Yoga with Melissa

Daily Hatha Yoga

This hour long daily hatha yoga routine includes the twelve most important yoga poses you should do every day. The inversions, backbends, twists, forward folds, balancing poses, side bends and resting poses in this hatha yoga class will give you the most complete yoga class for your body that will attend both to your physical well-being and health, but also calm your mind, improve your emotional and mental well-being, give you more energy and leave you feeling rested.

The resting postures in this class will recharge your batteries, release tension from your body, boost your immune system, relieve fatigue and help to deepen your breathing. There are poses in this class which will help to strengthen your legs, butt and glutes. Backbends will open up your chest and counteract rounded and poor postural habits from hours of screen time. Hip openers will relieve tight hips, back pain, sciatica, are great for athletes and are great for those of us who spend long hours sitting. Throughout this class your spine is taken through the four movements of flexion, extension, lateral flexion and rotation. These movements will not only help to relieve back pain, but because the spine houses the central nervous system they are also calming and help to relieve stress and anxiety. Balancing postures are combined with core strengthening postures in this class for efficiency to support your body. Several of the poses in this class support breast tissue health by encouraging lymphatic flow through the armpits and breast tissue as well toning breast and armpit tissue.

In April in our membership community we will be supporting our members in their primary aspiration of commiting to their daily yoga practice by formulating daily yoga timetables and extra support like a Daily Yoga Chart and a live class with two way video teaching our members how to use the Daily Yoga Chart.

I will be releasing 5 new classes into our membership in April including:

* 30 Minute Daily Hatha Yoga

* Daily Hatha Yoga for Grounding (30 mins)

* Daily Hatha Yoga for Strength (30 mins)

* Daily Hatha Yoga for Optimal Digestion (30 mins)

* Daily Hatha Yoga for Breast Tissue Health (20 mins)

We would love to welcome you into our community and support you in your daily yoga practice in April and beyond: Click Here

 

Daily Yoga

This is a simple, step by step, easy to follow, slow Daily Yoga Routine for Beginners. The class is taught by expert beginner yoga teacher, Melissa West, who has over 50 much loved beginner yoga videos on YouTube. This one is a 60 minute full body yoga routine that beginners can practice daily. It is great for low back pain, digestion, spinal mobility, balance, core strength, circulation, depression, and will strengthen your legs, glutes, and back muscles. These yoga poses are taught in a simple, step by step easy to follow way.

10 Day Get Started Yoga Program:

If you are looking to learn yoga from the best beginner yoga teacher on YouTube then sign up for my 10 day Yoga Get Started Yoga for Beginners Program. In it I will share my best tips for taking beginner yoga classes, how to start yoga at home if you are a beginner, explain why yoga works, talk about how hatha yoga works, how to breathe in yoga and more.

8 Week Beginner Yoga Course: Click Here

This 8 week Yoga for Beginners Course is the most comprehensive and easy way to learn yoga slowly over time at your own pace. Complete it in nine weeks or take your time. Melissa has chosen these classes and put them in the best order for you to be able to learn hatha yoga step by step. Within this framework you will be able to see what beginner yoga classes you have completed, you can mark your favourite classes and you can bookmark classes that you want to come back to. Each week you will be given space for rest and renewal with restorative yoga and yoga nidra (sleep yoga). You will begin with basic hatha yoga classes, learn the parts of a hatha yoga class, learn beginner yoga poses, learn the concepts that come up again and again in a beginner yoga class, practice some of the most requested classes from beginners including strength, flexibility and letting go of stress.

This truly is the most comprehensive beginner yoga course available on the web and Melissa is here to support you on your journey here each step of the way in our community.

Sign up Here

 

Yoga for Small Intestine

This full length yin yoga class for your small intestine meridian will pull and pressurize the tissues of your upper back, shoulder and neck. By pulling and pressurizing the deep tissues of upper back, shoulders and neck you will be stimulating the flow of chi along the energy pathways of your small intestine meridian. When you draw the chi into the meridian pathway of the small intestine organ system you revitalize the organ systems and create harmony for your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.

