Muscles are puppets. The brain is the puppet master.

While I do believe that every particle of our being contains stardust from the galaxies, I also believe that our wondrous, unconscious muscles are electrically stimulated mindless pieces of meat capable of involuntary, reflexive movement. Along with our volition, the brain enables our body to perform conscious, mindful movement. But there is a catch-22.

Double edged sword - If the brain is so smart why does it feel like my body is attacking me... Your brain does its best to keep you safe and alive.

Pulling on muscle fibres does not alter the resting level of tension set by the gamma feedback loop.

Resting muscle tension levels can ONLY be reset by actively Retraining Your Brain with conscious, voluntary movement that provides sensory feedback from muscles to brain.

Ashtanga Yoga gave me visible flexibility gains– but at a cost.

I started practicing in 1997 and was a die-hard practitioner until 2001. I was that yogi who went to Mysore practice almost every day of the week at 7am. The Least Spiritual and Dis-Embodied Class I have Ever Taken. I attended an in-person class with Pattabhi-Jois and his wife.

Tell me if this is the typical pre-yoga class routine that you normally do, or see others doing.

Students unroll their mat, flop to the ground, then proceed to do variations of:

• A series of deep static stretches

• Pilates 100's

• Chaturanga Push-Ups 25X

• Jump into Handstand and “float” down to Chaturanga

• Conquer Headstand for 11 minutes

• Lay down on their back and nap (and snore)

• Seated meditation accompanied by excessively heavy Ujjayi pranayama

• Text their bestie and/or take selfies

The yoga teacher walks into the room and boom– you're doomed.

Research explains why you feel gains in flexibility immediately after static yoga and stretch classes.

REASON #1 that you feel more flexible immediately after a conventional yoga class: The sequencing inherent in too many yoga classes builds your muscles tolerance to the act of pulling on them which desensitizes your nervous system to pain. Desensitization to feelings of pain causes sensory-motor amnesia (SMA) and develops body blind spots reducing #proprioception-- your 6th Sense. 

Why Bypass The Stretch Reflex if It's Crucial to Survival?

Humans are creatures of habit. Some habits are good. Other habits, not so much. We are what we do as much as what we don't do, and over time, our muscles get stuck in a feedback loop of unconscious reflexes. Integrating advanced stretch (“no-stretch”) techniques such as dynamic movement and dynamic and active stretching, not commonly practiced in conventional yoga practices, work with– not against the Somatic Nervous System reflexes. At Yoga Somatics, our trainings rebalance muscle tone to a normal base level of tension.

This info may push your buttons.

I invite you to let go of some of the yoga anatomy and stretch techniques that you’ve learned. You may feel as though a lot of what you’ve been told about flexibility was incorrect. Yoga Somatics uses somatic muscle science to advance your teaching, sequencing skills, and practice with somatic movement principles.

So, the word “Somatics” has become a buzzword… Here’s the reason I created Yoga Somatics.

Why you knead a daily self-myofascial release Rock N Roll out too!