ONEYOGAHOUSE

The Connected ONE is a practice that blends traditional yoga postures and breathwork with innovative techniques including fascial flossing, fascial maneuvers, and lymphatic system stimulation to stretch and release fascia, build inner core strength, and calm your mind. Below, we chat with Alex Venier to learn more about fascia, her unique approach to yoga, and what you can expect in her classes.

Q: Your class, The Connected ONE is unique in that it’s your own creation. You integrate more than just yoga asana into the physical practice you guide. What can students expect when taking your class?

My practice evolved over a couple of decades with a fierce focus on self-care. Filling your cup is important if you want to be a better version of yourself. In this class you will get a taste of lymphatic stimulation, fascia maneuvers (stretches), and applied neurology for pain management and optimal mobility. All these modalities will be interwoven with yoga postures and flow to up-level your physical, mental, and emotional body.

Q: What led you to integrate these other practices with your yoga teaching? Can you share a bit of your personal background and experience with movement practices throughout your life?

I found yoga in 2002 while living in Miami and working at a Montessori school for toddlers–they had a yoga teacher who taught weekly classes. Seeing these 16-month to 3-year olds in savasana was a miracle in my eyes and I dove right into yoga headfirst. I took a children’s Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) and began teaching children in my Montessori classroom. I wanted to learn more, so I took an adult YTT. Then once I became a mom I added pre- and postnatal yoga certifications as well as core strength vinyasa, a science and anatomy-based training. I felt they were a decade ahead of their time, as they taught about fascia (check out Tom Myers’ Anatomy Trains). The human body is fascinating. One morning about 2.5 years ago I found myself with a stuffy nose and scrolling through Instagram and came upon Jason from Human Garage demonstrating a sinus opening technique. I followed along and was taken back by how well it worked and how it changed my energy and flow of breath. I needed to learn more about this fascia maneuver practice. So I became a fascia maneuver coach. Currently I am enrolled in Neuro Foundations for applied neurology training for pain management without medication and optimal mobility. It is quite mind blowing what this practice has to offer. The body wants to self-heal if we give it the right environment, such as right nutrition, movement, and less stress. A stressed body cannot focus on healing what needs attention. Issues get remembered in the fascia. These practices help you downregulate stress, clear physical, mental, and emotional traumas, improve lymphatic flow and metabolism, and stretch and strengthen at the same time. The lymphatic system is our sewer system – if clogged, our body won’t be a happy home. We need to help stimulate the lymph flow so that our bodies can properly detox.

A stressed body cannot focus on healing what needs attention. Issues get remembered in the fascia. These practices help you downregulate stress, clear physical, mental, and emotional traumas, improve lymphatic flow and metabolism, and stretch and strengthen at the same time.

Q: How can these alternative practices help improve a student’s yoga practice? What’s the benefit of combining them with yoga?

Fascial maneuvers, together with yoga poses, can help you get deeper into your postures. You can find more space in your body or clear whatever is holding you back more efficiently. You can find immediate relief, and help energy to flow more effortlessly.

Q: Fascia is a relatively new field of study compared to muscles, bones, and other structures that the general population is familiar with. Can you explain what fascia is and why this field of research is so important?

Fascia is an interconnected web of tissue that wraps everything in our body. Think of it as cling wrap around muscles, tendons, bones, organs, nerves, blood vessels, and lymph. Fascia remembers what your mind forgets. Physical, mental, and emotional traumas which didn’t clear can get caught in this tissue and start presenting symptoms. Fascia needs to be well hydrated or it can calcify and restrict. Fascia communicates faster than the nerves, at the speed of sound. When fascia is tight and restricted it sends alerts to the nervous system that keep the body in a heightened state of tension. This can contribute to anxiety, chronic stress, or fatigue. This quantum communicator is the largest system in our body – that touches all of the other systems. Mechanically, fascia operates through the laws of tensegrity, meaning it relies on coherence and balance to function optimally.

Q: You’ve described fascial maneuver as a mix of intention, movement, and breath. Can you elaborate on what differentiates a movement targeting the fascia from another exercise or yoga pose?

It is more targeted,and goes deeper in less time with immediate, noticeable differences felt in the physical, mental, and emotional body. Just because we work on a wrist fascia maneuver doesn’t mean you can’t get an adjustment in your hip, elbow, or opposing ankle joint. Fascia connects everything. You will be surprised how one maneuver can clear not only what seems immediate but a whole other part of your body to adjust and release.

Q: How often should someone practice fascial maneuvers?

Daily, and as often as you like. Come and learn some of these wonderful self-help, self-healing techniques and see how they feel in real time! Looking forward to seeing you in class.

In every class, the teacher will ease you into practice, allowing time for your body to adapt to the flow and temperature of the room. No class is exactly the same, but overall, you can expect emphasis on mindful movement, mobility, alignment, breathwork, and drishti—a focused gaze—cultivating a sense of presence and awareness on the mat. Our focus on breath allows you to deepen your practice, quiet the mind, and experience a profound sense of relaxation and inner peace. You’ll be encouraged to listen to your body, honor its limitations, and explore your edge with compassion.