures (asanas), and meditation. Then get started with some simple exercises.
Practice a mini yoga class that highlights mindful breathing to relieve stress. Add three new asanas to your yoga routine: warrior two, bound angle and downward-facing dog.
Heidi considers key yogic tools that address physical pain, including attention to breath and sensation, release of chronic muscle contractions and healthier movement patterns. You'll practice asanas for each of these pain-reduction techniques.
Yoga promotes a healthier heart by providing a transition from sedentary lifestyles to more active ones. Build your practice as you learn two new breathing exercises that are paired with asanas including warrior one, knee-to-chest and bridge.
Discover how paying attention to the body's sensations can help break the vicious cycle of addictive behaviors. Practice a sequence of patterned breathing, side bends, cat/cow, downward dog, lunges, forward fold and reclined twist. End with savasana, the traditional closing posture in a yoga practice.
Mindful yoga movements can interrupt the physical and psychological habits that lead to depression. In this lesson, learn the classic sun salutation, a series of movements and poses linked by breath.
Heidi introduces the Iyengar style of yoga, named for the pioneer yoga teacher B. K. S. Iyengar. Using optional props, including a wall, chair, strap and blocks, you'll practice nine essential asanas.
Transition to a more aerobic form of yoga, power vinyasa, in which a sequence of poses is strung together at an energetic pace. Try a challenging flow, modifying the poses where appropriate for your fitness level.
Yin yoga is the complementary practice to a yang form, such as power yoga. Unwind with yin poses that gently stretch your connective tissues, such as tendons, ligaments and fascia.
Experience the spiritual dimension of yoga through an Anusara practice, which combines the Iyengar system of alignment with elements of Hindu spirituality. After a Sanskrit invocation, follow a sequence of asanas that emphasizes the body's awareness of energy flow and muscle action.
Developed by Ana Forrest, Forrest yoga was designed to address emotional issues, trauma and addiction by creating a calm and untroubled internal state. Using the techniques and postures you've already learned, discover a new way to tune into your feelings.
Finally, drawing on the poses and routines you've learned above, develop a personalized yoga routine that accommodates the realities of a 21st-century life. Keep sight of these three principles: breathe deliberately, move in non-habitual ways, and pursue mindful awareness.
Heidi Sormaz
Heidi E. Sormaz is the founder, owner and director of Fresh Yoga LLC in New Haven, Connecticut. She earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in Psychology from Yale University and was a postdoctoral fellow at Yale and the University of California, Berkeley. She obtained the highest teaching credentials from both Forrest Yoga and Yoga Alliance. In addition to teaching yoga in her own studio, she has presented workshops and teacher trainings at conferences and studios across the United States, including the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health and the Esalen Institute. Yoga Journal featured her on its list of "teachers who are shaping yoga's future" from across America.
Yoga for a Healthy Mind & Body - Course Guidebook
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