Read Laurel Kallenbach’s article on yoga and the art of self love as she
interviews HeavyWeight Yoga Founder Abby Lentz. Including a how-to side bar on the Do’s and Don’ts of doing yoga with the body you have today.
While WW missed the mark on the model,
they hit the bullseye in letting their readers
know about HeavyWeight Yoga.
As most of you already know, I love basketball and am passionate about my San Antonio Spurs. Even though he’s now retired, I love having us all stretch Tim Duncan Tall. Just as on and off the yoga mat, there’s lots of life to be learned on and off the basketball court.
A spectacular slamdunk and an ordinary tip-in both score the same 2 points. Sportsmanship counts, reflected not only in final scores, but also in humility during and after the game. A Hall of Fame player often never wears a Finals ring.
As playoff time nears there’s a lot of talk about a team’s Magic Number. This is a combination of wins and losses that determines a team’s ranking in the playoffs. You can advance by winning, but you can also advance by someone else winning over your close competition.
It all sounds more mathematical than it really is, but it got me to thinking — what if in life we all had a Magic Number? So many good deeds, so many acts of kindness and we’d go to the championship round. Do something not so good — and we all do — no worries, our friends will help us out and push us ahead.
I like thinking our Life Magic Number is infinite in scope. That in our lifetime we all will have enough opportunity to do good to make us champions, even if there’s no ring at the end of the season.
GO SPURS GO!
If you’re flying to your vacation destination you can appreciate that some airports now have yoga studios available. According to Rodale’s Organic Life here’s the best of the airport yoga studios.
More than likely however, like me you’re not going to intersect with any of these half dozen airports. No worries however, it’s easy to integrate yoga into your layovers without standing out as much as you might think.
Feel a low backache from the entire sitting? Do wall or sink support downward dog. Grab the sink or place your hands on a wall or door about hip high, step back until your hips are level with your hands (soft bend in the knees) and then press the hips away to lengthen you back and stretch your hamstrings.
Feel like you’ve been curled up all flight? While sitting reach back with both hands and hold onto your se
at, ground both feet and press your heart center forward squeezing the shoulder blades together as you stretch out across the front body shoulder to shoulder.
While you may not want or be able to stand on your head like the woman in the picture, you might find enough courage to get your legs up a wall or up on a chair. Here I am outside the Louvre in Paris giving my feet a thorough rest.
If being upsidedown in public isn’t your style simply slip off your shoes and do the Point (toes pointing away to stretch the top of the foot); the Demi-Point (press through the ball of the foot while pulling the toes up and apart); and the Flex (press the heel away to stretch the Achilles and calf). In girly-girl shoe talk, that’s a ballet toe shoe, sexy high heel and an earth shoe negative heel.
Check out my many travel stretches on YouTube on the HeavyWeightYoga channel. You’ll find complete tips not just for flying but driving as well. My favorite prop to pack is my 10-foot strap. Put it somewhere you’ll often see it to remind you when you’re at your vacation spot to sprinkle a little yoga once you get there.
Most important travel with ease!
My March show, Wednesday evening, includes a free lesson at the event’s Livesteam page. Send me your questions by email, or join me live to chat at 6 PM. It’s more than a class — it’s a conversation. Follow me on Livestream to get a reminder about this month’s Abby Unplugged. I honor the light within you.
I got some blog advice today from a health newsletter that suggests when you get feeling anxious, instead of eating, you should “lace up your sneakers” and walk it off. While adding aerobic activity is often a good idea, what if taking a walk just isn’t possible at the moment anxiety strikes?
Lacing up your sneakers may not be an option because you’re bed-bound or can’t reach your feet. But supposing you’re stuck in traffic, knowing you’ll be late for an appointment; or in the office reading an email that says layoffs are coming; or at home cooking dinner to discover you don’t have a essential ingredient to complete the main dish.
The list can go on and on — including you can’t take a walk because of something as simple as it’s raining.
The one thing I know we all do, every day, all the time is breathe. Yep, in and out, inhale, exhale — I know it’s happening right now as you read these words. That makes it all the easier to reduce anxiety with one simple solution — Deep Belly Breathing.
