leongal's yoga space

Yoga For Stomach Fat Reduction

2010-02-02T22:45:00.000+08:00

Source: www.iamnotobese.com

Some exercises that are highly beneficial for reduction of baby fat from stomach are described below. Remember, you should not attempt any of these on your own unless you have been shown and guided by a certified yoga master or guru.

Pavan Muktasan (Release or Regulation of Air) - Lie down on your back and take a deep breath. Bend your left leg at the knee and catching the toes, bring it to touch your stomach while at the same time you lift your head to touch the bent knee. Keep the right leg straight and your breath in. Count 10 and return to the original position. Leave your breath. Repeat with the other leg.

Dhanurasan (The bow posture) - Lie down on your stomach. Catch your ankles by bending your knees and then push outwards (up) to make your body look like a bow. Pull your head back as much as it goes. Keep for 10 seconds and release posture.

Bhunagasan - lie on your stomach and keep your hands right under your shoulders. Push your upper body backwards using only the back muscles not your hands. In case you find it difficult to ignore the hands, try keeping them over the hips.

All the above yoga exercises are extremely beneficial in reducing stomach fat. These need to be initially done in the presence and under the guidance of a yoga guru. There are many, many more other yoga exercises or postures that are helpful in reducing midriff fat and stomach flab. However, as with all other exercises, yoga too needs to be practiced on a daily basis regularly, preferably outdoors, at the crack of the dawn.

7 Poses to Relieve Cold & Flu Symptoms

2010-02-02T15:38:00.000+08:00

By Angela Pirisi

1. Head Wrap

Before you begin, wrap your forehead to relieve tension in the head. Take a wide ace bandage (about 4 inches) and wrap it snugly around the head, tucking the free end in. You can also wrap it over the eyes, taking care not to wrap the eyes too tightly. The bandage will comfort your congested sinuses while you do the poses that follow.

2. Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana)

Brings energy to the head and respiratory area; helps clear the sinuses.

Stand with your feet hip-width apart and rest your forearms on a chair seat. You can also place a blanket on the chair seat for extra padding. Hold two to five minutes.

3. Supported Bridge Pose (Salamba Setu Bandhasana)

Opens up the chest and increases circulation to the upper torso.

Align two bolsters or two to four blankets on the floor running the entire length of your body (the height of the support can vary from 6 to 12 inches). Sit on the middle of the support and lie back. Slide towards your head until your shoulders lightly touch the floor. Open your arms out to the sides, palms turned up. Rest with your legs stretched out on the bolster or with your knees bent and your feet on the floor. Relax for a minimum of five minutes.

4. Legs Up the Wall Pose (Viparita Karani)

Brings energy to the groin and opens the chest area to facilitate breathing.

With the back of the pelvis on a bolster placed 4 to 6 inches from the wall, swing the legs up the wall. Drop your sitting bones into the space between the blanket and the wall and open your arms out to the sides. If your hamstrings feel tight, try turning the legs slightly in, or move the bolster further away from the wall. Hold for a minimum of five minutes.

5. Supported Bound Angle Pose (Salamba Baddha Konasana)

Opens the chest, abdomen, and groins; relaxes the nervous system.

Sit on the floor, knees bent towards the chest. Bring the soles of your feet together and let your knees open towards the floor. Support the outer thighs with folded blankets at a comfortable height. You can also place sandbags on each inner thigh to deepen relaxation. Release the arms out to the sides and let go of any tension. Relax in the pose for a minimum of five minutes.

6. Reclining Twist (Modified Jathara Parivartanasana)

Releases physical and stress-based tension.

Lie on your back and with an exhalation bend your knees and draw your thighs to your torso. Shift your pelvis slightly to the left and, with another exhalation, swing your legs to the right and down to the floor (if they don't rest comfortably on the floor, support them on a bolster or folded blanket). Turn your upper torso to the left. Rest your right hand on the outer left knee and stretch your left arm to the side, in line with your shoulders. Look straight up or close your eyes. Relax for three minutes. Repeat on the other side.

7. Widespread Forward Bend (Upavistha Konasana)

Quiets the internal organs; relaxes the mind.

Sit on the floor with your sitting bones on the edge of a folded blanket. Straighten your legs out in front of you and then separate them as far as you comfortably can. Rest your upper torso on a bolster or (if you're more stiff) a chair seat. If you are using a chair, you can fold your forearms on the seat for more height and padding. Hold the pose for three to five minutes.

Fight Fat on Your Mat?

2010-01-15T11:31:00.001+08:00

By Andrea Ferretti

There's no question that yoga practice builds body awareness and acceptance, but yoga as a sure-fire path to weight loss? Until now, doctors and scientists weren't convinced. But a recent study from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle may make them sit up and take notice.

Researchers queried healthy men and women about their weight history and physical activity from the ages of 45 to 55. It turned out that study subjects who were overweight and did yoga at least once a week had lost five pounds over the 10-year period, while their non-yogi counterparts had gained eight. (Yoga practitioners of normal weight did tend to gain weight over the years, but people who didn't practice gained more.)

The reason? Lead researcher and Anusara Yoga practitioner Alan Kristal believes that it's not the number of calories that yoga burns, since only the most vigorous yoga practice will burn enough to trigger a weight loss. "But yoga builds mindfulness," says Kristal, who is also a professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health. "You learn to feel when you're full, and you don't like the feeling of overeating. You recognize anxiety and stress for what they are instead of trying to mask them with food."

Can I do yoga when I have period?

2010-01-10T15:44:00.000+08:00

by Alicia King

Of course you can! Yoga is a great way to prevent menstrual cramps, stop cramping, and relax and rejuvenate the mind to take the edge off any mood swings you may experience. Centering and breathing exercises as well as practicing grounding poses are recommended.

Part of the joy of yoga is the reality-check it provides. On the mat, we land squarely in our bodies – whatever they are doing – and we begin to participate in our own internal processes.The dissociation women suffer from their sexuality and reproductive system happens in part because of Western culture’s social response to menstruation. Culturally speaking, this natural cleansing process is considered a disease, “unclean” or, at best, a grim fact of life.

Perhaps next month, you can try to allow your yoga practice bring you into a greater sense of harmony with yourself and your entire body.

Home Practice 101

2010-01-07T12:03:00.000+08:00

If you can't afford to take a class, what is the best path to take in beginning a practice at home?

—Janet from Lawrence, Kansas

Read Natasha's reply:

Dear Janet,

Establishing a home practice is a wonderful way to create a very direct and personal connection to your yoga. The downside is that, without a teacher who can make hands-on adjustments, you are in danger of developing habits that may not be beneficial. This is why I think it is crucial to find a tape, DVD, or CD that provides a wealth of information, and to be sure that the information is delivered in a variety of forms that complement each other.

The good news is that there is a wealth of fine products to choose from when developing a home practice. Go to your local library or video store and check out a handful of videos by different instructors. Shop around until you find someone with whom you connect, the way you would if you were trying to find the teachers that you liked at a new studio. As you try different tapes or DVDs, try to find a teacher who instructs in a way that makes sense to you. This may sound self-evident, but what I mean is that he or she communicates information in a way that helps you understand the form, structure, and spirit of the practice, and that provides additional material to support your understanding of his or her explanations and directions. Sometimes we can hear an instruction over and over again and it doesn't register, but if we see a picture or read something that emphasizes the same instruction, it suddenly clicks.

Finally, I recommend that you do periodically try to take a class, just because it is always useful to be around a live person who can give feedback about alignment and make specific suggestions about ways to enhance your practice.

Reclining Big Toe Pose

2009-11-18T13:46:00.000+08:00

by Yoga Journal

Supta Padangusthasana

(soup-TAH pod-ang-goosh-TAHS-anna)
supta = lying down, reclining
pada = foot
angusta = big toe

Step by Step

Lie supine on the floor, legs strongly extended. If your head doesn't rest comfortably on the floor, support it on a folded blanket. Exhale, bend the left knee, and draw the thigh into your torso. Hug the thigh to your belly. Press the front of the right thigh heavily to the floor, and push actively through the right heel.

Loop a strap around the arch of the left foot and hold the strap in both hands. Inhale and straighten the knee, pressing the left heel up toward the ceiling. Walk your hands up the strap until the elbows are fully extended. Broaden the shoulder blades across your back. Keeping the hands as high on the strap as possible, press the shoulder blades lightly into the floor. Widen the collarbones away from the sternum.

Extend up first through the back of the left heel, and once the back of the leg between the heel and sitting bone is fully lengthened, lift through the ball of the big toe. Begin with the raised leg perpendicular to the floor. Release the head of the thigh bone more deeply into the pelvis and, as you do, draw the foot a little closer to your head, increasing the stretch on the back of the leg.

You can stay here in this stretch, or turn the leg outward from the hip joint, so the knee and toes look to the left. Pinning the top of the right thigh to the floor, exhale and swing the left leg out to the left and hold it a few inches off the floor. Continue rotating the leg. As you feel the outer thigh move away from the left side of the torso, try to bring the left foot in line with the left shoulder joint. Inhale to bring the leg back to vertical. Lighten your grip on the strap as you do, so that you challenge the muscles of the inner thigh and hip to do the work.

Hold the vertical position of the leg anywhere from 1 to 3 minutes, and the side position for an equal length of time. Once you have returned to vertical release the strap, hold the leg in place for 30 seconds or so, then slowly release as you exhale. Repeat on the right for the same length of time.

Monkey pose

2009-11-18T13:37:00.000+08:00

by Yoga Journal

Hanumanasana

"It was the greatest leap ever taken. The speed of Hanuman's jump pulled blossoms and flowers into the air after him and they fell like little stars on the waving treetops. The animals on the beach had never seen such a thing; they cheered Hanuman, then the air burned from his passage, and red clouds flamed over the sky . . ." (Ramayana, retold by William Buck).

This pose then, in which the legs are split forward and back, mimics Hanuman's famous leap from the southern tip of India to the island of Sri Lanka.

(hah-new-mahn-AHS-anna)

Practice this pose on a bare floor (without a sticky mat) with folded blankets under the back knee and front heel.

Step by Step

Kneel on the floor. Step your right foot forward about a foot in front of your left knee, and rotate your right thigh outwardly. Do this by lifting the inner sole away from the floor and resting the foot on the outer heel.

Exhale and lean your torso forward, pressing your fingertips to the floor. Slowly slide your left knee back, straightening the knee and at the same time descending the right thigh toward the floor. Stop straightening the back knee just before you reach the limit of your stretch.

Now begin to push the right heel away from your torso. Because we started with a strong external rotation of the front leg, gradually turn the leg inward as it straightens to bring the kneecap toward the ceiling. As the front leg straightens, resume pressing the left knee back, and carefully descend the front of the left thigh and the back of the right leg (and the base of the pelvis) to the floor. Make sure the center of the right knee points directly up toward the ceiling.

Also check to see that the back leg extends straight out of the hip (and isn't angled out to the side), and that the center of the back kneecap is pressing directly on the floor. Keep the front leg active by extending through the heel and lifting the ball of the foot toward the ceiling. Bring the hands into Anjali Mudra (Salutation Seal) or stretch the arms straight up toward the ceiling.

Stay in this pose for 30 seconds to a minute. To come out, press your hands to the floor, turn the front leg out slightly, and slowly return the front heel and the back knee to their starting positions. Then reverse the legs and repeat for the same length of time.

Can You Prove That Yoga Works?

2009-10-30T12:12:00.000+08:00

By Timothy McCall M.D.

As yoga moves more into the mainstream and yoga therapy grows in prominence, advocates of the practice are under increasing pressure to explain exactly how it works. It is natural to reach for scientific terms in an attempt to legitimize yoga's therapeutic benefits; thus we hear, for example, that backbends fight depression by stimulating the adrenals. My response to claims like this is, "Maybe."

From our direct experience as practitioners and teachers, we have observed that backbends are energizing and seem to help people suffering from depression marked by lethargy and inertia. (They are thought to be too stimulating for those with more agitated depressions.)

When you come down from Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward-Facing Bow Pose), for instance, your heart is pounding and you may feel like you've just downed a double espresso. It feels as if adrenaline, one of the hormones secreted by the adrenals (the glands that rest just above the kidneys), is coursing through your body. But as far as I know, nobody has actually measured adrenaline levels before and after someone has done a backbend. And even if scientists did document a spike in adrenaline after backbends, we still wouldn't know for sure that it's adrenaline that alleviates the symptoms of depression.

Science supports several possibili-ties for how yoga helps with depression. Studies have found that it reduces levels of cortisol (a stress hormone that's also secreted by the adrenals), which is often elevated in people with the disease. And a study in India found that a yoga program that included asana, pranayama, and meditation raised levels of serotonin and lowered levels of monoamine oxidase—two neurochemicals involved in depression.

Yoga is known to induce the relaxation response—to lower the activity of the sympathetic nervous system's "fight or flight" mechanism and increase the work of the more restorative parasym-pathetic system; this characteristic could help with depression. But if that were the whole story, then poses that seem to rev up the sympathetic side—such as backbends and Sun Salutations— as well as rapid breathing techniques might be counterproductive to fighting stress and depression. The reality is that some yoga practices stimulate the nervous system and some are relaxing. It is the combination that in some complex way is beneficial.

One of the fruits of yoga practice is the realization of interconnections. Our bodies, minds, and emotions interact in complex ways that science is only just beginning to understand. In this dense web of interconnections, nothing we do has a single effect. In Urdhva Dhanurasana, you bring more oxygen into the bottom of the lungs (an area that usually gets less than the upper regions), your blood pressure and heart rate rise, pressure increases in the head and neck, and you stretch the muscles and organs in the front of the body as you compress those in back, where the adrenals are located. It's my guess that the interrelated actions of this pose—along with other elements of a complete yoga practice—are what create the therapeutic benefit.

When we don't know precisely why something works, it's best to admit it, rather than dress it up in the language of science to make it sound more impressive. The easiest thing to do is acknowledge your sources: This comes from my teacher, this from Patanjali, this from my own experience, and this from a trial study done at the Mayo Clinic.

From Patanjali's perspective, the most reliable knowledge is derived from direct experience. The irony is that when we try to explain yoga in scientific terms when the science just isn't there, we risk undermining our attempts to persuade others of yoga's benefits.

Yoga Really Can Heal Your Back

2009-10-02T16:12:00.001+08:00

by Kelly Golden

When you know something is right, you don’t require mountains of proof, but validation sure is nice every once in a while. So, when the news blasted through the popular media that yoga has a positive effect on chronic lower back pain, the validation train arrived.

Sometimes it seems monotonous to continue to respond to the multitude of reports that tout all the ways that yoga is of benefit to our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. It can feel if you are responding to the same things over and over again. But, when it’s right, it’s right. Yoga, in particular Hatha Yoga, when practiced correctly does help heal our physical bodies in a profound way. It also eases our minds lifting us out of the secondary effects of our physical ailments. The more studies that are done the more we find that yoga truly is a panacea for so many physical, mental and emotional ailments.

Hundreds if not thousands of dedicated yoga practitioners stepped on this path through an effort to address physical pain, often low back pain. Chronic low back pain currently plagues our Western society. In this country, we are spending $50 billion each year on low back pain related treatments. Low back pain is the most common cause of job-related disability, and is the one of the most common neurological ailment in the United States, second only to headaches.

The experience of chronic low back pain can be so uncomfortable and debilitating that it often has mental and emotional side effects, leading to depression and sometimes drug abuse. Low back injury and pain is one of the most common causes for missed work, which can snowball into a lot of other difficult life situations. The study that followed 90 people for six months concluded that the participants who were practicing yoga twice a week experienced both a significant reduction in discomfort and increased functionality at both the three and six month marks. The participants who were practicing yoga also reported decreased symptoms of depression.

It is sigmificant to note that the style of yoga that was practiced by participants in the study was Iyengar yoga. Iyengar yoga is a style of hatha yoga that concentrates heavily on principles of alignment and safety. It incorporates the use of props and modifications to create safety and comfort in a wide variety of asanas that may have seemed inaccessible to people with low back pain otherwise. For the asanas to have a sustainable effect on the source and effect of pain, it is important that they be practiced correctly. Iyengar yoga teaches correct alignment and safety within asana which can be of great benefit therapeutically.

Conversely, when done incorrectly or without awareness, the effect of asana practice can either help or exacerbate existing low back pain. Depending on the individual and the source of the pain, some yoga asanas might be counterindicated. So, it is important to find a knowledgeable and well-trained yoga teacher to guide you if you are embarking on a yoga practice specifically to address low back issues. All styles of yoga can be beneficial, if the instructor is has a strong understanding of the principles of safety and alignment. Has the practice of yoga had an effect on your low back pain? We would love to hear your story.

Supported Shoulderstand

2009-09-14T13:30:00.001+08:00

Salamba Sarvangasana

by Yoga Journal

Step by Step

Fold two or more firm blankets into rectangles measuring about 1 foot by 2 feet, and stack them one on top of the other. You can place a sticky mat over the blankets to help the upper arms stay in place while in the pose. Then lie on the blankets with your shoulders supported (and parallel to one of the longer edges) and your head on the floor. Lay your arms on the floor alongside your torso, then bend your knees and set your feet against the floor with the heels close to the sitting bones. Exhale, press your arms against the floor, and push your feet away from the floor, drawing your thighs into the front torso.

Continue to lift by curling the pelvis and then the back torso away from the floor, so that your knees come toward your face. Stretch your arms out parallel to the edge of the blanket and turn them outward so the fingers press against the floor (and the thumbs point behind you). Bend your elbows and draw them toward each other. Lay the backs of your upper arms on the blanket and spread your palms against the back of your torso. Raise your pelvis over the shoulders, so that the torso is relatively perpendicular to the floor. Walk your hands up your back (toward the floor) without letting the elbows slide too much wider than shoulder width.

Inhale and lift your bent knees toward the ceiling, bringing your thighs in line with your torso and hanging the heels down by your buttocks. Press your tailbone toward your pubis and turn the upper thighs inward slightly. Finally inhale and straighten the knees, pressing the heels up toward the ceiling. When the backs of the legs are fully lengthened, lift through the balls of the big toes so the inner legs are slightly longer than the outer.

Soften the throat and tongue. Firm the shoulder blades against the back, and move the sternum toward the chin. Your forehead should be relatively parallel to the floor, your chin perpendicular. Press the backs of your upper arms and the tops of your shoulders actively into the blanket support, and try to lift the upper spine away from the floor. Gaze softly at your chest.

As a beginning practitioner stay in the pose for about 30 seconds. Gradually add 5 to 10 seconds to your stay every day or so until you can comfortably hold the pose for 3 minutes. Then continue for 3 minutes each day for a week or two, until you feel relatively comfortable in the pose. Again gradually and 5 to 10 seconds onto your stay every day or so until you can comfortably hold the pose for 5 minutes. To come down, exhale, bend your knees into your torso again, and roll your back torso slowly and carefully onto the floor, keeping the back of your head on the floor.

Yoga basics - FAQ

2009-09-14T10:46:00.001+08:00

By Cyndi Lee

1. What is yoga?

The word yoga, from the Sanskrit word yuj means to yoke or bind and is often interpreted as "union" or a method of discipline. A male who practices yoga is called a yogi, a female practitioner, a yogini.

