Rebecca Cohen Yoga

Rebecca Cohen Yoga Rebecca is a yoga teacher trainer inspiring other to learn the practice. Online courses, 200 & 300 hour Yoga Teacher Trainings

No lesson today — just a check-in.Without changing your position, take a slow inventory: jaw, shoulders, hands, low back...
09/05/2026

No lesson today — just a check-in.
Without changing your position, take a slow inventory: jaw, shoulders, hands, low back, feet. Where is your body working hardest right now, without you having asked it to?
This isn't about fixing anything in this moment. It's practice in noticing — which is really the starting point for everything else we've talked about this week. You can't redistribute effort you've never noticed accumulating somewhere.

09/04/2026

"Just stretch it more" is one of the most common pieces of movement advice out there, and it's not wrong exactly — it's just incomplete.
Muscles can feel tight for genuinely different reasons, and they don't all respond to the same solution. Sometimes a muscle actually is short relative to what a movement requires, and lengthening it helps. But a lot of chronic tightness — the kind that comes back within a day of stretching it — isn't about length at all. It's a protective strategy. Your nervous system has assessed that an area needs extra tension to feel stable, often because of past injury, ongoing instability, or simply unfamiliarity with moving that area through a full range.
When tightness is protective rather than structural, more stretching can backfire. You're essentially asking the nervous system to loosen its grip on an area it has already decided needs extra holding. Sometimes that works temporarily. Often the tension is back within hours, because the underlying reason for the guarding hasn't changed.
What tends to help more in that case is building a felt sense of control in that area — slow, active movement through a full range (not passive stretching), strength work that asks the muscle to work through the range rather than just be pulled longer, and sometimes breathwork that helps the whole nervous system feel less on-guard generally.
I want to be clear: this isn't a claim that stretching is bad, or that tight muscles are never simply short. It's an invitation to ask a more specific question before reaching for the same solution every time. Does this area need more length? Or does it need to feel more supported and stable before it's willing to let go?

Next time something feels persistently tight, ask: does this need more length, or more stability? Tell me what you notice.

Vyana Vayu — the yoga concept of whole-body distribution and coordination — is often described as breath and effort movi...
09/03/2026

Vyana Vayu — the yoga concept of whole-body distribution and coordination — is often described as breath and effort moving outward with ease. But distribution also has a defensive side, and we experience that mode every day.

When your nervous system senses a threat, even a small one, the response can involve your whole body:

• You stub your toe and your jaw clenches.
• Your breath catches before you've had time to think.
• Stress shows up in your hands, feet, or jaw.
• One side of your body works harder under stress or load.
• Your posture changes automatically — shoulders rise, chest tightens, or the body becomes more protective.

Some of what feels like “bad posture” or “random tension” may actually be your nervous system distributing a protective response throughout the body.

Noticing these patterns isn't about fixing them immediately. It's about recognizing them.

When you can think, “Oh, that's my whole-body stress response,” unexplained tension starts to make a little more sense.

Effort in the body isn't spent and gone — it's distributed. If one area is consistently doing more than its share, it's ...
09/02/2026

Effort in the body isn't spent and gone — it's distributed. If one area is consistently doing more than its share, it's often because another area isn't contributing its share, whether from restriction, habit, or old guarding patterns.
I see this a lot with grip and forearm tension in people who feel like their whole upper body is "tight." Often the forearms compensate for shoulders and upper back that aren't sharing the load of everyday tasks — carrying bags, typing, driving.
This is a slower kind of noticing than "stretch what's tight." It's asking a different question: what nearby area might not be doing its part?

Where in your body tends to overwork? Tell me below — I'll bet it connects to something nearby.

