My latest for Active Yogi, my blog at Yoga Journal, is about finding the flow state. It's a continuation of the series on training your focus. Please click over and have a look and a Like!

This week's post to Active Yogi at Yoga Journal describes a lovely belly-down twist. This is the linemen's favorite!

Here's a Q and A I did with Runner's World about The Runner's Guide to Yoga. They asked wonderful questions!

My latest post for Active Yogi at Yoga Journal describes climbing Old Baldy, the lighthouse on Bald Head Island with rickety steps, dark landings, and a trap door to the top. Intention, form, and breath got me up, along with some goading from my kids.

My latest book, The Runner's Guide to Yoga, is hitting bookstores now. (Please scoot over to Amazon and order yourself a copy!) This book isn't a replacement for The Athlete's Guide to Yoga, but it does make a nice complement to that book. My intention for this book is to give runners specific tools from the yoga system that can improve their experience both on and off the course. Instead of containing an exhaustive catalog of poses or exercises, The Runner's Guide to Yoga presents streamlined poses and exercises for a runner's body and mind. You'll find details of yoga poses for the hips and thighs, the lower leg, the core, and the upper body, an extensive section on finding balance in the body, as well as chapters on breathing and meditation exercises. The book also combines these poses and exercises into routines to practice before, during, and after your run, whether it's a tough track workout, an easy base run, or a long race.

And the book is not just for runners, it's written by a runner and uses models who demonstrate the way these poses look in a runner's body. The male model has run a 14:45 5K and will run for Stanford in the fall; the female model was on the distance medley team that won the 2000 Penn Relays; I was training for the Mt. Mitchell 40-miler during the photo shoot. We appear super comfortable in some poses and show less than "ideal" form in others. But this is the way real runners' bodies operate. We carry sport-specific tightness. The goal of our yoga practice isn't to eliminate it but to keep it in balance so we can stay injury-free and fluid. Beyond that, our yoga practice gives us tools to remain calm, focused, and purposeful no matter what comes our way.

Please have a look at the book and let me know how you like it. I'd love a review on Amazon, as well. Thank you!

My latest piece for Yoga Journal's Active Yogi blog details a variation on pigeon that's helpful for folks with tight hips and bum knees. We've been enjoying it in class lately, and you can see it as part of the "Christina's World" set of hip stretches at YogaVibes.

My younger daughter, Vivian, who has no history of gymnastics lessons, has decided to master an unsupported handstand. She's already pretty great at doing it against the wall—something she watches me do in my home yoga practice sometimes—but this drive to handstand in free space is impressive.

A few times each day (including, to the chagrin of my stomach, immediately after dinner), she heads outside and practices. Saturday, I filmed her practice and asked her to narrate. The sound is poor, but the highlights are these:



"Hi, I'm Vivi, and I'm going to show you how to do a handstand. I might fall, but I'm OK."

"Here's the key. You have to sorta stay balanced and don't, like, move your legs around. And you have to breathe in and out."

"Don't be afraid when you fall backward. Try to land on your back or on your feet. Those are the two best places you can land on. Don't land on your head."

As one of my running buddies pointed out, "I might fall, but I'm OK" is a fantastic mantra.

I've invited Vivi to come to class next week and guest teach kicking into handstand! I hope her persistence inspires you.

My latest on the Active Yogi blog at Yoga Journal is a revisitation of the Mt. Mitchell Challenge from a yoga perspective. Please enjoy!

I'm very excited to expand my usual Yoga for Athletes weekend workshop at Kripalu into a long-weekend format. The two extra sessions will allow us to add a second strength-building practice and to explore yin yoga together. If you have been thinking about visiting Kripalu, join us! This is sure to be a fantastic time together. The trails are wonderful, and the lake may even be warm enough for a hardy open-water swimmer.

Click here for details and registration for Yoga for Athletes: Strength, Flexibility, and Focus.