The Indian sage Patanjali is believed to have collated the practice of yoga into the Yoga Sutra an estimated 2,000 years ago. The Sutra is a collection of 195 statements that serves as a philosophical guidebook for most of the yoga that is practiced today. It also outlines eight limbs of yoga: the yamas (restraints), niyamas (observances), asana (postures), pranayama (breathing), pratyahara (withdrawal of senses), dharana (concentration), dhyani (meditation), and samadhi (absorption). As we explore these eight limbs, we begin by refining our behavior in the outer world, and then we focus inwardly until we reach samadhi (liberation, enlightenment).

Today most people practicing yoga are engaged in the third limb, asana, which is a program of physical postures designed to purify the body and provide the physical strength and stamina required for long periods of meditation.

2. What does Hatha mean?

The word hatha means willful or forceful. Hatha yoga refers to a set of physical exercises (known as asanas or postures), and sequences of asanas, designed to align your skin, muscles, and bones. The postures are also designed to open the many channels of the body—especially the main channel, the spine—so that energy can flow freely.

Hatha is also translated as ha meaning "sun" and tha meaning "moon." This refers to the balance of masculine aspects—active, hot, sun—and feminine aspects—receptive, cool, moon—within all of us. Hatha yoga is a path toward creating balance and uniting opposites. In our physical bodies we develop a balance of strength and flexibility. We also learn to balance our effort and surrender in each pose.

Hatha yoga is a powerful tool for self-transformation. It asks us to bring our attention to our breath, which helps us to still the fluctuations of the mind and be more present in the unfolding of each moment.

3. What does Om mean?

Om is a mantra, or vibration, that is traditionally chanted at the beginning and end of yoga sessions. It is said to be the sound of the universe. What does that mean?

Somehow the ancient yogis knew what scientists today are telling us—that the entire universe is moving. Nothing is ever solid or still. Everything that exists pulsates, creating a rhythmic vibration that the ancient yogis acknowledged with the sound of Om. We may not always be aware of this sound in our daily lives, but we can hear it in the rustling of the autumn leaves, the waves on the shore, the inside of a seashell.

Chanting Om allows us to recognize our experience as a reflection of how the whole universe moves—the setting sun, the rising moon, the ebb and flow of the tides, the beating of our hearts. As we chant Om, it takes us for a ride on this universal movement, through our breath, our awareness, and our physical energy, and we begin to sense a bigger connection that is both uplifting and soothing.

4. Do I have to be vegetarian to practice yoga?

The first principle of yoga philosophy is ahimsa, which means nonharming to self and others. Some people interpret this to include not eating animal products. There is debate about this in the yoga community—I believe that it is a personal decision that everyone has to make for themselves. If you are considering becoming a vegetarian, be sure to take into account your personal health issues as well how your choices will affect those with whom you live. Being a vegetarian should not be something that you impose on others—that kind of aggressive action in itself is not an expression of ahimsa.

5. How many times per week should I practice?

Yoga is amazing—even if you only practice for one hour a week, you will experience the benefits of the practice. If you can do more than that, you will certainly experience more benefits. I suggest starting with two or three times a week, for an hour or an hour and a half each time. If you can only do 20 minutes per session, that's fine too. Don't let time constraints or unrealistic goals be an obstacle—do what you can and don't worry about it. You will likely find that after awhile your desire to practice expands naturally and you will find yourself doing more and more.

6. How is yoga different from stretching or other kinds of fitness?

Unlike stretching or fitness, yoga is more than just physical postures. Patanjali's eight-fold path illustrates how the physical practice is just one aspect of yoga. Even within the physical practice, yoga is unique because we connect the movement of the body and the fluctuations of the mind to the rhythm of our breath. Connecting the mind, body, and breath helps us to direct our attention inward. Through this process of inward attention, we learn to recognize our habitual thought patterns without labeling them, judging them, or trying to change them. We become more aware of our experiences from moment to moment. The awareness that we cultivate is what makes yoga a practice, rather than a task or a goal to be completed. Your body will most likely become much more flexible by doing yoga, and so will your mind.

7. Is yoga a religion?

Yoga is not a religion. It is a philosophy that began in India an estimated 5,000 years ago. The father of classical ashtanga yoga (the eight-limbed path, not to be confused with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois' Ashtanga yoga) is said to be Patanjali, who wrote the Yoga Sutra. These scriptures provide a framework for spiritual growth and mastery over the physical and mental body. Yoga sometimes interweaves other philosophies such as Hinduism or Buddhism, but it is not necessary to study those paths in order to practice or study yoga.

It is also not necessary to surrender your own religious beliefs to practice yoga.

8. I'm not flexible—can I do yoga?

Yes! You are a perfect candidate for yoga. Many people think that they need to be flexible to begin yoga, but that's a little bit like thinking that you need to be able to play tennis in order to take tennis lessons. Come as you are and you will find that yoga practice will help you become more flexible.

This newfound agility will be balanced by strength, coordination, and enhanced cardiovascular health, as well as a sense of physical confidence and overall well-being.

9. What do I need to begin?

All you really need to begin practicing yoga is your body, your mind, and a bit of curiosity. But it is also helpful to have a pair of sweat pants, leggings, or shorts, and a t-shirt that's not too baggy. No special footgear is required because you will be barefoot. It's nice to bring a towel to class with you. As your practice develops you might want to buy your own yoga mat, but most studios will have mats and other props available for you.

10. Why are you supposed to refrain from eating two to three hours before class?

In yoga practice we twist from side to side, turn upside down, and bend forward and backward. If you have not fully digested your last meal, it will make itself known to you in ways that are not comfortable. If you are a person with a fast-acting digestive system and are afraid you might get hungry or feel weak during yoga class, experiment with a light snack such as yogurt, a few nuts, or juice about 30 minutes to an hour before class.

The Sound of Om

2009-08-27T11:16:00.001+08:00

By Richard Rosen

Mantras, sacred chants, come in all shapes and sizes. They can be composed of sentences, single words, or even single syllables; they can be perfectly intelligible or completely mystifying (at least to the uninitiated).

Single-syllable mantras, known as bija (seed) mantras, are the easiest to remember and recite; they're also the most powerful. It's believed that, just as a tiny seed contains a majestic tree, each bija contains vast amounts of spiritual wisdom and creative force. One of the oldest and most widely known of these seeds is om.

Om is frequently called the pranava, literally "humming," a word that derives from pranu, "to reverberate," and ultimately from the root nu, "to praise or command" but also "to sound or shout." It is the audible expression of the transcendental, attributeless ground of reality.

Om is the "primordial seed" of the universe--this whole world, says one ancient text, "is nothing but om." It is also considered to be the root mantra from which all other mantras emerge and to encapsulate the essence of the many thousands of verses of Hinduism's holiest texts, the Vedas. According to the Katha Upanishad (2.15), om is the "word which all the Vedas rehearse."

As such, om is the meditative seed par excellence. Patanjali--who wrote the Yoga Sutra and is considered to be the father of classical yoga--taught that when we chant this sacred syllable and simultaneously contemplate the meaning of it, our consciousness becomes "one-pointed: and prepared for meditation. In a commentary on the Yoga Sutra, the ancient sage Vyasa noted that through chanting om, "the supreme soul is revealed." In a similar vein, Tibetan scholar Lama Govinda wrote that om expresses and leads to the "experience of the infinite within us." Thus, chanting om may be the easiest way to touch the Divine within your very self.

Yogis often meditate on the four "measures," or parts, of om. Though commonly spelled om, the mantra actually consists of three letters, a, u, and m. (In Sanskrit, whenever an initial a is followed by a u, they coalesce into a long o sound.) Each of these three parts has numerous metaphysical associations, which themselves serve as meditative seeds. For example, a (pronounced "ah") represents our waking state, which is also the subjective consciousness of the outer world; u (pronounced "ooh") is the dreaming state, or the consciousness of our inner world of thoughts, dreams, memories, and so on; and m is the dreamless state of deep sleep and the experience of ultimate unity.

By contemplating the meaning of each of these letters as we chant them, we are led through the three states of our ordinary consciousness to the mantra's fourth part, the anusvara (after-sound): om. The vibration slowly dissolves into silence, symbolic of the transcendent state of consciousness, equated with Brahman (the Absolute). This silence is the crown of the mantra; it is described in the Maitri Upanishad as "tranquil, soundless, fearless, sorrowless, blissful, satisfied, steadfast, immovable, immortal, unshaken, enduring."

Yoga basics

2009-08-27T11:14:00.000+08:00

By Cyndi Lee

1. What is yoga?

2. What does Hatha mean?

3. What does Om mean?

Om is a mantra, or vibration, that is traditionally chanted at the beginning and end of yoga sessions. It is said to be the sound of the universe. What does that mean?

4. Do I have to be vegetarian to practice yoga?

5. How many times per week should I practice?

6. How is yoga different from stretching or other kinds of fitness?

7. Is yoga a religion?

It is also not necessary to surrender your own religious beliefs to practice yoga.

8. I'm not flexible—can I do yoga?

This newfound agility will be balanced by strength, coordination, and enhanced cardiovascular health, as well as a sense of physical confidence and overall well-being.

9. What do I need to begin?

10. Why are you supposed to refrain from eating two to three hours before class?

Is that cobra or upward facing dog?

2009-08-26T11:44:00.000+08:00

by Diane Ambrosini

Two important back-bending poses practiced in yoga are cobra (bhujangasana) and upward-facing-dog (urdhva mukha shvanasana). Both asanas, when practiced with proper attention to breathing and body alignment, strengthen the back, and stretch the chest and shoulders. While both of these poses can be practiced separately, they are most often part of a vinyasa sequence, or in relation to a sun salutation (surya namaskara).

Unfortunately, especially in faster moving practices such as Ashtanga, or due to inexperience in either the student or instructor, the degree of spinal hyperextension can cause more harm than good. Students without sufficient strength, flexibility and/or awareness oftentimes situate their bodies into something that’s not quite cobra and not quite updog - a sort of backbreaking abomination, if you will.

So does it really matter if it’s an upward-facing-snakey-hybrid pose? Absolutely! Improper alignment and excessive hyperextension, especially over time, place people with certain spinal conditions at risk of serious injury. In addition to the obvious lumbar jamming, tension is created in the arms, chest and neck. When these areas are placed in stressful positions, the supporting joints become unstable and overworked. This situation makes it difficult to breathe properly and almost impossible to find any sort of ease in the pose, which defeats the “goal” of practicing yoga in the first place.

Because anatomy differs slightly from one person to the next, everyone’s asanas look and feel a bit different. Also, one pose does not fit everyone all of the time. One day you may feel perfectly supple and ecstatic in upward-facing-dog, and the next about as flexible as a pencil. Thankfully, almost all asanas can be modified to work appropriately for just about everyone. Use the figures below as a guide to your most appropriate back-bend for any given practice.

Low Cobra: This variation is generally appropriate for anyone recovering from back issues - if they have been cleared by their healthcare provider. Keeping the thighs and most of the torso on the ground gives the spine stability as the muscles are strengthened. Applying a small amount of pressure into the arms can help to lengthening the spine as well. It is important not to clinch the gluteal and thigh muscles because this can cause pain in the lower spine.

Medium Cobra: This pose is the one most often seen in classes and is for those without back pain and who can comfortably lift the upper torso off the ground. The thighs and the lower torso remain on the ground to help with stability. If the shoulders begin to lift toward the ears it generally indicates that it's time to come out of the pose, or to readjust. As in low cobra, you can firm the "fanny", but don't clinch it!

High Cobra: This pose actually is closest to B.K.S. Iyengar's instructions to “…lift the body up from the trunk until the pubis is in contact with the floor and stay in this position with the weight on the legs and palms.” He also suggests arching the head back to resemble a snake ready to strike, and if your spine is up to it, strike away!

Upward-Facing-Dog: Mr. Iyengar's instructions for Updog are to “Keep the legs straight and tightened at the knees, but do not rest the knees on the floor. The weight of the body rests on the palms and toes only.” It's really important to keep length in the torso and arms in this position to maintain as much space as possible between the vertebrae. Because this is somewhat more strenuous than any of the cobra variations, arm and leg strength is key. So if you get tired, modify your body down to the ground for support.

Noose Pose - Pasasana @ Twisting Bound Squat

2009-08-26T10:16:00.000+08:00

Source: Fitsugar

This is a tough pose so to learn an easier modification read more.

Begin in a squat position on your mat, with both feet together. It might be easier to get into this pose by balancing on the balls of your feet first. From this position, cross your left elbow over to the outside of your right thigh. Turn your right arm down so you can bring your forearm in front of your shins.
Bring your right arm behind you and try to clasp your hands together around both legs. If this is super easy for you, hold your left wrist with your right hand. If it seems impossible, separate your knees slightly and wrap around just your left leg. If holding hands is too difficult, don't get frustrated. Just stay here, reaching your hands as close as you can together. No matter which variation you're doing, try to lower your heels to the floor. If this makes you fall over, place a folded mat or towel underneath your heels for a little support.
Hold for 30 seconds, then release and try this pose on the other side.

Reach for your toes

2009-08-26T10:06:00.001+08:00

Lee Kennedy

Padangusthasana, or ‘big toe pose’, has many benefits. It calms the brain and helps relieve stress and anxiety, stimulates the liver and kidneys, gives the hamstrings and calves a good stretch, strengthens the thighs, improves digestion, helps with the symptoms of menopause and relieves headache and insomnia. However, if you have lower back or neck injuries, it’s best to avoid this pose.

Padangusthasana – big toe pose
> Stand upright with your inner feet parallel and about six inches apart. Exhale and bend forward from your hip joints, moving your torso and head as one unit.

> Slide the index and middle fingers of each hand between the big toes and the second toes. Curl those fingers under and grip the big toes firmly, wrapping the thumbs around the other two fingers to secure the wrap. (If you can't reach your toes without overly rounding your back, pass a strap under the ball of each foot and hold the straps.)

> With an inhalation, lift your torso as if you were going to stand up again, straightening your elbows. Lengthen your front torso, and on the next exhale, lift your sitting bones.

> Lift the top of your sternum as high as you can, Keep your forehead relaxed.

> For the next few inhalations, lift your torso strongly as you continue to actively contract your front thighs; on each successive exhalation, strongly lift your sitting bones as you consciously relax your hamstrings.

> Finally exhale, bend your elbows out to the sides, pull up on your toes, lengthen the front and sides of your torso, and gently lower into the forward bend. If you have very long hamstrings, you can draw your forehead toward your shins. But if your hamstrings are short, it's better to focus on keeping the front torso long. Hunching into a forward bend isn't safe for your lower back and does nothing to lengthen your hamstrings!

> Hold the final position for one minute.

> Release your toes, bring your hands to your hips and re-lengthen your front torso. With an inhale, swing your torso and head as a single unit back to upright.

Spotlight on Ashtanga Yoga

2009-08-26T09:53:00.000+08:00

by Yoga Journal

This form of yoga is intensely physical and athletic. Ashtanga yogis practice a prescribed set of asanas, channel energy through the body using bandhas (locks), and concentrate on singular points using drishti (gaze) in asanas. Classes typically begin with an invocation to Patanjali chanted in Sanskrit.

WHAT IT LITERALLY MEANS: Ashtanga yoga translates as "eight-limbed yoga" and refers to the eight limbs outlined by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutra, which include moral and ethical guidelines, postures, breathwork, sense withdrawal, concentration, and meditation.

WHAT IT HAS COME TO MEAN: In America, "Ashtanga Yoga" most often refers to the system taught by Indian yoga master K. Pattabhi Jois. Sometimes called Ashtanga vinyasa yoga, Jois's Ashtanga comprises a precise series of poses done in sequential order, linked together with the breath.

WHO FOUNDED IT: The practice that Jois teaches is detailed in an ancient Sanskrit text called the Yoga Kurunta, which was rediscovered early in this century by T. Krishnamacharya. Jois studied with Krishnamacharya in Mysore, India.

Working on Standing Forward Bend

2009-08-25T14:23:00.000+08:00

am working on standing forward bend. I can place my hand flat on the floor, but I cannot get my head and legs to meet. It feels as if my legs hyperextend.

—Victoria D. Malone

Roger Cole's reply:

Forward bends teach patience. It takes a long time to enter them deeply. Enlightenment does not necessarily occur when the head reaches the legs, so there is no need to get it there soon, if ever. The realization of yoga is to be fully conscious, present, and content at whatever stage of the practice you have attained. Paradoxically, when you are truly satisfied right where you are, your pose often opens up and you can easily move forward.

The physiological explanation for this may lie partly in the stretch reflex. This reflex causes a stretched muscle to automatically contract in opposition to the stretch. If you try too hard to bend forward, you trigger stretch reflexes in your hamstring muscles. You feel stretching pain and cannot bend further into the pose. Pushing yourself deeper into the pose just makes matters worse. The more pain you feel, the stronger the stretch reflex.

One way around this is to stop moving deeper into the pose as soon as you feel a slight challenge, long before you reach the point of pain. At this point, hold your position constant for a long time, without pushing into or backing out of the pose. Keep your knees straight and don't lose your pelvic tilt. You will find that, without moving, you get more and more comfortable right where you are. This most likely means that the stretch sensors (muscle spindles) in your muscles are getting reset, so that what formerly felt like a stretch to them now feels neutral. At this point, you feel comfortable in a position that previously felt like a challenge, so it's easy to feel satisfied where you are. The paradox is that by maintaining this sense of neutrality, your stretch sensors will most likely become ready to allow you to move deeper into the pose (without causing pain or a strong muscle contraction). You are ready to move to a new point of challenge and wait there, repeating the cycle.

The most important alignment points in Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend) are to fold as much as possible at the hip joints (tilt the top rim of the pelvis forward) and to lengthen the front of the body as much as you can, so the spine only rounds over a little. If you pull the head toward the legs without tilting the pelvis or lengthening the spine enough, the spine rounds too much and you can injure your lower back or sacroiliac joints. Even folding at the hip joints has its dangers-if you push too hard, you can tear a hamstring muscle or tendon.

Regarding hyperextension, if your knees straighten past 90°, you don't want to force them any further. However, forward bends pull on the hamstring muscles, and this tends to bend the knees, providing some protection against hyperextension.

If you are in good physical condition and your alignment is good, one way to progress in forward bends is to vigorously practice standing postures, with a strong Uttanasana between each posture. Standing postures like Utthita Trikonasana (Extended Triangle Pose), Utthita Parsvakonasana (Extended Side Angle Pose), and Virabhadrasana I, II, and III (Warrior 1, 2, and 3) work well. Do each standing posture twice on each side. Hold each pose (including Uttanasana) for 30 seconds to one minute. But don't do this practice six days a week-three or four is plenty.

Again, don't be in a hurry. I know one yoga teacher who struggled with forward bends for about 20 years with little progress. Past age 60, she eased up substantially on her practice and her forward bends suddenly progressed dramatically. She still cannot put her head on her legs, but she is happy. Which is more important?

Chaturanga Dandasana

2009-08-20T10:51:00.001+08:00

by Yoga Journal

Step by Step

Perform Adho Mukha Svanasana, then Plank Pose. Firm your shoulder blades against your back ribs and press your tailbone toward your pubis.

With an exhalation slowly lower your torso and legs to a few inches above and parallel to the floor. There's a tendency in this pose for the lower back to sway toward the floor and the tailbone to poke up toward the ceiling. Throughout your stay in this position, keep the tailbone firmly in place and the legs very active and turned slightly inward. Draw the pubis toward the navel.

Keep the space between the shoulder blades broad. Don't let the elbows splay out to the sides; hold them in by the sides of the torso and push them back toward the heels. Press the bases of the index fingers firmly to the floor. Lift the top of the sternum and your head to look forward.

