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A student question: 'How do I know what is unnecessary muscular tension when I'm in a yoga posture?' Marc answers with his take on appropriate effort in yoga.

Meditation is a key practice that is mostly skipped over, simply because of how difficult it is to both still the mind and remain upright. However, there is a very good reason that daily meditation is advised by all wellness practitioners... A mind that runs on autopilot non-stop from the moment you wake up til you sleep, is working in the most inefficient way possible. How often have you been agonising over some problem that needs to be solved, but you just can't see a solu

If the hips or lower back feel stiff, tight or painful in postures, the chances are that you habitually support yourself with a holding pattern of the psoas and/or illio-psoas muscles, and if you do that in an unbalanced way (if you are right- or left-footed), it leads to scoliotic holding patterns to compensate. Knowing this does nothing to help you, because trying to 'open' or 'stretch' these muscles will simply cause them to resist your efforts. The problem is that they ar

There are two very unusual vertebrae in the neck that are related to expression and thought - and moreover whether you are free in these vertebrae or not is dependent on how you are interacting with the world! On this short Yoga solutions podcast, I explain what I mean by this as well as give you a direct physical exploration of how you can liberate natural movement between head and neck, and awaken the thoracic spine so that neck and shoulders no longer need to suffer fro

Hips are quite a tricky thing to understand because what people understand as 'hips' depends on where they 'feel' them. Articulations of the hips involve how the thigh bones, pelvic bones, and the sacrum all move relative to each other. Tightness/difficulty in the hips is a result of holding patterns between these things (all permutations), which is always because of how you hold yourself up. Freedom in the hips relies on each component part of this intricate set of joi

Many teachers recognise the importance of the breath in posture work, yet breathing practices (aka pranayama), are mostly practiced 'separately' because it is considered as 'advanced' compared to posture work. However, if we are free to explore how the breath is naturally involved in active support whilst preparing for a posture, it makes complete sense of the pranayamas. And understanding the nature of the pranayamas make sense of the posture! If you really allow yourself

A regular question i get is about how to be free in the shoulders... but whenever I run workshops in new places with large groups of people, one of the things not asked is 'how to reach up with the arms during sun salute'... Yet absolutely everyone in the room is lifting their arms with their shoulders and neck when they come up... which is exactly what gives them the tight shoulders in the first place. Here is a 5 minute short class that will get you to understand how should

Sitting upright is really quite tricky for many people - and if so seated forward bends are even harder. Here I show you why and what you need to do differently if you want to 'get' seated postures. Enjoy! Click the like button for me and share it anywhere you like. If you want to work with me, there is currently a more-than-50% discount on my memberships (varying for different levels of engagement). This ends in September 2023, but what ever price you sign up for is loc

Dog pose is such a ubiquitous 'in between' posture in flows and the like that it is rare for people to spend any time finding out if there are better ways of doing it.. here I offer you a broken-down-into-parts approach, so you can feel how best to use your arms and legs so that the posture does what it is meant to do for you... All paying members get the full version of this under the 'Yoga Solutions' link in 'Resources for members'... And I have plans to offer even more val

Triangle (all versions from all traditions) is quite a difficult posture in terms of 'finding the yoga of it'. The bigger wider versions of it can only really be enjoyed and understood whist using a plethora of blocks and other supports - without which the practitioner is likely to strain and pull on their spines (wide angle triangle is notorious for 'causing' sacro-illiac distortions which can become devastating injuries). The clue that you're not doing a particularly use

It is regularly stated that the physical practice of yoga is only a part of what yoga is, but even by those that say this, it is treated as 'separate' from other practices like pranayama and meditation. And by those that prefer meditation or breath-work, the physical is even relegated to a lower status than the 'higher function' practices of meditation, and its gateway practice pranayama. This is a huge mistake, that leads to an entrenchment of the experienced separation betw

THE FIRST OF A SERIES OF 'YOGA SOLUTIONS' ... Developing a true somatic experience and practical understanding of what they actually are, together with relevance to your life, health and state of being... 'Chakras' are spoken of as if they are a universal experience that some people feel 'in tune with', and others see as a belief system rather than anything of practical use. During this morning's pranayama I gained some insight that I wanted to share with you, because it m

A definitive understanding of how to permanently free yourself of ongoing nagging neck/shoulder pain and the tiredness that this brings... Many people get neck/shoulder stiffness or pain, and the reason is simply because we spend all day every day holding the head in space with those muscles... The head has an important role in you deciding where to move to in space, but here, I explain how the atlas, the very first vertebra of the neck, can be released so that the head's wei

Many people end up hurting their lower backs through some kind of physical labour whilst being bent over - and I am no exception. I strained my lower back doing some DIY... and when I noticed my own fear reactions together with the 'normal' attempt to 'relax' so things didn't hurt, I realised that this standard response was doing me no good whatsoever. So I had a word with myself (I have solutions right?) and did some practice on the day of injury - following my own unde

De-bunking the norm... There is a reason for the 'inhale up/exhale down' instruction that makes 'doing' yoga postures easier for the mind and body, giving the impression of 'flow'. However, that reason is more to do with habit and stress, than it is to do with the natural flow of a body and mind in harmony with each other in action. Lifting to breathe, and collapsing to release the breath is kind of how we do things when we are both stressed and tired, and practicing yoga in

'Inner space' is a description of a purely somatic experience that most people only have when resting and happy.... Here I give you a way of providing that for yourself directly, simply by using your hands for support. 'Inner support' is similarly a description of a somatic experience that will mean very different things to different people depending on what efforts and tensions they are accustomed to... So I also offer an approach to the same thing as above (as your s

We all have preferred ways of being upright, and our breath follows suit - OR we have preferred ways of breathing, and the way we become upright is determined by this. Most ways of becoming upright involve lifting with our spines (but definitely NOT the only way). Here I unpack this relationship to uprightness and breathing, and show you how you can use either (perfectly natural) pattern as a starting point to discover the 'yoga' of it... ie, how you can use the breath to dis

Something you can do lying down that will make a huge difference to your face, jaw and sense of calm... This was lifted from today's Saturday morning workshop ... join me live on Zoom (most Saturdays)

Here I explain the reason for any difficulty you might have in 'balance postures' or the even more misleading instruction of 'holding balances'. And i show you exactly the small shift in perspective and understanding that should make things much simpler... A full half hour guided practice will be available later on today for my premium members ( www.acquaviva.yoga/membership ). For ~ £1/week (Silver membership) you can get a weekly class on my 'Yoga Solutions' subjects, as w

Yoga Solutions: There is a familiar principle in Scaravelli inspired yoga of 'gathering together ' before 'opening out'. It is an idea that makes zero sense to the 'stretch' camp of yoga, and is often misinterpreted by those familiar with it as a kind of 'contraction' so they enjoy 'opening out' after... Here I try and make practical sense of the thing... what you are actually trying to do AND why it works. . A full half hour guided practice on this topic will be available la