Your small intestine is 6 meters or 20 feet long. Its job is to sort the food that comes through the small intestine, to absorb what is useful into the bloodstream and pass along what is not.

Mentally and emotionally that translates into absorbing what is useful mentally and releasing what is not. Our small intestines are overtaxed in our modern times by nutritionally deficient foods and information overload. Meaning that they are continually sorting through excessive food that is not that useful and information that is not that useful. This drains the energy of the small intestine meridian.

Five Days of the Principles of Yin - Click Here

March is Meridian March in our membership community. Each day we offer you classes for your meridians in our Daily Yoga Connection. Daily Yoga for your Meridians. On the third Sunday of every month our members enjoy a two hour Yin Yoga workshop with two way video called YinDulgence. Here we are able to explore the principles of Yin Yoga super in depth with a long 90 minute yin yoga class followed by a discussion of your insights and questions about yin yoga.

Link to Become a Member: Click Here

 

Yin Yoga for Liver

This full length yin yoga class for your liver and gallbladder meridians will pull and pressurize the tissues of your hips, side body and inner thighs. By pulling and pressurizing the deep tissues of the hips, side body and inner thighs you will be stimulating the flow of chi along the energy pathways of the liver and gallbladder meridians. When you draw the chi into the meridian pathways of the liver and gallbladder organ systems you revitalize the organ systems and create harmony for your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.

A 2013 Study in the International Journal of Yoga investigated the level of qi in meridian channels by measuring electrodermal measurements at acumeridian endpoints. The study found that the energy was regulated and increased in the meridian channels.

So scientific studies have proven that yin yoga works when it comes to drawing qi into the meridian channels.

The liver meridian: starts at the inside base of the large toe, travels up the inside of the leg and thigh, penetrates the reproductive organs, and flows underneath the rib cage into the Liver, where it circulates internally up through the Lungs.

The gallbladder meridian: begins at the outer corner of the eyes, the meridian zigzags over the sides of the skull, down the back of the neck, crosses back over the shoulders to the front of the body, zigzags across the chest, and the sides of the trunk, then goes through the sides of the hips, thighs, and legs, ending at the second joint of the fourth toe

The liver is responsible for the smooth flow of blood and chi in the body. The Gallbladder stores the bile produced by the liver. Your liver organ is associated with the emotions of irritability, frustration and going with the flow. Your gallbladder is responsible for decision making, judgment and courage. Your liver is the organ that is most affected by stress. When the liver organ is balanced you will be able to go with the flow.

Your gallbladder is seen as a pivot organ and helps you with new beginnings and new stages in your life. It is about taking appropriate action based on the circumstances of your life.

Five Days of the Principles of Yin

March is Meridian March in our membership community. Each day we offer you classes for your meridians in our Daily Yoga Connection. Daily Yoga for your Meridians. On the third Sunday of every month our members enjoy a two hour Yin Yoga workshop with two way video called YinDulgence. Here we are able to explore the principles of Yin Yoga super in depth with a long 90 minute yin yoga class followed by a discussion of your insights and questions about yin yoga.

Link to Become a Member: Click here

 

Beginner Yoga

This restorative yoga class for beginners is a full body restorative yoga class with a bolster. If you do not have a bolster I will show you have to use pillows and blankets from around your home to make your own. This fast-paced world asks us to run all the time. The pace of constant rushing causes us to suffer from anxiety and insomnia. As a result we do not get adequate rest are often completely exhausted physically, mentally, emotionally, energetically and spiritually.

Restorative yoga gives us a pause in our day to restore our energy. In restorative yoga we are practicing supported, passive yoga poses. With the use of yoga props such as bolsters, blocks, blankets and walls your body is supported into a state of recovery. Restorative yoga is excellent for anxiety and stress relief.