Chaturanga Dandasana is one of the positions in the Sun Salutation sequence. You can also practice this pose individually for anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds. Release with an exhalation. Either lay yourself lightly down onto the floor or push strongly back to Adho Mukha Svanasana, lifting through the top thighs and the tailbone.

Yoga is not a competition

2009-07-16T13:26:00.000+08:00

by Freya D'Amico

Whether you're a beginner or have been practicing for years, don't get sucked into the "sports jockeying" stereotype of who can place their hands lowest to the ground or complete the final expression that week. Those are outside forces you cannot control, and yoga should never ever be “who can rip their muscles getting into a posture.” Yoga shouldn't be a competition with yourself either. You should absolutely push yourself toward self improvement, but more importantly, yoga should teach you to listen to your body. Some days, you'll be amazed by how far you've come, and others, you'll be more stiff, or sore, and need to take modifications. These are good flows and ebbs. Don't let your ego get in the way of listening to your body's needs.

Never be discouraged when you come to your mat. The most important thing is that you had a choice, to keep on with your busy life or to come to your mat, and choose to reflect on your inner self. If you're doing yoga at all, thank yourself for making that choice. Everything else is just circumstance.

Yoga for both mind and body

2009-07-16T13:06:00.001+08:00

By Megara Tegal

Our busy lifestyles can leave us feeling stressed and under pressure throughout the week. Yet by living such an unhealthy lifestyle, we often place ourselves at risk. Almost all common maladies can be pinned on stress- from heart diseases to a poor immune system to depression.

All these diseases can be fought against and kept at bay with the routine practice of yoga, says Guru Nanda Siriwardene, a 5th Dan black belt and yoga instructor for over 15 years who runs yoga training centres at Nugegoda, Borella, Thimbirigasaya and Kiribathgoda.Having learnt Hatha yoga in India to help enhance his capabilities in karate, Guru Nanda found that yoga helped him maintain a healthy body and mind. He says that to benefit from yoga it is important to have a spiritual understanding, be it Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity or Islam. It is necessary to believe in a greater power.

While there are about 20 different types of yoga. Hatha yoga is about creating a balance between the body and mind. In fact, in Sanskrit, ‘Ha’ translates to sun which is associated with the body, while ‘Tha’ translates into moon and is identified with the psyche, says Guru Nanda who specializes in this form of yoga.

The fundamental part of yoga is discipline. To derive the most from yoga it is essential to be well disciplined in all aspects of life- how you eat your meals, practise yoga and other aspects of your daily routine. The practice eventually becomes a way of life.

“First there should be a regular meal-time. Have a balanced meal, respect your food and eat while relaxed. Also, fibre is most often sidelined, although it is essential in cleaning the bowels. If people made it a point to include fibre in their diet it would reduce their chances of developing stomach cancer.”
“Another healthy habit that is practised in yoga is that after any meal, only 1/2 of your stomach should be filled with food, 1/4 with water and the remaining 1/4 with air.”

“You need a strong foundation to build a house. Likewise, if someone wants to practise yoga they need to master the basic principles to gain the most out of yoga,” he adds.

Becoming disciplined in your daily routine helps you to be disciplined when practising yoga exercises. The exercises must be done regularly if you want to get the most from the ancient practice that is relevant and functional in modern times.

“To maintain the postures in yoga you must be disciplined. To bend, to align yourself and to maintain that posture, you must be disciplined mentally and physically. If you can discipline yourself, you can master yoga easily. No matter what your build may be, you will be able to do the most complex and advanced postures effortlessly,” he added.

Of course there is more to the postures than simply bending your body. Here again, if you want to gain the most from yoga, when assuming a position it is necessary to follow the proper breathing technique.
“We’ve established that ‘Ha’ is the physique and “Tha” is the psyche, together “Hatha” is the overall health, strength and coordination. Yoga is unity. Practising yoga helps to bring them together, making you physically and mentally healthy.”

“Breathing correctly is a vital part of yoga. It gives you universal strength. All humans have a link with the world. When we breathe we take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide, which is recycled and breathed in again. So we have a link with the world around us. Following a proper breathing technique we can utilize the most of our surroundings. If we practise the right way of breathing we can gain more energy from our surroundings,” he added.

Breathing techniques are an indispensable part of yoga. So much so that another meaning that is derived from the word “Hatha” is that “Ha” means inhalation while “Tha” means exhalation. When you inhale you can activate your physique, and when you exhale you can activate your mind.

In Sanskrit, asanas refers to posture while pramanaya refers to breathing. The two must be coupled correctly or else the yoga exercises will not be as effective.

“When you practise the asanas, you can activate the inner body, for example the blood vessels and nerves. In the case of blood vessels the postures help in opening up arteries and veins making blood circulation better.”

“Pramanaya is about supplying the maximum amount of oxygenated blood to your organs and muscles.”

Yoga helps activate three vital aspect of an individual- the physical body, mind and energy. It keeps yoga practitioners, healthy in both body and mind, fit and energetic.

Yoga Options

2009-07-16T12:40:00.000+08:00

by Jenni Fleming

Yoga is often used to promote relaxation and improve fitness, strength and balance. There are many different types of yoga, so it’s important to find a teacher and style that are a good fit for you.
Yoga Use
Yoga is an ancient practice that aims to achieve and maintain mental, physical and spiritual well-being through the use of breathing exercises (called Pranayama), postures (Asana) and meditation. Health experts consider it to be a form of complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM therapy. According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, more than 13 million adults and 1.5 million children have practiced yoga.

Many people use yoga techniques to promote relaxation and improve fitness, strength and balance. Research suggests yoga may also be beneficial for reducing heart rate and blood pressure, increasing lung capacity and reducing levels of anxiety, depression and insomnia. Investigators are also looking at the effects of yoga on treatment for many types of health problems, like chronic low-back pain, arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

Yoga Types
There are many different types of yoga and combinations of styles. Here is a brief overview of some:

Hatha yoga is the most common type of yoga practiced in the U.S. Followers use breathing exercises and a series of slow-paced, gently postures to achieve a balance between internal and external forces.

Vinyasa yoga focuses on breath control while moving through a series of postures. Each pose emphasizes stretching and is quickly followed by a counter pose to achieve balance. It’s good for improving tone and flexibility.

Ashtanga yoga is an intense, physically demanding workout. It involves the quick progression through a series of six increasingly difficult postures. This type of yoga builds strength and is ideal for athletes.

Bikram yoga is often called “hot yoga.” It’s performed in a heated room with temperatures ranging between 95 and 105 degrees F. The style emphasizes a series of 26 postures designed to stretch the muscles, ligaments and tendons. The heated room enables a person to stretch further and promotes sweating to remove toxins from the body. Bikram yoga is very intense and not for everyone, especially pregnant women.

Iyengar yoga emphasizes longer-held postures to improve alignment of the skeleton and muscles. Unlike other forms of yoga, it incorporates use of props, like chairs, belts, blocks, pillows and blankets, to promote balance safety and maintain comfort throughout the poses. This type of yoga is often preferred by seniors and those who have problems with flexibility and balance.

The yoga sutras of Patanjali: asana

2009-07-16T12:17:00.001+08:00

by Annette Rivlin-Gutman

Asana means “staying” or “abiding”. Most people think of asanas or postures when they think of yoga. It is the most popular part of yoga in the west. However, yoga is so much more. Asana is the third of the eight limbs of Patanjali’s Sutras.

The yoga sutras say that when we are able to do asanas, we are able to handle opposites. We know how our body reacts in different situations, so we can adapt to challenges. Asana creates an ease where there is a balance between movement and stillnes.

According to Patanjali, asanas should serve the highest good of the person rather than the person having to adapt to fit into the practice of the asanas.

Asanas help develop stability, flexibility, and endurance in the body. These benefits prepare the body for proper practice of pranayama, the fourth limb of Ashtanga Yoga.

Yoga for Sleep Disorders

2009-07-16T11:57:00.000+08:00

by Larry Kovner

Did you know that practicing yoga helps relieve insomnia and promotes deep relaxation?

How? Your sleeping quality can improve as a result of the stimulatory effect yoga has on your central nervous system and brain. It also calms your adrenal glands. This is because many yoga postures increase the blood circulation to the sleep center in the brain, which in effect enhances your sleep cycle. The breathing that you do in yoga allows for more oxygen in the body providing clarity in the mind.

You might even need less sleep as a result of practicing yoga on a regular basis! This is due to the fact that yoga helps to eliminate toxins from your body and rejuvenates and reorganizes you at the cellular level. Yoga can help you fall asleep sooner and improve the quality of your sleep. You will have a more restful sleep because of the relaxing aspect of yoga and the subsequent relieving of stress, tension, and fatigue.

In addition to vigorous poses and movements, yoga also includes relaxation poses. A common relaxation pose is called “Savasana” also known as dead body pose. This poses is about being in a state of total stillness and blocking out thoughts that interfere with your peace of mind, making it ideal as a cure for sleeping difficulties.

Savasana can be performed on the floor as a meditation. You can also practice in it your own bed at night to help you fall asleep.

To correctly perform the Savasana pose:

Rotate your legs and then let them fall gently out to the sides.

Let your arms fall to your sides, slightly separated from the body, palms facing upwards.

Rotate your spine by turning your head from side to side

Stretch yourself as though someone is pulling your head away from your feet, your shoulders down and away from your neck, your legs down and away from your pelvis.

Breathe deeply and slowly from your abdomen.

Hold the pose for several minutes. Still your mind still and concentrate on your breathing.

When done, bend your knees and push yourself onto one side, then push yourself in a sitting position.

While Savasana is an effective technique for curing a sleep disorder, it doesn’t work immediately. You have to practice it like any other yoga poses. So if it doesn’t help you fall asleep on the first try, keep practicing it for a few weeks. Your body and mind are deeply connected and will work together to help you get the rest you need.

Yoga Pose Crow and its Dangers

2009-07-16T11:45:00.000+08:00

by Celebrity yoga trainer Subodh Gupta

Although the crow pose gives us many benefits for the mind and the body, in some health conditions this pose is not safe to be performed.

Three situations when yoga pose crow can be dangerous:

The yoga pose Crow is also known as kakasana.

"Kaka" means crow (a large black bird with a loud cry). The body in this yoga pose resembles that of a bird, thus the names, crow.

The yoga pose crow is a moderate inverted, balancing yoga pose. This yoga pose helps in building strength in the upper extremities (arms, forearms, elbow joints, hands and wrists) of body. The crow pose requires courage (to risk falling on your nose) and hip flexibility (to bring the thighs alongside the chest).

The crow is one of the yoga poses that actually looks a lot harder than it really is and it requires much more coordination, concentration and awareness than the muscular strength in the upper arms.

As you hold this yoga pose the chest is immobilized so that you can only breathe abdominally.

The crow pose increases both physical and mental balance, concentration and tranquillity. It balances the nervous system, brings lightness to the body and prepares the mind for meditation.

1) if someone has a carpal tunnel syndrome (a lot of pain and weakness in the fingers and wrists), it may aggravate the problem.

2) In pregnancy do not attempt this pose.

3) If you have high blood pressure, it is better to avoid this yoga pose.

Caution: Always check with your doctor if you have any doubts or concerns regarding the suitability of this yoga pose for you.

Bow Pose - Dhanurasana

2009-06-29T09:55:00.000+08:00

by Yoga Journal

Dhanurasana

Dhanurasana (Bow Pose)

This pose is so called because it looks like an archer's bow, the torso and legs representing the body of the bow, and the arms the string.

(don-your-AHS-anna)
dhanu = bow

Step by Step

Lie on your belly with your hands alongside your torso, palms up. (You can lie on a folded blanket to pad the front of your torso and legs.) Exhale and bend your knees, bringing your heels as close as you can to your buttocks. Reach back with your hands and take hold of your ankles (but not the tops of the feet). Make sure your knees aren't wider than the width of your hips, and keep your knees hip width for the duration of the pose.

Inhale and strongly lift your heels away from your buttocks and, at the same time, lift your thighs away from the floor. This will have the effect of pulling your upper torso and head off the floor. Burrow the tailbone down toward the floor, and keep your back muscles soft. As you continue lifting the heels and thighs higher, press your shoulder blades firmly against your back to open your heart. Draw the tops of the shoulders away from your ears. Gaze forward.

With the belly pressed against the floor, breathing will be difficult. Breathe more into the back of your torso, and be sure not to stop breathing.

Stay in this pose anywhere from 20 to 30 seconds. Release as you exhale, and lie quietly for a few breaths. You can repeat the pose once or twice more.

One-legged balancing poses are difficult for me. Any hints outside of "just doing it"?

2009-06-22T10:42:00.000+08:00

By Sudha Carolyn Lundeen

Since it sounds like you have been "just doing it" and are still having difficulty, let's use Tree Pose to address how to develop your one-legged balancing pose in gradual steps.

Begin by standing solidly on both feet. Press the crown of your head up towards the ceiling and pull your abdominal muscles in towards your spine. Draw your shoulders down and away from your ears. Anchor your gaze (drishti) softly on one spot on the floor or wall in front of you. Experiment to find the focal point that makes you feel most stable. Establish a smooth flowing Ujjayi breath.

Next, focus on grounding and steadying the body. Shift your weight onto the left leg and into the left foot. Then, lift the crown of your head up towards the ceiling. Gently draw the abdominal muscles in towards the spine, pointing the coccyx (tailbone) straight down toward the left heel. Lift the sternum.

When you are ready to take it up a notch, place the sole of your right foot next to your left ankle, keeping just a hint of weight on the right big toe and opening the bent right knee out to the side. Practice this until you feel confident here. Then draw the sole of your right foot up as high as possible on your inner left thigh. Press your foot and thigh into each other.

You can hold the raised foot in position with your right hand, extending the left arm out to the side at shoulder height. Or you can bring your hands directly into prayer position (Namaste) in front of your heart. Steady the eyes, breathe, and relax the mind. If you fall out, don't judge yourself. Invoke the "so what" attitude, refocus your gaze, ground yourself, and simply do it again.

If weak ankles, legs, or abdominal muscles are keeping you from balancing, building muscle tone will be very helpful in the long run. Standing postures such as Virabhadrasana II (Warrior II Pose) and Utthita Trikonasana (Triangle Pose) develop leg strength.

You can also work on core strength, stability, and spinal extension, in Tadasana (Mountain Pose), standing on the toes or on one foot. The key here, as in all basic balancing poses, is to be grounded in your feet and legs, steady and soft in your eye gaze and breath, engaged in your abdominals, and extended through the spine and neck.

Breathing in, rise up on your toes; breathing out, lower down. Gradually increase the time it takes you to breathe in and out so that you increase the time you are balancing up on your toes. When you are strong in this exercise, add single, alternate arm raises coordinated with your inhalation and exhalation and rising up and lowering down. Finally, do the exercise raising both arms at the same time.

To practice balancing on one foot in Tadasana, start by engaging the same alignment and focusing principles already described for balancing on two feet. Shift your weight over onto the right leg. Imagine the weight of your body melting down into your foot, going deep into the floor. Imagine your foot growing much much longer and wider, the force of gravity anchoring your stance. When you are ready, inhale and lift your left foot one inch off the floor. Pause. Exhaling, set it down. Repeat until that feels easy.

Then continue, lifting your foot a little higher, developing confidence and skill in small increments. When you wobble, check in and reestablish the alignment and focusing directions. If you fall out, so what! Take a full inhalation and a long exhalation, then start again. Be persistent. You'll get there and the world of balancing poses will open up to you. Don't be surprized if greater focus, concentration, and balance show up in other areas of your life we well.

Strike a yoga pose

2009-06-09T11:20:00.001+08:00

@tampatrib.com

Published: June 6, 2009

Hyperventilating is not the only way to destress: try yoga.

"Yoga is not just a practice of poses, but of your breath work," says Pete Brill, a Dallas certified yoga instructor. "The practice of slow, controlled, rhythmic breathing helps bring down blood pressure, rest the heart, clear the mind, energize the body and relax the muscles. Combine this with some relaxing yoga poses, and peace and serenity are just around the corner.

Here are some poses to help ease stress: Do each one for a deep inhale and exhale of a minute or two, or longer.

Bridge pose

Designed to calm the brain, rejuvenate tired legs and relieve spinal tension. Lie on back with feet hip-width and flat on the ground. Press down with your feet; lift your glutes, hips, pelvis and back off the ground. Keeping arms flat, with shoulders on the floor, lock fingers under your glutes. Inhale and exhale.

Standing forward bend (at right)

Stretches hamstrings and relieves tension in hips and lower back. Stand straight, feet hip-distance apart. Exhale and bend, bringing crown of head toward ground. Stretch hamstrings, but not too tight. Put right hand on left elbow; release and switch.

Seated spinal twist

Aids digestion and opens up spine to release tightness and tension. Sit comfortably cross-legged. Inhale. Bring arms overhead and press palms together. As you exhale, twist to left. Reach left hand behind back to the ground. Put right hand on outside of left knee. Use it to leverage the twist to your left, taking your gaze over left shoulder. Repeat on the right side.

Salutation seal

Reduces anxiety and stress, calms the brain and clears the mind. Sit cross-legged. Relax shoulders back and down. Draw chin slightly toward chest. Bring palms together. Take 10 deep, rhythmic inhales and exhales.

Seated forward bend

Brings energy to the body, improves digestion and helps insomnia. Sit on floor, legs extended. As you inhale, bring arms overhead. As you exhale, reach up and out, slowly folding over your legs. Hold the position, making sure shoulders and neck are relaxed. Deeply inhale and exhale a few times. Inhale, slowly rising up to sitting position.

The Dallas Morning News

Heads-Up about Headaches

2009-06-08T12:57:00.000+08:00

By YJ Staff

Conventional medicine treats headaches with aspirin or ibuprofen, but this only deals with the symptoms, not the causes. Tension headaches can be brought on by any number of problems, including bad posture, muscle fatigue, sinus infections, emotional turmoil, high blood pressure, and more. Some migraines, however, can be brought on by food allergies and chemical sensitivities, among other things. Headaches can be a sign of an underlying health condition, so if it is not a tension-type headache, seek professional medical help. If the headaches are of the tension variety, yoga surely can help. Body awareness can help predict the onset of a headache and stop it early in its course. The most common cause of headaches is the forward head position, with rounded shoulders, a curved upper back, and accompanying muscular tension. The first sign of a headache is often a tightening of the shoulders and neck. This contraction causes a reduction in blood flow to the vessels of the head, resulting in a headache.

Yoga poses that can be done at the desk or at home to relieve tension include Garudasana (Eagle Pose) arms to open the space between the shoulder blades, and Gomukhasana (Cow Face Pose) arms to stretch the shoulders. Other poses to experiment with include Setu Bandha (Bridge Pose), Supta Baddha Konasana (Supine Bound Angle Pose), Supported Balasana (Child's Pose), Viparita Karani (Legs up the Wall Pose), and of course, Savasana (Corpse Pose), for total relaxation. In addition, Tomas Brofeldt, M.D., a doctor of emergency medicine with a special interest in headaches at the University of California's Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, recommends repeating the following simple exercises several times a day to prevent headaches:

Extend the arms out, parallel to the floor, palms down. Rotate the palms up. Pull the elbows in toward the torso as you bring the palms to the belly. This aligns the clavicles and scapulae, straightening the upper back.

Stand tall, extending the top of the head up. Pull the chin in with the eyes on the horizon, then bend the head forward. This stretches the back of the neck, adjusting the forward head position.

