FREE Class and Demo of Korean Yoga at The Breathing Project

Recently, I was contacted by a group of Korean yogis who wanted myhelp in getting their book and videos released in the USA. Apparently, their "Cosmic Revivification Yoga" is widely practiced and medically endorsed in South Korea. As a way of helping them get the word out, I've invited them to present a FREE open class at The Breathing Project. Please let as many people as you can know about this. I'd like to fill the room for them.

Date: Tuesday, December 18
Time: 6:30 - 8:30PM
Location: The Breathing Project
15 West 26th Street, 10th floor
(Between Broadway and 6th Ave.)
New York City
Cost: FREE
RSVP via e-mail

Free Private Sessions from Vajra Yoga

Jill Satterfield asked me to send this to you all. Please forward to anyone who may be interested.

hi guys,

the vajra yoga teacher trainees are looking for people to teach on saturday december 15th: at 12-1, or 2-3.

you would be given a supervised private session by one of the trainees. free! if you're interested, or know someone that might be, please let me know.

the more physical issues the better!!

anyone interested just needs to email me with their current state of physical conditions..., phone number and time (12-1, or 2-3)

thanks very much!

jill

vajra yoga (& meditation)

Anatomy Homework for December 5, 2007

Here's this week's question:

If a student asked you, "What's Mula Bandha," how would you answer in 100 words or less?
Also, check out the above video - a virtual guide tour of the pelvic floor.

I look forward to seeing you next week, when we will explore the vocal diaphragm. In the meantime, check out these videos:
Intro to the Vocal Folds
Theo Bleckmann and his Larynx

Have a great weekend!

Anatomy Homework for November 28, 2007

This week in class, I used the screen door closer as an example of a pressure mechanism that illustrates how the bandhas operate to support and protect the spine. Can you think of any other examples of pressure devices that operate in a similar way?

Additionally, please read Chapter 7 of "Anatomy of Breathing," and make sure you've completed chapter one of my book.

I look forward to seeing you next Wednesday, when we'll learn about the structures in the pelvic floor region.

A Great Partnership Opportunity!

The Breathing Project, the NYC studio I founded in 2002 , is moving into the second 5 years of its lease. Due to an increase in rent, and an increase in available class times in our studio, we've decided to seek a local yoga program that may be looking for a wonderful new home.

If you are an e-Sutra list member in the NYC area, please circulate this notice to anyone you know who may be interested. We are currently meeting with prospective partners, and hope to begin this new phase of our mission by the new year.

A Great Partnership Opportunity!

The Breathing Project, a beautiful, sunlit yoga studio in the heart of Chelsea is seeking a partnership with a yoga or movement-based training program in need of a new home.

Our main studio is 24x29’ (about 700 sq feet - 30 students on yoga mats capacity), and is equipped with mats, blocks, straps, blankets and other props. There is also a small storage area, skeleton and anatomical models, massage tables, whiteboard, stereo system, a/c and 24-hour heat. There are two bathrooms/changing rooms (one with shower), kitchenette with stove, refrigerator, and sink, and a comfortable reception and retail area. We've created a warm, non-pretentious atmosphere with interesting people.

Your program would have access to new clientele, training and marketing opportunities as well as possible non-profit partnership for fundraising, special projects and grant writing. Available immediately. For information about studio scheduling, rental rates and other questions, please e-mail: leslie@breathingproject.org

Anatomy Homework for November 14, 2007

Last Wednesday, we critiqued some breathing animation produced by Ray Long for his Bandha Yoga website. Bottom line: great graphics, confused ideas.

This week, we'll have something to say about Swami Ramdev's take on Bhastrika Pranayama. He reaches millions of people, and they view him as an unquestioned authority on yoga and breathing, but sadly, his information is less than helpful.


This week's homework:
Based on our lessons so far, how would you briefly explain the following? Try to imagine you're responding to a question from a student who's heard these terms and is a bit confused by them. Try to keep your explanations brief, as if you have to sneak them in while teaching a class.

Diaphragmatic breathing
Correct breathing
Accessory breathing
Chest breathing
Belly breathing

Yoga Anatomy Homework for October 24, 2007

For those of you who have not been attending the latest trimester, one of our 2 required texts (other than my book) is the wonderful "Anatomy of Breath" by Blandine Calais-Germain - author of "Anatomy of Movement." This week's assignment is based on the book.

