Ali Kamenova Interval Yoga

06/03/2025

Exercise for strength. Building muscle. Do we need a gym?
As an ex gym lover, I am slightly biased towards gyms in the direction of enjoying them. The "ex" part is because gyms take a whole lot of your time for something that can be accomplished in 1/4 of the time. An even issue is that many are blue light toxic and full of bluetooth and wifi. Some outdoor sunny gyms will still make the cut for me. But the question is, do we truly need gyms for strength?
The short answer is a NO.
Strength is built in the context of functional movement. Yes, bars, isolated bench presses and squat machines can build muscles in isolation, but it doesn't amount to true strength.
Bones are built by true strength and sunlight. We can't outsmart biology.
If a cool gym fits in your schedule - it is absolutely fine.
If it doesnt - you absolutely dont need it.
That's the core of it.
If you love it - go for the enjoyment of your time spent there.
If you dont - dont force yourself to go.
In my situation, there is absolutely no way i can justify getting ready for a gym, driving and spending time there just to be back home 2 hours later.
i can get that done at home in 20 mins in my bathing suit in the sun.
Functional strength is built with functional compound moves. We can use home weights and utilize irregular, fluid or compound moves with lighter weights .
Jumps are necessary if your health permits.
Carrying a heavy load is something i have to do daily- i carry buckets of water in the garden. If you dont need to do that in your lifestyle,just get some weights and do a hike once a week.
Isolated exercises for strength can often create an imbalance between a major muscle and the supporting balancing muscles and joints.
It is best to focus on real moves that real bodies do in real lives.
Yes - nowadays we are very sedentary so we may have to imitate that with dumbbells and fluid moves on the mat.
We must also work on somatic awareness and flexibility. Not extreme flexibility but rather what is natural to our body.
Fascia is everything - the electric signaling in the body via the living water.
What's your favorite strength move?

05/30/2025

Reading energy in Relationships.
This is an important type of attunement that we all have access to, akin to the 5th sense. Some of us have this sense very dialed in; some have to work at it. It takes silencing the mind and listening to the body when reading energy. In relationships, it is important to subtly feel people without the smoke and cloudiness of substances, ego chatter, judgement and self-obsession. In a way in order to feel people we have to get out of our own way and ourselves. The body never lies, its a tuning fork.
Somatic movement really allows us to find a quiet place within that allows for stillness so we can hear/feel the flow of energy.
We have to find radical acceptance and love within before we can really relate to others from that same place.
In relationships, if we don't heal our own attachments, addictions, traumas and mind clutter, we risk connecting on that trauma level. Energy never lies, and we often attract an energetic match - either more of the same, our own energy mirrored, or a perfect enabler.
We have to simplify our approach to our own self- quiet down, become simpler, more present, more embodied.
That does happen through all the somatic yoga we have been doing. It allows us to just be. Once we are still we build more of that rooted, self-aware, present, witness energy.
I dont believe most people are fit to teach relationship stuff. PHDs, degrees, school, knowledge - none of this can really create a good teacher. I am not qualified to teach that, most humans shouldnt really touch this subject because it is often that the most passionate relationship teachers just teach trauma based knowledge.
We can teach how to go within, how to develop intuition, how to befriend yourself, how to hear your own inner voice, how to trust that voice; how to be guided from within; by the Divine. These are the foundations. We can practice rooting, grounding, surrendering, forgiving, letting go, establishing boundaries, building your own ethos; embodying that ethos. These are all the tools that shift our own energy and the energy around us.
Masculine - feminine energy is always at play within each one of us and in our relationships. We hav

05/29/2025

We are always either in the process of healing- conflict resolution or conflict active stage (dis-ease). Understanding that in terms of movement has been extremely expanding for me as a teacher. I am not just a practitioner applying my epiphanies in my own life. I am merging learning and movement. Healing and movement. How do we access the soul through the somatic presence? It has been a beautiful dance of building a what was once a very edgy and out there practice yoga + HIIT into a whole new paradigm: yoga and HIIT and somatic presence plus the expansion I have received from studying and applying German New Medicine, Bach Flower Essences, Nature healing, Nature observation, intuitive inner diving, intuitive outer guidance. Movement can be very rich and enriching- not juts a quiet time, a time for you, a time for mind rest and reset- it can reach the soul in new ways; it can heal the soul without the need for talk therapy, or for unweaving every single memory we can access. Yes, seeing, recognizing, witnessing, accepting and owning our traumas, griefs, self-pity, anger, blame, self blame is important. There is grand healing in movement that does not reject or deny any of these emotions- it recognizes them so deeply that it alchemizes them. If we feel angry about something - we are held there and witnessed in that emotion until we can transform it. And we move forward. Sometimes, we are meant to hold it longer in order to create the path that will best serve our soul. There are no wrong and right emotions - we can find a place where victimhood and releasing it meet without spiritual bypassing but by being ready to transform and feel freedom in the body and in our life. We can't deny our feelings into deleting them- we have to feel them and acknowledge them and alchemize the recessive ones and honor the important ones. Sometimes, fear is more important than acceptance. It is our own knowing of boundaries and space. Sometimes, acceptance is the correct path. There are no prescriptive feelings. Only the inner path has that answer for you.

