May 20, 2018

Jenny Lim – Yoga Instructor + Movement Specialist

Meet Jenny! Equal parts inquisitive and intuitive, Jenny brings a unique level of technical, emotional and kinesthetic intelligence to her teaching. She is an experienced yoga teacher who has studied many modern movement and yoga systems including Forrest yoga, Yoga TuneUp, Functional Range Conditioning, strength training, bodywork, muscle testing and Eastern and Western energetics and anatomy. She has a knack for integrating the science and the “why” behind a movement with a deeply experiential “how” that gives the student the space to intuit and perceive through the breath and body. Join her for our upcoming summer mobility series!

Breath, Core & Spine: June 2
Conscious breathing is essential to moving in a freer, more powerful and integrated way. Your breath patterns organize your posture and nervous system in a way that can facilitate or inhibit your movement. The breath and the organs and musculature that it inhabits also constitute your most dynamic, adaptive and innate “core strength”. We will draw on this practice of breath as core strength to learn how to safely and more fully mobilize each segment of the spine. Expect self myofascial massage to explore different areas that affect breathing, pranayama practices to enliven from the inside out and a variety of carefully curated yoga and mobility work.

Hips + Lower Body: July 14
Starting from the feet, we will move up through the legs and pelvis to understand more fully how your typical patterns of walking, standing and hip hinging create a soft tissue and proprioceptive template that can inhibit or maximize your potential lower body mobility and power generation. We will explore how to transform this template with self myofascial massage, core and breath integration, passive & active mobilizations, daily functional movement habits as well as yoga and strength work.

Shoulders + Neck: Aug 4
Building on the skills learned in the Core & Hip/Lower Body workshops, we will explore how shoulder and neck stability and mobility is deeply affected by breath and core integration (or lack of) as well as fascial lines of tension that originate from the feet through the pelvis and core. With this in mind, we will learn to free up fuller range of motion as well create muscular positions of stability through individual joints of this area: scapula, shoulder joint, AC joint, and cervical spine. Through a variety of yoga and self myofascial massage, we will also learn to how to work in a way that relieves pain or restriction in these areas.

BOOK HERE!

March 29, 2018

April (Major Row) Challenge

In light of the Masters starting this month, we’re doing a little spin off the golf course and taking it to the row.

Major Row Challenge: April 2-30 we’re featuring a different event each week.

The Details
Using the Row Machine, or Erg, complete each of the following four events during the timeframes indicated and log them on the challenge board. Meters can be completed throughout the week or all at once. This is an individual challenge. You do not need to belong to a team to participate. Meters must be entered on the challenge board. In studio meters only (to be done before or after class).

The Masters: Week 1, Apr. 2-7: 5000 meters *(50 pt. bonus if 5000 meters completed at once in under 20 min.)*

The Open: Week 2, Apr. 8–14: 500 meters *(50 pt. bonus if 500 meters completed at once in under 2.5 min.)*

The Championship: Week 3, Apr. 15–21: 2000 meters *(50 pt. bonus if 2000 meters completed at once in under 7 min.)*

The PYR (Professional YAX Rower): Week 4, Apr. 22–30: 10,000 meters

Who Can Participate
Anyone with a membership or package can participate in this challenge.

Incentives and Rewards
Participants who meet the challenge can enjoy: Name inclusion on the Texas Chalkboard displayed through May, a specially designed certificate, a YAX goodie bag and 500 Reward Points!

March 29, 2018

Building the WHOLE Athlete

Not Seeing Results? Finding your sweat and shavasana every day is not enough. There are several other factors that go into being a well rounded, healthy athlete. Below are several areas to review and incorporate into your daily regime to build a better path toward total well being and start seeing results. Accomplish 80% of the below weekly and you are going places!

Nutrition
Eat WHOLE foods. Less processed food. More fruits and veggies.
Eat often. Fuel your body throughout the day with healthy fats, proteins and carbs (yep, carbs).
Drink ⅔ of your bodyweight in ounces of water every day! Stay hydrated.

Sleep and Recover
Get a minimum of 8 hours sleep every night.
Go to bed early, wake up early. Do what the sun does.
Sleep in a dark, quiet room (without your cell phone).
Don’t be afraid to take a cat nap before or after a workout.

