Powerbase Yoga by Libby Ramsey

December Detox - Dec. 11-13, 2011 Sign up now!

2011-11-03T15:02:00.002-04:00

3-day DECEMBER DETOX
Show up LIGHTER & BRIGHTER this holiday season!

Join us for a 3 Day Program of Yoga with Libby Ramsey, Certified Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga Instructor, and a Juice Cleanse Plan designed by Christian Henderson, Nutritionist and Registered Dietitian, New York, NY.

The Program:

Saturday, Dec. 10th
Pick up your juices

Sunday, Dec. 11th
1:30-3:30pm group yoga practice and meeting

Monday, Dec. 12th
9:30-10:30am Power Flow Class
7-8pm Restorative Practice

Tuesday, Dec. 13th
7-9pm final group yoga practice and wrap-up

Wednesday, Dec. 14th & beyond…
Ease your way back into “real life” with clarity and empowerment in mind and body for the holidays!

Why do a juice cleanse?

· Infuse your body with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytonutrients that are available for direct absorption.
· Rest your digestive system. Giving your body a break from food allows the freed up energy of digestion to go towards healing and detoxifying body.
· Reset and start with a clean slate.
· Break unhelpful/unhealthy habits. Sometimes a few days is all it takes to get you on your way to breaking habits that are not serving you.
· Jump start healthy eating, weight loss, and detoxification.
· Tap into blocked creative energy.

And why do this with yoga?

· Assist and deepen the natural detoxification process with movement and heat.
· Stimulate and invigorate the body with breath.
· Explore what is coming up for you physically and mentally through the process of the cleanse. Eliminate mental blocks.
· Experience the support and fun of embarking on this adventure with an amazing group of people!

Cost: $169 ($149 if you have a class package at Epic Yoga) includes cold-pressed, organic juice program from local company The Juice Nashville (6 juices a day for 3 days), nutritionist guidance including pre-and post-cleanse recommendations, and all 4 yoga classes.

Email me for more information and to reserve your spot and your juice!
www.epicyogacenter.com
www.thejuicenashville.com

Every Day Yoga - Every Day!

2010-11-17T21:23:00.001-05:00

My yoga practice was turned upside down when I became a mom. I learned quickly that there is not much better for my parenting than a regular yoga practice, and yet a regularly scheduled studio practice has become a fleeting memory. Gone are the days of hanging out at YogaOne 5-6 days a week, that’s for sure! My effort to make lemons from lemonade, though, have pushed me to get creative and committed to a strong at-home practice and getting to the studio (teaching class doesn’t count although I do reap so many benefits from connecting to my students and sharing in their practice). Here are my 3 best ways to make it happen at home!
*Early Bird Special. Set the alarm for at least 20 minutes early. Jump in the shower to warm up and wake up, then roll out the mat on the bedroom floor. Sounds silly, but as soon as you leave the sanctuary of your bedroom the day begins – for the early bird mini-practice to work for me I need to stay put….then embark on waking up the mind and body for the day before you open that door! I usually chose 3 categories of the Baptiste Journey Into Power sequence and go for it - enough to get the heart pumping but not break a sweat to counter that sweet shower you just took.
*Naptime Mat Time. Kiddos down for nap, roll out the mat immediately. This is key – moving right to the laptop to check emails, return that quick phone call, or watch last night’s Gossip Girl you are dying to watch on DVR and next thing you know the rascals are awake and you’ve lost your moment!
* Sun Salutations for Breakfast. I have to credit my friend and fellow teacher Jessalynn for this one. 5 Sun A’s and 5 Sun B’s while the baby is in the high chair eating breakfast! No need for a mat, a hard kitchen floor is just fine for some chaturangas.
GET IT DONE!

Winter Golf Fitness

2010-03-04T16:52:00.000-05:00

It is cold, grey, and dreary in Nashville AGAIN today. What are you doing to stay in shape and improve your game (whatever you game!) for the spring? Power Yoga, people!

Winter golf fitness - golf instruction - golf tips - Instruction - Golf.com

Finding my Center in Tennessee

2010-01-15T15:49:00.004-05:00

I could have also entitled this post, "Holy jeez, what is happening." I just picked up and moved our family to a temporary corporate apartment in Brentwood, TN for Rick's job. My baby chose this moving week to start crawling, pulling up, sprouting another tooth, and changing his nap times. My dog is revolting against the tiny apartment and being walked on a leash instead of running free. And I'm going nuts trying to work, take care of us, and find some sanity.

I went to my first yoga class in TN yesterday, a nice class at the YMCA (the Y's here, by the way, are the nicest ones I've seen anywhere. And we thought the ones in NC were good!). By "nice class" I mean it was slow as molasses, no flow, and not challenging - just not a good fit for my style. However the teacher was experienced and thoughtful, and the class was full of people who, it was clear, loved this class and came regularly. The gentleman next to whom I placed my mat said, "have you been to Joe's class before? It's great - he doesn't push you very hard." Eesh.

With this great departure from what I know and expect and love in my yoga practice, I really had to focus to find my intention and purpose for that hour. "You need yoga today, whatever form it comes in physically," I told myself. In doing so, I realized this was so applicable to my life which has been turned upside down this week. With SO much else going on around us, I needed to just breathe through it, and find my center, and be confident that I have absolutely everything that I need at my core. Everything else can just buzz around me, and as I am centered, so my day will go. So throughout this class that was super-boring physically to me, I had this awesome mental breakthrough that helped me get perspective on where I am. My life - this week or any other week - is not about where I'm living, or how I'm walking the dog, or how much or when my son naps. I have everything I need, all this power to be positive, lighthearted, and open to new possibilities, at my core. It lives in me, not in our tiny, temporary, 3rd floor walk-up digs!

