Yoga Medicine

Whether the skills we aim to develop in yoga practice are physical or mental, yoga students and teachers can learn a lot from movement science. So in today's episode, we dive into neuroplasticity and key principles from movement science to explore how to learn new skills more effectively and efficiently.

Host Rachel is joined by returning guest Sava Papos, a Yoga Medicine Therapeutic Specialist, exercise and sport scientist, and clinical exercise physiology master's graduate. Sava shares practical ways to facilitate the learning process, including adapting feedback to a student's stage of learning, balancing repetition with rest, changing the learning environment, dual-tasking, and offering externally focused cues.

"Neuroplasticity is about building pathways, about a strong structure for effective movement." — Sava Papos.

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What You'll Learn:

• Neuroplasticity: how practice refines neural pathways [4:04]
• Repetition, challenge, and personal meaning support skill development [9:22]
• Cognitive, associative, and autonomous stages of motor learning [10:47]
• Massed versus distributed practice: why breaks can help learning [22:21]
• Environmental changes are critical in motor learning [26:54]
• Dual-tasking in autonomous stage boosts skill transferability [33:11]
• Why external focus cues support movement efficiency [40:01]
• Final takeaways [46:18]

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Links Mentioned:

• Watch this episode on YouTube
• Episode 91: Balance Myths Busted
• Connect with Sava Papas: Instagram

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Learn More:

Find the full show notes at YogaMedicine.com/podcast-179.

Learn more about insider tips, online classes or information on our teacher trainings at YogaMedicine.com.

To support our work, please leave us a 5 star review with your feedback on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

From ritualistic roles in ancient times to the dominance of white Western women in modern asana imagery, the role of women in yoga has experienced some changes through the years.

In today's episode, host Rachel Land welcomes returning guest Firdose Moonda, MA, to shed light on the often-overlooked role of women in yoga. Firdose traces women's roles from early Vedic ritual and the epics through fierce goddesses, Mirabai, Indra Devi, and the development of modern yoga. Along the way, she invites us to question the idea that yoga has a singular and straightforward history, explore the limitations of viewing ancient traditions through modern eyes, and consider how today's teachers and practitioners are actively creating the future history of yoga.

"The circular journey that yoga has taken back to me as a woman who is quite connected to culture made me feel like there's something missing in the exploration of how I'm seeing myself here." — Firdose Moonda.

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What You'll Learn:

• From Indian men to white Western women [02:33]
• Women's roles in early Vedic ritual [05:50]
• Fierce goddesses and the complexity of the divine feminine [12:21]
• Medieval times: Mirabai challenges social expectations [19:02]
• Indra Devi: yoga asana moving West [27:21]
• Creating yoga's future history now [35:24]
• Have we moved beyond fear-based cultural appropriation to truly honor yoga's roots? [42:49]
• The Women in Yoga Teacher Training with Firdose Moonda [50:20]

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• Watch this episode on YouTube
• LIVE Online Women in Yoga Teacher Training
• Rachel's Strength + Stretch series on Yoga Medicine Online
• Previous podcasts wth Firdose:
  • Yoga, Politics & History
  • Yoga & Religion
  • Yoga's Hidden History

• Connect with Firdose Moonda MA: Instagram | Firdose Moonda | YMO Guest Teacher

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Learn More:

Find the full show notes at YogaMedicine.com/podcast-178.

Learn more about insider tips, online classes or information on our teacher trainings at YogaMedicine.com.

To support our work, please leave us a 5 star review with your feedback on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Death will inevitably touch us all, yet it's a topic many of us instinctively shrink from. In this episode, host Rachel Land is joined by returning guest Dr. Marnie Hartman to explore this dichotomy.

Dr. Hartman is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, yoga teacher, and now death doula. Today she shares how her personal journey led her into end-of-life care. She unpacks the problem with cultural avoidance of death and highlights the unique role yoga teachers can play in supporting students through grief, uncertainty, and end-of-life reflection.

This conversation offers practical tools, philosophical insights, and a powerful reminder that awareness of death can profoundly deepen how we live.

"Don't wait. Stop waiting. Like today, today is the day you start having that conversation." — Dr. Marnie Hartman.