Stress Management
Incorporate a weekly (if not daily) dynamic yoga and pranayama (breathwork) practice.
Find a hobby outside of sports or fitness (i.e., art, cooking, gardening, reading).
Attend mobility playshops.

Mental Training
Attend yoga for athletes and restorative classes.
Practice visualization techniques and meditation.
Incorporate more positive self talk.
Listen to motivating, positive music.
Find a present tense mantra: “I can touch 10 foot.” “I am an elite athlete.” “I am love.” “I can do great things.” “I have no fear.”

Community
Surround yourself with positive, goal oriented people.
Make friends at YAX!
Build quality relationships.

Make sticky notes, write in a journal, set reminders. Do what you can to incorporate these practices into your daily life to heighten your overall success and build the WHOLE athlete. Ready, GO!

December 1, 2017

These are a few of our favorite things!

We wanted to share our personal favorite things list of 2017 with all of you! A little of what we have been loving lately, that make for great gifts or great self love items! We even are selling a few of these things in our studio!!

YAX Hoodie

Of course this is on our list. We are tshirt/hoodie snobs, so we get the good stuff. Our new hoodie is super comfy & just perfect for the chilly mornings and evenings before & after yoga or your workout! Grab one in the studio for only $49!

Slow North Candles 

These hand-poured candles are from our friends in Austin, Tx at Slow North (slownorth.com). They all smell so yummy and BONUS, we have them in our studio now!! So now you can grab one for yourself or for a friend! We even have these cute little gift bags, so all you have to do is decide who to give it to! $34.

Dr. Teal’s Epsom Bath Salts

Dr. Teals knows what’s up, especially for us athletes! These bath salts are perfect after a long day, or a tough YAX workout. Our favorites are Lavendar and Ginger & Clay. They feel amazing, they heal those achey muscles & joints and make you feel brand new. We get ours at HEB on Bunker Hill on our way home. 🙂

Lululemon Love Tee with Yoga Athletex Logo 😉

We love a good tee, but love a v-neck tee even more! You can workout, practice yoga, go out & sleep in these overly comfy v-neck tee’s. We love them so much we get our logo printed on them. Because Lulu doesn’t do wholesale for businesses, you can always pick one up & ask us to get the Yoga Athletex logo printed on them, if you love us THAT much! 🙂 If not, just enjoy them.

J Crew Dreamy Cotton Pajama Pants

These are our FAVORITE pants to sleep in! The name explains it all. We have them in all the colors, black, grey, blue, & stripped! They come in regular, petite, and TALL! 🙂 Grab these cozy pants here: https://www.jcrew.com/p/womens_category/pajamas/dreamy-pant/C3730?color_name=navy

High Garden Tea

We LOVE everything at this place, but a few of our favorites are “Overworked” “Tummy” & “Ginger Mint Revive.” You can order online here highgardentea.com since they are located in Nashville, Tennessee! And if you ever visit Nashville, go to their store it’s so cute!

Manduka Pro Mats

These lifetime guaranteed mats are THA best. We’ve both had ours for over 5 years and still use them everyday. We have these in studio in purple, teal, black, & sage green. We also can always order your favorite color & have it in the studio for you! $110 Regular, $136 X-Long for all of us tall folk.

We truly hope you have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS this year & that this gives you some ideas on your holiday gift giving! We love supporting small businesses (duh) but it really does make a difference when you support small. Most of our goodies in our studio are from real people, making things they love, to support their dreams. So, this year think about supporting small, it helps in a BIG way!

Sidenote: If you already have all of these things, we also have GIFT CARDS in the studio that you can put any amount to. Give the gift of health this year!

Namaste To Play,

Kalynn & Patricia

November 12, 2017

Liya Mar – Yoga Instructor + NASM CPT

We are so very excited to introduce our newest team member, Liya Mar! You can catch her on the mat every Thursday evening at 6 PM for Yoga 4 Athletes and 7:15 PM for Slow Flow, starting November 30, 2017!

Liya grew up in a family with a regular meditation practice. She started her yoga journey when she was pursing her Ph.D. in Wisconsin. Yoga literally saved her from the chronic upper back shoulder pain which she suffered from the intensive graduate works. She finished her Vinyasa Yoga teaching training in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2017 before moving to Houston with her husband. She is currently studying for the NASM-CPT with an expected certificate in 2018!