Sit tall on a chair, with the chin pulled in, and reach the right arm behind, taking the seat back with your hand. Lean the body away diagonally to the left, and with the chin tucked in and dropped, tilt the head left. Place the left hand on the right side of the head and pull gently to stretch. Repeat on the opposite side. A pulling sensation (sometimes uncomfortable in the beginning) should extend from the base of the skull down to the shoulder.

38 Ways Yoga Keeps You Fit

2009-05-26T12:39:00.002+08:00

By Timothy McCall

Flex Time
1 Improved flexibility is one of the first and most obvious benefits of yoga. During your first class, you probably won't be able to touch your toes, never mind do a backbend. But if you stick with it, you'll notice a gradual loosening, and eventually, seemingly impossible poses will become possible. You'll also probably notice that aches and pains start to disappear. That's no coincidence. Tight hips can strain the knee joint due to improper alignment of the thigh and shinbones. Tight hamstrings can lead to a flattening of the lumbar spine, which can cause back pain. And inflexibility in muscles and connective tissue, such as fascia and ligaments, can cause poor posture.

Strength Test
2 Strong muscles do more than look good. They also protect us from conditions like arthritis and back pain, and help prevent falls in elderly people. And when you build strength through yoga, you balance it with flexibility. If you just went to the gym and lifted weights, you might build strength at the expense of flexibility.

Standing Orders
3 Your head is like a bowling ball—big, round, and heavy. When it’s balanced directly over an erect spine, it takes much less work for your neck and back muscles to support it. Move it several inches forward, however, and you start to strain those muscles. Hold up that forward-leaning bowling ball for eight or 12 hours a day and it’s no wonder you’re tired. And fatigue might not be your only problem. Poor posture can cause back, neck, and other muscle and joint problems. As you slump, your body may compensate by flattening the normal inward curves in your neck and lower back. This can cause pain and degenerative arthritis of the spine.

Joint Account
4 Each time you practice yoga, you take your joints through their full range of motion. This can help prevent degenerative arthritis or mitigate disability by "squeezing and soaking" areas of cartilage that normally aren't used. Joint cartilage is like a sponge; it receives fresh nutrients only when its fluid is squeezed out and a new supply can be soaked up. Without proper sustenance, neglected areas of cartilage can eventually wear out, exposing the underlying bone like worn-out brake pads.

Spinal Rap
5 Spinal disks—the shock absorbers between the vertebrae that can herniate and compress nerves—crave movement. That's the only way they get their nutrients. If you've got a well-balanced asana practice with plenty of backbends, forward bends, and twists, you'll help keep your disks supple.

Bone Zone
6 It's well documented that weight-bearing exercise strengthens bones and helps ward off osteoporosis. Many postures in yoga require that you lift your own weight. And some, like Downward- and Upward-Facing Dog, help strengthen the arm bones, which are particularly vulnerable to osteoporotic fractures. In an unpublished study conducted at California State University, Los Angeles, yoga practice increased bone density in the vertebrae. Yoga's ability to lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol (see Number 11) may help keep calcium in the bones.

Flow Chart
7 Yoga gets your blood flowing. More specifically, the relaxation exercises you learn in yoga can help your circulation, especially in your hands and feet. Yoga also gets more oxygen to your cells, which function better as a result. Twisting poses are thought to wring out venous blood from internal organs and allow oxygenated blood to flow in once the twist is released. Inverted poses, such as Headstand, Handstand, and Shoulderstand, encourage venous blood from the legs and pelvis to flow back to the heart, where it can be pumped to the lungs to be freshly oxygenated. This can help if you have swelling in your legs from heart or kidney problems. Yoga also boosts levels of hemoglobin and red blood cells, which carry oxygen to the tissues. And it thins the blood by making platelets less sticky and by cutting the level of clot-promoting proteins in the blood. This can lead to a decrease in heart attacks and strokes since blood clots are often the cause of these killers.

Lymph Lesson
8 When you contract and stretch muscles, move organs around, and come in and out of yoga postures, you increase the drainage of lymph (a viscous fluid rich in immune cells). This helps the lymphatic system fight infection, destroy cancerous cells, and dispose of the toxic waste products of cellular functioning.

Heart Start
9 When you regularly get your heart rate into the aerobic range, you lower your risk of heart attack and can relieve depression. While not all yoga is aerobic, if you do it vigorously or take flow or Ashtanga classes, it can boost your heart rate into the aerobic range. But even yoga exercises that don't get your heart rate up that high can improve cardiovascular conditioning. Studies have found that yoga practice lowers the resting heart rate, increases endurance, and can improve your maximum uptake of oxygen during exercise—all reflections of improved aerobic conditioning. One study found that subjects who were taught only pranayama could do more exercise with less oxygen.

Pressure Drop
10 If you've got high blood pressure, you might benefit from yoga. Two studies of people with hypertension, published in the British medical journal The Lancet, compared the effects of Savasana (Corpse Pose) with simply lying on a couch. After three months, Savasana was associated with a 26-point drop in systolic blood pressure (the top number) and a 15-point drop in diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number)—and the higher the initial blood pressure, the bigger the drop.

Worry Thwarts
11 Yoga lowers cortisol levels. If that doesn't sound like much, consider this. Normally, the adrenal glands secrete cortisol in response to an acute crisis, which temporarily boosts immune function. If your cortisol levels stay high even after the crisis, they can compromise the immune system. Temporary boosts of cortisol help with long-term memory, but chronically high levels undermine memory and may lead to permanent changes in the brain. Additionally, excessive cortisol has been linked with major depression, osteoporosis (it extracts calcium and other minerals from bones and interferes with the laying down of new bone), high blood pressure, and insulin resistance. In rats, high cortisol levels lead to what researchers call "food-seeking behavior" (the kind that drives you to eat when you're upset, angry, or stressed). The body takes those extra calories and distributes them as fat in the abdomen, contributing to weight gain and the risk of diabetes and heart attack.

Happy Hour

12 Feeling sad? Sit in Lotus. Better yet, rise up into a backbend or soar royally into King Dancer Pose. While it’s not as simple as that, one study found that a consistent yoga practice improved depression and led to a significant increase in serotonin levels and a decrease in the levels of monoamine oxidase (an enzyme that breaks down neurotransmitters) and cortisol. At the University of Wisconsin, Richard Davidson, Ph.D., found that the left prefrontal cortex showed heightened activity in meditators, a finding that has been correlated with greater levels of happiness and better immune function. More dramatic left-sided activation was found in dedicated, long-term practitioners.

Weighty Matters
13 Move more, eat less—that's the adage of many a dieter. Yoga can help on both fronts. A regular practice gets you moving and burns calories, and the spiritual and emotional dimensions of your practice may encourage you to address any eating and weight problems on a deeper level. Yoga may also inspire you to become a more conscious eater.

Low Show
14 Yoga lowers blood sugar and LDL ("bad") cholesterol and boosts HDL ("good") cholesterol. In people with diabetes, yoga has been found to lower blood sugar in several ways: by lowering cortisol and adrenaline levels, encouraging weight loss, and improving sensitivity to the effects of insulin. Get your blood sugar levels down, and you decrease your risk of diabetic complications such as heart attack, kidney failure, and blindness.

Brain Waves

15 An important component of yoga is focusing on the present. Studies have found that regular yoga practice improves coordination, reaction time, memory, and even IQ scores. People who practice Transcendental Meditation demonstrate the ability to solve problems and acquire and recall information better—probably because they’re less distracted by their thoughts, which can play over and over like an endless tape loop.

Nerve Center
16 Yoga encourages you to relax, slow your breath, and focus on the present, shifting the balance from the sympathetic nervous system (or the fight-or-flight response) to the parasympathetic nervous system. The latter is calming and restorative; it lowers breathing and heart rates, decreases blood pressure, and increases blood flow to the intestines and reproductive organs—comprising what Herbert Benson, M.D., calls the relaxation response.

Space Place
17 Regularly practicing yoga increases proprioception (the ability to feel what your body is doing and where it is in space) and improves balance. People with bad posture or dysfunctional movement patterns usually have poor proprioception, which has been linked to knee problems and back pain. Better balance could mean fewer falls. For the elderly, this translates into more independence and delayed admission to a nursing home or never entering one at all. For the rest of us, postures like Tree Pose can make us feel less wobbly on and off the mat.

Control Center
18 Some advanced yogis can control their bodies in extraordinary ways, many of which are mediated by the nervous system. Scientists have monitored yogis who could induce unusual heart rhythms, generate specific brain-wave patterns, and, using a meditation technique, raise the temperature of their hands by 15 degrees Fahrenheit. If they can use yoga to do that, perhaps you could learn to improve blood flow to your pelvis if you're trying to get pregnant or induce relaxation when you're having trouble falling asleep.

Loose Limbs
19 Do you ever notice yourself holding the telephone or a steering wheel with a death grip or scrunching your face when staring at a computer screen? These unconscious habits can lead to chronic tension, muscle fatigue, and soreness in the wrists, arms, shoulders, neck, and face, which can increase stress and worsen your mood. As you practice yoga, you begin to notice where you hold tension: It might be in your tongue, your eyes, or the muscles of your face and neck. If you simply tune in, you may be able to release some tension in the tongue and eyes. With bigger muscles like the quadriceps, trapezius, and buttocks, it may take years of practice to learn how to relax them.

Chill Pill
20 Stimulation is good, but too much of it taxes the nervous system. Yoga can provide relief from the hustle and bustle of modern life. Restorative asana, yoga nidra (a form of guided relaxation), Savasana, pranayama, and meditation encourage pratyahara, a turning inward of the senses, which provides downtime for the nervous system. Another by-product of a regular yoga practice, studies suggest, is better sleep—which means you'll be less tired and stressed and less likely to have accidents.

Immune Boon
21 Asana and pranayama probably improve immune function, but, so far, meditation has the strongest scientific support in this area. It appears to have a beneficial effect on the functioning of the immune system, boosting it when needed (for example, raising antibody levels in response to a vaccine) and lowering it when needed (for instance, mitigating an inappropriately aggressive immune function in an autoimmune disease like psoriasis).

Breathing Room
22 Yogis tend to take fewer breaths of greater volume, which is both calming and more efficient. A 1998 study published in The Lancet taught a yogic technique known as "complete breathing" to people with lung problems due to congestive heart failure. After one month, their average respiratory rate decreased from 13.4 breaths per minute to 7.6. Meanwhile, their exercise capacity increased significantly, as did the oxygen saturation of their blood. In addition, yoga has been shown to improve various measures of lung function, including the maximum volume of the breath and the efficiency of the exhalation. Yoga also promotes breathing through the nose, which filters the air, warms it (cold, dry air is more likely to trigger an asthma attack in people who are sensitive), and humidifies it, removing pollen and dirt and other things you'd rather not take into your lungs.

Poop Scoop
23 Ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation—all of these can be exacerbated by stress. So if you stress less, you'll suffer less. Yoga, like any physical exercise, can ease constipation—and theoretically lower the risk of colon cancer—because moving the body facilitates more rapid transport of food and waste products through the bowels. And, although it has not been studied scientifically, yogis suspect that twisting poses may be beneficial in getting waste to move through the system.

Peace of Mind
24 Yoga quells the fluctuations of the mind, according to Patanjali's Yoga Sutra. In other words, it slows down the mental loops of frustration, regret, anger, fear, and desire that can cause stress. And since stress is implicated in so many health problems—from migraines and insomnia to lupus, MS, eczema, high blood pressure, and heart attacks—if you learn to quiet your mind, you'll be likely to live longer and healthier.

Divine Sign
25 Many of us suffer from chronic low self-esteem. If you handle this negatively—take drugs, overeat, work too hard, sleep around—you may pay the price in poorer health physically, mentally, and spiritually. If you take a positive approach and practice yoga, you'll sense, initially in brief glimpses and later in more sustained views, that you're worthwhile or, as yogic philosophy teaches, that you are a manifestation of the Divine. If you practice regularly with an intention of self-examination and betterment—not just as a substitute for an aerobics class—you can access a different side of yourself. You'll experience feelings of gratitude, empathy, and forgiveness, as well as a sense that you're part of something bigger. While better health is not the goal of spirituality, it's often a by-product, as documented by repeated scientific studies.

Pain Drain
26 Yoga can ease your pain. According to several studies, asana, meditation, or a combination of the two, reduced pain in people with arthritis, back pain, fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel syndrome, and other chronic conditions. When you relieve your pain, your mood improves, you're more inclined to be active, and you don't need as much medication.

Heat Treatment
27 Yoga can help you make changes in your life. In fact, that might be its greatest strength. Tapas, the Sanskrit word for "heat," is the fire, the discipline that fuels yoga practice and that regular practice builds. The tapas you develop can be extended to the rest of your life to overcome inertia and change dysfunctional habits. You may find that without making a particular effort to change things, you start to eat better, exercise more, or finally quit smoking after years of failed attempts.

Guru Gifts
28 Good yoga teachers can do wonders for your health. Exceptional ones do more than guide you through the postures. They can adjust your posture, gauge when you should go deeper in poses or back off, deliver hard truths with compassion, help you relax, and enhance and personalize your practice. A respectful relationship with a teacher goes a long way toward promoting your health.

Drug Free
29 If your medicine cabinet looks like a pharmacy, maybe it's time to try yoga. Studies of people with asthma, high blood pressure, Type II diabetes (formerly called adult-onset diabetes), and obsessive-compulsive disorder have shown that yoga helped them lower their dosage of medications and sometimes get off them entirely. The benefits of taking fewer drugs? You'll spend less money, and you're less likely to suffer side effects and risk dangerous drug interactions.

Hostile Makeover
30 Yoga and meditation build awareness. And the more aware you are, the easier it is to break free of destructive emotions like anger. Studies suggest that chronic anger and hostility are as strongly linked to heart attacks as are smoking, diabetes, and elevated cholesterol. Yoga appears to reduce anger by increasing feelings of compassion and interconnection and by calming the nervous system and the mind. It also increases your ability to step back from the drama of your own life, to remain steady in the face of bad news or unsettling events. You can still react quickly when you need to—and there's evidence that yoga speeds reaction time—but you can take that split second to choose a more thoughtful approach, reducing suffering for yourself and others.

Good Relations
31 Love may not conquer all, but it certainly can aid in healing. Cultivating the emotional support of friends, family, and community has been demonstrated repeatedly to improve health and healing. A regular yoga practice helps develop friendliness, compassion, and greater equanimity. Along with yogic philosophy's emphasis on avoiding harm to others, telling the truth, and taking only what you need, this may improve many of your relationships.

Sound System
32 The basics of yoga—asana, pranayama, and meditation—all work to improve your health, but there's more in the yoga toolbox. Consider chanting. It tends to prolong exhalation, which shifts the balance toward the parasympathetic nervous system. When done in a group, chanting can be a particularly powerful physical and emotional experience. A recent study from Sweden's Karolinska Institute suggests that humming sounds—like those made while chanting Om—open the sinuses and facilitate drainage.

Vision Quest
33 If you contemplate an image in your mind's eye, as you do in yoga nidra and other practices, you can effect change in your body. Several studies have found that guided imagery reduced postoperative pain, decreased the frequency of headaches, and improved the quality of life for people with cancer and HIV.

Clean Machine
34 Kriyas, or cleansing practices, are another element of yoga. They include everything from rapid breathing exercises to elaborate internal cleansings of the intestines. Jala neti, which entails a gentle lavage of the nasal passages with salt water, removes pollen and viruses from the nose, keeps mucus from building up, and helps drains the sinuses.

Karma Concept
35 Karma yoga (service to others) is integral to yogic philosophy. And while you may not be inclined to serve others, your health might improve if you do. A study at the University of Michigan found that older people who volunteered a little less than an hour per week were three times as likely to be alive seven years later. Serving others can give meaning to your life, and your problems may not seem so daunting when you see what other people are dealing with.

Healing Hope
36 In much of conventional medicine, most patients are passive recipients of care. In yoga, it's what you do for yourself that matters. Yoga gives you the tools to help you change, and you might start to feel better the first time you try practicing. You may also notice that the more you commit to practice, the more you benefit. This results in three things: You get involved in your own care, you discover that your involvement gives you the power to effect change, and seeing that you can effect change gives you hope. And hope itself can be healing.

Connective Tissue
37 As you read all the ways yoga improves your health, you probably noticed a lot of overlap. That's because they're intensely interwoven. Change your posture and you change the way you breathe. Change your breathing and you change your nervous system. This is one of the great lessons of yoga: Everything is connected—your hipbone to your anklebone, you to your community, your community to the world. This interconnection is vital to understanding yoga. This holistic system simultaneously taps into many mechanisms that have additive and even multiplicative effects. This synergy may be the most important way of all that yoga heals.

Placebo Power
38 Just believing you will get better can make you better. Unfortunately, many conventional scientists believe that if something works by eliciting the placebo effect, it doesn't count. But most patients just want to get better, so if chanting a mantra—like you might do at the beginning or end of yoga class or throughout a meditation or in the course of your day—facilitates healing, even if it's just a placebo effect, why not do it?

Block Steady

2009-05-21T10:39:00.000+08:00

By Maty Ezraty with Melanie Lora

Many of us come to yoga to build strength. There's no question that when you're physically strong, you're better able to handle the demands of your day with grace and ease. But you can build endurance and power through almost any athletic pursuit. The beauty of practicing yoga is that it builds inner strength—which you need to ride life's emotional currents with faith and equanimity—even as it tones your body.

One way to build inner strength is by practicing regularly, whether you're feeling inspired or not. That simple act develops your capacity for commitment and for not letting the rest of life get between you and what you know to be essential to your well-being. By being true to yourself in your yoga practice, you enhance your ability to be true to yourself in other situations.

Of course, maintaining a consistent home practice is, in itself, an exercise in strength. At home, the notorious obstacles of procrastination, distraction, and skepticism come up all the time. To help dispel these stumbling blocks, choose a regular time and create a sacred space for your practice. It also helps to have several sequences on hand for those days when you're unsure of what to do next.

This sequence was designed specifically to build both physical strength, especially in your arms and upper back, and the mental strength you need to go upside down. (It's also good for enhancing the flexibility in your shoulders, which you'll need to get into Handstand.) Regardless of your ability to get into each of these poses, let this sequence be an opportunity to notice and experiment with your areas of strength and weakness. After practicing this sequence several times, you'll probably find that you can hold each pose a little longer. Enjoy each baby step to a stronger you.

Yoga for headache management

2009-05-15T14:54:00.002+08:00

ayushveda.com

Yoga is a safe and alternate therapy for ensuring the overall well-being of a person as it is endowed with physical and spiritual healing powers. Taking out some time from one’s hectic daily schedule, one can practice the relaxing asanas and breathing exercises of yoga to achieve a rejuvenating and a healthy experience. Moreover, yoga helps in connecting a person with his inner energies thereby leading to physical, emotional and psychological well being of a person. Headaches are a common ailment in today’s world and they can be caused by various factors like stress, exhaustion, eyestrain, allergies and others. Instead of getting addicted to analgesics, one can try the harmless and effective therapy of yoga which can help in the effective treatment and prevention of headaches.

There are various yogic asanas and breathing exercises available for the problem of headaches. One of them includes Adho Mukha Svanasana which includes pushing one’s butt up towards the ceiling. Then one should push one’s hands and heels of feet into floor and let the head hang downwards. Pull belly button up into spine and breathe deeply. This helps in relieving pain and discomfort associated with headaches. Another exercise which can help during headaches is one which is known as the reclining pose. In this, one should gently roll one’s torso back to floor and close eyes and breathe deeply. Then one should close one’s eyes tightly followed by wide opening of one’s eyes. Roll eyes up and down and side wards. Rub heels of palm together until warm and place it gently over the eyes. This helps in relaxing your mind thereby removing all tensions and worries which might be leading to headaches.