If you don't have a copy, please consider purchasing one using the provided Amazon link - the sales will help support The Breathing Project.

For this week's homework, I'd like you to read Anatomy of Breathing pages 133-149: "Analysis of the Principal Types of Breathing."

After reading those pages, please reply with your answers to the following questions:

1. On pages 134 - 139, Calais-Germain describes 2 distinct forms of diaphragmatic breathing, but does not name them, other than calling them "1st Mechanism," and "2nd Mechanism." What would you call them?

2. On pages 141 - 145, she describes "Costal Breathing" as a separate mechanism of inhalation. Based on our discussions so far, what do you think of the distinction she makes between diaphragmatic and costal breathing?

New York Book Release Party for Yoga Anatomy next Wednesday July 11th!

Come get your copy of Yoga Anatomy and meet co-authors Leslie Kaminoff and Amy Matthews at The Breathing Project in New York City on Wednesday, July 11 starting at 6PM.

Snacks, drinks and personally signed copies of the book will be available. As a fundraiser for The Breathing Project, two one-of-a-kind prints by the book's illustrator Sharon Ellis will be raffled off.

Bring as many friends as you like, but PLEASE RSVP by Monday, July 9th.
Location: The Breathing Project, Inc. 15 West 26th Street, 10th floor (between Broadway and 6th Ave.)

David Hykes this Wednesday and Saturday

My evening class this Wednesday, June 6, will be taken over by the amazing David Hykes for a Harmonic Presence session. I am extending my highest recommendation and invitation to you for this unique opportunity. I urge you to attend if at all possible, and to invite anyone you know who would benefit from experiencing sound and voice in a deeper and more harmonious fashion.

If you would like to come, but money is a consideration, please don't let that be an obstacle - just contact me and we'll work something out. I really want David to have a room full of as many voices and ears as possible.

Anatomy Homework for May 30, 2007

For this week's assignment, please briefly describe the similarities and differences of the hip and shoulder joints - just the way you'd say it in a few sentences to a yoga student.

Embodied Breathing Training with Leslie Kaminoff and Amy Matthews

FINALLY!

This is the advanced hands-on training that so many of you have been asking for...

This 10-day workshop will explore the anatomy, physiology and kinesiology of breathing from a variety of perspectives – through movement explorations, discussion, hands-on work and pranayama practices.

This is a brand-new program intended primarily as professional level training for graduates of The Breathing Project's Advanced Studies Program, to whom enrollment priority will be given. There may be a limited number of spaces avialable to qualified, experienced Yoga teachers who have graduated from other trianing programs...e-mail for more info.

Dates/Times: July 16-20 and July 23 - 27, 2007 (Mon. thru Fri.) 9:30am to 5:00pm

Cost: $1,200 ( $1,000 w/payment by June 20) Enrollment is limited to 20 students.

Anatomy Homework for May 2, 2007

For this week's assignment, please explain - as if to a student - exactly why it is risky to pull the legs into lotus position.

Also, you can try a knee haiku:

Sthira meets Sukha
when your two longest bones join.
Stable. Mobile. Knees.

I look forward to seeing you next week, when we will complete our discussion of the knee, and also talk about the pelvic joints, hip joints and the "yoga butt" diagnosis.

Anatomy Homework for April 25, 2007

For this week's assignment, please briefly describe, as if explaining to a group of beginning students, the specialization of the human upper and lower extremities - from the perspective of the yogic concepts of sthiram and sukham.

Extra credit for haikus. Here's mine:

My legs- strong, steady -
walk me through the world; my arms
hand the world to me.


I look forward to seeing you next week and discussing the knee joint, and sharing my arthroscopic home movies.

Also, here's the link to the Project Gutenberg's Manual of Surgery. It contains images of many interesting medical abnormalities (gross factor - 8 out of 10).

Teaching Spot Available at The Breathing Project

As of the end of April, our Tuesday 6:30PM open class time will be available. If any teachers are interested in picking up this class, please contact Leslie via e-mail

Anatomy Homework for April 11, 2007

Here's a simple assignment to get us warmed up for the Spring Trimester:

Please list three asanas that require the psoas muscle to lengthen, and three postures that require the psoas muscle to contract (you can include movements in your answers).

Then, pick one of each, and say how you would modify it in order to intensify the stretch and contraction. We will have a chance to explore some of these in class next week.