Liya remembers, as a young child, meditation and breath work aren’t easy tasks, but with yoga, breathing and calmness comes naturally. Liya seeks to deepen her understanding of different lineages of yoga, as well as anatomy-based practices. She now teaches in schools, gyms and online. In her class, you’ll find inspiring music and strengthening sequences of asanas. Aside from yoga, she loves spending time in the gym, watching basketball, wondering in nature with her family and friends.

October 28, 2017

Building Hip Stability

As most of you know, I recently had hip surgery due to a torn labrum and damaged cartilage. I’ve been an athlete my whole life and have always had semi-tight hips. When I started my yoga practice, I went deep into working on hip openers. I honestly only worked on yoga poses for about 3 years, before putting strength exercises back into my routine. I was working so hard on just building flexibility that I stopped working on strength building and stability as much as I used to. What I’ve learned is that hip stability is just as important as hip flexibility. The root of my torn labrum was never confirmed from just yoga or just sports, I believe is from years of playing sports and my body’s anatomy (I have funky hips per my x-rays). I am just wanting to help share some good insight, on what I’ve learned through my own personal journey with movement. Overall finding a balance between flexibility & stability is crucial in your body’s health. The good thing is, if you’re already taking YAX and Yoga classes, you are doing the best thing you can for your body!

Working on Hip Stability vs. Hip Flexibility

When yogis talk hips, it’s generally about opening them. But your hips CAN be too open… Learn why balancing strength and flexibility in the hips is so important.

Hip strength is necessary in day-to-day life. Whether we are walking in the park, running for the bus, or cycling to work, the hip joint takes the brunt of the body’s weight and enables all of these fundamental actions. In short: Stable hips are a good thing—they carry our bodies throughout the day.

Understanding the Hip Joint

The hip joint is a ball and socket joint composed of two bones. The femur sits in the acetabulum, which is part of the pelvis. Covering the bones of the hip is the articular cartilage. The articular cartilage is important for providing a cushion and a smooth surface when the bones move on one another. Surrounding the acetabulum is additional cartilage called the labrum, which forms a lip around the cup-shaped bone to provide additional stability in the joint.

While it is helpful to understand the anatomy of the hip, what may be more even important (if a bit frightening) is knowing that one of the deepest layers of the joint, the cartilage, does not have any nerve endings. This means you may not be aware of any damage to the cartilage until it is too late. Although cartilage doesn’t have nerve endings, the surrounding muscles, tendons, and ligaments do, which is why yoga can be helpful for tuning into the body to find a balance between strength and flexibility for health of the muscles and the integrity of the joints. By listening to our bodies with this sense of mindfulness we can begin to notice our strengths and weaknesses, which enables us to develop a nourishing practice that our bodies truly need.

Most athletes, THAT’s US! have extremely tight hips. So, hip openers are a great thing for us! But with all of the hip openers we practice, we want to balance it out and always stabilize and protect our joints.

3 Poses to Build Stability in the Hips

Bridge Pose, variation

Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet hip-width apart and knees directly above your ankles. Place your arms on either side of your body with your palms facing down. Lengthen your tailbone toward the front of your mat. Lift one leg perpendicular to the floor (optional: bend knee). On your inhalation, keep your leg raised and lift your hips off the floor into a Bridge position. On your exhalation, with your leg still raised, lower your hips again. Repeat the exercise for 5 rounds of breath on each side.

Chair Pose, variation

For this exercise, hold Chair Pose with your feet hip-width apart. As you inhale, straighten one leg to the side and as your exhale bring it back to its original position. Repeat the exercise on each side 10 times or until the hip-stabilizing muscles start to fatigue.

Leg Raises

For this final exercise, lie on your side and rest your head on your arm. Bend your bottom leg to approximately 90 degrees so you have a steady base. Raise your top leg about a foot above the ground. Extend your lifted leg in a straight line from your spine and flex the foot. Hold for 10 breaths and relax the leg for 5 breaths. Repeat the exercise for 3 rounds on each side.

