Move with more ease.
Keep doing what you enjoy.
Less stiffness. Greater flexibility and strength. More confidence in your balance. Explore yoga and somatic movement with your everyday goals in mind, whether you’re navigating discomfort and limitations or building on a practice you enjoy.
Explore the movement habits behind discomfort
You stretch, get moving, and feel better for a while. Then the familiar tightness is back. Or perhaps you’ve started working around movements that used to feel easy.
The way we habitually sit, stand, tense, and move may contribute to discomfort and difficulty with everyday activities. Exploring these movement patterns is one part of understanding what feels limited. Pain has many possible causes, and a movement class cannot determine its medical source.
You don’t have to arrive flexible or push through pain. Begin with comfortable movements, notice how effort is shared through your body, and explore alternatives with Alan’s guidance. The aim is more choice and ease in how you move.
Yoga and mindfulness, with a somatic approach
“Somatic” refers to your experience of the body from within. Along with following a movement, you notice how it feels. Are you holding your breath? Tightening your shoulders? Could a smaller movement feel easier?
Alan’s classes bring yoga and mindfulness together with Clinical Somatics and insights from the Feldenkrais tradition. Gentle exploration gives you space to recognize familiar habits and try a different way of moving.
Where neuroplasticity comes in
Neuroplasticity is the nervous system’s capacity to adapt through experience and learning. It offers a way to understand how we can learn new movement habits. In class, that idea becomes practical: slow down, notice, and explore.
Bring the practice into daily life
Develop flexibility
Explore a comfortable range as you turn, bend, or reach. Practice options that help you move with less unnecessary effort, without forcing a stretch.
Build strength and balance
Practice supporting yourself and shifting your weight with control. Gradually develop strength and coordination for standing up, walking, and other everyday activities.
Make room to unwind
Give yourself time to notice your breathing and the tension you carry. A class is a chance to pause and attend to yourself.
Stay curious as you age
Your body changes. The practice gives you room to adapt, explore what’s possible now, and keep learning about how you move.
A shared practice. Your own pace.
Group classes offer regular time to practice with Alan’s guidance. You can be part of the group while paying attention to your own comfort and range of movement.
Some classes introduce yoga basics; others invite a deeper exploration of somatic awareness. The schedule explains each class so you can choose a starting point that feels right for you.
“Incorporating Somatics into my (daily) practice has given me a whole new insight on many levels into where I am unknowingly holding tension with constantly contracted muscles. Instead of trying harder it is releasing and letting go. And letting go is so satisfying.”
Betty H.
One student’s experience. Individual experiences and results vary.
Read more student experiencesJoin in Madison or online
Wednesday classes meet at Jai Yoga Studio in Madison and are also available on Zoom. Sunday and Tuesday classes meet online. See the schedule for Saturday options, dates, and fees.
New to yoga or returning after a break? Read the class descriptions, or ask Alan for help choosing.
Choose a class to begin.
Take a step toward moving more comfortably and doing more of what you enjoy. Find a class that fits your goals, or ask Alan where to begin.