yoga classes - ALTEAYOGA

April 24, 2023April 24, 2023

New Yoga class! Slow Flow Yoga starting 21 Apr/Abr – delicious, delightful

New Yoga Class in Altea

Are you looking for a fun yet deep yoga practice? Would you like to practice yoga with like-minded people? Well, I think you ought to check out my new yoga class!

FAQ

What is slow flow?

I teach hatha yoga in a very specific way. Firstly, following the Viniyoga method, there is almost always a dynamic and a static phase for each posture. This means you get both the flow of Vinyasa-style yoga and the holds of classical yoga.

I design my classes with anatomy in mind. There are four kinds of yoga: Bhakti (devotion), Raja (intellect), Karma (selfless service), and Hatha (movement). I am very clearly a hatha yoga teacher and use my deep understanding of anatomy, physiology, and kinesiology to design sequences within sequences all with a clear objective in mind.

Loosening up the deepest layers, the bits that no one can get to, the parts that hurt but you can’t put your finger on. Yoga, specifically Viniyoga well-taught, gets to these parts. Feel free to read up on slow-flow yoga here, at my Alteayoga blog.

In my new yoga class, I will introduce sequences that I developed over the past four years whilst working at SHA Wellness Clinic.

Where are the classes?

Yoga Taronja, Altea (Cap Negret)

Taronja Wellbeing is a dedicated yoga and wellness space. Although it is located on the busy N-332 road that goes through Altea, the room is quiet and there is ample parking.

Taronja is very easy to find: Use this Google Maps link. The Hotel Cap Negret is right next door. There is a large public parking lot right opposite the hotel. If you are coming from Altea, it’s a ten-minute walk or even shorter cycle.

When do the classes start?

Starting 21 April 2023

The Spring term will run until it gets too hot and everyone wants to lounge around on the beach or in the shade. So, count on having class at Taronja Wellbeing with me, Rachel Rose, until the end of June.

What time are the classes?

9:30-11:00

A good yoga sequence should end with pranayâma and meditation. The 1.5-hour format of my new yoga class allows time for postures, breathing, and resting.

What to bring and wear

I recommend a long-line shirt or top. It’s so distracting to have your lower back uncovered! If you have yoga socks, bring them! We have mats, blocks, and bolsters at the center, but you are always welcome to use your own. If you’re likely to get cold towards the end of the practice, bring a sweater or shawl. Water is ok for afterward, but we don’t recommend drinking water during your practice. Bring tissues if you’re having any issues with hay fever.

Is the class in English or Spanish?

I always try my best to deliver my classes in both English and Spanish and this new yoga class will be no different. It is a challenge, but it’s the only way to make the group inclusive and high-vibration! After all, we are all living here in the beautiful Costa Blanca, where polyglot multilingualism is the norm! Yoga classes are a great way to meet like-minded folk, and make friends.

How much do classes cost?

Classes are donation-based. This means that you can pay what you like. I suggest between 5-10€. But, if you are more well-off, then leave more and pay it forward! There are plenty of hard-working people around here who could do with a yoga class, but whose budget might not stretch to it. Inequality is a huge global problem. But, as they say “Think globally, act locally”. I am just a humble yoga teacher. I want my classes to be available to those who need them whilst still being able to put food on my own table. So, a long answer to a short question. Pay what you can, pay it forward.

Any more questions?

If there is anything that I have missed, give me a buzz on the phone number in the photo above 👆 . Whatsapp works too – you’ll see the green icon at the bottom right of this page.

February 3, 2022February 3, 2022

Yoga classes in Altea – amazing! New as of 18-2-22

We are back to the mat, people! Group yoga classes are back, and I am truly thrilled to get back to teaching you the finer points of Hatha yoga.

A year has now passed since I last gave a group class. It has been a strange year, to say the least. The pandemic (which I know we are all bored of talking about) has exposed rifts both in our inner lives and in our societies. We just had to hunker down and do our best. I wasn’t on my best form for a few months there, so I felt like I didn’t have the energy to give as a teacher. I stuck with my massages, for sure, but yoga became about my personal practice and about teaching private yoga classes at SHA Wellness Clinic.

Luckily, I kept my skills fresh teaching yoga at this world-famous wellness hotel. There, I teach yoga, meditation, mindfulness and pranayama (breath work) and I truly love it. They are private classes, and so have a different feel than group classes. Group classes have their own special vibe, and I am so excited to get back to teaching them.

