Workout Yoga (ワークアウトヨガ）

This month I began teaching a class I call ワークアウトヨガ (Workout Yoga) at Body Care Salon Jade. The purpose of the class is to discover, wake up, and mobilize muscles that support good posture and functional movement. Balls and rollers, mini resistance bands, and yoga blocks are among the tools we use to accomplish this goal. Mini resistance bands allow us to strengthen muscles throughout the entire range of motion. If you do a bench press overhead with weights, your shoulder muscles will primarily work on the lift against gravity. If you do an overhead press while pulling on a mini resistance band, so that it stays taut, you'll use the same amount of effort on the band throughout the entire lifting and lowering phase. Strengthening muscles evenly throughout the entire range of motion prevents jerky movements and lowers the chance of injury. It also helps build greater functional mobility, as we can strengthen muscles and add flexibility at the same time in a process called eccentric (lengthening) contraction.

Here's a link to a 30-minute YouTube workout yoga video I created.