09/01/2026

Quick anatomy note that changes how a lot of people think about shoulder mobility: your shoulder was never designed to move alone.
When you reach overhead, your ribcage widens and rotates slightly to create room for that motion. It's an automatic, unconscious adjustment — you don't have to think about it, and most people never notice it happening.
But if your ribcage is braced or restricted — from years of sitting hunched forward, from shallow breathing, from guarding after an old injury — that automatic contribution doesn't happen the way it should. Your shoulder ends up trying to find the same range of motion on its own, usually by recruiting your upper traps (the muscles that shrug your shoulders toward your ears) or borrowing motion from your neck.
Over time, that pattern can show up as shoulder tension that doesn't fully resolve with shoulder stretches, or neck tightness that seems to come from nowhere. It's not because those stretches are wrong — it's because the actual limitation may be a few segments away, in a ribcage that isn't participating in the movement.
Try the check in this video: reach overhead a few times today and notice whether your ribs feel like part of the movement, or like they're sitting it out.

Try it once today — reach overhead and notice whether your ribs move with you.

Most of us were taught to think about the body one part at a time: tight hamstrings, a stiff neck, a cranky lower back. ...
08/31/2026

Most of us were taught to think about the body one part at a time: tight hamstrings, a stiff neck, a cranky lower back. Fix the part, fix the problem. It’s not wrong — it’s just incomplete.

This month, I want to look at the body through a different lens: the **five Vāyus**, an ancient yoga framework describing directions of movement and energy.

We’ll focus on **Vyana Vayu**, which is associated with circulation, distribution, and whole-body coordination — how breath, effort, and attention move through the entire body.

Try this: reach one arm overhead. Notice what else moves. Your ribs may shift. Your opposite hip may adjust. Your breath may change. Your spine makes small corrections to keep you balanced.

Your shoulder isn’t working alone. Your whole system is sharing the task.

This matters when something feels tight or restricted. Instead of always stretching the uncomfortable spot harder, we can ask: **What else might be contributing?**

I see this often with neck and shoulder tension. Sometimes we need to look beyond the neck — at the ribs, mid-back, or even how the feet meet the ground.

For the next 30 days, I invite you to explore your body as **one coordinated system rather than a collection of separate parts.**

Today, try this: the next time you reach, twist, or take a step, pause and ask:

**What else moved besides the part I meant to move?**

You may start noticing things your body has been doing all along.

This is the first post in a month-long series exploring **Vyana Vayu** as a practical way to understand movement, breath, posture, and tension.

Save this post — you’ll want this framework for the rest of the series.

Sunday can be a useful time to pause and notice what the week has left behind.Not everything needs to be solved.Not ever...
08/30/2026

Sunday can be a useful time to pause and notice what the week has left behind.
Not everything needs to be solved.
Not everything needs an immediate answer.
Sometimes our bodies need time to process what we've experienced.
That's part of integration.
Take a few minutes today to check in with yourself without judgment.

Complete this sentence in the comments:
"Right now, my body is asking for more ______."

08/29/2026

Core work shouldn't be about creating as much tension as possible.
Your body needs enough support to move well—but not so much that breathing and movement become restricted.
This is one reason I emphasize coordination, awareness, and responsiveness in yoga practice.

Have you ever been told to "tighten your core" during yoga?
Tell me what you were taught.

Here's a simple practice you can try when you feel scattered, disconnected, or stuck in one position for too long.It isn...
08/28/2026

Here's a simple practice you can try when you feel scattered, disconnected, or stuck in one position for too long.
It isn't about forcing your body into perfect alignment.
Instead, we're practicing the ability to notice, respond, and return to center.
That idea is central to how I think about movement and the teachings of Samāna Vāyu.

Try it once today and tell me:
Did you notice a difference before and after?


Think about standing on one leg.If you try to eliminate every tiny movement, you'll probably become more tense.But if yo...
08/27/2026

Think about standing on one leg.
If you try to eliminate every tiny movement, you'll probably become more tense.
But if you allow yourself to adjust, your balance becomes more responsive.
The same idea applies far beyond yoga.
Our bodies, thoughts, emotions, and circumstances are constantly changing.
We don't need to eliminate every wobble.
We need to develop the ability to respond.
That is one of the qualities I appreciate about the teachings of Samāna Vāyu.

Where in your life are you learning to become more adaptable instead of more rigid?


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