Class Descriptions
AT IN BALANCE YOGA & PILATES we are looking to make your experience completely enjoyable. If you have any questions about class levels or what to expect, please don't hesitate to call 407-227-5555 to discuss. This is new to many of us, we want you all to feel welcome!
- Shari
BEGINNERS YOGA
-For beginning students to learn correct alignment and breathing in basic yoga postures. Classes are also a great way for those of all levels to fine tune poses
YOGA - ALL LEVELS
-(Prior Yoga experience recommended) For students who have attended Beginner Yoga classes and are ready to pick up the pace a little. The basic postures are presented in more challenging ways with continued focus on the fundamentals of yoga. Instructors will show modifications and advancements of all poses.
POWER YOGA (On-going yoga practice recommended) -An energetic, flowing sequence of postures linked together with dynamic breathing. Expect to sweat while you build strength and flexibility. This yoga experience is designed to address the entire physical body and integrate mind and spirit. This dynamic flow includes: forward bends, standing and balancing postures, upper body and abdominal work, lateral stretches, twists, backbends and inversions.
ASHTANGA BASED YOGA
A challenging, ashtanga based class. Link breath with movement to produce internal heat. A modified Ashtanga primary series with some surprises and challenges!
PILATES (all levels)
- A Mat Pilates based class utilizing props to help lengthen and strengthen while always focusing on stabilizing the core. You will get the maximum workout while enhancing posture and balance!
PILATES BALL CLASS- (all levels)
The Pilates Ball class is a challenging and fun way to reinforce the key elements of core stabilization , balance , and control. Using the unstable nature of the ball to perform the various exercises allows the development of the core while building stability in the shoulders, arms, and legs. Other purposes of the ball include acting as a weight as traditional mat exercises are performed, as well as assisting to achieve a greater range of motion of a particular body part (e.g. Hip Circles).
PRIVATE YOGA OR PILATES SESSIONS
- On your own schedule, you experience In Balance with 1 on 1 focus. For certain injuries, future goals or to strengthen your personal practice. We offer the opportunity to work with any of our wonderful instructors. Please call 407-227-5555 to schedule. *All Private sessions are by appointment. 24-hour notice required for cancellations otherwise full session charge applies
-KIDS YOGA (Workshops coming this Summer)
-Through yoga, kids build strength, flexibility and self confidence in a non-competitive environment. The 2 kids classes will include various poses, games, breathing techniques and relaxation practices appropriate for each age group.
CAN YOU PROVE THAT YOGA WORKS?
by Timothy McCall Yoga Journal's medical editor; sept. 07'
As yoga moves more into the mainstream and yoga therapy grows in prominence, advocates of the practice are under increasing pressure to explain exactly how it works. It is natural to reach for scientific terms in an attempt to legitimize yoga's therapeutic benefits; thus we hear, for example, that backbends fight depression by stimulating the adrenals. My response to claims like this is, "Maybe."
From our direct experience as practitioners and teachers, we have observed that backbends are energizing and seem to help people suffering from depression marked by lethargy and inertia. (They are thought to be too stimulating for those with more agitated depressions.)
When you come down from Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward-Facing Bow Pose), for instance, your heart is pounding and you may feel like you've just downed a double espresso. It feels as if adrenaline, one of the hormones secreted by the adrenals (the glands that rest just above the kidneys), is coursing through your body. But as far as I know, nobody has actually measured adrenaline levels before and after someone has done a backbend. And even if scientists did document a spike in adrenaline after backbends, we still wouldn't know for sure that it's adrenaline that alleviates the symptoms of depression.
Science supports several possibili-ties for how yoga helps with depression. Studies have found that it reduces levels of cortisol (a stress hormone that's also secreted by the adrenals), which is often elevated in people with the disease. And a study in India found that a yoga program that included asana, pranayama, and meditation raised levels of serotonin and lowered levels of monoamine oxidase—two neurochemicals involved in depression.
Yoga is known to induce the relaxation response—to lower the activity of the sympathetic nervous system's "fight or flight" mechanism and increase the work of the more restorative parasym-pathetic system; this characteristic could help with depression. But if that were the whole story, then poses that seem to rev up the sympathetic side—such as backbends and Sun Salutations— as well as rapid breathing techniques might be counterproductive to fighting stress and depression. The reality is that some yoga practices stimulate the nervous system and some are relaxing. It is the combination that in some complex way is beneficial.
One of the fruits of yoga practice is the realization of interconnections. Our bodies, minds, and emotions interact in complex ways that science is only just beginning to understand. In this dense web of interconnections, nothing we do has a single effect. In Urdhva Dhanurasana, you bring more oxygen into the bottom of the lungs (an area that usually gets less than the upper regions), your blood pressure and heart rate rise, pressure increases in the head and neck, and you stretch the muscles and organs in the front of the body as you compress those in back, where the adrenals are located. It's my guess that the interrelated actions of this pose—along with other elements of a complete yoga practice—are what create the therapeutic benefit.