Workshops
Hands-on Adjustments
Join Ellie Clarke to explore the art of providing hands-on adjustments. The workshop will include anatomy review on key postures offered in vinyasa flow classes and the safest and most effective way to provide adjustments within them. This workshop is designed for both yoga teachers and hands-on assistants and will include opportunities to practice adjustments with fellow workshop attendees.
Harness Your Courage – Handstand Workshop
Fear is an instinct we all possess for the important task of keeping us safe. Problems arise, however, when we let this fear hold us back from experiences that would otherwise serve us. The asana practice gives us an opportunity to challenge our fears, most acutely in the moments when we work to go upside down in inversions that require surrendering control like handstand.
Join Ellie for this two hour workshop in which we will discuss how to use healthy feelings of self-preservation while also recognizing when to harness courage to confront those fears that may be holding us back. We will spend approximately 90 minutes warming up and learning how to safely confront the fears we have towards moving into the handstand pose and 30 minutes in led journaling after some guided reflection. Please bring something to write on and with. This workshop is open to all students with a regular yoga practice, no current handstand practice is required.
Supple and Strong - An Anatomical Approach to Hips and Hamstrings
Join Ellie Clarke for an anatomically-focused deep dive into yoga student’s favorite hip and hamstring opening postures. We will explore the key muscles, ligaments, and tendons in the hip joint, along the legs, and the knee joint to stretch muscles without sacrificing integrity of the joints. Learn what to watch out for in terms of injury risk and how to modify popular poses for different ranges of motion and levels of tightness. Discover creative approaches to strengthen the muscles that are often neglected in traditional approaches to asana. Teachers will develop your skills on how to sequence hip and hamstring opening postures for beginner, intermediate, and advancing students. Students will learn how to develop a safe and intelligent personal practice.
This workshop will involve lecture, visual presentation and some asana practice. Please bring a pen and paper and wear clothing you can practice in comfortably
Strength and Flexibility - An Anatomical Approach to the Shoulder Girdle
A multitude of conflicting cues and guidance exist in the yoga world around what is safe for the 4 joints in the shoulder girdle. Learn what anatomical structures make up these 4 joints and how they move in chatturanga, inversions, and binds. Learn what modifications are safe and which may cause injury to the rotator cuff and how to instruct students of every level how to perform these poses safely.
We will explore how to open some of the muscles in and around the shoulder in order to work towards binds and how props can aid in this effort. This workshop will include a thoughtful exploration of the shoulder stand pose (sarvangasana) and how to manage the risks it presents. It includes lecture, visual presentation and some asana practice. Please bring something to write on and with and dressed for yoga practice.
This workshop will involve lecture, visual presentation and some asana practice. Please bring a pen and paper and wear clothing you can practice in comfortably
Bending Backwards: An Anatomical Approach to Backbends
Why are backbends so often the family of poses that we fear the most? What is it about the way that our back body is constructed that can make it so intense to move in a heart opening direction? What are the benefits to practicing these postures that can be so challenging?
Join Ellie Clarke to learn some foundational anatomy in accessible language on the spine and musculature of the back and how to manage it safely in a back-bending practice. Learn the different dynamics involved in backbends on the belly, the back, and from the knees and how you may explore greater ranges of motion with preparatory postures and drills. We’ll study a range of counter-postures and how they can best be applied to different backbends to prevent soreness. Please bring something to write with and dressed for yoga practice. This workshop is a great resource for yoga teachers and practitioners alike!