The supportive, passive poses of restorative yoga allow your body to access your parasympathetic nervous system or your rest and digest. In every restorative yoga class your spine will be moved in forward bends, inversions, backbends and twists so that if you experience back pain you can rest assured knowing that your back pain will be cared for as well.

Beginner Restorative Yoga Sequence: Legs Up the Wall, Bridge Pose with Block, Side Bend with Bolster, Supported Locust Pose, Front Lying Twist with Bolster, Reclined Bound Angle Pose,

Props Needed: Wall, yoga bolster, yoga blocks

 

Yin Yoga

This Full Body Full Yin Yoga Class was created in response to Yoga with Melissa 473 and the discussion it generated. It focuses on fascia and yin yoga for 60 minutes. We will move through your full body from your feet, hips, hamstrings, spine and shoulders to stress the ligaments and joint capsules so that over time they will become more spacious, thicker and stronger.

This class draws on a healthy dose of Yin Yoga Theory from Bernie Clark and will draw on the principles of yin and yang as they relate to yang muscles and yin tissues so that we can understand why we stress the ligaments in yin yoga to regain space in the joints and strengthen the joints.

We will also explore the yin aspect of the muscles, we have begun to explore this in our previous two classes with myofascia. Myo means muscle and fascia is the fascia that wraps around and between the cells of the muscles. In this class I will explain how the fascia of our muscles govern the muscle´s range of motion and determines their length.

If you would like a PDF of MY favourite props and how to use them in a 10 week series of videos not available anywhere else on the web, go to www.melissawest.com/props and put in your email address the box.

Our members are enjoying 8 brand new Myofascial Release Classes featuring the soft foam roller, slo mo ball and soft squash ball for all the joints of your body. If you have sore feet, ankles, knee pain, hip pain, rheumatoid arthritis, weak ankles and feet, spine pain, back pain, sciatica, digestive issues, stress, anxiety, depression, pain in your hands and wrist joints, carpal tunnel syndrome, spend hours a day on keyboards and smartphones, poor circulation in your legs, your elbows, frozen shoulder, spend a lot of time driving, stiff and painful shoulders, stiff and painful neck, experience tension headaches, weak immune system, heart problems or high blood pressure, this rather simple myofascial yoga series for all the joints of your body will be extraordinarily helpful.

Link for members: Click Here

Link to Become a Member: Click Here

Yin Yoga

This Full Body Full Yin Yoga Class focuses on fascia and yin yoga for 60 minutes. We will move through all the joints of your body from your feet, knees, hips spine, to your shoulders to stress the ligaments and joint capsules so that over time they will become more spacious, thicker and stronger.

This class draws on a healthy dose of Yin Yoga Theory from Bernie Clark and will draw on the principles of yin and yang as they relate to yang muscles and yin tissues so that we can understand why we stress the ligaments in yin yoga to regain space in the joints and strengthen the joints.

We will also explore the yin aspect of the muscles, we have begun to explore this in our previous two classes with myofascia. Myo means muscle and fascia is the fascia that wraps around and between the cells of the muscles. In this class I will explain how the fascia of our muscles govern the muscle´s range of motion and determines their length.

Our members are enjoying 8 brand new Myofascial Release Classes featuring the soft foam roller, slo mo ball and soft squash ball for all the joints of your body. If you have sore feet, ankles, knee pain, hip pain, rheumatoid arthritis, weak ankles and feet, spine pain, back pain, sciatica, digestive issues, stress, anxiety, depression, pain in your hands and wrist joints, carpal tunnel syndrome, spend hours a day on keyboards and smartphones, poor circulation in your legs, your elbows, frozen shoulder, spend a lot of time driving, stiff and painful shoulders, stiff and painful neck, experience tension headaches, weak immune system, heart problems or high blood pressure, this rather simple myofascial yoga series for all the joints of your body will be extraordinarily helpful.

Link for members: Click Here

Link to Become a Member: Click Here

If you would like a PDF of MY favourite props and how to use them in a 10 week series of videos not available anywhere else on the web, put in your email address the box below and I"ll send it to you.