Along with yogic asanas, one should also practice the simple inhalation and exhalation breathing exercise to calm and relax one’s mind. Performing alternate nostril breathing can be quite effective in subsiding the problem of headache. Thus, one can follow some simple yoga steps to relieve one from the discomfort of headaches.

Warrior II Pose

2009-05-15T10:31:00.000+08:00

by Yoga Journal

Virabhadrasana II

(veer-ah-bah-DRAHS-anna)
Virabhadra = the name of a fierce warrior, an incarnation of Shiva, described as having a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, and a thousand feet, wielding a thousand clubs, and wearing a tiger's skin

Step by Step

Stand in Tadasana. With an exhalation, step or lightly jump your feet 3 1/2 to 4 feet apart. Raise your arms parallel to the floor and reach them actively out to the sides, shoulder blades wide, palms down.

Turn your right foot in slightly to the right and your left foot out to the left 90 degrees. Align the left heel with the right heel. Firm your thighs and turn your left thigh outward so that the center of the left knee cap is in line with the center of the left ankle.

Exhale and bend your left knee over the left ankle, so that the shin is perpendicular to the floor. If possible, bring the left thigh parallel to the floor. Anchor this movement of the left knee by strengthening the right leg and pressing the outer right heel firmly to the floor.

Stretch the arms away from the space between the shoulder blades, parallel to the floor. Don't lean the torso over the left thigh: Keep the sides of the torso equally long and the shoulders directly over the pelvis. Press the tailbone slightly toward the pubis. Turn the head to the left and look out over the fingers.

Stay for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Inhale to come up. Reverse the feet and repeat for the same length of time to the left.

Protect your knees and build strength and stability with this crucial standing pose.

2009-05-15T10:16:00.000+08:00

By Julie Gudmestad

You'll probably never need to lunge forward, thighs burning, to desperately thrust a sword at a charging enemy. But the thigh and hip strength that ancient Indian warriors relied on is still useful in all sorts of everyday activities: climbing stairs, swooping to snag a wayward toddler, or bending your knees to lift a load of laundry without straining your back. Just as important, strong thighs and hips can help protect your knees from arthritis, injury, and chronic wear and tear.

Few poses beat Virabhadrasana II (Warrior Pose II) at strengthening your hips and thighs. As you might guess from the way your legs burn in a long Warrior II, the pose strongly works your quadriceps muscles, which make up the front of your thighs.

But Warrior II is not just about strength: It can also correct a common misalignment that can lead to many knee problems. To see if you have this misalignment, stand barelegged in front of a mirror. If your alignment is healthy, your kneecaps will point straight out over the midline of your feet. But you may find that your thighbone rotates inward in relation to your shinbone and that your kneecap points slightly inward, too. This position is bad news: It torques your knee, putting uneven pressure on the cartilage and straining the supporting ligaments and tendons every time you bend it.

Alignment First

Whenever you hear a yoga teacher say, "As you bend your knee, point your kneecap directly toward your middle toe," she's reminding you to stabilize your thighbone and knee in healthy alignment. But that's often easier said than done. Even if your alignment is fine when you're standing with straight legs, you may collapse your front knee inward when you come into Warrior II.

To correct this misalignment, you need to focus on two actions in Warrior II. The first is stretching your hip adductors. This large muscle group, which fills your inner thighs and pulls your knees toward each other, includes the pectineus, adductor brevis, adductor longus, adductor magnus, and gracilis. To get a good long passive stretch for these muscles, practice this pose lying on your back: Lie perpendicular to a wall, with your feet on the wall and your knees and hips each bent to 90 degrees, as though you were sitting on a chair that had tipped over backward. Then open your knees to the sides and move your feet farther apart so your shins remain perpendicular to the wall and parallel to the floor. Stay in this position for four or five breaths and allow your inner thighs to relax and stretch.

Next, still lying on your back, create the shape of Warrior II: Leaving your right foot where it is, straighten your left leg out to the side, turning your foot in slightly as you ground your sole on the wall. Place your left foot so that a line drawn between its arch and your right heel would be parallel to the floor. Stretch your arms out to the sides at shoulder height, and—voilà! —Warrior II. Stay for a minute or two, and then repeat to the other side.

Up Against the Wall

The other secret to proper alignment of the bent leg in Warrior II is engaging and strengthening the muscles that externally rotate your thigh. The main external rotators are the gluteus maximus and the six deep rotators that lie underneath it—the piriformis, obturator internus, obturator externus, gemellus superior, gemellus inferior, and quadratus femoris.

To get in touch with and build these muscles, stand with your back near the wall and your feet 4 to 41/2 feet apart. Turn your left foot in slightly and your right foot out 90 degrees, parallel to the wall, and set yourself up so your right hip is touching the wall. (Don't force your left hip to the wall, or you'll force your right knee out of alignment.) Watch your thigh and knee as you bend your right leg into Warrior II: Make sure your right thigh is parallel to the wall and your right knee points out over the center of your right foot. Next, place a tightly rolled yoga mat between the wall and your bent knee. Pressing your knee firmly into this prop, press through your left foot, keeping your left knee straight and your left thighbone pushing back toward the wall. You should feel your right hip rotators working deeply to hold your right knee and thighbone in proper alignment.

Now apply the lessons you learned at the wall to Warrior II in the middle of the room. Make your pose "all in one plane": Firm your right buttock and tuck it into your body; press both knees, but especially your right one, toward an imaginary wall at your back. Move in and out of the pose, taking care that your knee doesn't wobble inward as you make your transitions.

Defying Gravity

Once you start to open your hip adductors and strengthen your external hip rotators so you can align your thighs and knees safely in Warrior II, you can intensify the work on your quadriceps muscles. Filling the whole front of the thigh, the four quadriceps converge into a single tendon that attaches to the patella (kneecap) and then connects, via the patellar ligament, to the upper tibia (shinbone); three of the "quads" originate on the upper thighbone, while the fourth comes from the pelvis, above the hip socket.

As soon as you bend your leg, your quads have to contract, or gravity would pull you to the floor. To work your quads even harder in Warrior II, bring your front—leg thigh parallel to the floor—but don't let that knee collapse inward or the back-leg thigh and knee collapse forward.

Practice Makes Perfect

Warrior II gives you a perfect opportunity to practice good biomechanics over and over, consciously and slowly. Training the quads and hip muscles to support your knees in their optimal, nontwisted alignment while you're bending your legs in yoga means you'll be less likely to hurt or strain your knees. But you can also extend these lessons to your daily life. Look down at each knee as you walk up stairs. As you place your right foot on the next step and begin to shift weight onto it, make sure you keep your knee centered over your foot. Also check to see whether you're using good alignment when you go down stairs, pedal your bike, or half-squat to pick up a child.

As you practice good alignment in Warrior II, you can learn healthy movement patterns with your body, not just with your intellect—so you'll be more likely to use these patterns in everything you do. And since Warrior II builds stronger quads, you'll have more leg power for when you need to lift a heavy load at the grocery store or in your yard—and that will help prevent back injuries caused by poor body mechanics. All in all, Warrior II can set the stage for a healthier yoga practice and a more active life for decades to come.

Ayurvedic Food Fighters

2009-05-13T12:49:00.000+08:00

By Alice Lesch Kelly

Researchers point to nutritional imbalances as a possible cause of chronic fatigue syndrome. Many CFS patients find they are sensitive to foods and drinks they were once able to tolerate. They may also find that a variety of foods and food additives—caffeine, alcohol, chocolate, dairy products, and dyes, among other things—trigger CFS symptoms.

Ayurvedic practitioners go one step further, suggesting that by making food choices in the Ayurvedic tradition, CFS sufferers can find greater relief. Robert Svoboda, an Ayurvedic physician, says Ayurvedic dietary changes help restore energy, and he advises people with CFS to eat a vata-controlling diet. "They need to drink soup and eat food that's very mild—not too hot, not too cold," he says. "It should be spiced, but mildly spiced. Also, they should not consume anything that's cold, especially cold water and ice cream. They should drink hot water only." He also recommends a diet low in protein, because protein demands great quantities of energy to digest and produces heaps of nitrogenous wastes. "You want a small amount of protein and a balance of carbohydrates and fats all cooked into one soup or a juicy one-pot meal, so your organism doesn't require a lot of energy to digest."

Svoboda also recommends avoiding foods that contain caffeine or concentrated sugars. "These are so concentrated that they cause your system to go into a tizzy, overreact, and make the fatigue worse."

Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy

2009-05-13T12:47:00.000+08:00

By Niika Quistgard

A little indulgence is natural at holiday parties. But get carried away and you'll end up bloated, tired, and bummed out. According to Ayurvedic principles, there's a physiological reason for this: When you eat in moderation, your body and mind are happy. But when you eat too much, you overwhelm your agni (the digestive fire), creating chaos in your belly and inviting unpleasant imbalances such as gas, weight gain, and depression.

Thankfully, you don't have to possess superhuman strength to tame your urge to overeat. Even as your favorite dessert beckons, a few simple strategies can help you resist. Be mindful of multitasking, for instance, and try to avoid too much stimulation. If you find yourself mingling, chatting, noshing, and sipping all at the same time, you're less likely to enjoy your food, which will leave you hankering for more. What's more, you probably won't recognize when you're full.

So take a few moments to let someone else be the life of the party while you eat silently. There's nothing wrong with enjoying delicious food-the key is finding ways to be present so you can enjoy but not overdo.

Tips to make standing poses a breeze to master

2009-05-13T11:20:00.000+08:00

By Jason Crandell

Standing poses are the foundation of many contemporary styles of hatha yoga. They're accessible, easy to modify, and extremely thorough: They cultivate strength,suppleness, and awareness in your feet, legs, pelvis, torso, shoulders, and arms. They also increase vitality, counteracting the effects of a sedentary life.

Standing poses can provide insight into your restrictions, illuminating areas that feel particularly tight and bound, sensitive and vulnerable, or weak and unstable. When the going gets tough in these poses, you can observe your reactions and habitual responses to dif½cult situations. While the shapes of the asanas may differ, these tips apply to all standing poses.

WAKE UP YOUR LOWER HALF The legs are the workhorses of the body. They support, stabilize, and propel you with vitality and ease. Your feet are, by design, beautifully intricate, complex, and responsive. When your legs and feet aren't taken through their natural range of motion, they become stagnant and dull—imagine a horse never taken out of its stable. Standing poses stretch and strengthen the legs and feet so they function optimally. Working your legs thoroughly also improves circulation, supports digestion, and energizes the entire body.

STAY STRAIGHT Standing poses increase your awareness of body alignment. You can observe how your feet align with your legs and pelvis, how your arms align with your shoulders and chest, and so on. As you refine this awareness, you cultivate greater physical integration and develop increased physical stability.

STAND YOUR GROUND Many of us are overworked and overstimulated mentally but out of shape physically. Our bodies are lethargic and dull. Standing poses ask us to focus intensely, yet quietly, on the body. This type of attention soothes the mind, lessening psychological tension and grounding you emotionally.

FIND BALANCE Standing poses require an even distribution of weight between both legs. You must also root evenly through the front, back, and sides of each foot. When you establish this, you can more easily find your center. This makes it easier to find your balance in other poses, and perhaps even in life.

ARM BALANCE Different standing poses stretch, align, and strengthen your arms in different ways. When you practice a series of them, you take your shoulders through a range of movements, which increases mobility and releases tension in the upper body.

GO FORTH Since standing poses create stability, suppleness, and awareness in your legs, hips, torso, and shoulders, they are the perfect poses to prepare your body for other asanas.

Yoga Remedy for Colds

2009-05-11T16:51:00.000+08:00

by Anmol Mehta

To help fight off colds and better still, to help prevent them in the first place, practice Kapalbhati Pranayama. This pranayama is one of the best ways to boost your health and immune system. It also generates heat in the body to offset the Kapha/Vata imbalance and helps clear of system of congestion.

For Kapalbhati pranayama sit up in a comfortable position and then breath putting force on the exhalation, while leaving the inhalation passive. So you will sharply exhale through the nose, allowing the navel to naturally contract inwards, then follow it up with a passive inhalation.

Another pranayama that is great for battling colds and the flu, boosting internal heat, detoxifying and building your immune system is the potent Kundalini Yoga Breath of Fire Breathing Exercise.

To practice Breath of Fire, sit up in a comfortable posture, keeping the back straight and then begin to breathe rapidly through the nose putting equal emphasis on the inhalation and exhalation. The stomach will pulse on it's own. The key to breath of fire is to focus the breath at the tip of the nose and not force the breathing using the diaphragm. It is like very fast sniffing.

A Woman's Balance: Inversions and Menstruation

2009-05-09T20:57:00.000+08:00

Mary P. Schatz, M.D. 6/25/2002

Yoga teaches us balance: balance of the body in relation to gravity; balance of the mind between action and observation; and balance of the neuroendocrine system between stress and relaxation. Through a regular yoga practice we learn which poses are effective in re-establishing balance in some aspect of our existence. In this ancient discipline as taught by B.K.S. Iyengar, there are poses that are particularly useful during the menstrual period. These poses ease menstrual cramps, heavy bleeding, pelvic discomfort and the low back pain associated with menses They are also effective in smoothing out the emotional rough edges some women encounter at this time of their cycle.

Geeta S. Iyengar, Mr. Iyengar's daughter and a yoga teacher at his Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Poona, India, has a particularly strong interest and great experience in yoga for women. Recommendations on the poses in this article are from Geeta's basic principles.

Just as some poses are helpful at period-time, other poses should be avoided. Many women ask if these recommendations stem from a cultural tradition that is sexist, and yoga teachers are often reluctant to tell menstruating students not to participate in parts of the class, lest they feel singled out and ostracized. These guidelines are not sexist, however, they are based on sound physiologic knowledge and time-tested applications of yogic principles to women's special needs. We are cyclic beings. Denying that we are does violence to the basic principles of self-understanding we seek through yoga.

The menstrual period should no longer be dreaded as "the curse." Instead, in combination with a special menstrual yoga practice, it can be welcomed as a time for going within, for allowing ourselves to be in low energy. Use this time to experience different aspects of your nature and your yoga practice. So often we are drawn to the exhilaration of the standing poses, arm balances and backbends. These are great fun and immediately rewarding, as they suffuse us with energy. But a practice that is always high-energy needs to be balanced by the quiet and peace low-energy yoga can offer. The menstrual period is a perfect time to vary one's practice and turn inward.

Poses to Avoid During The Menstrual Period

Inversions: Inversions are not recommended during the menstrual period for philosophic as well as physiologic reasons.

During the menses, the pelvic vascular bed contains more blood than at other times of the cycle. The uterine blood supply enters the uterus from the right and left sides of the pelvis. These blood vessels are located in the broad ligaments that suspend the uterus from the pelvis. The uterine arteries are thick-walled and muscular. The uterine veins are thin-walled and easily collapsed.

During inversions, the uterus is pulled toward the head by gravity, causing the broad ligaments to be stretched. This can cause stretch and partial collapse or occlusion of the thin-walled veins, while allowing the uncollapsed arteries to continue to pump in blood. Thus, more blood enters the uterus via the arteries than can be carried away by the veins. The vascular congestion that results can lead to increased menstrual bleeding.

Hindu philosophy teaches that during menses the direction of energy is down and out of the body. This flow should not be obstructed or reversed as it is in inversions.

There have been numerous misconceptions about why to avoid inversions. I would like to dispel two of them:

Endometriosis : Endometriosis is a condition in which small areas of endometrial tissue (uterine lining) develop on the surface of the pelvic and abdominal organs. This tissue responds to the hormones of the fertility cycle. When menstruation occurs, these foci of endometriosis break down and bleed just as the uterine lining does. But since there is no exit for this flow, scarring and adhesions result. This can cause pain and infertility.

It was once thought that endometriosis resulted from the escape of small bits of menstrual endometrium through the fallopian tubes into the pelvic cavity. It was postulated that these fragments of tissue implanted themselves on the surfaces of the pelvic organs and proceeded to grow. If this theory were true, it would certainly be reason enough to avoid inversions during the menstrual period. However, this is no longer thought to he the origin of tendomeriosis. It is now known that endometriosis arises from the presence of cells in the pelvic lining that are capable of developing into endonietrial-type cells.

Infection: It has been suggested that inversions during menses increase the incidence of pelvic infection. This is not the case. Conditions for the ascent of bacteria up to the uterus are not more favorable during menstruation- or inversion. Bacteria move in the layers of fluid on the surface of the vagina and uterine lining, essentially free of gravitational effect. If inversions did cause pelvic infections, then they would be contraindicated in women regardless of the time of the cycle.

Free-Standing Poses and Non-supported Backbends

In general, poses requiring the use of exertion and great energy are not recommended during menstruation. Physical strength may be somewhat diminished at this time, causing one to be shaky or off balance; therefore, standing poses in the center of the room and strenuous backbends may be difficult and exhausting. Attempting such a practice when energy is low can lead to injury or further depletion of energy supplies. This is a time to allow yourself to rest.

Poses Recommended During The Menstrual Period

The following guidelines are provided for your exploration. They are not presented as restrictions on your practice, but suggested as a way to more deeply experience and enjoy your natural cyclic rhythms.

1. Forward Bend Series

Paschimottanasana (Full Forward Bend Pose)
Janu Sirsasana (Head to Knee Pose)
Triang Mukhaikapada
Paschimottanasana (Three Parts Forward Bend Pose)
Modified forward bends in chair with fists pressed into lower abdomen

These poses are calming. Lower abdominal and pelvic compression aids cramps and heavy bleeding.

2. Supported Standing Poses

Parivrtta Trikonasana (Revolved Triangle Pose)
Parivrtta Ardha Chandrasana (Revolved Half Moon Pose) Done with the support of a wall or chair.

These poses are helpful for backache associated with menses.

3. Twists

Lying Knee to Chest Twist
Seated Chair Twist
Pose of Child Twist

These twists are helpful for cramps and backache.

4. Supported Setu Bandha (Supported Bridge Pose)

This pose is calming, It also relieves pelvic discomfort.

5. Supported Viparita Dandasana (Upward Turned Staff Pose).

This pose is helpful for pelvic discomfort.

How to Wash Your Yoga Mat

2009-04-29T14:44:00.001+08:00

By Donna Raskin

If your mat is lightly soiled, use a spray bottle, damp sponge, or terry cloth rag to apply a solution of two cups of water and four drops of dish soap. Rub the soiled areas. Wipe the mat with clean water; then rub with a dry terry cloth towel. Hang to air dry.

If your mat is heavily soiled, submerge it in a solution of warm water and mild detergent; use very little soap as any residue may cause the mat to become slippery during future use. Thoroughly hand wash the mat and rinse in clean water. After squeezing out the excess water, lay the mat on a dry towel and roll the mat and towel together. Stepping on the rolled up mat will squeeze more moisture out of the mat and into the towel. Then unroll and hang to air dry.

The Purposes of Yoga

2009-04-29T14:02:00.000+08:00

By Douglas Brooks

lthough the ancient yoga masters taught that we must integrate minds and hearts and be able to give a full account of our thoughts and feelings, we might ask ourselves if this requirement is still relevant to our practice. Our answer depends on what we think yoga is for, what purpose it serves in our lives. Do we practice yoga primarily for physical exercise? Or do we practice yoga for more spiritual reasons? The ancients created the paths of yoga because they believed these were the best ways, indeed the only ways, to realize our full human potential. No one makes this any clearer than Patanjali, the second-century author of the Yoga Sutra.