Toe Taps

The toe tap is a much more controlled and equally, if not more, brutal stability exercise for the hip. For this drill, you need either a mini band or a barbell. With the mini band around the thighs or barbell on your back, put all your weight into one leg and bend the knee slightly. Then reach out with your other leg, leading with the heel, and tap the ground out to the side. The goal with this drill is to look like a robot. The leg that you are standing on shouldn’t move. It should be bent and stay bent the whole time. The leg that is tapping the ground should be tapping so lightly that you could touch an egg shell but not break it.

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment below!

-Kalynn

Sources:

ALICE LOUISE BLUNDEN

www.yogajournal.com

More on common myths about tight hips: https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/5-common-myths-athletes-tight-hips

October 28, 2017

Yummy Fall Chili Recipe

It’s finally cooled off in Houston, and we wanted to share this yummy Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili Recipe! This recipe is Vegetarian. So, you can keep it that way, or add in some ground turkey or ground venison if you have any hunters in the fam. Chili is the best for this time of year! So, get to cookin’ & get cozy!

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 medium-large sweet potato, peeled and diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 4 teaspoons ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon ground chipotle chile (see Note)
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2½ cups water or vegetable stock
• 2 15-ounce cans black beans, rinsed
• 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 4 teaspoons lime juice
• ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro

Preparation

• Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add sweet potato and onion and cook, stirring often, until the onion is beginning to soften, about 4 minutes. Add garlic, chili powder, cumin, chipotle and salt and cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds. Add water and bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer and cook until the sweet potato is tender, 10 to 12 minutes.
• Add beans, tomatoes and lime juice; increase heat to high and return to a simmer, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer until slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.
• Make Ahead Tip: Cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
• Note: Chipotle peppers are dried, smoked jalapeño peppers. Ground chipotle chile pepper can be found in the spice section of most supermarkets or online at penzeys.com
  ENJOY! 

  from http://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/250222/sweet-potato-black-bean-chili/

October 28, 2017

How to Stay Accountable & Healthy during the Holidays

Thanksgiving Celebration Traditional Dinner Table Setting Concept

The holidays are the most wonderful time of the year! However, they have seemed to become the most stressful time of the year, especially living in Houston. So, before you start worrying over how many gifts you have to buy, what meals you have to make, what all you have to do before the end of the year, just STOP and BREATHE. Let’s change your habits this year, by slowing down, staying in your health routine and doing things that benefit YOU.

Do you love how you feel after a yoga class? Remember that feeling. Remember the little things that bring you to class each day. Remember the holidays are the best time, but only if you can really stop and enjoy them. We have put together some tips and ideas for staying accountable and staying healthy throughout the holidays:

Book Your Classes Ahead of Time & COMMIT. You know better than anyone else what you need each week, to have a successfully healthy week. So, don’t let little things get in your way. Prep on the weekend for a great week. Book your classes ahead of time. Go to the grocery store and start meal prepping some items so your week can be a little less stressful. Commit to your exercise regime. At the beginning of each week, write down in your calendar what days you are coming to yoga or workout. And show up. 

Get a Workout Buddy. Encourage each other daily, show up to class together and have fun with them! Have you joined our YAX Members Facebook group? It is a great place to find a friend, if you need a little help 🙂 https://www.facebook.com/groups/354690811610604/

Take Vitamin C! It is the holiday season, which also means cold & flu season. Stay on top of your health.

Sleep. Get plenty of shut eye! Try for at least 7-8 hours of sleep every night. This is the MOST important. The more sleep the more your body has time to recover from each day. Yoga & exercise help promote good, deep sleep! Duh! 

Drink more TEA. Trade that coffee for tea this season. Start sippin’ tea to calm your nervous system down. Our favorite brand is: www.highgardentea.com. You can order online & they ship to your house. Literally the best tea in the world! Our favorites: Overworked, Ginger Mint Revive, Sunrise Blend (as dark as coffee), Tummy Tea (for upset stomachs). They also have seasonal teas that are oh so yummy! These also make for great gifts! Hint Hint, for our last & final tip. 

Christmas Shop Early! This is my favorite thing to do. So, during the holidays, I can stay home, watch Christmas movies & wrap gifts! Start making those lists for what you want to get for your loved ones. So, when it is December, you can spend your weekends and week nights coming to classes and avoiding the CRAZY Christmas shoppers & traffic. Take advantage of Amazon, y’all. 

Looking forward to having a holly jolly season with all of you at YAX. We will for sure be decorating!

Much love,

Kalynn