When possible I enjoy doing a few sighing breaths first. Just like it sounds, sighing breaths are made by breathing in through the nose and out the mouth, making the sounds to release tension while vibrating across the face and jaw. I like to really get noisy, but when I can’t be making a racket, I start with my Deep Belly Breathing. Read More →
Abby Unplugged!
June 3 at 6p (Central)
After selling DVDs over the past decade I’ve only been able to meet a small number 
of you in person — but now with technology advancing in leaps and bounds Wednesday night I’ll be able to chat with you live!
I started sharing my work with Women’s Retreats in 2007 at what was then The Crossings outside Austin. Abby Unplugged became a tradition as my Women’s Retreats wrapped up on the last day.
Wanting to be sure no one left with an unanswered — or unasked question — I devote the final retreat segment to “Abby Unplugged.”
While my original thoughts were that this would be about yoga poses and philosophy, these unplugged sessions quickly became involved with questions about my personal self — advice on meditation and poses would often be followed by what sex is like at 67. How much I weigh became as important as how long have I been doing yoga (219 lbs / 43 years).
Yoga is so intrinsic to our lives it can touch on all that we do and everyone we meet. Not because we throw Sanskrit phrases around or drop into a headstand, but because yoga helps us to be present and be our best self even when situations are difficult.
Starting Wednesday June 3 at 6P (Central) time I’ll now be able to answer your questions even though we are not sharing the same space.
If you can’t be there live, but have questions you’d like to ask, email me at
abby@heavyweightyoga.com by Tuesday night. I’ll work to fit them into this event. No rules, no restrictions — I’ll be there on the mat to answer them all.
Hope you can join me as we get this opportunity to meet at last!
Abby Unplugged!
Live Stream Event
June 3 at 6p (Central)
Jon Hamm as Don Drapper finds peace with “Om”
However, from Om on a hillside to mass consumption of a soft drink, there is a lot between sip and lip. Since this is a yoga blog, let’s just focus on the meaning of “Om” and how to bring it into your life.
As on this episode of Mad Men, Om is often used as a chant repeated multiple times. This repetition will help bring your brain a meditation state — a state of the mindless mind — so it can relax. I use it to begin my daily meditation practice, chanting Om 3 times. (Oddly enough it’s also come to signal to my dog Tess that’s it’s time for us both to be still.)
For me Om represents the sound of all sounds. Wind in your hair, sizzling sun on the sidewalk, waves crashing to shore — your own breath — all are to be found in a single Om. While Don, new at all this, sounds Om as one flat note, in fact, Om consists of 4 separate sounds: Read More →
Today I got my daily email from Yoga Journal. It’s a great resource and reminder about what’s going on with yoga. The topic was yoga for sleep, something that I struggle with. I have tinnitus, constant ringing in the ears, which gets even louder when I’m tired, making going to sleep difficult. I use a masking technique which often has me falling asleep to audio
books on a timer. So I was very interested in seeing what was recommended.
What I found was Yoganidrasana, where you start on your back, placing both legs behind your head, hands clasped to the small of the back. For me just trying to get into that pose would be exhausting enough to make sleep easier I’m sure!
Unable to do this pose, I went to the HeavyWeight Yoga technique of Pose-Pairing — taking the benefits of a pose I’m unable to do and matching them to poses that I can do, or at least have a hope of doing anyway.
Wanting to work from the bed top I decided on these poses for better sleep: Read More →
Holidays are often a way to carve out time for yourself that’s sanctioned by the calendar. This Memorial Day you can kick-start your summer at the HeavyWeight Yoga Women’s Retreat at the serene Camp Allen.
Instead of a holiday to get away, we’re all coming to understand Memorial Day as a family holiday, one of the first of the year. But what if you consider taking care of yourself a holiday gift to your family? If that’s true, you will want the support and love of others around you as you create that gift. The benefits are not just for you, but for everyone who loves you. That all starts with loving yourself. It’s the third A of the HeavyWeight Way: Affection.
A retreat often is a special and even a sacred event in our lives. You make plans for your future at a retreat, because you’re laying a foundation. A few days away can truly deliver best-laid plans. My Spring HeavyWeight Yoga Women’s Retreat will let us explore time, yoga, and you. Consider this retreat as a pathway to find the time to deliver to yourself. Lay down that path for your time to come.
Join me for a weekend of retreat this spring. Let’s find joy together in time we will spend on ourselves.