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What You'll Learn:

• Introduction: why this topic? [0:53]
• We avoid talking about death, and that's a problem [6:07]
• Medical professionals & family members aren't talking about end-of-life [10:00]
• Holding space without needing to be an expert [16:07]
• Discussing loss in group classes vs. private sessions [20:42]
• What end-of-life yoga practice might look like [29:44]
• Savasana as a reflection of death [35:32]
• How awareness of mortality can shift priorities and deepen meaning [41:33]
• The power of community, other final takeaways [44:52]

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Links Mentioned:

• Watch this episode on YouTube
• Watch Dr. Hartman's video on Embracing Mortality
• Watch Dr. Hartman's video on Thresholds
• Rubenstein Fazzio L, Pitman A, Prosko S. Turning toward mortality: yoga's savasana as a salutogenic practice for engaging with death anxiety. Front Public Health. 2026 Mar 4;14:1771782. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2026.1771782. PMID: 41859253; PMCID: PMC12995684.
• The Art of Dying Before You Die, Aditi Sethi
• Previous Yoga Medicine Podcasts:
  • Shifting Persistent Pain
  • Pain Science Insights on Performance

• Connect with Dr. Marnie Hartman: LinkedIn | BodyIQPT | painscienceyogalife | YMO Guest Teacher

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Learn More:

Find the full show notes at YogaMedicine.com/podcast-177.

Learn more about insider tips, online classes or information on our teacher trainings at YogaMedicine.com.

To support our work, please leave us a 5 star review with your feedback on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

In this episode of the Yoga Medicine Podcast, host Rachel speaks with Yoga Medicine Therapeutic Specialist Stephanie Ketter about her 1,000-hour research project. Inspired by her own experiences with sleep disruption and forgetfulness, Stephanie's project examined the effects of a yoga-based intervention on menopause symptoms related to sleep, mood, and concentration.

Stephanie walks through the eight-week group intervention, which combined live online lectures, yoga, pranayama, meditation, mindfulness, and acupressure with short at-home on-demand video practices, sharing the challenges she faced and what she learned along the way. The episode ultimately highlights how complex and varied this life phase can be, and the importance of giving people practical tools they can use to respond to their symptoms.

"I can definitely talk about sleep problems and not falling asleep and staying awake, and I met so many women who reported the same, like...being awake every night, impossible to fall back asleep for weeks or a month, and it takes a toll on your health, on your well-being, and also on the concentration." - Stephanie Ketter.

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What You'll Learn:

• What inspired Stephanie's 1,000-hour research project [03:49]
• The eight-week intervention: lecture, yoga, acupressure, pranayama, mindfulness [08:22]
• Measuring outcomes, improvements in nighttime waking & forgetfulness [15:15]
• Project challenges, including finding participants [18:40]
• Stress and self-compassion emerged as important themes [24:41]
• Increased awareness of symptoms can result in them feeling worse [26:47]
• Most helpful acupressure and mindfulness practices [32:51]
• Active morning practices versus calming evening practices [39:20]
• Mindfulness tools change the experience of waking during the night [42:50]
• Shedding societal expectations: findings related to mood [46:36]
• Helpful tools from the Yoga Medicine Menopause Live Online Teacher Training [55:48]

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Links Mentioned:

• Watch this episode on YouTube
• Yoga Medicine Live Online Menopause Teacher Training
• Connect with Stephanie Ketter: Instagram | YouTube | Asana und Achtsamkeit

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Learn More:

Find the full show notes at YogaMedicine.com/podcast-176.

Learn more about insider tips, online classes or information on our teacher trainings at YogaMedicine.com.

To support our work, please leave us a 5 star review with your feedback on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Revisit a previous episode where hosts Tiffany Cruikshank and Katja Bartsch dive into a 2025 study analyzing more than 145,000 symptom logs from nearly 4,800 women pre- peri- and post-menopause. They discuss how symptoms can vary widely between individuals and across different stages of the transition, while also highlighting why emerging research should be interpreted with curiosity rather than certainty.

"The research is really making an effort to understand how women experience their transition on a daily basis." — Katja Bartsch.

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What You'll Learn:

• The study: more than 145,000 symptom logs from almost 5,000 users [02:15]
• Symptoms differ between pre-menopause, perimenopause, and post-menopause [04:19]
• Top symptoms in each stage [06:53]
• Greater granularity is needed when studying individual symptoms [10:17]
• How research like this informs future studies [12:26]

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Links Mentioned:

• Watch this episode on YouTube
• Yoga Medicine Live Online Menopause Teacher Training
• Read the research here: Aras SG, Grant AD, Konhilas JP. Clustering of > 145,000 symptom logs reveals distinct pre, peri, and menopausal phenotypes. Sci Rep. 2025 Jan 3;15(1):640. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-84208-3. PMID: 39753725; PMCID: PMC11699220.

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Learn More:

Find the full show notes at YogaMedicine.com/podcast-175.

Learn more about insider tips, online classes or information on our teacher trainings at YogaMedicine.com.