I once read a very interesting interview with an Indian yoga teacher from a very distinguished lineage. He was giving a seminar in Sweden and the interviewer stole (borrowed?) a few minutes of his time.

When asked about the differences between teaching yoga in India and teaching yoga in the West, he mentioned the predominance of group classes in the West. Traditional Indian teaching would have been one-to-one, guru to student. Outside of India, that tradition has been lost, or substituted. The teacher mentioned that in Western countries, loneliness is a major social and psychological problem and that group yoga classes play an important role in alleviating this loneliness.

Nice people go to yoga class

In yoga classes, we often meet like-minded people and the environment of yoga encourages a deeper kind of sharing and more intimate conversation that might feel out of place on a pub night out, for example.

Alone in company

I have personally experienced the extremely common situation of being really into personal growth whilst in a relationship with someone who is not. That provoked in me the deepest feelings of loneliness as I felt invalidated when trying to talk about issues that really mattered to me. I was lucky that I worked in the field of wellness and preventative medicine and that gave me an outlet. (Nevertheless, when you’re the teacher or therapist, you’re not expected to share so much as the role of the teacher is to hold space for others. But, that conversation is worthy of a whole other post! )

Entrainment

Have you ever seen those videos of metronomes spontaneously synchronising? There is a tendency for energy waves to fall into patterns, and this is observable in many different area. Birds flying in a swirling flock, feedback on a microphone…and humans meditating. Yep, the phenomenon is called “entrainment” and it happens.

Basically, when you do yoga or meditate, you reduce the frequency and amplitude of your brainwaves. SMB (slow-medium Beta) is the frequency associated with meditative movement modalities like yoga, tai chi or chi gong. If you are practising alone, your brainwaves will relax, but if you are with people who are doing the same practice, it seems like everyone’s brainwaves synchronise and you get to the happy place a little more easily. Also, when you are in the presence of the highly trained and experienced teacher, your brainwaves entrain to theirs. Fascinating to think about, no?

Come to class!

I will start by offering one class per week and take it from there. I am super busy, as is everyone, so I want to make this work.

Day: Fridays

Dates: 18-02-2022 until the end of June.

Time: 9.30-10.30

Studio: Qiyoga

Address: Calle la Mar 143, Altea

Price: 30€/month

November 8, 2021February 16, 2022

Yoga Breathing Classes 101

Yogic Breathing is Healthy Breathing

Rachel Rose meditating and practising yoga breathing — Meditation and breathing

I have spent much of the past two years teaching people to breathe. I still teach postures, but pranayama mostly fills my days, now. Sadly, I gave up teaching group yoga classes during, and then after, the pandemic. It was a super hard time. I am glad that all the videos I streamed via my Facebook Page, Alteayoga with Rachel Rose, are still online. They are a poignant reminder of the dark days of the first confinement.

The SHA keeps me super busy, as do my massages.

At time of writing, I am offering Yoga Breathing Classes here in Altea. Please contact me if you would like to know more. Breath is life!

How we Breathe

Don’t forget that I began writing about the mechanics and fine tuning of breathing here in this blog. I called it “How We Breathe“. You might find something interesting there. Go have a look!

Breathe.

February 10, 2021February 10, 2021

Alteayoga is back!

Dear yogis and yogis-to-be – I am back! Soooo happy to report that yoga did not let me go. I had a wobble, I admit, back in June. After lockdown eased and suddenly we were out on the streets again, I didn’t quite know where to situate myself. I had grown quite used to giving class via Facebook Live, every evening at 7. (If you want to check out those classes, pop on over to my YouTube channel and select the Playlist “Yoga for Small Spaces”).

When the new reality hit – the SHA still closed, the place where I had given class a closed space with no room for even four people, the prospect of wearing a mask whilst practising – it seemed insurmountable.

So, I just did my own practice. I kept hitting the mat. I healed a hurt right shoulder (darn dogs pulled me down…again) and I kept posting little reminders (on Instagram, on Facebook, on Twitter) that it is going to be ok, that yoga has answers for questions that you don’t even know how to formulate, but which are there, bubbling away under the surface. I just….kept practising.

Lo and behold, people starting asking me to teach again. I am not going to pretend that I have LOADS of students. But, the students that I do have are pure love, super cool people, a real “type” of person – creative, independent, a bit wacky. Hey, I guess I resonate with those kinds of people…wonder why?