We will also be going much more deeply into the anatomical details of the psoas and the region of the body associated with it. We will have a chance to see some video images of the psoas from Gil Hedley's Integral Anatomy DVD.

Have a great weekend.

Anatomy Homework for March 21, 2007

Your assignment for this week is simple. Please send me any questions or topics that you'd like me to review next Wednesday, which is the final session of our Winter trimester.

After going through a review of what we've covered so far, I will get to as many of your topics as I can next Wednesday.


I hope you enjoyed our exploration of Scoliosis and asymmetry as much as I did. We kept developing the ideas in the ABC's class, and I will be sure to review it next week, as I'm pleased with the systematic way it eventually came together.

Have a great weekend!

Anatomy Homework for Feb. 28, 2007

I've just confirmed a very special guest lecturer for our next class. We had discussed her working with us a while back, and she's just confirmed that she can come this week.

Adrienne Jamiel will be presenting "Yoga in the Female Form," in which she will reveal the significant structural differences between men and women, and how those differences need to be honored in adapting yoga to individuals.
Please follow the links above to give yourself an introduction to Adrienne and her work.

We will pick up our thread of spinal movements in yoga postures next week.

See you Wednesday.

Leslie

Anatomy Homework for February 14, 2007

For the benefit of those of you who weren't in attendance today, I've uploaded the audio of today's lesson, and the handout that goes with it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

http://www.yogaanatomy.org/Audiofrom21407.htm

The handout is a section of the "Yoga and the Spine" chapter of my book. Other than reading the handout, there is no other assignment this week -but please feel free to send in any questions or comments you come up with.

Next week, Amy Matthews will be teaching the Anatomy and ABC's. She will be covering some fascinating material related to neuromuscular patterning.

My 6:30 class will be taught by Jill Satterfield.

I look forward to seeing you in two weeks, when we will review the spinal structures and the discs. We will also revisit MahaMudra, axial extension and the bandhas.

Have a great couple of weeks...


Leslie

Please sign up for the new Breathing Project blog-based mailing list

Click here to go to our new Breathing Project blog, and enter your address to get weekly updates about all our programs. Be sure to let all your friends and colleagues know about it, too.

Aside from studio, class and workshop updates, we will be featuring periodic contributions from our gifted roster of senior teachers.

Anatomy Homework for February 7, 2007

Hi All.

This week, your homework is to do some reading that will help us to prepare for next week's lesson, when we will look at the structure of individual vertebrae and the intervertebral discs. Here's a useful link: http://www.aafp.org/afp/990201ap/575.html

Learning about the discs inevitably leads to a discussion of back pain, its true causes, and the mind-body connection - so I've created this page on my website: http://www.yogaanatomy.org/Anatomy%20Uploads/BackPain.htm

It contains the text and links to a Medscape interview with John Sarno and two of the studies he mentions in the interview. They are all well worth reading. Following the links may require you to register for Medscape, The New England Journal of Medicine or The New York TImes, so that's why I included the text.

Also, here's a link to the corrected spinal twist drawing:

http://homepage.mac.com/lkaminoff/QuizAnswer.htm

Anatomy Homework for January 31, 2007

Hi All.

This week, the homework is a visual quiz.

Below, you will find two images of half spinal twist. The anatomical sketch is based on the photo, and it contains numerous errors that need to be corrected.

Try to find as many as you can, and jot down your answers. We'll review the images in class, and see how many you found. Feel free to print them out if you like.

If you have trouble viewing the images in your e-mail, a link to them is here:
http://homepage.mac.com/lkaminoff/TwistQuiz1.htm


I look forward to seeing you next week, when we will get deeper into twists, lateral bending, and start to discuss the vertebral components.

Link to Prana Chant

I had many requests for our Prana chant after teaching with it at the SYTAR event, so I created a hidden page on my website that contains the text and an audio clip of me reciting it.

Anatomy Homework for January 24, 2007

Hi All.

First a commercial announcement.

We have arranged for a special discount for any of you who wish to take Tom Myers' workshops "The Anatomy of Inversion – Friday-Saturday, February 23-24" or the Part II: Neck, Shoulders, & Thorax: The Soft Tissue Approach - February 25-26. The Advanced Studies discount is $275 for either workshop (regular price is $325.)

Your class stubs can be used for 15 hours per each workshop (30 stubs for all 4 days). The remainder ($110.00 ) of the fee can be paid directly to The Breathing Project. All hours spent studying with Tom Myers are applicable to our 100 or 200 hour certificate.