Hatha Yoga

This 75 minute full length, full body myofascial release yoga class combines the best of hatha yoga and self myofascial release. Based on the latest, most up to date research on myofascial release we will attend to fascial tissue in your chest, shoulders, neck, spine, and back that have been misaligned due to trauma, injury, poor movement patterns and emotional stress. The self myofascial release exercises in this class a neurological response that will give you more efficient movement patterns, greater range of motion and flexibility and greater ease of movement.

The class begins with hatha yoga movements for your shoulder and neck combined with myofascial release to provide greater ease of movement and more range of motion. From there we will move into hatha yoga poses and myofascial release for hips and low back, spine and back, shoulders and side body, and your entire posterior line in downward facing dog. When we come to standing we will continue to combine hatha yoga with myofascial release to open up tight chest muscles with dancer pose. The class will finish with myofascial release of your abdominals combined with a seated twist.

Our members are enjoying 8 brand new Myofascial Release Classes featuring the soft foam roller, slo mo ball and soft squash ball for all the joints of your body. If you have sore feet, ankles, knee pain, hip pain, rheumatoid arthritis, weak ankles and feet, spine pain, back pain, sciatica, digestive issues, stress, anxiety, depression, pain in your hands and wrist joints, carpal tunnel syndrome, spend hours a day on keyboards and smartphones, poor circulation in your legs, your elbows, frozen shoulder, spend a lot of time driving, stiff and painful shoulders, stiff and painful neck, experience tension headaches, weak immune system, heart problems or high blood pressure, this rather simple myofascial yoga series for all the joints of your body will be extraordinarily helpful.

Link for members: Click Here

Link to Become a Member: Click Here

Myofascial Release Yoga Videos YouTube: Click Here

If you would like a PDF of MY favourite props and how to use them in a 10 week series of videos not available anywhere else on the web,  put your email address the box below.

Myofascial Release

Self myofascial release of your plantar fascia, pec minor, erector spinae, subscapularis, and neck will be offered before you go into your restorative pose allowing you to release more deeply into each restorative yoga pose in this class. The ability to release myofascial tension in restorative yoga is greatly increased when we apply self myofascial release. The result is great ease and well being in our physical, mental, emotional, energetic and spiritual bodies. By the end of the class you will be receiving the support of the earth and opening to breath in a completely new way that you didn't even realize was possible.

Be sure to join us for Fascia February in our Community for 6 Week Plans to Introduce the Foam Rollers and Balls, 4 Week Plans for Back and Upper Body, Lots of videos with the foam rollers and balls and 4 weeks of focus on myofascial release throughout our community.

Join us for Fascia February in our Community:

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Yin Yang Yoga

In this yin yang yoga class we will combine the best of yin yoga with hatha yoga to preserve the three treasures: jing chi, chi and shen. We will focus on the strength of our physical body to enhance the container for our essence energy (jing chi), our vital energy (chi) and our spirit (shen).

By coming into long holds in yin yoga we can stimulate the jing chi so that our body has more essence energy to draw from, we can also get the chi running through the meridians of our body and we can stimulate the main meridian channel of our shen, the heart meridian.

The yang portion of the class will focus on hatha yoga. The hatha yoga poses will combine the best of strengthening yoga poses to open our hearts and circulate energy in our bodies from favourites like reverse warrior, goddess victory squat, breath of joy and poses to support us in connecting with our spirit.

Three Treasures Videos

Call in the 5 Shen Yin Yoga Workshop

If you want to go into depth and nurture your shen with the support of myself and our community I have a 2 hour yin yoga workshop dedicated to shen this month, which will be archived as well if you are watching this video later. In our 2 hour live yoga workshop I will be able to go super into depth into shen. In fact I will be calling in the 5 shen through the five yin organ system for balance and harmony.

Member Link Here

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Link to become a member so you can join us

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Three Treasures: Jing Chi, Chi and Shen Videos:

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