Well, long story short, I started working at QIYoga here in Altea and the rest, as they say, is history. We had a few sweet months of classes in the centre, and are now practising online. But, we are there, we are checking in, we are a group, a little team of happy yogis and I am so, so, thrilled to be able to teach.

So, yoga, and yoga and more yoga. Oh, and some laughter, good food, good friends, sunshine and all those good time things. Blessings, catch you on the mat.

-RR

September 3, 2018September 3, 2018

Fascia and slow yoga

On the Alteayoga facebook page, I re-posted a piece from Dr. Mercola’s web site in which fascia is thoughtfully discussed. I suggest that you pop over and read it, then come back here.

Summing up:

Fascia makes up about 20% of body weight and is like a battery pack for muscles. It also transports water in the body. It seems to be tightly related to pain, especially chronic pain. Movement is the best method for relieving fascial pain.

I teach hatha yoga in a very specific way. Firstly, following the Viniyoga method, there is almost always a dynamic and a static phase for each posture. This means that you get both the flow of vinyasa-style yoga and the holds of classical yoga.

You can see that the whole posterior muscle chain is activated in this sequence. There is a clear indication of breathing. Also, there is abdominal compression. All this contributes to making this very simple sequence highly effective in moving muscles and, ergo, fascia.

I design my classes with anatomy in mind. There are four kinds of yoga: Bhakti (devotion), Raja (intellect), Karma (selfless service) and Hatha (movement). I am very clearly a hatha yoga teacher, and use my deep understanding of kinesiology to design sequences within sequences all with a clear objective in mind. Loosening up the deepest layers, the bits that no one can get to, the parts that hurt but you can’t put your finger on. Yoga, specifically Viniyoga well-taught, gets to these parts.

Practise, all is coming. The Guru is within.

May 13, 2018September 8, 2018

How We Breathe: Moving things around

Introduction

We usually just think of the breath as being Oxygen in and CO2 out…if we think about the breath at all. Yoga practitioners may think about prâna. But few of us take the time to contemplate all the other things that move around because of the breath.

Most of us know a little about the blood. We have all had a cut at one time of another, and we have all seen a butcher’s shop in our lives.

Most of us, however, know very little about the lymph, the interstitial fluid or the cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF).

While the blood is moved around the body by the heart, the other fluids don’t have such luck. The lymph is primarily moved by muscle flexion and breathing. The cerebro-spinal fluid is mainly moved by the breath and pressure differences due to blood flow and heartbeat. Interstitial fluid is drained by the lymphatic system which, as already mentioned, is moved by the breath. Are you beginning to see a pattern?

Lymphatic flow and the breath

The lymphatic system is an amazing semi-closed network of vessels and nodes that runs throughout the entire body. Its anatomy is not yet fully understood.

Lymph is a somewhat thick liquid that carries junk from the cells back to the central circulation so that your body can dispose of it. Lymph is not made by the body in the same way that blood or bone is made. Lymph is a by-product of normal metabolism. There are times when you make more lymph – ie: a healing wound that is inflamed will produce more waste, which then becomes lymph. There is a baseline lymph level called the lymph obligatory load. When you have more lymph being produced, the lymph obligatory load increases. Are you with me so far?

Lymph is created when the junk and water that is hanging around the cells in the interstitium gets swept up into the lymph pre-collector channels. Once there, it is called lymph although, really, it hasn’t changed. It’s just that, now, it’s in the lymphatic system and gets called lymph. For the sake of simplicity, we shall lump lymph and interstitial fluid together. So far, so good.

The lymph vessels get bigger and bigger as they get closer to the centre of the body. At some stage, they become able to make little pulsations which push the lymph onwards. Backflow is impeded by valves that are similar to the valves in the veins. These are called “bicuspid valves” and are one-way. Side note: varicose veins are caused, often, by malfunction of the biscuspid valves.

Still, the best way to pump lymph from out to in (distal to medial) is by moving muscles and by breathing. The movement of the diaphragm down and up creates a relative vacuum with each breath. This pressure difference acts like a piston-like pump, and sucks the lymph into the central lymph ducts. To return to general circulation, the lymph accumulates in the “Cisterna Chyli” before moving into the thoracic duct. The Thoracic duct is the biggest lymph vessel in the body. It crosses the diaphragm at the lowest and back-most of the holes in the diaphragm. It empties the lymph into the subclavian vein, just below the collarbone. Once there, the liquid is no longer lymph. It is now part of the blood.