Patanjali states that yoga has two distinct purposes or goals. In Chapter II, verse 2 of the Yoga Sutra, he states that yoga's "purpose or goal is to cultivate the experience of equanimity [samadhi]" and "to unravel the causes of negativity." Patanjali tells us, in effect, that yoga will help us figure out and eradicate the reasons why we suffer, even as it leads us to feel the deepest of human experiences.

Because Patanjali describes yoga's two distinct projects-cultivating true equanimity and unraveling the causes of negativities-he suggests that yoga creates two different but yet connected results. A practice that leads to deeper equanimity empowers us to bring our joy to others as well as to ourselves. In this way, we become free to act for a higher purpose. (At the same time, we need to uncover the causes of negative experiences so that we learn to avoid them and thus to become more free from the sources of negativity.)

Becoming more free to live with ourselves confers on us a greater sense of empowerment and joy. Our actions become more meaningful because we know their true purpose. "Freedom to" gives perspective and depth, the feeling that what we do does matter. The world's everyday indignities bother us less, and from our more grounded experience we naturally act more decisively and compassionately. In a complementary way, as we unravel or attenuate the causes of negative experiences, we will feel free from them because we understand more deeply how our experience has evolved. To give a simple example, we learn from experience that touching a hot stove will cause a painful burn, and so thus we learn from understanding the cause how to avoid the effect. "Freedom from" gives us a clear sense of the relationship between past experience and what we might expect in the future. Yogis strive to become free to live life from true equanimity and free from the causes we know will bring us suffering. Our experience of freedom is not "irrational" or anti-rational but rather is rooted in more deeply understanding our relationships: with others, the world, nature, and ourselves. Over time, what is logically true becomes experientially true for us, and each type of experience complements the other.

Yoga and pilates - similarities and differences

2009-04-27T16:13:00.000+08:00

by fitnesshealthzone.com

Both yoga and Pilates have distinctive approaches to fitness and can provide significant benefits for the strengthening and conditioning of the body.

Yoga was developed five thousand years ago in northern India. Yoga was practiced and refined by Vedic priests, who documented the practice in their writings.

Yoga approach to exercise and conditioning focus on overall health. From its Hindu philosophical origins, yoga practice involves body, mind and spirit, and encourages you to seek balance in the way you live your life.

Yoga is the best time tested path to physical and mental well-being known to mankind. While some of them think that yoga is simply a physical exercise, it is actually a complete system for overall health and well-being. It includes personal hygiene, healthy diet, premeditation, physical postures, breathing and relaxation techniques.

Yoga asanas effectively stretch and strengthen your body. The benefits of yoga asanas come from the internal systems of the body. By stretching, twisting, flexing and bending in various postures, the oxygenated blood flows through the internal organs of the body.

Yoga asanas tone and soothe your nerves and regulate the endocrine system, which is responsible for the production of hormones. Yoga also improves your digestion and elimination, tone the reproductive organs and strengthen the respiratory system.

Yoga has produced a multitude of varieties that range from kundalini to iyengar to tantric though hatha yoga is the most popular form in the united states. The best candidate for hatha yoga is a person who appreciates time to slow down, meditate, and spend some time with oneself and does not become immediately discouraged by failure to master a pose.

Yoga requires patience and this can be developed through practice. The good thing about yoga is it does not require any extra equipment except yoga mat.

Compared to yoga, Pilates is a spring chicken in terms of age. Joseph Pilates, who was born in Germany and suffered frail health as a child, created the program. Pilates overcame his childhood sicknesses through exercise and began to create a system of physical development that would later become his legacy to the world.

Pilates are easier to understand and does not have any complicated movements. Pilates are usually straight forward. The movements tend to build strength quickly and you can see the results sooner than in yoga. Pilates focus mainly on cultivating core strength in the body and lengthening the spine.

If you are a pilates practitioner, you should be able to discipline yourself to complete your routine every day, which is a large part of the method. Attending classes is a great way to start but for good results, the method should be practiced daily to benefit your body.

Pilates does not require too many accessories but advanced practitioners add machines or tools to their collection in order to maintain a high level of fitness.

After a pilates workout, you may feel the difference in your abs, backs and legs. Pilates is an ideal workout for athletes recovering from injuries, pregnant women, or older people who may not have energy to do strenuous exercise. The benefits of pilates include assisting in aligning your body, strengthening your body, helping in rehabilitation of injuries, weight loss and increased energy levels.

Guidelines for practice of Pilates and yoga:

Since both forms of exercise utilize your mind, you are engaged throughout the entire routine. Whoever has practiced both exercises, they discovered that the exercises helped them increase focus and effectively strengthen their muscles.

Practice yoga asanas on bare foot using a yoga mat or non slip surface for standing poses.

Firm padding will be provided if you use a mat, rug or folded yoga blanket.

Yoga postures such as inversions should not be done on full stomach. You may feel uncomfortable if you practice certain poses soon after eating and drinking.

Wear comfortable clothing that allows you to move freely to perform asanas.

If you feel weak or unsteady in a pose, come out of it. Slowly you will build up your strength and be able to hold the pose longer.

The room should be well ventilated. You should have enough space to extend your arms and legs in all directions.

You should focus on your breath, inhaling and exhaling completely through your nose, throughout your workout. Breathing balances and regulates energy within the body, strengthening your internal organs and boosting your resistance to any disease.

Learning Focus and Concentration Through Yoga

2009-04-27T15:57:00.000+08:00

By Keith Edwin Renninson

For many of us today, focus and concentration aren’t difficult by virtue of necessity, for others however, it is an unbearable task to achieve either.

Ancient, and modern day yogis, taught yoga as a way to gain focus and become one with yourself and the universe. Being grounded is a major goal of many westerners because, to them, it is so illusive.

Occupations, family, avocations, addiction to multi-tasking and caffeine, goal achievement, and cultural pressures are among the reasons that people in the west suffer from the lack of a focused and grounded mentality.

Yoga offers a solution that few programs can.

Whether performed in a class at a studio or quietly in your living room, yoga’s meditative quality causes your level of focus and concentration to heighten and strengthen with each session.

Here's why; our brain functions at four levels of brainwave CPS Cycles Per Second) activity:

1. Beta 13-40 CPS: Fully active, alert, thinking and engaged with your life at that moment.

2. Alpha 7-12 CPS: A much slower rate of cycles per second; that dreamy state just before you fall asleep, the creative and thoughtful level.

3. Theta 4-7 CPS: Elusive meditative floating state before deep sleep.

4. Delta 0-4 CPS: Unconscious deep sleep.

Performing yoga enables you to decrease your brain’s activity from Beta to Alpha, to focus on the poses and your breathing. The Alpha state by it’s very nature is quiet, calm and concentrative. Your body reacts to the poses more efficiently; stretching properly and slowly revealing your inner, grounded self for confidence and strength.

In the end, isn’t that what we are all after? To discover our positive and confident inner self, to become focused, to calm the chaos, gain overall strength, balance and poise.

Concentration and focus are just two of the benefits of yoga which will come quickly to the dedicated novice, and they will become even more enhanced for the seasoned veteran. You gradually notice the advantages of a calm and focused mind in virtually everything you do at work, at home or at play. Enjoy.

Practice dharana, the sixth step in yoga, to conquer the ego

2009-04-27T15:03:00.000+08:00

by Shameem Akthar

Dharana is the sixth step in yoga. Unfortunately, it is the most neglected one. Unfortunately also, all your asana practice and dhyana (meditation) practice will tote up to nothing if you are weak in dharana. Yet, yoga instructors and practitioners routinely skip this sixth step of dharana, or focus and concentration.

Indologist and yoga expert David Frawley points out that dhyana practice must be developed only after the foundation of dharana has been well-established. It shocked me into realising how often I have myself bypassed this for the more exotic asanas or more self-gratifying dhyana. Asana is physically exciting, and can be rather an ego-booster. Dhyana practice is equally an ego-booster, because we use it to evaluate our spiritual growth. Since dharana is a mundane step in between these ego-boosters, we don’t bother about it. But to cut out the flab of ego in our asana and dhyana practice, we must use the sharp knife of dharana.

Dharana is mundane precisely because of this: to focus, we must put aside our egos. We neglect dharana practice, because setting our egos aside is so tough. Instead, we busy ourselves with our ego-boosters in our daily sadhana.

In sadhakas, the ego reinvents itself so subtly that it is even more urgent that we strengthen our dharana practice to save ourselves from losing our way forever in the web that our ego spins. The web it weaves is so fine that we fail to see it, even as it tightens around us. Increasingly, this is the danger of most spiritually inclined people. That is why some self-proclaimed seekers are more dangerous than rabid trouble-makers.

Now that we have agreed upon the danger of the ego, how do we incorporate dharana in our daily yoga practice? The reason why asana practice has incorporated a breath sequence is precisely to marry this element of concentration to our practice. Each asana has a breath sequence. Only some schools actively promote this. Also, while I do not subscribe to the purists who run down all fusions that yoga has acquired, I would advise against pop versions, which bypass certain elements of classical yoga, such as attention to the breath sequence. Other dharana elements in your daily yoga practice are: the precision of alignment that you must make in your pose; the deliberate relaxation you must introduce in your body after assuming the final pose. If you have advanced well enough in these, then you must shift your attention to the major chakra that is activated in the particular pose.

In case you are confused about breath sequences, I will give you a simple tip. In all movements where your head looks up, you inhale. In all movements where you press down or look down, you exhale. Again, as you twist, you exhale. And while returning to the centre, you inhale. This is the most classical of breath sequences you need to remember. Remember that this simple focus is what will muscle your sadhana like nothing else!

Nasikgraha mudra (nose-tip meditation)
This is a dharana practice. Sit in a meditative pose. Spine erect. Eyes shut. Focus your attention on the movement of breath at your nostril. Feel the flare of the nostrils, the soft feel of the breath, its temperature (it is warm as it comes out, cooler as it enters). As the mind wanders after just a few seconds, bring it again back to this breath awareness at the nostrils. Keep bringing the mind back. After a few minutes, open your eyes. Initially, do this only for a few minutes. Increase the time span as you gain more discipline.

Points to Note
Avoid it, if you are introverted or depressed. It helps with mental focus and concentration. When these are strengthened, not only does your meditation improve, but your health blossoms. Where the focus is clear cut without emotional distractions, as happens in dharana, the body and the mind relax completely, giving birth to perfect health. Most people do not realize that this is the most important and easiest secret to attain absolute health.

The Eight Limbs Of Yoga

2009-04-27T13:41:00.000+08:00

	The practice of Yoga does not only focus on physical postures to improve the body, but deals with all the aspects of our being and our lives. C.E., Patanjali who is considered the father of Modern Yoga compiled 195 aphorisms which are called the Yoga Sutra. In the Yoga Sutra, he described the eight aspects of a Yogic Lifestyle and called it the Eight Limbs of Yoga. The limbs are practical guides to a person's personal development to achieve the harmony of the mind, the body and the spirit which leads to Samadhi or enlightenment. Yamas Yama is your attitude towards others and the world around you. There are five Yamas: 1. Ahimsa or non-violence. This Yama does not only mean not doing harm to others in thought and in deed, but also to practice acts of kindness to other creatures and to one's own self. 2. Satya or truthfulness. Satya is the Yama that is about living a truthful life without doing harm to others. To practice Satya, one must think before he speaks and consider the consequence of his action. If the truth could harm others, it might be better to keep silent. 3. Asteya or non-stealing. This Yama is not only concerned about the non-stealing of material objects but also the stealing of other's ideas and other forms of possession. Using power for selfish motives or telling someone else about confidential information you had been entrusted with is against Asteya. 4. Bramacharya or non-lust. Bramacharya means to move toward the essential truth or to achieve self-control, abstinence or moderation especially regarding to sexual activity. It is about not giving in to our ego's excessive desires or taking nothing in excess. 5. Aparigraha or non-possessiveness. This Yama is about living a life free from greed or taking only what is necessary and do not take advantage of someone or of a situation. It is about using our powers correctly and appropriately and not exploiting others. Niyamas Niyama is how you treat yourself or your attitude towards yourself. The following are the five Niyamas: 1. Sauca or cleanliness. This Niyama is concerned on both the outer and inner cleanliness. The practice of pranayamas, asanas and Yogic cleansing practices to detoxify and cleanse the physical body are necessary to achieve inner cleanliness. The mind must also be kept clean or pure. Outer cleanliness, on the other hand, means to keep an clean environment or surroundings. 2. Santosha or contentment. Santosha is to practice humility, modesty and finding contentment with what you have and who you are. 3. Tapas or austerity. This Niyama refers to keeping the body in good condition. Tapas is practiced through disciplining the body, speech and mind like eating only when hungry and maintaining a good posture. 4. Svadhyaya or study of the sacred text and of one's self. This involved studying one's self, self-inquiry and self-examination and other things that can help you get to know yourself more. As your knowledge about yourself grows deeper, so is your connection to the higher power and your union with all things. 5. Isvarapranidhama or living with an awareness of the Divine. This Niyama encourages us to let go of our false sense of control and to connect to the Divine or that which gives us the sense of wholeness and sacredness. Asanas or Physical Poses The Asanas are designed to free our mind and body from tension and stress. It relaxes, rejuvenates, and energizes the body and aims to bring the body and the mind into a harmonious union. Asanas should be done with comfort, ease, alertness and steadiness, achieving a balance between ease and effort.

	Pranayama or Breathing Exercises Pranayama is the control of breath. The breath is regulated and controlled through the practice of breathing exercises. The duration of inhalation, retention, and exhalation of breath is regulated with the aim of strengthening and cleansing the nervous system and increasing a person's source of life energy. Pranayama practice also makes the mind calmer and more focused. Pratyahara or Withdrawal of the Senses This occurs during meditation, pranayama or asana wherein you are so focused and immersed on your Yoga, Meditation or Breathing Pose that you become unaware of outside situations. Your focus becomes inward and you are no longer distracted by outside events. Dharana or Concentration Dharana is training the mind to focus without any distraction. To achieve this, you can focus your mind into an object at a time. This can also serve as a preparation for meditation. Dhyana or Meditation Meditation is the practice by which there is constant observation of the mind. It means focusing the mind on one point, stilling the mind in order to perceive the Self. It is an uninterrupted flow of concentration aimed to heighten one's awareness and oneness with the universe. It is also an important tool to achieve mental clarity and Health. Samadhi or Enlightenment This is the ultimate goal of the Eight Limbs of Yoga. It is characterized by the state of ecstasy and the feeling that you and the universe are one. It is a state of peace and completion, awareness and compassion with detachment. The practice of Yoga does not only deal with developing the body but also covers all the aspect of a person's life as stated in the Eight Limbs of Yoga. It is concerned about the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of an individual as well as his environment and relationship with other creatures. Real practice of these eight principles leads to deeper self-knowledge, love and respect towards other people and creatures, cleaner environment, healthy diet, and union with the Divine. Article courtesy of www.abc-of-yoga.com

Gate Pose - Parighasana

2009-04-26T23:07:00.001+08:00

by Yoga Journal

Step by Step

Kneel on the floor. Stretch your right leg out to the right and press the foot to the floor. Keep your left knee directly below your left hip (so the thigh is perpendicular to the floor), and align your right heel with the left knee. Turn your pelvis slightly to the right (so the left hip point comes forward of the right), but turn your upper torso back to the left. Point the kneecap toward the ceiling, which will require you to turn your right leg out.

As you inhale, bring your arms out to your sides, parallel to the floor, palms down. Bend to the right over the plane of the right leg and lay your right hand down on the shin, ankle, or the floor outside the right leg. Contract the right side of the torso and stretch the left. Place your left hand on the outer left hip and push the pelvis down toward the floor. Then slip the hand up to the lower left ribs and lift them toward the shoulder, creating space in the left waist.

With an inhalation, sweep the left arm over the back of the left ear. The side bend tends to drop the torso toward the floor. Without pushing the left hip back (continue to roll it slightly forward), turn the upper torso away from the floor.

Stay in this pose anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute. Come up as you inhale, reaching through the top arm to draw the torso upright. Bring the right knee back beside the left, and repeat with the legs reversed.

Full Pose
Full Parighasana is a deep side bend. From the starting position described in Step 2 above, lean to the side over the straight leg. Lower the underside of the torso as close as possible to the top of the straight leg. Press the back of the lower hand on the top of the foot, then sweep the top arm over the back of the ear and join the palms. Finish as described in Step 4 above.

Yoga and Ego

2009-04-26T23:01:00.000+08:00

stanford.wellsphere.com

Do you identify too much with the term yogi? Is your yoga practice an obsession or a bragging point (your friends/family will think you're cool because you practice the ever-popular yoga or they'll be impressed that you can stand on your head)? Do you feel superior to others because you're a yogi? Do you often work the fact that you're a yoga practitioner into a conversation as a way of increasing your sense of self worth?

How do you approach your yoga practice -- do you push your way through or do you flow by allowing your body to be as it is? Do you feel the need to "keep up" or do a certain type of practice to satisfy your ego?

That pesky ego of ours tends to follow us around. The question is -- it is on the yoga mat with you; or worse, is it calling the shots in regards to your yoga practice?

Why do we practice?

2009-04-26T22:52:00.001+08:00

By Richard Rosen

Most beginning students will tell you they got into yoga to alleviate back pain, relieve stress, or become more flexible—fairly simple responses. I started my own practice after reading that yoga asanas are the best form of exercise ever devised; that belief kept me going for several years.

But the reasons you practice might not be as straightforward as they seem. It's entirely possible that after closely examining your innermost motives, you'll find nothing more than a hankering for looser hamstrings—but don't bet on it. Yoga is full of surprising twists and turns.

It's no secret that we often do things for reasons we're totally unaware of; sometimes our unconscious motives become clear only after a good deal of self-reflection. So it's important to realize that questioning the intent of our practice inevitably leads us to inquire about the meaning of our life as well. We could just as pertinently ask: Why am I really alive?

At the outset, it's natural to assume that our practice and our life are totally separate, that we practice for an hour or so a day and then forget about it. But after a while, the two inevitably begin to merge. As Sri Aurobindo, the great 20th-century Indian sage and progenitor of Integral Yoga, reminds us, "All life is yoga."

In Aurobindo's view, yoga is threaded through the warp and weft of our very existence, and in effect it chooses us. We practice yoga because we really don't have any other choice. Of course, we do decide what form our practice takes—we can go off and live alone in a cave and meditate, or we can stay at home, raise a family, and root for the Yankees. Performed with the proper attitude, each of our everyday actions can be an asana, each breath a pranayama, each thought (or space between two successive thoughts) a seed for meditation.

We may have been gifted with the life-enhancing tool of yoga, but for what reason? The clue is in the Sanskrit word yoga itself, which as you no doubt have heard means "union." For our purposes, though, it might be better to define it as "wholeness," a word etymologically related to both healthy and holy. So why do we really practice yoga? Because life wants us to be whole in the widest and truest sense of the word.

Richard Rosen, who teaches in Oakland and Berkeley, California, has been writing for Yoga Journal since the 1970s.

All Shook Up

2009-04-16T12:07:00.000+08:00

By Richard Rosen

Muscles are made up of many fibers. When a muscle is used, not all the fibers contract at the same time. Some rest while the others work, and then they trade places. When the muscles are really challenged, the changeovers can get a little ragged.

