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.
Tonight I’ll be enjoying the NBA Playoff game between my beloved San Antonio Spurs and the LA Clippers. One way that the Spurs succeed is with ball movement. They make every pass to each other count, until they get the best shot, going from good shot to great shot. And it reminded me about my last visit to San Antonio, to appear on KSAT’s SA Live — and talk about making movements count.
I told Fiona Gorostiza on the program that HeavyWeight Yoga was created to give people who are overweight or affected by obesity a safe place to do yoga. People came from out of nowhere, from out of their living rooms, people who would never walk into a gym or a yoga studio. They’d say, “We read about yoga. We want those benefits. But there isn’t a safe place for us to come practice.”
I’ve created a safe place with HeavyWeight Yoga.
These methods make sure that every movement counts. Here’s an example. If I’m trying to stretch my hamstrings and I have both legs out in front, my belly and the tops of my legs come together, and the stretch is not being realized. If I recreate the pose and be sure there’s a space for my belly, by using the Energetic Swipe, I can come deep into the stretch and be safe all at the same time. And not be wasting my time.
With HeavyWeight Yoga, it’s never about the number of repetitions. It’s about your body being able to receive the work.
To do a HeavyWeight Yoga roll-up, I begin with my feet together and my knees apart. You’ll see by starting in that position that there’s space for the belly. My arms are out and my hands are staying parallel. I’m moving slowly in my pose, breathing the arms up and then overhead, then lowering to the mat. And then with the breath, coming up one vertabrae at a time. I’m using muscle, not momentum. In a gym, you’d be doing 10 crunches in an exercise, when I’m only doing three roll-ups. But my body’s getting a great benefit.
Little movements go a long way to loving who you are.
This morning Ron and I spent our breakfast time together trying to predict the future seeding in the Western Conference. It started out innocently enough, looking at the future for our beloved Spurs. But then we felt we also needed to look at the other teams in contention. We debated, we laughed, we joked — we even did math.And while we were looking at the future, we were totally present together.
Yoga’s present to you is being present. Even if you’re looking forward to what you want, or looking back and reminiscing about what you have already received — when you come onto the yoga mat, you can have a 360 Degree You. You become centered and balanced.
Planning with another person may not change the outcome, but it does change the relationship with the person you’re planning with. For us, it was our Spurs winning their way to the top end of the bracket, but it could be anything. It could be planning a trip, one we may never take. Or looking forward to how we’ll be enjoying birthdays with our grandchildren. I look toward the future and see how old I’ll be when they’re out of high school, or out of college. I plan to be present for them.
You can plan and still release your expectations. The outcome doesn’t matter, because for us the benefit was happening in our present moment of sharing. It’s fun to do with a partner, or a good friend, or anyone of a like mind.
On this morning when lots of people are thinking about basketball, we were sharing hopes and fears. Something as innocent as looking forward to our Spurs winning. It was allowing us to practice for more serious matters than may lie ahead.
It seems that all of life is a practice, isn’t it?
American Fitness
“By engaging in the unique HeavyWeight Yoga practices that Lentz has developed, students can experience the benefits of yoga, such as increased flexibility, added strength, improved balance and reduced stress.” Download the PDF
Austin American-Statesman
Pam LeBlanc updates readers on the latest HeavyWeight Yoga DVD, Five X 25. Download the PDF.