To support our work, please leave us a 5 star review with your feedback on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Today's episode explores one of our favorite topics, fascia, from a fresh perspective. Host Rachel is joined by David Lesondak, Senior Structural Integrator and Fascia Specialist at UPMC's Center for Integrative Medicine. David is an author, educator, and fascia specialist whose work focuses on helping people better understand and appreciate the fascial system.

David unpacks what fascia is, why it matters, and what yoga practitioners need to know to support fascial fitness. He explains the importance of feeding our bodies a varied "movement diet", including pandiculation, hydration through twisting, myofascial release, elastic recoil, skipping, and bouncing.

The conversation also explores the need for collaboration between yoga, bodywork, and other treatment modalities, and touches on whether fascia could actually provide a framework through which we experience embodiment.

"Our bodies are meant to do all kinds of things, and so we should be feeding them all kinds of stimulus." — David Lesondak.

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What You'll Learn:

• Defining fascia: your whole-body connective system [03:04]
• Getting "unstuck" - the who, what, and why of hands-on fascial intervention [05:40]
• Pandiculation for fascial fitness [09:17]
• Hydration, twisting, and the "sponge" analogy [11:39]
• Myofascial release and why softer is better [17:30]
• Elastic recoil, skipping and preparatory counter-movement [21:30]
• Building a more varied "movement diet" [27:49]
• Collaborative referral networks; a multi-model treatment for fascia [29:24]
• What yoga practitioners can learn from The Fascia Connection [33:23]
• Fascia as the mechanism for embodiment [37:47]

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Links Mentioned:

• Watch this episode on YouTube
• Fascial Fitness Sun Salutation
• The Fascia Connection: Discover the Key to Flexibility, Vitality, and Pain-Free Living
• Connect with David Lesondak: Facebook | Instagram | David Lesondak

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Learn More:

Find the full show notes at YogaMedicine.com/podcast-174.

Learn more about insider tips, online classes or information on our teacher trainings at YogaMedicine.com.

To support our work, please leave us a 5 star review with your feedback on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Today on the Yoga Medicine Podcast, Tiffany Cruikshank and co-host Katja Bartsch explore the latest research on strength training during pre- and post-menopause. Using a newly published systematic review and meta-analysis of 126 studies involving more than 4,000 women, they unpack what the evidence actually says about building strength and improving body composition in different stages of reproductive aging.

Together, Tiffany and Katja separate common myths from current research, discussing progressive overload, lean muscle, body composition, estrogen, and why strength gains remain possible well into midlife and beyond. They also explore why consistency and enjoyment may be just as important as the specific type of resistance training you choose, offering practical takeaways for yoga practitioners, teachers, and anyone looking to age well.

"When we intervene, when we start to create a plan... the capacity to build strength is the same." — Tiffany Cruikshank.

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What You'll Learn:

• Overview of the latest research on strength training across the female lifespan [01:25]
• Why strength gains remain possible after menopause [08:47]
• Body composition changes with strength training [16:25]
• Why enjoyment and consistency are key to long-term success [21:36]
• Current research gaps and unanswered questions [27:07]
• Shifting the focus from weight loss to feeling and functioning your best [31:08]
• How yoga complements strength training for lifelong health [32:34]

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Links Mentioned:

• Watch this episode on YouTube
• Isenmann E, Geisler S, Havers T, Siegert F, Hemke F, Held S. It's never too late: The impact of resistance training on strength and body composition in females across the lifespan - A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Sci Med Sport. 2026 Mar 18:S1440-2440(26)00096-4. doi: 10.1016/j.jsams.2026.03.002. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 41963141.

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Learn More:

Find the full show notes at YogaMedicine.com/podcast-173.

Learn more about insider tips, online classes or information on our teacher trainings at YogaMedicine.com.

To support our work, please leave us a 5 star review with your feedback on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Previous episodes have explored the physical form and function of fascia and its interactions with the nervous and immune systems. Today's conversation ventures into more new territory, exploring the relationships between fascia, flow state, and embodied experience.

Host Katja is joined by Fiona Rose Stout PhD, an interdisciplinary researcher, bodyworker, and movement therapist seeking to connect diverse perspectives from neuroscience, creative arts, bodywork, and yoga.

Together, Katja and Fiona explore the fascinating relationship between fascia, movement, and nervous system regulation. They discuss why fascia may provide an important biological lens for understanding embodied awareness, how movement practices can cultivate greater adaptability and resilience, and why integrative thinking is essential when exploring trauma, healing, and the mind-body connection. They also unpack a recent opinion article challenging "The Body Keeps the Score," offering a nuanced discussion about predictive coding, fascia, and contemporary trauma science.

