Intelligent, mindful movement nourishes the body every bit as much as fresh, unprocessed, healthy food--it is medicine. “Why do I keep getting pain?” are words we, as body workers and health practitioners, hear almost daily. Some people, in spite of stretching, going to the gym or participating in yoga classes,continue to suffer from chronic pain.

The problem that needs to be addressed is that one’s body has patterns of moving that our conscious minds are unaware of. When you reach for something, work, stand, walk, sit,exercise or stretch you don’t consciously activate and direct every muscle over the course of that movement. Your will provides the goal but otherwise your body moves without your conscious involvement.

The correct exercise or movement intended to alleviate pain or repair an injury (as provided by physiotherapist, chiropractor, or yoga instructor) supply only a part of the process needed to adequately address the problem. To achieve a deeper and long term solution to the injury or pain one needs to learn how to, effectively, use these movements to become aware of the inappropriate movement patterns and to start consciously working with them. Without this step the maladaptive pattern (or injured area) continues to misdirect and undermine the movement or exercise intended for its correction

Our mandate is to guide people toward healthier movement. We offer personalized programs designed to work with individual needs. We provide a venue in which to work on these programs with experienced teachers as guides, and we can incorporate and assist you with exercises provided by other health care providers. A wide range of classes is offered to help you continue expanding your repertoire, range and depth of healthy movement.

Bodywork and Yoga

We have excellent Massage Therapists, Rolfers, and Acupuncturists on our teaching staff whose skills can also be called upon to assist with your progress. We have found that bodywork (massage or acupuncture) can be invaluable in opening particularly stubborn areas, speeding your recovery and allowing you to better utilize your program’s movements and stretches. Being involved in your program as teachers provides the practitioners with valuable information about your problem areas allowing them to work on you more effectively.

Yoga

Injuries, repetitive daily movements, body structure, emotional tendencies, stress etc. all create patterns in our bodies that affect the way we move. These patterns need to be identified and worked with otherwise they will continue to undermine our movements and will, ultimately, limit our practice’s progress. Unfortunately it is easy to get lost in larger class environments and often one can only get just so far in them before requiring more attention than such a setting will allow.

Yoga Body Works provides a small, more intimate venue in which very experienced teachers can help students actively attend to their bodies as they move. We provide a knowledgeable set of eyes to help point out areas of trouble or imbalance. We also provide sensitive, experienced adjustments to help students feel blockages or imbalances and to help them learn how to move through and beyond them.
Whether you are an advanced yogi in need of a challenge, some fine-tuning or just a set of eyes, or a beginner just getting started and need an experienced guide we have classes and teachers that will more than adequately meet your needs.

Critical Alignment (CAT)

Traditionally, the focus of CAT is on assessing and treating dysfunction in the musculoskeletal system by using specialized props for releasing and mobilizing the thoracic spine. Though we maintain this focus on the thoracic spine, in our CAT classes we expand the parameters to encompass hips, lumbar spine, limbs and breathing. A great deal of attention is also dedicated to the building and fine-tuning of core strength.

Our CAT classes are suitable for yoga students of all levels --beginner through advanced. If you are just starting out, it is an ideal way to help you build an intelligent practice and to prevent bad (potentially injurious) habits from developing. If you are advanced these classes provide an excellent venue in which to fine tune and penetrate deeper into the nuances of your body’s movements and patterns.