This month’s Free Member Workshop is near and dear to Lynn’s heart. Well, it’s actually largely below heart level, travels all the way around the body and includes your butt. August’s FMW is all about your core!
What: More Core in ’24!
When: Sunday, Aug. 18 3-5 pm
Where: Mountain Room
At HYA, Lynn teaches all the things. She is trained and experienced in every type of class offered at the studio. But she would not be where she is in any of them without having discovered the importance of a strong core. “I remember my very first Hot 26 class when they told me to pick up my foot in my hands for Standing Head to Knee and I’m thinking, why is this so freaking hard?” Lynn said. “All my years of running and biking for exercise, all the epic swimming workouts I had been doing and I had the core strength of a jellyfish. I have used that analogy for years and realize I’m probably insulting jellyfish. Those little suckers can move. My core was non-existent.”
She started practicing what we now call BLAST in addition to yoga, but that was just the start. Incorporating the strength of those exercises was important, but as she increased her yoga training, she realized the layers go much deeper. In her 300-hour Advanced Vinyasa Training in 2023, she learned to incorporate deep lower belly strength into her practice, as whole well as Ashwini Mudra. If you don’t know what that is, come to the workshop and find out….
Learn more about Lynn and the upcoming workshop:
HYA: What can students expect in your workshop?
Lynn: It will be an active workshop, with different postures and exercises, but not a complete class. The room will be warm. We will do some Blast elements, including the Sideline Series, and explain how they support yoga postures. But mostly, it’s an exploration of various aspects of your core, how they work and tips to use them to strengthen your practice. Remember, you use abdominal strength (or should be) for almost everything, including breathing. Lots of things you think of as primarily arm strength (i.e. pushups, forearm stand) are so much core, same for leg strength (squats, Warrior postures).
HYA: How has strengthening your core changed your practice?
Lynn: After years of doing Hot 26 as my primary practice, it was incorporating core work that gave me the confidence to step into Flow. I taught Bikram/Hot 26 for eight years before I also became a Flow teacher. I had no idea I would end up going all in on teaching Vinyasa and now my goal is to mix all the styles as much as I can to build all-around sustainable strength. I do this in the classes I teach, which is why you get a little bit of everything from me. Because it works.
I now think of every posture in terms of how it’s supported from the core. It’s not about how the postures look, or what form their final expression takes, but making them sustainable over the long haul. However long I live, I want to be able to move freely and confidently the whole time. That’s my plan anyway.
HYA: What’s the most important message that you want to pass on to your students?
Lynn: Focusing on your core isn’t just a physical theme. It’s a mental, emotional and spiritual one too. Your most important attributes lie at the center of who you are. You find your strength by turning inward in all ways. I think of core work as a meditation: how can you find what you are looking for inside you instead of seeking it outside? Because that’s where the answer always lies. And there are always more layers. You can always look deeper. It’s why I keep studying, keep learning, keep digging deeper. There is more to find.
It has become my divine mission to pass along all the incredible knowledge that has been handed down to me. I have been blessed with some of the most amazing teachers you can imagine and always strive to share the gifts I have been so generously given. And I do it with all my heart.