Baron said many times at Teacher Training that we CHOOSE how to be, we CHOOSE how to live our lives, we CHOOSE to let things define us (or not). This whole week I had been letting myself choose to be mad, annoyed, frustrated! And it was getting me nowhere. Time to let it go, YEAH! What a great feeling. I've opened up all of this new space to find the blessings in our new situation. Time to be "up to something" in Nashville, y'all....
Namaste.

Baptiste Power Yoga Has Health Benefits

2009-12-15T10:23:00.000-05:00

Baptiste Power Yoga Has Health Benefits

Great news story about the benefits of Baptiste Power Yoga in Dallas, TX.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2009-10-29T20:25:00.003-04:00

No, not Christmas season...marathon season! I'm not running a long one this Fall, but I sure am nostalgic for one. The November issue of Runners World always has a marathon countdown and lots of tips and inspirations for race day. I'm nostalgic to be one of "them", to have this month's issue be the one that I looked forward to as I tapered towards my race and made my strategic plan of what to eat, what to wear, when to push it, when to save my energy, where to place my family on the route. I'm nostalgic for taking on a challenge which leads strangers, co-workers, and family members to think that I have a screw loose. I crave pushing myself beyond my limits, even having run this same distance before, to find the euphoric pain, relief, and thrill at the finish line. I will miss the cameraderie with 35,000 total strangers at the starting line, everyone coming to the peak of their training together. I even yearn to have to walk down stairs backwards for 5 days afterwards, and be pleased that I pushed myself that hard. I'll do it again...soon!

I love yoga for the peace and grace that you find as you build and strengthen your body; I love team sports for the trust and reliance on others, the movement as a group towards a common goal, the exhiliration that comes from working together and, sometimes, being the best. And I love racing for the completely solitary challenge that you find, with no one to rely on but yourself, your mind and your legs. So this Fall is my yoga season, a season to push myself in my yoga practice and take that passion to the next level. Alas, this year is not my marathon season. But all of these passions will always be there for me, ready to be tapped for their turn to take center stage. See you a year from next weekend in New York City, perhaps?

Football Players can do Yoga, too!

2009-10-18T21:57:00.004-04:00

In my training to teach yoga to athletes with Sage Rountree (http://www.sagerountree.com/), I had the pleasure of joining Sage to train the University of North Carolina football team as a part of their Sunday recovery football practice. Having won a huge game the day before at UConn, the guys were tired both physically and mentally. We really didn't know what to expect when we walked into their locker room, but I can say that I wasn't expecting what we got...an enthusiastic bunch of serious athletes who truly love yoga! Granted, the yoga session was the one part of their recovery day where they got to lie on the floor of the locker room and breathe...the rest of their Sunday practice was easy sprint work and light lifting, not nearly as fun! We took the guys through a short practice of light spinal twists, hamstring stretches, and hip and shoulder openers. In learning how to teach yoga to athletes, a football team may be the best, most diverse group of athletes you could find. From the kickers who looked like experienced yogis with their deep hamstring stretches and open hips, to the linemen, sore and exhausted from the game, who showed us how you can (and must) work around muscle-bound shoulders and legs, I was struck by how versative you can make the same yoga practice, and how one practice can be applied to so many different, athletic body types. No matter their position or level of strength and flexibility, though, they all came with a sense of lightness and humor which really made the practice fun and rejuvinating for all of them. A great take-away lesson for all of us!

40 Days

2009-10-13T18:56:00.005-04:00

I am in week 4 of a "40 Days to Personal Revolution" program at my studio. It is basically a physical, mental, and dietary challenge for 40 Days, and really is revolutionary. This is my second 40 Days and I felt that it would be a great fit with my current training to be a teacher. Physically - 6 days of yoga practice per week - is tough. As a new mom, it often bumps other exercise out of my day because I often just don't have time to do it. But for 40 Days and considering the great improvement I see in my yoga practice, it is worth it! I find that with at least an hour of yoga a day, I'm getting up into headstand faster, taking my twists and lunges deeper, and finding more space in my muscles and joints each week. I've been dealing with a lot of back pain (apparently from running with my baby in the jogging stroller!), and this, too, only seems to improve after my daily practice. Mentally, we are doing a daily meditation practice, something that is perhaps harder for me to do than the physical part. SITTING STILL and BREATHING. It is a wonderful exercise and something I hope to continue after the 40 Days are over, at least for a few minutes a day. As for my diet, generally speaking we make an effort to eat healthful, whole foods as close to their natural state as possible during the 40 Days; this means staying away from highly-processed snack stuff, fried foods, etc. This was the easy part. The hardest has been the 3 Day "fruit cleanse", of which I am on day 2 right now. The idea is not to lose weight, but to give the body a break from digesting and processing the "hard stuff", and instead by eating lots of easy-to-digest fruit, we're allowing it to flush toxins. The secondary goal if this is the best - to physically and mentally become lighter and brighter! We truly do not need as much as we think we do. That's not to say I won't be having a nice, lean hamburger this weekend once I come off the cleanse (because I most certainly will), but simply that it makes us more aware of our needs vs. wants in the food department. So while I'm dying for some mint chocolate chip ice cream right now...I don't really need it! What an empowering feeling:)
Namaste,
Libby