So…lymph is created in the cells by normal metabolism. It needs to get “home”. It moves because of the breath. If we breathe badly, lymph flow is slow and we may develop edema, which is swollen tissue, full of water. So, breathe well and love your lymph. On we go…

CSF Flow and the breath

“Breathing acts as a pump to propel CSF up the spine and around the brain.”

“With each breath the diaphragm descends and the rib cage expands, leading to a drop in pressure in the chest cavity. This drop in pressure draws blood from the brain in veins that empty into the heart. The skull is a rigid and confined space. As blood returns to the heart, CSF is drawn up the spinal column to replace the lost volume.”

source: (https://goiheart.com/blog/brain-breathing-to-improve-internal-health)

This is very similar to the way the breath affects the lymph. Now, take a moment to contemplate this: the Central Nervous System (CNS) is the brain and spinal column, put as simply as possible. Most of you have heard about discs (ie: “slipped disc” or “herniated disc”) and the meninges (ie: “meningitis). Well, the discs are like hard little sponges between the spine bones and the meninges are like cling-film coatings around the brain and spinal column. The meninges carry the Cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF).

Discs don’t have blood supply. (“During development and at birth, vertebral discs have some vascular supply to the cartilage endplates and the anulus fibrosus. These quickly deteriorate leaving almost no direct blood supply in healthy adults.“) It seems that there is some blood supply to the edges of the discs via capillaries, the smallest of the blood vessels, and that nutrients are diffused into the centre of the discs, but very slowly. So, to nourish the intervertebral discs is quite a challenge.

Cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) is produced in the choroid plexus of the brain and then moves along slowly with each hearbeat, circulating through the ventricles of the brain and then throughout the subarachnoid space of the spinal cord and brain. Bathing and nourishing the nervous system, CSF also cushions the brain and spinal cord.

source: https://www.conquerchiari.org/articles/special-topics/daily-living/nuts-and-bolts-of-spinal-anatomy.html

They are, instead, nourished by the CSF in the meninges. We write “meninges” with an “s” because it’s plural: there are three. One is just around the brain, but two of them go all the way down the spine to the lower back. And yes, they nourish and protect the bones, discs and nerves of the spinal column because they transport CSF. So, it’s a nice thing to have that CSF moving, isn’t it?

If you are well hydrated, you should be able to influence the movement of CSF via breathing and movement. Logically, when one is lying down, the CSF pressure is about the same all the way along the spinal column. This is also the case for lymphatic flow: it is greatly improved by simply lying down. I am often asked to contrast yoga with Tai Chi or Qi Gong. While no expert on either practice, and with a healthy respect for both, I always give the same answer: I like yoga because of the floor work, specifically that part where you lie down and breathe deeply.

Viniyoga, the breath, and moving fluids

Yoga is a practice that is based upon linking the breath with movement. In Viniyoga, we usually open the body on the Inhale and close on the Exhale. We use some breath retentions (krama) for added effect. We teach breathing in postures and in isolation (pranayama). In addition to promoting flexibility in joints and muscles, yoga lengthens and deepens the breath. Over time, the resting breathing pattern of the practitioner changes permanently. Because Viniyoga focuses so much on the breath, it is a deeply healing form of hatha yoga. It is also accessible to all. A person may not be able to dominate a complex flow sequence, but they can probably work comfortably with Viniyoga’s more gentle but just as effective sequences.

Conclusion

Breathing is more than just gas exchange. Breathing is a motor, a pump, and it moves fluids around the body. Specifically, lymphatic fluid, interstitial fluid and cerebro-spinal fluid are moved by the pressure gradients created by deep diaphragmatic breathing. Yoga is a practice that teaches people how to breathe, and through the correct use of postures and sequences, we can positively influence the practitioner’s health.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

In the natural health world, we eschew medication as much as we can for many reasons. In fact, here are many people who take upwards of five pharmaceuticals per day.

Between 1988 and 2010 the median number of prescription medications used among adults aged 65 and older doubled from 2 to 4, and the proportion taking ≥5 medications tripled from 12.8% (95% confidence interval: 11.1, 14.8) to 39.0% (35.8, 42.3).