Needless to say, I highly recommend Tom's work. He is truly one of the top educators of the human body on the planet, and we are very fortunate to be his "home base" in NYC.

Also, here's a link to Matt Taylor's excellent Yoga Therapy intake form:
http://www.myrehab.com/screening.pdf


=====================

Homework:

In addition to last weeks' assignment (see below) I'd like you to also try your hand at a flexion/extension haiku. Here's mine:

Exhale rounds my spine,
Inhaling lifts me open.
Flexion, extension.

(Last week)

Please BRIEFLY (just a few sentences each) define:

Forward bending

Backward bending

Spinal flexion

Spinal extension

Also, give at least three examples of how we can observe the qualities of sthiram/sukham in the structure/function of the spine.

I look forward to seeing you next week, when we will examine the degrees of spinal range of motion in axial rotation (twisting) and lateral flexion.


Leslie

BMC & Yoga: Body Systems - Workshops with Amy Matthews

As you all know, I am a very big fan of the teaching of Amy Matthews, and I'm thrilled to recommend these upcoming workshops at The Breathing Project.

If you've studied with Amy, you know what an extraordinary teacher she is. If you haven't, what are you waiting for?

embodied asana presents:
BMC & Yoga: Body Systems
Saturdays: February 3: Organs
April 7: Nervous System
May 5: Ligaments
June 2: Fluids




These one-day workshops explore the ways that Body-Mind Centering® supports the practice of yoga . . . as well as the ways that asana practice supports the embodiment of BMC™ principles.

Each day will focus on one body system: the morning session will be an asana practice, and the afternoon will include anatomy, individual exploration, and discussion.

All levels of movement experience are welcome, and no yoga or BMC™ experience is necessary.

The Breathing Project: 15 W 26 St, 10th Fl (b/t B’way & 6th Ave), NYC
11 am – 5 pm: 11 am-1 asana practice & 2-5 pm workshop
$75 day: email register@breathingproject.org to register
morning session can be taken separately, for $30

Amy Matthews, CMA, SME, RYT, RSMT/RSME has been teaching movement since 1994. She is a Certified Laban Movement Analyst and a Body-Mind Centering® Practitioner. Amy is certified as a yoga teacher by Heart of Yoga and Yoga Union, is registered with ISMETA and Yoga Alliance, and is certified as a Motherhand Shiatsu practitioner.

Amy has been on the faculty of the Year-Long Certificate Program at the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies since 2000, and teaches embodied asana classes and workshops at Movements Afoot, as part of the Advanced Studies Program at the Breathing Project, and at the Society for Martial Arts Instruction. Amy works privately as a movement therapist, integrating Laban Movement Analysis, Bartenieff Fundamentals, yoga and Body Mind Centering®. She teaches anatomy workshops for LIMS, co-teaches “Still Moving” karate and yoga workshops with Sensei Michelle Gay for the Society for Martial Arts Instruction, and has co-taught with Alison West on Yoga Union's Teacher Training program.

Questions? Call 917-843-9537, or e-mail spiralamy@aol.com

Yoga Anatomy Homwwork for Jan. 17, 2007

Hi All.

Greetings from sunny Los Angeles (well, it's still dark outside, but it will be sunny in a few hours).

Here's your assignment based on this week's session:

Please BRIEFLY (just a few sentences each) define:
Forward bending
Backward bending
Spinal flexion
Spinal extention
Also, give at least three examples of how we can observe the qualities of sthiram/sukham in the structure/function of the spine.

I look forward to next week's lesson, when we will explore the degreees of range of motion of the various section of the spine in flexion and extention.

Have a great weekend.

Leslie

Yoga Anatomy Homwwork for Jan. 10, 2007

Hi All.

My apologies for the delay. It took me a while to do a full update of all the new e-mail addresses for this trimester.

Here's your simple task for this week.

Based on our exploration of the evolution of the spine, please **briefly** explain the following:

* the primary curves of the spine

* the secondary curves of the spine

Please try to relate your answers to the principle of sthiram/sukham.

I look forward to seeing you next Wednesday, when we'll talk about the curves of the spine, the basic movements of flexion/extention, and how they relate to inhale/exhale.

As a bonus, here's a link to my article" The Evolution of the Spine."


Leslie