Redefining Movement

Greg Berzinski is a full-time producer and cameraman for Movement By Lara. He also manages my podcast and updates my website and people love seeing him on my Instagram. Listen to this conversation to hear all about why it’s so important to find something you love and make it happen. Plus hear Greg explain how he creates videos and live broadcasts for Movement By Lara. To learn more, and for the co...

Today I’m talking to Amelia Barnes. Amelia is a yoga teacher. She also is the creator of PranaVida, an eco-friendly clothing brand, a passionate vegan and a pioneer of the no waste lifestyle. And she's doing it all while raising two young children. In this episode we chat about how we are sold the idea of convenience, but producing unnecessary waste is going to cause a lot of inconvenience in the...

How do you help someone, for example a family member in pain who doesn't want to listen to you, do yoga, move their body or eat differently? This is a tough one because pain can cause resentment and anger and make it more difficult for people to take advice. It’s very easy to think, gosh, I have so many things I could help this person with. I could tell them about movement, about how they should b...

Today I’m talking about a crisis of confidence in teaching. It doesn’t have to be about teaching yoga, it could be about anything. But yoga teachers often experience times when they lack confidence. It doesn’t mean you should stop teaching or that you’re an imposter, but perhaps that you’re standing in a void of confidence believing you can't do what you need to instruct in the way you'd like to....

Jen Pastiloff travels the world with her unique yoga workshops. She is also the author of On Being Human , a memoir and celebration of happiness and self-realization over darkness and doubt. In this episode we talk about how yoga helped her fight depression and anxiety, how becoming a yoga teacher enabled her to quit waiting tables and how to quiet your inner asshole.   To learn more, and for the...

Can we live without an agenda? I started thinking about this after I was reading from a Buddhist book of philosophy released by Shambhala Pocket Classics. I think that we can all benefit from holding your tongue and not saying what’s on your mind just because you want your opinion to be stated. When you're on the right path, you don't need to prove to somebody else what you're doing. And you don't...

In this episode I cover what causes a crick in the neck, how to avoid getting one and how you can help your neck to recover. When people say they have a crick in the neck it’s usually because they’ve woken up to find their neck is stiff and sore. Sometimes they can't turn their head. One reason it can happen is that you slept weird. But there's also underlying factors. Many people spend the most t...

Transitioning between seasons can be challenging. In the Northern Hemisphere we’re currently transitioning from summer to fall, and that can be really hard, especially for people who don’t like the cold. In this episode I cover some ways to make weathering the change in seasons easier.   To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: movementbylara.com   Resources: Check out: movementbylar...

Today’s podcast is about creating more vitality in your life. I’ve come up with six words beginning with S to make my top tips for vitality easy to remember: sweat, shower, stillness, silly, sustenance and sleep.   To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: movementbylara.com   Resources: Check out: movementbylara.com Instagram: @lara.heimann Facebook: facebook.com/movementbylara Redef...

Today's podcast is about how to create a new habit. Habits are an an action we have done so many times that it becomes unconscious. We don't even realize we're doing it. It could be a good or a bad habit, but the thing about habits is that they never truly go away. So creating new habits is really about creating better habits rather than entirely getting rid of the old ones. Listen to the episode...

At any age, it's important to have muscular strength. It's going to protect your joints, it's going to help you function more optimally with movement and it's important for your bone and heart health. In this episode, I talk about the best exercises to do to build strength even if you’re older and haven’t done much strength building before.   To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit:...

Ahimsa means non-harm. This is one of the first principles in yoga philosophy and where my mission stems from. And it’s not just about being nice or kind to others. It's also about the impact we have on the other beings that we're sharing this planet with. Early in my career I began to bridge my neuro physical therapy knowledge with my yoga teaching and practice. At the same time I became vegan af...

Today’s episode is about posture. Posture is so much more than how you stand. It is your presentation into the world. Our bodies contain everything - our energy, our emotions and our spirit. And the external frame, our posture, has an effect on all of those things. A lot of people realize their posture is not great, but they don't know what to do about it. So I want to give you some ways to check...

Breath is a big part of any kind of movement practice. And I also think it's the one that's not often taught in a functional way. Having a deeper experience with your breath will increase your oxygen intake. You're going to have more energy, you’re going to calm your nervous system and you’re connecting to your core. In this episode I take you through exercises that will help you take bigger, full...

Building shoulder strength is really about building a robustness to the shoulder so that it can be adaptable both in terms of mobility and stability. In this episode I take you through a simple exercise series that pretty much anyone can do, even if they’ve had a shoulder injury.   To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: movementbylara.com   Resources: Check out: movementbylara.com...

This episode is about how soon to practice yoga after giving birth, what to start with and how to teach someone who has just given birth. The answers to these questions will be different for everyone, depending on how active they were during pregnancy and how their birth was. So most of all, listen to your body.   To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: movementbylara.com   Resource...

The color red is a key part of my logo and branding. This represents the first chakra, the root chakra. This episode is all about the root chakra, why it’s so important and how we can strengthen it.    To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: movementbylara.com   Resources: Check out: movementbylara.com Instagram: @lara.heimann Facebook: facebook.com/movementbylara Redefining Yoga is...

Today's podcast is called, what's my purpose? Everyone is searching for their purpose. But how do we find it? Is it only one thing? What happens to people who don't think they have a purpose?   To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: movementbylara.com   Resources: Check out: movementbylara.com Instagram: @lara.heimann Facebook: facebook.com/movementbylara Redefining Yoga is a produ...

Asking how to stretch your hamstrings is like asking, what's the meaning of life? I say that because, although I get asked how to stretch the hamstrings all the time, there’s no simple answer. In this episode I want to expand your idea of what the hamstrings are and what stretching them actually means.   To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: movementbylara.com   Resources: Check o...

This podcast is about how movement practice can be seen as a preparation for life. Movement has to do with life and transitions. Life itself is one movement after the other. We move through stages. And even within the cycle of a day, we're moving. Our movement patterns can offer us a unique opportunity to pay attention and improve the way we respond to and interact with situations in our life.   T...

Today’s podcast is about lightening up. We can tend to get stuck in the things that bog us down. So how can we lighten up emotionally, mentally, physically and in response to situations? By connecting to and strengthening our core center, our physical and spiritual self, we can get that feeling of lightness and that belief that we can handle anything, even when things don’t go our way.   To learn...

Today's podcast is about the snowball effect. A snowball that rolls down a hill, gathering more and more snow can have a massive impact when it gets to the bottom, kind of like a runaway train. So what happens when we let our thoughts or suboptimal movement patterns snowball? In terms of our mental state, we get more and more overwhelmed. With movement, one thing compounds another and we can end u...

Today's podcast is about repetitive strain injuries, also known as RSI. What are repetitive strain injuries and what can we do about them? I’ll be focusing on two of the most common repetitive strain injuries - carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis.   To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: movementbylara.com   Resources: Check out: movementbylara.com Instagram: @lara.heimann Facebo...

In this episode, my brother, John Frank, joins me to discuss the shoulder complex. John is a physical therapist, athlete, and fellow lover of movement. So often, we think that the shoulder is simple, but the shoulder is, in fact, quite complicated!    To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: movementbylara.com   Resources: Check out: movementbylara.com Instagram: @lara.heimann Facebo...

Today’s episode is about why I don't teach or practice seated forward folds. I'm not saying they're bad, but there's a lot of reasons I don't do them. Primarily I want to make sure that people get the most bang for their buck out of any movement they do, and this is particularly important for people who don’t spend a lot of their day in movement.    To learn more, and for the complete show notes,...