–https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4573668/

Here is yet another reason why this can only end in tears:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/11/drug-waste-clogs-rivers-around-the-world-scientists-say

Diet, rest, gentle exercise, loving kinships, contact with nature and creative realisation go a long way to palliating the worst ravages of simply being human and existing in this crazy world. I don’t advocate for a complete avoidance of pharmaceuticals – I am a huge fan of good medical science. What I do advocate for, however, is a reduction in our dependence on such things. This will only come about when each individual adult realises that they hold the keys to their own health and must practice preventative medicine.

Some years ago, I made an independent study of the typical age of onset of various chronic diseases (atherosclerosis, Type-II diabetes, high blood pressure etc). It is much earlier than you think…you’re probably thinking 55? 60? Think again. In men, about 38-45 and in women about 45-55.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Yoga is a complete system that offers advice on diet, exercise, rest, healthy human relationship, our place in the big scheme of things – the natural world – and how to realise your inner visions (creativity). I can teach you some or most of that, depending on how long you stick with me, how often you turn up to class and whether you decide to have private as well as group classes.

It is a long journey, and I am not an easy yoga teacher. I will needle you, I will make you think. But, I will teach you all that I know, and I never stop learning myself, so my teaching will always evolve. Of that, you can be certain. But, without makng any claim such as yoga can prevent cancer – because one cannot make such claims, ok? – I can guarantee that if you do get diagnosed with cancer, having a steady and established yoga practice will help you through it. And this, a mean yoga teacher is nicer than a mean course of chemotherapy! And one more thing, yoga has been proven to help prevent both cardiovascular disease and diabetes. So there.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Over and out, dear souls. Today is a bright and lovely day. You’re alive. Be joyful, be joy.

AUM.

March 8, 2018

Series: How we breathe – Introduction

Yoga can teach us many things, but perhaps the most important one is how to breathe. Since I know a lot about breathing, I have decided to begin writing a little series entitled “How we breathe”. I know that, with great frequency, bloggers start of with big plans to write a series, but things tail off after two or three entries. Rest assured that here with Miss Rachel, this will not happen. I am far, far too stubborn to do such a thing. Ha!
Reflect, for a moment, if you will on this: There is little else, other than the breath, that accompanies you, absolutely surely accompanies you, from the first moment you are born until the last moment you live.
You can lose a kidney, a spleen. A heart can be transplanted. A brain can be induced into a coma. But the breath is there, coming and going, rising and falling.

Breathing and Anxiety

Anxiety is crippling us these days and the breath may hold one of the keys to overcoming it. The defining quality of a panic attack is the feeling that one cannot breathe. I have had two panic attacks in my life, now thankfully, many years ago. But I recall the constricted feeling all too well. I doubt that it could happen to me now. Why? Because I know “how to breathe”. To touch ever so lightly on the matter, and more will follow, paradoxical breathing is the main problem here.

How does one breathe?

Breathing is one of those things that we thing we all just know. But how many of you can name the accessory muscles of breathing? Or say whether the internal or external intercostal muscles aid the inhale or the exhale? Gotcha? So, can you say you know how to breathe if you don’t know the mechanics of breathing?

Biochemistry of Breathing.

And how many of you know about the interchange of gases (CO2 and O2) across the alveolar wall? Or the difference between breathing and respiration? Or what the heck happens to all that oxygen, anyway? There are so many facets to breathing and there is so much to learn.

Pranayama

Yoga has some amazing techniques to deepen and broaden the breath. I have tried many systems of yoga and practised for ages. I will stand here and say that Viniyoga, the style I teach, is the one that taught me to breathe. I can teach you what my teachers taught me.

—

Best of all, breathing properly is free! Yes, people, you may have to invest in yoga lessons in order to learn, but once you’ve learnt, ain’t no one going to take it away from you…you are your master, baby!
So, this will be the first post in a series dedicated to the mechanics, biochemistry and yogic technique of breathing. Like and subscribe, people. And hey, if you have a coherent answer to any of the questions above, comment below.
Love,Rachel

March 5, 2018

Yoga practice – "Towards Inversion"

I am feeling generous tonight, and shall give away a lovely yoga practice that I designed last year and have taught a number of times to my dear students.
Notice that “B” or “R” means breath or respiración.
When it says “6x”, it means do the vinyasa six times.
When it says “6B”, it means hold the pose for six breaths.
Respect any contraindications and check with your primary care provider should you have any doubts about the suitably of this practice for you, at this given time.