Yogaland Podcast

This week Jason and I have a conversation the yoga world has been dancing around for years: Does yoga build strength?

Jason offers an honest framework for understanding the ways that yoga builds strength — and where it genuinely falls short.

What You'll Learn:

Why strength matters — particularly for longevity
The two primary components of strength development and how yoga addresses each one
How yoga builds neuromuscular strength, efficiency, and coordination — and why that's more valuable than most practitioners realize
Why yoga will never produce hypertrophy — and what that means for long-term health, muscle mass, and metabolic function
What progressive overload is and why bodyweight training alone cannot provide it
Why yoga primarily recruits Type 1 fibers and almost never accesses Type 2 fibers and why it matters
Why resistance training and yoga are not competing modalities — they are extraordinary partners
The Iyengar yoga innovation argument: why adding resistance training tools to yoga is no different from what the greatest yoga innovators have always done

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/yogaland.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've been meaning to teach pranayama in your classes but keep finding reasons to wait — this week's podcast is for you.

Most yoga teachers want to include breathwork. The problem isn't interest — it's knowing where to start, how long to spend, and whether students will actually value it. This episodes solves all three problems in under 20 minutes, with three simple, immediately usable techniques you can bring to your next class.

No restructuring required. No special training needed. Just three practical breathwork tools, three locations in your class to use them, and the confidence to begin.

The Three Techniques Covered:

Coherence Breathing / Sama Vritti Pranayama — 5.5 x 5.5 seconds, ideal for class openings

Breath-linked movement — half sun salutations, Utkatasana flow, eagle arms transitions

Extended exhale breathing — 6:2:8:2 ratio, ideal pre-Savasana for nervous system downregulation

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction — why yoga teachers keep putting pranayama off
01:20 Concern 1: Will my students get bored?
02:06 Concern 2: Which technique should I use?
02:27 Concern 3: Where does pranayama go in class?
03:49 Location 1: Class opening — coherence breathing
07:07 Location 2: Within dynamic movement — breath-linked movement patterns
10:31 Location 3: Pre-Savasana — extended exhale breathing
13:51 The final challenge — pick one technique and try it this week
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/yogaland.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most yoga teachers cue Full Boat Pose as an abdominal exercise. It isn't — and once you understand why, you'll also discover Low Boat Pose: the most underused core exercise in yoga.

Full Boat Pose (Paripurna Navasana) is primarily a hip flexor exercise. Low Boat Pose (Ardha Navasana) is primarily an abdominal exercise. Understanding why — and how to use both intelligently — is one of the most practical yoga anatomy insights you can bring to your teaching and your practice.
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/yogaland.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most people assume tight hamstrings are a stretching problem. They're not. Hamstring tightness is almost always multifactorial, which means the solution requires a broader range of strategies — not more of the same stretching that hasn't worked.

On this podcast, Jason breaks down 6 evidence-informed strategies for improving hamstring flexibility that go well beyond passive stretching. Whether you're a yoga teacher, yoga student, or anyone focused on mobility and movement quality, these strategies will change how you think about — and train — your hamstrings.

What you'll learn:

-Why foam rolling works neurologically — not just mechanically — and how to use it as a primer before you stretch

-Why strengthening your glutes may do more for your hamstring flexibility than more stretching ever will

-How weak hip flexors limit anterior pelvic tilt — and why that directly limits hamstring length

-Why your adductors (especially adductor magnus) may be quietly working against your hamstring flexibility

-How dynamic stretching and engaged stretching give your nervous system more feedback — and unlock more range than passive stretching alone

-Why hamstring tightness is almost always multifactorial — and why there is no single magic technique
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/yogaland.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wow wow wow -- it's been 10 years since the launch of Yogaland! It feels like it's been a heartbeat and also a lifetime. There's been so much learning, growth, and love while making these episodes for the past decade. I spent time compiling precious insights--gems if you will--that stood out to me from the past 10 years.

We revisit moments with:

Amy Ippoliti — free diving, environmental activism, and asking young people about purpose instead of popularity

James Woods (Dat Yoga Dude) — bringing yoga and social-emotional learning into schools and communities

Maty Ezraty — why even the most accomplished yoga teachers still get nervous before every class

Susanna Harwood Rubin — navigating metastatic cancer with devotion, sacred spaces, and grace

Judith Lasater — the concept of inner gold and what distinguishes a truly good teacher from an abusive one

Jill Miller — the five Ps of inducing the relaxation response and harnessing vagal tone

Andrea Jain — an unbiased take on academic history of yoga's globalization

Julia Lowrie Henderson — the psychology behind why Bikram's cruelty registered as trustworthiness

Sally Kempton — the mantra that changed her relationship to failure

Tias Little — perfectionism as a cul-de-sac

Tara Stiles — doing it your own way, softness, and building a yoga practice around ease

Daya Grant — what neuroscience tells us about the yoga practitioner's brain and interoceptive awareness

Lisa Walford — four pillars of health developed after an HIV diagnosis in 1985, decades ahead of her time
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/yogaland.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.