Practicing without pain is not only possible, it is the key to healing.
Sorting out your psoas can sort out many other issues in your body, sometimes with phenomenally quick results.
Learning to stabilize the pelvis while releasing the hips is key.
Over the ensuing decades I’ve noticed that many of the people coming to my intensives have problems caused by hypermobility rather than lack of flexibility. Many are Yoga teachers who have literally pulled their bodies apart with Yoga and are now seeking a solution to chronic debilitating pain. Today as I teach around the world the problem has multiplied. We now have a global epidemicof instability and reoccurring injuries from over-stretching and repetitive practice of extreme postures.
* Hyperlordosis is an accentuation of the lumbar curvature.
Together with my co-author Leila Stuart we have put together the definitive guide to working with the psoas. These practices have been tested in my own practice and with hundreds of students worldwide.
The result is Pathways to a Centered Body– Gentle Yoga Therapy for Core Stability, Healing Back Pain, and Moving with Ease.
Sequence F, partial. Click to enlarge.
My Back Has Been Much Happier
My lower back has been bothering me increasingly for several years. Its not quite pain. More like discomfort. It seems to have been aggravated by the construction work that I do.
I began heating my back and stretching in the evenings. I saw a spinal doctor at the Veterans Administration several times. I went through a course of physical therapy. I went through a chiropractic sequence. I tried an inversion table. I’ve used a Med Massager. I went to a masseuse for most of a year.
These treatments provided me with some temporary relief but none of them had lasting effects.
Somewhere on Facebook several months ago I came across Donna Farhi, Leila Stuart and Yoga U Online. I bought the Pathways to a Centered Body book and then the Anatomy of a Centered Body online course.
I began reading the book. I was struggling to get through the anatomy and happened to catch Donna on Facebook. She said to not worry about the anatomy and to try the exercises on pages 168-9 in the Pathways book. I did and my back has been much happier since I began integrating these practices.
Many thanks.
Empowers Us to Self-Heal
A pragmatic, cutting-edge, intelligently applied therapy that empowers us to self-heal. This extensively researched, thorough exploration describes the profound role of the psoas muscle as a core stabiliser. It educates us to gently come in touch with, and move from our centre in the pursuit of internally focused, integrated, and wholesome being.
Fifteen Years of Strong Asana Practice Left Me In A Lot of Pain
If you want to go deeper into your understanding of how your body works, to find blind spots and start working with the core buy this book! I now approach my personal Asana practice and teaching with much more confidence. Several long-standing issues in my body have been addressed and improved.
Fifteen years of strong Asana practice left me in a lot of pain (sacroiliac joints, lumbar, dorsal, meniscus and cervical spine). My science background led me to look outside my lineage for answers. I return again and again to this book, re-read and re-experiment. Now the core is central to my work. My favourite new insight is that “Mobility of the periphery depends on the stability of the core”. It is NOT strong abdominals that give stability, but the sense of the central cylinder.
I now understand my own imbalances (scoliosis, QL, psoas) and have found new ways to balance them. Daily, I can help my students find new ways to move with ease, some of these students have been with me for a decade.
About Donna
Donna Farhi
Incorporating the rigorous backing of anatomical principles for safe and sustainable practice, Donna offers progressive levels of engagement that allow people of all levels of experience and from all traditions to build their own authentic Yoga practice.