"There's an experience that happens when you actually feel that connection and that integration." — Fiona Stout.

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What You'll Learn:

• Introducing Fiona [01:13]
• Flow state and why it matters for embodied movement practitioners [04:40]
• Fascial fluidity implications for flow state [11:48]
• Connections between nervous system regulation, trauma and flow state [15:11]
• Supporting fascia with curiosity, varied movement, bodywork, myofascial release [21:03]
• A nuanced discussion of "The Body Keeps the Score" [29:05]
• Predictive coding and recent article "The body does not keep the score" [37:05]
• Why integration, not dualism, may better explain human experience [45:11]
• "Different strokes for different folks": final takeaways [50:28]

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Links Mentioned:

• Watch this episode on YouTube
• Kotler S, Mannino M, Fox G and Friston K (2026) The body does not keep the score: trauma, predictive coding, and the restoration of metastability. Front. Syst. Neurosci. 20:1812957. doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2026.1812957
• Yoga Medicine 50hr Myofascial Release Training, Denver, Colorado, October 11-16
• Connect with Fiona Stout PhD: PhD Dissertation | Miss Fi Yoga | Instagram | LinkedIn

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Learn More:

Find the full show notes at YogaMedicine.com/podcast-172.

Learn more about insider tips, online classes or information on our teacher trainings at YogaMedicine.com.

To support our work, please leave us a 5 star review with your feedback on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Most of us spend more time unintentionally still than we would like, and yet there is undeniable power in the purposeful stillness of savasana. In this episode, we take a closer look at savasana—an almost universally familiar posture, yet perhaps also one of the most loaded with assumption and expectation.

Hosts Tiffany and Rachel discuss how savasana supports recovery, nervous system regulation and resilience, as well as why there is no single "perfect" version of the pose and how thoughtful modifications can make this practice more accessible for every body.

From prop setups and guided relaxation to alternatives for students who find stillness challenging, this conversation offers practical strategies for both yoga teachers and practitioners to make rest a more meaningful part of practice.

"The shape is not really the thing. It's just a container for the practice that you're creating in savasana." - Tiffany Cruikshank.

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What You'll Learn:

• Defining savasana and approaches to it [01:51]
• Savasana as the integration, close, and clearing of practice [03:13]
• Current research on savasana [05:38]
• Savasana for nervous system regulation [10:22]
• Challenges in savasana: discomfort lying still [14:03]
• Guidance for mental restlessness in savasana [19:13]
• Prop options for comfort [24:39]
• Guided vs unguided savasana, duration of quiet [32:34]
• Can we skip savasana? [36:23]
• The value of intentional stillness and "non-doing" [42:17]

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Links Mentioned:

• Watch this episode on YouTube

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Learn More:

Find the full show notes at YogaMedicine.com/podcast-171.

Learn more about insider tips, online classes or information on our teacher trainings at YogaMedicine.com.

To support our work, please leave us a 5 star review with your feedback on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Yoga is increasingly moving beyond the studio to find a place in therapeutic and healthcare settings. That move generates new opportunities, as well as new challenges, for yoga teachers.

In today's episode, host Rachel speaks with Yoga Medicine Therapeutic Specialist Jen Beal, who is a full-time yoga and meditation teacher with the Whole Health division of the US Department of Veterans Affairs.

Jen shares the realities of teaching yoga in a large-scale healthcare environment: working as part of a collaborative care team, documentation requirements, and the need for trauma sensitivity, confidentiality, and accessibility. This conversation offers valuable insight into how yoga can become more inclusive, adaptable, and therapeutic — both inside and outside traditional healthcare systems.

"You don't have to have every single body in your classroom doing the same exact thing." — Jen Beal.

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What You'll Learn:

• Gaining employment in the VA healthcare system [2:31]
• What the role involves [5:40]
• Rewarding and fulfilling work [7:59]
• Unique challenges in this environment [11:58]
• Record-keeping requirements [14:41]
• Privacy and confidentiality matter in healthcare [18:23]
• Clear Scope of Practice [20:30]
• How VA students and sequences differ from yoga studios [26:23]
• A "yoga kit" to encourage home practice [35:37]
• Advice for accessible teaching in healthcare settings [38:29]
• Final takeaways [44:02]

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Links Mentioned:

• Watch this episode on YouTube
• Connect with Jen Beal: Instagram | Still and Flow Yoga

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Learn More:

Find the full show notes at YogaMedicine.com/podcast-170.

Learn more about insider tips, online classes or information on our teacher trainings at YogaMedicine.com.

To support our work, please leave us a 5 star review with your feedback on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.