05/26/2025

lol

Godspeed.

05/25/2025

We are starting a new program!!! Just in time for Summer. We are going to greet summer with a program called 1/2 Strength training - 1/2 Yoga. Fast, fusion, efficient, engaging. The first week is posted already. If you are looking to be in continuous shape in all seasons in nature and in your life, then follow along. I don't like quick get-in-shape schemes. I like commitment that is long-term. I don't like mindless repetition of the same moves. I like continuous evolution. I don't believe in doing the same workouts over and over again or the same yoga and getting the results that conscious connection can yield. I am also not big on progressive overload as a main approach. Getting stronger and stronger is a strategy for someone who's 19 years old and training for a competition. Or a girl getting ready for her wedding. Not a strategy that will move us through the seasons of our lives. (Believe it or not, the menopause experts keep pushing this advice. I have to humbly say it's not smart. It comes from an overachiever mindset). Life will always ask us to adapt, surrender, soften, to commit more to our family or work and less to our fitness goals - for those times, I have created very short classes. We don't need to let go of our fitness just because we have no time. For the times when we have more time , I like my flows and somatic classes. Of course, I also have everything in between. 20 mins a day is ideal. I like to take a conscious approach to movement - no self-abuse, no overdoing it, no mindless movement. Once we connect to movement from a somatic perspective, it becomes a craving. It is fun. I hope you are feeling this new theme for June! Love

05/25/2025

HAHA

Thats.... a solid point.

05/25/2025

Hormones at 46
Part 3.
A bit more serious here.
1. Hormones are indistinguishable as a topic from just the word "health". Glandular, organ health.
Circadian Rhythms and Hormones are technically the same thing.
So light and dark cycles. I spoke about this in length in the Darkness Yoga classes- about 4 of them.
We cannot expose ourselves to excessive blue light, flicker LED and expect our brain to not react with chaos. Hormones (kidneys- cortisol, thyroid, pancreas- insulin, go**ds - s&x hormones) all over the place.
2.Food. Its mostly not helpful to share exact diet online because diet is dependant on location, season, availability, traditions, ancestry, the local growing conditions, preferences. I live on an avocado citrus farm and 80% of my calories come from our land. I don't eat processed foods other than my sourdough homemade bread and chocolate lol. A diet has to align with your climate, constitution, ancestry, seasonal and local availability, and ethos. I innerstand that food is simply light code. Different food can work for different people based on what information we are ready to receive. Calories and nutrients as a way of quantifying and measuring nutrition is an old way of thinking. I align very well with a raw-ish diet - it has always made me feel full of energy. It doesn't work for everyone. I practice the 8 limbs of yoga as much as I can. I don't put any of that on others. Food is closely connected to intention, gtaitude, connection, receptivity, curiosity, deeper nourishment. On our farm we support wild life- coyotes, squirrels, bees, all kinds of birds and insects, possums, foxes, racoons, moles, snakes, mice, owls, and much more- we let balance work things out. I focus on building the soils microbiome.
3. Water - distilled with shungite and copper. For conductivity.
4. The herbs (vitex) and progesterone (from yams) I mentioned are plant based and natural. vitex and yam progesterone can have a protective effect from xeno estrogens- pesticides, glyphosate, plastics, chemicals, fragrances, etc; supports sleep and bones. I have researched this in depth. Now I have no symptoms of menopause or PMS but I do it as additional support.