Beginning yogis often shake quite a lot. As muscles get stronger from regular practice, the fibers learn to trade off between firing and resting with smoother coordination. Eventually quivering often subsides (though there will always be teachers who turn students into yoga jelly, independent of their strength).

To calm the body, try to hug the quivering (contracting) muscle against its underlying bone and press the bone into the muscle being stretched.

Quivering is not necessarily bad, but it may be a sign that the body is overworked. Several years ago, when slugger Mark McGwire was mired in a terrible slump, a sportscaster asked Mac's hitting coach what the problem was. The coach opined that McGwire was trying too hard, and needed to "try easier."

Tune into the brain, the eyes, the root of the tongue, and, most of all, the breath. If any of these areas feel hard or constricted, take the coach's advice: Try easier.

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

2009-04-15T13:02:00.003+08:00

Photo; yoga-guru.info

By Kate Tremblay

Perhaps the kindest of the lot, Setu Bandha Sarvangasana is a passive arch for the back; it allows the back muscles to completely relax as the front body opens, with the legs and hips taking on most of the work. To come into the pose, lie down on your back with your knees bent and your feet on the floor hip width apart. Press into the feet to lengthen the lower back, bringing it into contact with the floor. Continue pressing through the feet as the knees reach away from the shoulders, lifting the buttocks and increasingly more of the back from the floor. Remind yourself that this is a pose in which your back muscles can actually relax while your legs do the work of opening the front body. By keeping the effort at 50 percent, you'll find space to enjoy the drape of the back from the pelvis down toward the shoulders, relaxing into the force of gravity.

Let the arms remain passive on the floor or, if your chest is flexible enough to permit, bring them under your back, interlacing your fingers and straightening the arms as much as possible. Either way, reach the arms, like the legs, toward the floor to support the arch of the pose. Once you're situated, settle into a rhythm of breathing in as you extend the chest toward both ceiling and chin and breathing out as you lengthen the lower back. Try reaching strongly through the heels, contracting the hamstrings to pull the sitting bones toward the back knees. As the hamstrings contract, the lower back is pulled long from below.

This is a wonderful action to call upon in any backbend. When you are able to lengthen the lower back by tugging the back of the pelvis down with your hamstrings, the front body becomes more available to lengthen and open. If you struggle with the comfort of your lower back in backbends, however, you may still find the most comfort by continuing to stabilize and lengthen the lumbar spine at least partially through the contraction of your abdominal muscles.

When you are ready to come out of the pose, release the arms out from under you and slowly return the spine to the floor, one vertebra at a time. Rest a moment with the knees bent and the feet on the floor to observe new sensations and to relax.

Utkatasana

2009-04-15T12:49:00.000+08:00

By Kate Tremblay

Salabhasana is quite challenging for those who have a long torso, a stiff front body, and weak back muscles. If this is the case for you, try Utkatasana instead. Like Salabhasana, Utkatasana is an active backbend. It can challenge the back muscles to develop strength, but it does so using gravity, which makes it easier for weaker backs. To come into the pose, stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose), with your feet parallel and hip width apart. On an inhalation, raise the arms overhead. On an exhalation, bend your knees as if to sit in a chair as you bring your hands to the thighs. To keep your knees safe, be sure they track directly forward in line with the toes. The closer the thighs come to parallel with the floor, the more challenging the pose, both for your legs and your back. Remind yourself to work at 50 percent so you have plenty of space to make subtle adjustments.

On each inhalation, lift the chest away from the thighs, pulling the apex of the curve into the thoracic spine. On each exhalation, gently contract the abdominal muscles, tucking the tailbone under and lengthening the lower back. Stabilize the pose by reaching into the four corners of each foot, most strongly into the inner and outer edges of each heel to encourage length in the lower back.

If your body calls for more opening and a stronger surge of energy, bring your arms straight out in front of you and parallel to the floor. For an even stronger position, reach the arms overhead. Keep adjusting the depth and apex with each position change. When you are ready to come out of the pose, return to Tadasana, releasing your arms down to your sides, and take several breaths.

Salabhasana

2009-04-15T12:43:00.001+08:00

Photo from speakingoffaith.publicradio.org

by By Kate Tremblay

Salabhasana involves an active contraction of the back muscles to open the front body. This feels delicious when the back is strong and the front body is not overly restricted. Remind yourself that the primary purpose of backbends is to release tension along the front of the body, helping you feel more movement of breath and energy in those areas. As an active backbend, Salabhasana also offers the promise of strengthening muscles along the back of the body. In service of these intended benefits, try lifting your body only 50 percent as high as you comfortably can. Use the reserved energy and the mental space created to stay a few breaths longer than you might be able to if you were really pushing yourself. Then use the extra time to observe sensations and to maneuver within the pose.

To come into Salabhasana, lie facedown with your forehead on the floor and your arms alongside your body, palms down. Exhale and lengthen the lower back by drawing the belly gently toward the spine and pressing the pelvis and thighs toward the floor. Hold a subtle tension in the belly as you inhale and lift the chest and head. Exhale and again lengthen the lower back, drawing the belly gently toward the spine. Inhale, expanding the chest forward and at the same time pulling the apex of the arch from the lower back up to just behind your breastbone.

Stay in touch with your level of exertion and any signs of resistance in your lower back. Resistance doesn't necessarily mean you should stop what you're doing, but it is a reminder to slow down and pay attention to what is happening. Lower the chest a bit to slow down and observe. Find space to move within the pose, to work the chest forward on your inhalations and lengthen the back on your exhalations.

Once you've mastered the action, begin to experiment with deepening the backbend, taking care to honor your own comfort level. Is there enough ease in your lumbar spine (in the lower back) to offer it a little more arch? Ideally, you want the lumbar spine and the cervical spine (in the neck) to arch without overcompressing and without compromising your ability to open the front of the thoracic spine (in the middle and upper back).

If you've lifted the apex of the curve upward and your lower back feels fine, release a little of the abdominal contraction at the end of your next inhalation, letting the lower back move a little farther forward. Work to keep the apex of the curve drawing upward, and support the lifting heart from underneath by bringing the shoulder blades firmly against the rib cage. Mirror the action of your chest with the base of your skull, extending it upward on an inhalation so the neck comes to its full length. Then look forward and up with the chin still slightly tucked, as if you were arching up and back over a large ball. The entire spine should lengthen and open into a long graceful bend, with no single part receiving a disproportionate share of the backbend. This feels glorious. Savor it.

If you want to move more deeply into the pose, add your legs, lifting them and stretching back through the heels. Every time you move, take only 50 percent of what is possible. Know that as the body opens, you can take another 10 percent—and another, and another. If you are still comfortable and want a bit more chest opening, lift the arms off the floor too. Keep them by your side and turn the palms to face each other, or interlace your fingers behind your back and stretch the knuckles back toward the heels. Just be sure to keep some extra wiggle room for observing and responding—the ultimate yogic conversation between body, breath, and mind.

Whenever you take all that your body will give, the question of when to come out of the pose never emerges. You come out when your body gasps "uncle." By contrast, working as you are here, and as the Yoga Sutra advises—balancing sthira (steadiness) and sukha (ease)—there is room to observe cues that the quality of your effort is beginning to wane and it's time to rest. Do you have less control over the subtle actions of controlling depth and apex? Is your breath beginning to lose its smooth, easy rhythm? When your resistance to remaining in the pose overpowers the conversation of your body, it is time to come out. Lie down slowly, turning your head to one side and resting your arms alongside the torso, palms rolling up toward the ceiling. Listen to the echoes of the pose reverberating throughout your body. Enjoy the total release of effort and observe the new quality of your energy. After a while, push back into Balasana (Child's Pose).

Do the Twist

2009-04-15T12:37:00.000+08:00

When performed properly, twists have a host of physical and emotional benefits.

By Claudia Cummins

Twists penetrate deep into the body's core, offering potent benefits to the muscles and organs of the torso while encouraging the breath to grow deep and full. Practicing these postures regularly can create a suppleness and freedom in your spine that in turn brings a spring to your step.

Like any yoga posture, though, twists should be practiced with mindfulness and care. Remember the following principles as you move through your daily dose of them.

ELONGATE BEFORE YOU REVOLVE. To create freedom and spaciousness within, lengthen the spine before you twist by extending upward through the crown of the head and downward through the tailbone. Imagine the space between your vertebrae becoming as vast as a clear blue sky, and maintain this spaciousness as you spin.

LET THE BREATH BE YOUR GUIDE. Because twists tend to compress the diaphragm, they leave you with little breathing room. But there are ways to let your breath support and guide you through your twisting explorations. Here's one approach: As you inhale, lengthen the spine; as you exhale, revolve gently into your twisting posture. Pause and lengthen again on the next inhalation, then rotate farther as you exhale. Continue breathing and moving in this wavelike fashion until you feel you've nestled into the very depths of the asana. Breathe as steadily and rhythmically as possible for several breaths, then slowly unfurl out of the pose.

STABILIZE THE LOWER SPINE. Stabilize the lower spine as you move the upper. To avoid injury while twisting deeply, some part of you must be firmly anchored (typically the pelvis, the lower back, and the neck) while another part revolves (usually the upper spine). The irony is that the neck and lower back (just beneath the rib cage) usually spin more freely than the other parts of the spine; without mindfulness, these areas often bear the burden of revolving actions. Each time you move into a twisting posture, be conscious that you don't overtwist in the more mobile areas. Instead, try extending the movement into some of the more resistant areas of the spine.

PRACTICE EVENLY ON EACH SIDE. Practice evenly on each side. Because twists are asymmetrical postures, it's a good idea to spend equal time revolving in each direction to promote balance. That said, if you know that one side of your body is tighter than the other, you might try doing a twist twice on that side.

TAKE CARE. Take care when combining twisting actions and forward bends. For some, these combined movements create a significant strain on the back. If you know your lower back or sacroiliac joints are strained or challenged, seek the guidance of an experienced instructor before exploring forward-bending twists.

ENJOY THE AFTEREFFECTS. Enjoy the aftereffects. Moving into a twist feels a little like wringing out a washcloth. Don't miss out on the opportunity to enjoy the sensations of clarity, vitality, and ease once you've emerged from your favorite twist.

Working on Standing Forward Bend

2009-04-15T12:32:00.000+08:00

I am working on standing forward bend. I can place my hand flat on the floor, but I cannot get my head and legs to meet. It feels as if my legs hyperextend.

—Victoria D. Malone

Roger Cole's reply:

Yoga Poses For Lengthening the Spine

2009-04-13T12:38:00.000+08:00

By Elise Browning Miller

When beginning to practice yoga, the most important movement is lengthening the spine. This movement will create more evenness in the spine and ribs and release tension in the muscles of the back.

Cat/Cow Pose. At the start of a practice period, loosening the spine with the breath is important to prevent injury, particularly at the apex of the scoliosis. Kneel with the hands below the shoulders and the knees below the hips. Inhaling, lift the head and tailbone, making the lower back concave. Exhale and tuck the tailbone, rounding the back and releasing the neck. Repeat at least 10 times.

Vajrasana (Child's Pose). After completing the exhalation in the Cat/Cow Pose, stretch the hands out in front. Inhale deeply into the back, particularly the concave side where the ribs are compressed. Exhale and move the buttocks back halfway toward the heels. Inhale, and stretch the arms and the pelvis away from each other, with the upper back following the arms and the lower back following the pelvis. Breathe into this position, feeling the intercostal muscles stretching between the ribs and the spine and back muscles lengthening. To help stretch the compressed ribs on the concave side, move the arms toward the convex side, keeping the arms shoulder-width apart. Notice how this movement makes the back more even. Mter breathing into this position for a minute, move the buttocks all the way back to the heels and relax the arms by your side. Relax the entire body.

Three-Part Bar Stretch. This pose may be done at a dance bar or at home on a porch railing, sink, or wherever you can grab onto something and pull.

Grab onto the bar with hands shoulder-distance apart and walk the feet back until the spine is parallel to the floor and the feet are directly under the hips. Now bring the heels forward to the position where the toes were and hang backwards, bending from the hips and stretching the buttocks away from the bar. Keep the neck in line with the spine, not allowing the chin to lift up. Feel the entire spine being lengthened by the pull.

Bring the feet in a few inches toward the bar and bend the knees into a right angle, with the thighs parallel to the floor and the knees directly above the heels. Continue to stretch the buttocks down and backwards. This particularly stretches the mid-back below and to the sides of the shoulder blades.

Walk the feet forward a few inches farther to allow the heels to remain on the floor. Let the buttocks move down toward the floor in a squat. Now pull back, keeping the buttocks down, and feel the lower spine being stretched.

How can I ensure that my students don't injure their backs in forward bends?

2009-04-13T11:41:00.000+08:00

by Aadil Palkhivala

Forward bends are as soothing to the mind as they are injurious to the lower back.

Backward bending is an extension of the spine, and forward bending is a flexion of the spine. Extension increases space between the vertebrae, while flexion decreases the space. The only way you can ensure that your students don't injure their backs in forward bending is to make sure that they are extending their spine while they are bending forward. This requires opening the hamstrings and lifting the bottom of the belly.

Therefore, for students with stiff hamstrings, it is definitely dangerous to do forward bending. While doing forward bends in class, make sure these students in particular hold a belt wrapped around the foot of the extended leg, and tell them to pull on the belt to keep their spine erect while the rest of the class folds forward. If you have a wall rope, have your stiff student do forward bends with feet on the wall, using a belt around the middle rung to pull on, thereby creating traction in the spine and increasing space between the vertebrae.

When you look from the side at a student doing a forward bend, the sacrum should be tipped forward, or else the lower back will suffer strain. The lower back should never be rounded but should remain straight or, ideally, concave. To repeat, the two critical actions in forward bends are the lengthening of the hamstrings, created by moving the sitting bones away from the heels, and the lifting of the bottom of the belly to bring a concavity into the lower back.

Parvritta Trikonasana (Revolved triangle)

2009-04-06T16:25:00.001+08:00

Sometimes our lives get twisted. We feel tied up in knots, constricted, bound up. Unsure of which way to go, we often collapse into our effort and lose our ground. It’s in these moments constriction where we often fall off balance. We succumb to what is distorting our vision, and we forget that we are always right here in this moment, supported by the ground beneath us and surrounded by infinite potential and the ability to grow.

It is in this place that we often find ourselves when practicing Revolved Triangle (Parvritta Trikonasana). A pose where we often get tangled up, confused, and lose our direction. It is easy work so intently on our twist that we loose our foundation and tighten into a ball of resistanceand barely able to stay upright. But, if we slow down and approach this asana with awareness, we can use the restrictive nature of this pose as an opportunity to increase our strength, steady our balance and expand with ease toward our greatest height.

Sometimes, what our constriction compels us to do is step back and reevaluate. In revolved triangle pose, we often have to come out of the pose in order to see the potential we have within it to expand and grow. At times, it calls for just the slightest adjustment of our feet or a prop to expand our reach, but in other moments, parvritta trikonasana requires a completely different approach like changing our stance completely or modifying the asana in a way that may not live up to our expectations of what it should be. In these moments, we may have to redefine the way we view the asana completely. These moments of allowing our preconceptions to fall away can be very scary but also very liberating. Once we give ourselves permission to explore our boundaries and move from internal direction instead of external judgment, we may find that the greatest gift this pose has to offer is in the entanglement. For only when we are forced to see ourselves as we really are, do we willingly choose to be all that we can be.

Parvritta trikonasana directs us to find strength in our roots by trusting our internal guide, that source of balance that is always present when we slow down and pay attention, and to open ourselves to our expansive nature, even when we feel constricted inside. So the next time you come to your mat, take a moment to revel in the twisted moments of our lives, for it is in those moments that we can choose to strengthen our balance and rise to our fullest potential.

—Kelly Golden

Revolved Triangle (Parvritta Trikonasana) works to increase the flexibility of the backs of our legs, hips, spine and to improve our sense of balance. There are two ways to do this posture that will give you a very different stretch and therapeutic focus in the body.

The first way is to keep the hips level as you twist, the sacroiliac joints stay even and parallel to the floor. If the hips remain level the twist originates in the mid to low back. By bringing the twist into the thoracic spine, the posture becomes a mid back and shoulder opener. This can be a huge benefit in working with increasing mid and upper back mobility and for opening the chest and shoulders.

You can also come into this posture by unleveling the hips, allowing the front hip to rise. Once the hips become unlevel, the twist is brought into the hips. As the front hip rises, you are bringing the hip into a position of flexion, adduction and internal rotation. This position of the hip elongates the muscles of the outer hip, the Piriformis and Gluteus Maximus. This version of the posture brings a more therapeutic effect to the outer hip and may help decrease outer hip tightness that can lead to back pain.

Both ways of doing this asana are correct, but there would be different reasons to do each. If your focus is on stretching the back of your hip, you would want to allow the twist to start with the pelvis allowing the hips to become unlevel. If your focus is thoracic mobility, then you would want to keep the hips level as you twist. If you have sacroiliac pain or low back pain, it would be better to keep the hips level and allow the twist to come more from the thoracic spine.

This posture is also a great challenge to balance and proprioception. Our brain knows where our body is in space from the sensory receptors in our feet and throughout the muscles of our body. As we twist and turn in the different ways that this posture calls for, we experience a challenge to the input of our body’s position to the brain. This posture can bring about a greater sense of balance and awareness of our position in space that can help us in our daily lives.

—Marlysa Sullivan

Plow pose - halasana

2009-04-06T12:16:00.000+08:00

by Yoga Journal

Step by Step

From Salamba Sarvangasana, exhale and bend from the hip joints to slowly lower your toes to the floor above and beyond your head. As much as possible, keep your torso perpendicular to the floor and your legs fully extended.

With your toes on the floor, lift your top thighs and tailbone toward the ceiling and draw your inner groins deep into the pelvis. Imagine that your torso is hanging from the height of your groins. Continue to draw your chin away from your sternum and soften your throat.

You can continue to press your hands against the back torso, pushing the back up toward the ceiling as you press the backs of the upper arms down, onto your support. Or you can release your hands away from your back and stretch the arms out behind you on the floor, opposite the legs. Clasp the hands and press the arms actively down on the support as you lift the thighs toward the ceiling.

Halasana is usually performed after Sarvangasana for anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes. To exit the pose bring your hands onto your back again, lift back into Sarvangasana with an exhalation, then roll down onto your back, or simply roll out of the pose on an exhalation.

Yoga Blocks

2009-04-02T21:31:00.001+08:00

Simha Asana (Lion Pose)

2009-03-30T11:06:00.000+08:00

by www.santosha.com

The Lion Pose (Simhaa-asana) Instruction:

1		Sit up on the knees with the heels of the feet pressed against the buttocks and the calves of the legs flat on the floor.

2		Place the balls of the hands on the knees, straighten the arms and keep the back erect and the head straight (not tilted forward, back, to the left or the right).

3		Inhale while leaning forward slightly, stretching the mouth the jaws as wide as possible, extend the tongue out and downward as much as possible, fix your gaze either at the tip of the nose or between the eyebrows and stretch the fingers straight out from the knees.

4		Hold the posture for the duration of the inhaled breath then exhale, relaxing the forward stretch, dropping the fingers to the knees and closing the mouth and eyes.

Benefits of Utthan Pada Asana

2009-03-30T11:01:00.001+08:00

by www.theholisticcare.com and www.webindia123.com

This asana exercises all the abdominal muscles, both internally and externally removing constipation, indigestion and gas trouble. It corrects the disorder of pancreas.

