Renegade Yoga

12/30/2025

Don 't miss our BUTI Yoga Certification January 31 - February 1
https://bit.ly/49htAK3

12/30/2025

Classes start January 17th. Reserve your space today!

Become a Certified Yoga Teacher: Unleash Your Inner Warrior Through Renegade's 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training or 300 hour Yoga Teacher Training in Knoxville, TN.

12/24/2025

The perfect last minute gift. The gift of yoga.

Renegade Yoga is the premier yoga studio for yogis of all shapes, sizes, and orientations. We believe yoga is about more than fitness. it's a means to come to know yourself and the universe you reside in more fully. As such, we see yoga as something we want to be a part of making available for all.....

12/24/2025

Waited until the last minute to get your CEUs? Ready to upgrade your bodywork toolkit?

Massage therapists and yoga instructors can now earn 16 continuing ed hours while learning Philip Clift’s signature bodywork method: Deep Table Thai.

A powerful blend of Deep Tissue, Thai Massage, joint mobilization, compression therapy & more—designed to transform your work and protect your body.

December 27/28
Renegade Yoga Institute
10am-6pm each day
$450
Space is limited—claim your spot & expand your practice.

Renegade Yoga is the premier yoga studio for yogis of all shapes, sizes, and orientations. We believe yoga is about more than fitness. it's a means to come to know yourself and the universe you reside in more fully. As such, we see yoga as something we want to be a part of making available for all.....

12/21/2025

Waited until the last minute to get your CEUs? Ready to upgrade your bodywork toolkit? ✨

Massage therapists and yoga instructors can now earn 16 continuing ed hours while learning Philip Clift’s signature bodywork method: Deep Table Thai.

A powerful blend of Deep Tissue, Thai Massage, joint mobilization, compression therapy & more—designed to transform your work and protect your body.

🗓 December 27/28

📍 Renegade Yoga Institute

⏰ 10am-6pm each day

💲 $450

Space is limited—claim your spot & expand your practice. 🙏🔥

Please DM me if interested…

12/16/2025

Radiant Soundscapes this Saturday at 7pm
https://bit.ly/4q7Hxks

12/09/2025

Join us for select Holiday Classes for only $10
Tuesdays 6:15 - 7:15 am Ashtanga 60 - Holiday
Tuesdays 7:30 - 8:30 am Yoga 101 - Holiday
Wednesdays 9:00 - 10:15 am Slow Flow 75 - Holiday
Thursdays 7:30 - 8:30 am Yoga 101 - Holiday
Thursdays 4:30 - 5:45 pm YinYasa 75 - Holiday
Saturdays 8:00 - 9:00 am Power 60 - Holiday
Sundays 9:30 - 11:00 am Yin Yang 90 - Holiday
Sundays 11:30 - 12:30 pm Breathwork/Pranayama 60 - Holiday
https://clients.mindbodyonline.com/classic/ws?studioid=349580&stype=-7&sTG=53&sView=day&sLoc=0

12/04/2025

Join us for Drop into Bliss - this Saturday.
https://clients.mindbodyonline.com/classic/ws?studioid=349580&stype=-7&sTG=56&sView=day&sLoc=0

12/03/2025

Headstand

Often called the King of Asanas, headstand—Śīrṣāsana—is a powerfully transformative posture with far-reaching physical and energetic benefits. For many practitioners, it marks a major milestone on the Hatha Yoga journey, a true “gateway” into the world of more refined and advanced asana.

Headstands help guide blood, lymph, and prana—specifically Udana Vayu—upward toward the crown of the head. This ascending movement stimulates and refreshes the nervous system, supports the return of blood and lymph to the heart, nourishes the internal organs, and gently counteracts the effects of aging with consistent practice.

On an energetic level, the Crown Chakra (Sahasrara)—the center of higher awareness, spiritual intuition, and universal consciousness—becomes more highly activated and harmonized through consistent headstand practice.

It’s worth noting that Śīrṣāsana is actually an umbrella term encompassing all headstand variations. It does not specifically refer to the commonly practiced “bound” or “three-point/tripod” headstands found in most modern classes. Each of those variations has its own precise Sanskrit name—because in yoga, details matter, and language reflects lineage.

Śīrṣa = head

Āsana = posture

Bound Headstands — Baddha Hasta Śīrṣāsana

The bound-hands headstands appearing in the Intermediate Series of Ashtanga Yoga progress in difficulty and are traditionally taught in this order:

Baddha Hasta Śīrṣāsana A — the classical bound headstand
Baddha Hasta Śīrṣāsana B
Baddha Hasta Śīrṣāsana C
Baddha Hasta Śīrṣāsana D

Baddha = bound

Hasta = hands

These form the structural foundation of the Ashtanga headstand family.

Three-Point / Tripod Headstands — Mukta Hasta Śīrṣāsana

The free-hands headstands, balancing on the crown and both hands, are named:

Mukta Hasta Śīrṣāsana A — classic tripod, palms flat
Mukta Hasta Śīrṣāsana B
Mukta Hasta Śīrṣāsana C

Mukta = free

Hasta = hands

These variations teach balance, strength, and control in a more open kinetic chain.

Many More Than You Think

The headstand family is vast. For example:

Nirlamba Śīrṣāsana — the unsupported headstand, with no hands on the floor

…and countless other precise variations that reveal the depth of classical practice.

For the Teachers Who Still Use Sanskrit…

If you’re one of those rare, rebellious souls who still weaves Sanskrit into class, refining your understanding of this exquisite, ancient language is a form of Jñāna Yoga—the path of knowledge and wisdom. It sharpens your teaching, deepens your practice, and keeps you tethered to the lineages from which all modern yoga flows.

Stay curious. Continue learning.

Your students—and your practice—will thank you. 🙏

12/01/2025

Side Crow 🐦‍⬛

Since the earliest days of my practice, Parsva Bakasana—better known as Side Crow—has held a special fascination for me. In fact, my first yoga business back in the early 2000s (co-founded partner Jennifer Coffin) was actually named Side Crow Yoga.

Now, a small technical note for the true yoga nerds out there 👀:

Although nearly everyone calls this posture Side Crow, the commonly used Sanskrit—Parsva Bakasana—literally means Side Crane. The accurate Sanskrit for Side Crow is Parsva Kakasana (kaka = crow).

So what’s the actual difference?

✨ Crane = arms straight

✨ Crow = arms bent

Since almost everyone practices this pose with bent elbows—like a crow’s bent legs—the posture most people are doing is technically Parsva Kakasana.

Parsva Bakasana, with fully straight arms like the long legs of a crane, is highly challenging to hold with poise and steadiness.

Beyond the naming fun, Side Crow is a fascinating posture for several reasons:

✨ It has multiple entry points.

You can enter from Chair Twist, Noose Pose, 3-point headstand, handstand, any Eka Pada Koundinyasana variation, Downward Dog, and—if you’re feeling magical—from levitating about 18 inches off the floor 😉

✨ In Ashtanga, it appears in the Advanced B (Sthira Bhaga 😎 Series—even though it’s actually more accessible than several arm balances in Advanced A.

Perhaps Vamana Rishi (if you know, you know) had mercy on us at that moment in the sequence 😅

✨ Finding stable balance here can be a major breakthrough, especially for practitioners who began yoga later in life or without a strong athletic background.

Side Crow is one of those shapes that teaches strength and stability, twist mechanics, bandha engagement, balance, and mental steadiness all at once. Work on it consistently—you’ll be glad you did.

If you want guidance, come see me at Renegade Yoga Institute 🙏