05/23/2025

Hormones at 46:
Part 2
Things you added that I practice routinely as well:
1. Humor, laughing, light-heartedness
2. Music, dance, singing
3. Grounding
4. Nature bathing.
5. I garden daily. It is absolutely life-changing. I often asks myself why I put so much time and effort into it as it doesn't yield any monetary value but it feels like I am obligated to give my offering back to Earth via my learning, work, communion with her. I am planting herbs, flowers, some veggies, trees.
6. Cacao- I drink raw cacao, which I put in my frother until hot, so it's technically not raw anymore but I love it. It makes me feel good, grounded, peaceful. I put maca, reishi, ho show wu, coconut, sometimes ashwaghanda/shisandra.
7. The avoidance of toxicity - I ma not aiming for perfection. It's an overall lifestyle. The diseases I have suffered in my lif were all diseases of toxicity - mold exposure, it b6 exposure (for 20 days and not at a very high dose mind you- I almost went crazy from it- the grossest feeling ever), dairy doesn't work for me, processed foods (I make exceptions for consciously processed foods or slow cooked).
8. I removed most plastic and can containers from my day-to-day life. I would still get an occasional coconut water, etc but I have removed zevias, nut milks, other products in tetra packs on a regular basis.
9. I switched to natural fibers. I am baffled that good linen always smells good. There is no amount of mistreatment that can ruin high-quality linen's vibe lol. It vibes so high.
10. I started cold plunging relatively a lot - 1-4x a week in about 50 F (10C) pool for up to 11 mins a week. I skip weeks lately.
11. Most importantly possibly, I soak in the hot springs near us 4x a week.
12. I sleep solid. Usually 8:30 hours is my sweet spot.
13. I am a homeschool teacher now so I read and do a lot of homeschooling reading - we read a lot of books. We love bedtime children's books. I notice that it has added to my capacity to sleep solid and deeply. Its my current nighttime routine.
14. Progesterone and vitex. Usually in the luteal phase.
15. There is always more and nothing is less or more important. Keep the additions going in the comments.

05/22/2025

Hormones:
things I am doing to keep my glandular/hormonal health in balance.
1. Stress reduction. Establishing a routine is a must for me—it gives me a foundation.
2. Flower essences are the second line of defence - they address excess mental energy that can turn into anxiety, restlessness, fears, unmotivation, stress, you name it. I only need to reach for them every 5 years. That's how effective they are for me.
3. Sunlight - maybe it falls with #1 as it is a part of my routine- morning sun, sunset gazing, some safe sun exposure, melanin building. I feel society has lost the plot when they say there is no safe tan, and also, almost every other woman has osteoporosis after menopause. What a headscratcher. Sun is essential to life, non-negotiable. It was used in the clinics and sanatoriums of the past - they often had a sundeck. There is safe and unsafe sun exposure. So, knowledge is key.
4. Movement- I listened to the top 10 online educators on menopause, and all they say is HRT and lift as heavy as you can and eat an excess of protein. While that's much better than the other conventional advice, it is still not the best approach for every single woman. We need to make sure our glands and organs are working well. Hormones are a byproduct of a great internal landscape. The lifting heavy advice comes from the same unintuitive place that the aerobics community had. They are the same women as well. They jumped like crazy to burn calories and now all together lifting as heavy as possible. I am very much done with the toxicity of enclosed packed with EMF and blue light gyms. Movement needs to address fascia and somatic awareness. Strength can be built through intelligent movement. We need to leave the anxious training to maintain body weight approach. It is juvenile and anxious. We need to evolve in our relationship with our body. The first line of defense when menopause hits shouldn't be self-abuse and injections. There are other steps to be considered first. Then maybe HRT and for sure strength training, but not the approach of "always heavier".
5. Herbs
6. Sleep
7. Love
8. Self-development, Learning
9. Relationships
10. Prayer, spirituality
What are yours?

05/06/2025

Carrot cake raw unbaked bars. Not fully raw.
These are so good that I think they will be a staple for me for a while.
I didn't measure anything as usual. I am estimating, so proceed with caution. I am not exactly a recipe creator, but I think it's really hard to mess this up.
It's pretty much blend, mix, and chill.
We ingredients for blending.
1. One cup of soaked dates (use the water to blend)
2. 3 Carrots or so
3. I used 2 mulberry leaves after I got inspired by one of my yogis and her smoothies.
The following do not need blending.
4. Peanut butter or other butter. 2-3 tbs
5. Tahini
Dry ingredients. Blend all of them into powder.
1. H**p seeds 1 or 2 cups
2. Oats. I used a few cups of sprouted rolled oats.
3. Flax seeds. A good cup or so.
4. Coconut flakes - about 1-2 cups.
Dry ingredients that do not need blending. I added them at the end until I thickened the mixture enough.
1. Coconut flour.
2. Coconut flakes
3. Protein powder. I used 2 scoops of vanilla whole meal powder. I like the vanilla flavor.
Melted ingredients:
1. Chocolate chips or a chocolate bar. Melt it and mix some tahini and peanut butter into it. Use as much chocolate as you want. A lot of chocolate works well here. The more; the better!
Optional
Stevia, Maple, Honey; however, the dates are sweet enough.
Methdod
Blend the dry ingredients first and pour them into a container. I used the one-dish method. Then blend the wet ingredients and add to the container. Then add the other dry ingredients and butters.
Adjust dry ingredients until the dough feels thick. You can add extra protein powder and coconut flakes, and flour.
Pour the melted chocolate on top and either leave it as a chocolate layer or gently swirl it in the top layer of the dough. I did the second and prefer that. Place in the fridge.
They are AMAZING. You won't regret making them.
If you have ideas about additional ingredients, let me know.