Strengthens the spinal cord and corrects disorders of the back. Takes away the extra weight of abdominal areas and has great curative and corrective effects on troubles in the waist, buttocks and hip-joints.

Restrictions:

Start with three rounds on the first day. Relax for about 5 seconds after each round. Do not practice more than four rounds a day.

People who have had spinal injury can do the asana by lifting each leg alternatively. Do two rounds with each leg.

Utthan Pada Asana (Raised-feet Posture)

2009-03-30T10:55:00.001+08:00

www.webindia123.com

In Utthan Pada Asana, both the legs are lifted upwards. This asana gives excessive strain to the spine. In case of any spinal injury this asana can be practiced by lifting one leg at a time.

How to do :

Lie on the floor with your body straight. Heels should be together. Look towards the ceiling.
Slowly inhale and take in as much as air you can.
Holding your breathe lift both the legs up about 10 inches high from the floor. Legs should be held together straight and toes stretch forward. Retain for about 5 seconds.
Exhale slowly and begin lowering the legs simultaneously. Complete exhaling by the time your legs are brought back to the floor.

Benefits of Pavanmukta Asana

2009-03-30T10:39:00.001+08:00

by www.theholisticcare.com

All the foot and calf asanas help in returning the stagnant lymph and venous blood. They relieve tiredness and cramp, and prevent venours thrombosis especially in bedridden, post-operative patients.

It activates the pancreas and other organs of the abdomen and also relieves wind trouble, acidity etc... It loosens the hip-joints and activates the abdominal muscle and intestines and ultimately cures the constipation, and corrects the malfunctioning of stomach. It is easy asana and people of any age can do it.

Pavanmukta Asana ( The Wind Releasing Posture or Gas Removing)

2009-03-30T10:35:00.001+08:00

by www.seasonsindia.com

Lie down, facing upward, with the feet together, palms at your sides. Inhale, and raise the right leg up to an angle of about 30 degrees. Bend the right knee, catching the knee with both hands and pressing into the chest. Exhale, and raise your head, touching the forehead to the knee. Inhale and bring the head back to the ground. Stretch the right leg forward at an angle of about 30 degrees. Exhale, and bring the right leg back to the ground. Repeat the steps with the left leg. Next do the steps with both legs together. Repeat a second time first with the right leg, then with the left leg, and finally with both legs together. Rest in Shav Asana

Benefits of Sun salutation - surya namsakara

2009-03-30T09:57:00.001+08:00

by www.theholisticcare.com

Surya Namaskara is an ancient system of Indian exercise. It includes the regular routine of prayer and worship. One of the means of honoring the sun is through the dynamic asana sequence Surya Namaskar (better known as Sun Salutation).

The Sun Salutation is a prayer in motion. It allows us to use the body as an instrument of higher awareness, so that we can receive wisdom and knowledge. Surya namaskar consists of a sequence of twelve postures performed continuously and combined with synchronized breathing. Each position counteracts the preceding one producing a balance between flexions and extensions. Among these twelve positions, ten are Asanas only. The first one and the last one are two positions. All these Asanas and position are very easy to perform and can easily be practiced by the people of all ages. Together these twelve positions constitute the process of Surya Namaskara.

Benefits:

Surya Namaskars has several benefits. It activates almost all the glands of the endocrinal system. Because of this internal activation, the pancreas, adrenal, thyroid, pituitary and some other glands begin to secrete their respective hormones in normal way.

Surya Namaskara corrects disorders of the pancreas, liver and cure constipation, wind troubles, indigestion, acidity, intestinal disorder. It takes away extra weight of abdominal area. It strengthens the spinal cord, energizes the inner cells and activates the whole nervous system. It allows us to use the body as an instrument of higher awareness, so that we can receive wisdom and knowledge.

Child Pose - Balasana

2009-03-16T09:50:00.000+08:00

by Yoga Journal

(bah-LAHS-anna)
bala = child

Step by Step

Kneel on the floor. Touch your big toes together and sit on your heels, then separate your knees about as wide as your hips.

Exhale and lay your torso down between your thighs. Broaden your sacrum across the back of your pelvis and narrow your hip points toward the navel, so that they nestle down onto the inner thighs. Lengthen your tailbone away from the back of the pelvis while you lift the base of your skull away from the back of your neck.

Lay your hands on the floor alongside your torso, palms up, and release the fronts of your shoulders toward the floor. Feel how the weight of the front shoulders pulls the shoulder blades wide across your back.

Balasana is a resting pose. Stay anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes. Beginners can also use Balasana to get a taste of a deep forward bend, where the torso rests on the thighs. Stay in the pose from 1 to 3 minutes. To come up, first lengthen the front tor

Three Reasons You Should Not Do Yoga Posture - Monkey Pose (the Split)

2009-03-15T14:47:00.000+08:00

by Mr.Subodh Gupta, a Corporate Yoga Trainer (ezine)

Be patient! It usually takes a long time to master this posture.

Hanumanasana is dedicated to Hanuman, a powerful monkey-faced God from India’s great epic, the ‘Ramayana’ and his famous leap across the sea from the southern tip of India to the island of Sri Lanka to rescue Sita, the Rama’s wife. Hanuman is known for his devotion to Lord Rama, the seventh incarnation of Vishnu and this pose honors that devotion.

Commonly referred to as the split, Hanumanasana, is one of the most challenging poses in Hatha yoga practice, because it demands two seemingly opposite actions in the pelvis. While one leg is moving in a forward direction, the other leg is moving backwards. Although it may appear that flexibility is the main requirement to perform the split, strength is a necessity in mastering this position safely.

The Split tones the leg muscles and improves flexibility and blood circulation in the legs and hips. It massages the abdominal organs and tones the reproductive system.

Be careful! This posture is an intense hamstring stretch. Only come down as far as is comfortable. Practice this posture on a bare floor without a sticky mat.

The excellent preparation for the full split posture is to begin in a basic lunge and then shift the hips back, until the front leg is straight and the back leg is bent. Then try to shift forward and back, in and out of the lunge, until the two actions begin to feel complementary. At this point you can slide the front leg and back leg as straight as possible, approaching the full split pose.

When both actions are equal, the pose becomes grounded and balanced.

The Split gives many wonderful benefits when practiced safely and patiently. However, in same health conditions the Split posture is not recommended to perform.

Three important reasons not to do the Split:

1) In case of dislocation of a hip do not attempt this posture.

2) Anyone suffering from slipped disc and sciatica should avoid this posture.

3) If you are suffering from groin or hamstring injuries do not do this posture.

Forearm balance pose - Peacock

2009-03-15T14:40:00.001+08:00

by staryoga.com

This yoga pose symbolizes the peacock's display of tail and feathers to bring balance to our own body. Consistent practice of this yoga exercise of balance overcomes the fear of falling within us. Upper arm and core strength is relied upon during practice of the Forearm Balance Yoga Pose.

Benefits

Strengthens the shoulders, arms, and back
Stretches the shoulders and neck, chest, and belly
Improves sense of balance
Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression

Contraindications/Cautions

Back, shoulder, or neck injury
Headache
Heart condition
High blood pressure
Menstruation

Hero pose - virasana

2009-03-12T15:11:00.001+08:00

by Yoga Journal

Step by Step

Kneel on the floor (on a folded blanket to pad your knees, shins, and feet if necessary), with your thighs perpendicular to the floor, and touch your inner knees together. Slide your feet apart, slightly wider than your hips, with the tops of the feet flat on the floor. Angle your big toes slightly in toward each other and press the top of each foot evenly on the floor.

Exhale and sit back halfway, with your torso leaning slightly forward. Wedge your thumbs into the backs of your knees and draw the skin and flesh of the calf muscles toward the heels. Then sit down between your feet.

If your buttocks don't comfortably rest on the floor, raise them on a block or thick book placed between the feet. Make sure both sitting bones are evenly supported. Allow a thumb's-width space between the inner heels and the outer hips. Turn your thighs inward and press the heads of the thigh bones into the floor with the bases of your palms. Then lay your hands in your lap, one on the other, palms up, or on your thighs, palms down.

Firm your shoulder blades against the back ribs and lift the top of your sternum like a proud warrior. Widen the collarbones and release the shoulder blades away from the ears. Lengthen the tailbone into the floor to anchor the back torso.

At first stay in this pose from 30 seconds to 1 minute. Gradually extend your stay up to 5 minutes. To come out, press your hands against the floor and lift your buttocks up, slightly higher than the heels. Cross your ankles underneath your buttocks, sit back over the feet and onto the floor, then stretch your legs out in front of you. It may feel good to bounce your knees up and down a few times on the floor.

Eagle Pose - Garudasana

2009-03-12T15:05:00.002+08:00

by Yoga Journal

Step by Step

Stand in Tadasana. Bend your knees slightly, lift your left foot up and, balancing on your right foot, cross your left thigh over the right. Point your left toes toward the floor, press the foot back, and then hook the top of the foot behind the lower right calf. Balance on the right foot.

Stretch your arms straight forward, parallel to the floor, and spread your scapulas wide across the back of your torso. Cross the arms in front of your torso so that the right arm is above the left, then bend your elbows. Snug the right elbow into the crook of the left, and raise the forearms perpendicular to the floor. The backs of your hands should be facing each other.

Press the right hand to the right and the left hand to the left, so that the palms are now facing each other. The thumb of the right hand should pass in front of the little finger of the left. Now press the palms together (as much as is possible for you), lift your elbows up, and stretch the fingers toward the ceiling.

Stay for 15 to 30 seconds, then unwind the legs and arms and stand in Tadasana again. Repeat for the same length of time with the arms and legs reversed.

Cow Face Pose - Gomukhasana

2009-03-12T14:58:00.003+08:00

by Yoga Journal

Step by Step

Sit in Dandasana (Staff Pose), then bend your knees and put your feet on the floor. Slide your left foot under the right knee to the outside of the right hip. Then cross your right leg over the left, stacking the right knee on top of the left, and bring the right foot to the outside of the left hip. Try to bring the heels equidistant from the hips: with the right leg on top you'll have to tug the right heel in closer to the left hip. Sit evenly on the sitting bones.

Inhale and stretch your right arm straight out to the right, parallel to the floor. Rotate your arm inwardly; the thumb will turn first toward the floor, then point toward the wall behind you, with the palm facing the ceiling. This movement will roll your right shoulder slightly up and forward, and round your upper back. With a full exhalation, sweep the arm behind your torso and tuck the forearm in the hollow of your lower back, parallel to your waist, with the right elbow against the right side of your torso. Roll the shoulder back and down, then work the forearm up your back until it is parallel to your spine. The back of your hand will be between your shoulder blades. See that your right elbow doesn't slip away from the right side of your torso.

Now inhale and stretch your left arm straight forward, pointing toward the opposite wall, parallel to the floor. Turn the palm up and, with another inhalation, stretch the arm straight up toward the ceiling, palm turned back. Lift actively through your left arm, then with an exhalation, bend the elbow and reach down for the right hand. If possible, hook the right and left fingers.

Lift the left elbow toward the ceiling and, from the back armpit, descend the right elbow toward the floor. Firm your shoulder blades against your back ribs and lift your chest. Try to keep the left arm right beside the left side of your head.

Stay in this pose about 1 minute. Release the arms, uncross the legs, and repeat with the arms and legs reversed for the same length of time. Remember that whichever leg is on top, the same-side arm is lower.

Viparita Karani: Inverting the blood flow and calming the mind

2009-03-11T16:28:00.001+08:00

Picture from ojaipost.com

By Ellen Serber

Since this pose increases blood flow to the head, it is excellent in the beginning stage of a headache. But if you are having migraine symptoms, indicating that the blood vessels are dilated, and if the pain increases, skip this pose and rest in savasana. Do not do this pose if you have hiatal hernia, eye pressure, retinal problems, heart problems, or disc problems in the neck, or during menstruation or pregnancy.

Lying on the floor with a blanket or bolster under your lower back, place your legs up against the wall. Remember to drop the chin down, creating length in the neck. Cover your eyes with an eye bag or wrap. Some people find headache relief in this pose when they place a weight, such as a sand bag, on the head, with one end on the forehead and the other draped over the top of the head onto the floor. This additional pressure helps to drop the head further into the ground, releasing the strain in the neck muscles.

Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Dog): Deeply stretching the back, shoulders, and legs

2009-03-11T16:24:00.000+08:00

By Ellen Serber

This position should be done with the head resting on a support and the chin moving towards the chest to elongate the neck. If possible, use the resistance of a belt secured to door handles, or a partner and a belt at the top of the thighs to bring the spine into more release. Begin on hands and knees; as you exhale, turn the toes under and lift the sit bones, straightening the legs and arms. Press your hands into the ground as the base of the spine moves diagonally up. The weight of the head will create a stretch in the neck. Watch that the ribs do not sink down; lift them to create a space between the shoulder blades and to avoid jamming the spine. Come down on an exhalation.

Supported Forward Bend: Releasing and relaxing the neck

2009-03-11T16:10:00.002+08:00

By Ellen Serber

Sit on the floor in front of a chair with your legs crossed, with enough blankets on the seat so your forehead can rest on the blankets without strain, or if this is difficult, sit with the legs straight under the chair. Rest your head on the chair seat or blankets with your arms under your forehead. If your legs are straight, pull the chair over your legs towards your belly. Drop the chin towards the chest to gently stretch the neck muscles. Let the weight of the head fall down onto the chair seat. Breathe deeply and slowly.

Supported Child's Pose: Resting the upper back and releasing the neck

2009-03-11T16:06:00.002+08:00

Picture from inneridea.com

By Ellen Serber

Sit on a folded blanket with your knees bent and your feet under your buttocks. Separate your knees more than hip-width apart and bring your feet together. Bring your torso forward, resting it on a stair-stepped arrangement of blankets or a bolster, adjusted to a comfortable height. Pull the support into your belly. Drop your chin towards your chest as you rest your head. You may want an additional blanket to support your forehead, but continue to lengthen the neck. Dropping the chin to the chest provides a gentle stretch to the back of the neck, right below the skull. The arms should rest on the floor, palms down, elbows bent, hands near the head.

Supta Baddha Konasana: Passively opening the chest, releasing tension from the neck

2009-03-11T16:00:00.002+08:00

Picture from yogabuch.de

By Ellen Serber

This pose can be done when you first feel signs of a headache. It opens the chest, and with the head resting, encourages the neck to relax. It is best done with the eyes closed and covered with an eye bag, a wrap, or a blanket. Lie back on a bolster or a narrow stack of three blankets, with your head supported on an additional blanket. The lower edge of the blankets should come directly into contact with the buttocks to support the lower back. The chin should drop down so that there is an elongation of the neck muscles, particularly the ones at the base of the skull. Bring the soles of the feet together and spread the knees apart, supported by an additional blanket roll, or if this is uncomfortable, straighten the legs and support the knees with a blanket roll. Experiment with the height of the support to find the most comfortable position for your body. Breathe deeply and slowly, relaxing the forehead, eyes, jaw, and tongue. To come out of the pose, put the soles of the feet on the ground with the knees bent and roll to the side. Do not do this pose if you have been diagnosed with spondylolysis or spondylolisthesis.

Setu Bandha (Bridge Pose): Actively opening the chest

2009-03-11T15:56:00.001+08:00

By Ellen Serber

Lie down on your back with your knees bent and feet hip-width apart. Roll the shoulders under and reach the hands towards the feet, keeping the little finger side of the hands on the floor. On the exhalation, raise the buttocks, lifting the sternum towards the chin. Elongate the back of the neck without pushing it into the floor; you want the neck to stretch, not flatten. Interlocking the fingers on the ground under the back helps to roll the shoulder blades under and is an interesting variation. Relax the facial muscles and jaw, breathe deeply, and come down on an exhalation. This pose is not appropriate during the second half of pregnancy, or if you have been diagnosed with spondylolysis or spondylolisthesis.

Gomukhasana arms (Cow pose): Stretching the shoulders

2009-03-11T15:54:00.002+08:00

Picture from yogaartandscience.com

By Ellen Serber

This pose opens and facilitates movement in the shoulders, which helps correct the rounded upper back and forward head position. Plant your feet firmly in a parallel position and extend the sides of the torso up, pressing down through the sitting bones. The shoulders drop down, and the head rests on the body's midline. Lift the right arm into the air (with a belt in your hand if you have tight shoulders), stretching from the little finger side. Bend the right elbow and reach down between the shoulder blades. Bring your left arm behind your back and swing the left hand up to meet the right, clasping the hands or taking hold of a belt. Relax the ribs. Lift the right elbow into the air and drop the left elbow down. Make sure that the spine stays extended and is not leaning left or right to compensate for tightness in the shoulders. Release on an exhalation and reverse the arm positions.

Garudasana arms (eagle post): Opening between the shoulder blades

2009-03-11T15:52:00.000+08:00

By Ellen Serber

This pose is helpful for relieving pain between the shoulder blades. It reminds us to keep that area open in the process of stretching the upper back. Wrap your arms around your torso, right arm under the left arm, hugging yourself. Exhale and bring the hands up, the left elbow resting in the right elbow, with the hands rotated palms towards each other. Breathe and feel the stretch; after a few breaths, raise the elbows up higher, to the level of the shoulder. Remain grounded in the feet, centered in the area below the navel. Relax the eyes, jaw, and tongue. Feel the expansion of the inhalation between the shoulder blades and the release on the exhalation. Lower the arms on the exhalation and repeat with the left arm under the right.

Parsvottanasana arms: Opening the chest

2009-03-11T15:46:00.000+08:00

By Ellen Serber

Move a little away from the wall and roll the shoulders back. Clasp your elbows with your hands behind your back. If you have more flexibility you may join your palms behind your back, with the fingers pointing upward. On the exhalation, roll the upper arms back toward the wall, opening the chest between the sternum and shoulder. As you open, keep the ribs relaxed; make sure they don't jut forward. Remember to stay grounded in your feet and center the movement below the navel. Relax the eyes, jaw, and tongue. Release on the exhalation. Change the arm on top, if you are clasping your elbows, and repeat.

Tadasana: Mountain pose - Discovering alignment and finding the center

2009-03-11T15:42:00.000+08:00

By Ellen Serber

Standing upright with awareness is one basic way to discover your own unique posture. It is difficult to correct something until you have found out what is really there. Use the wall to identify your alignment, and then practice standing in the center of the room.

Stand with your back to the wall, with your feet together. If that is uncomfortable, separate the feet three or four inches. Plant the feet firmly, feeling the ground with the soles of the feet. Check the distribution of weight between the right foot and the left. Move front, back, and side-to-side on your feet to find the most balanced stance. Make sure that the arch of each foot is lifted, the toes spread apart. The placement of your feet becomes the foundation of your awareness of your whole body. Give yourself enough time to explore and discover how you are actually standing.

When you are ready to move on, firm and straighten the legs. Bring the tailbone and pubic bone towards each other, but do not suck in the abdominals: Lift them. There should be space between the wall and your lower back; do not flatten the lumbar curve. With your "mind's eye," go into the area below the navel, inside the belly, in front of the sacrum. Locate this "center" point. Extend the side torso up, lift the sternum without sticking out the ribs, and drop the shoulders. Take the tips of the shoulder blades and move them into the torso, opening the chest. Let the back of the head reach up. If the chin is raised, let it drop slightly, without tightening your throat; focus your eyes on the horizon. Make sure that the shoulders and back of the head both touch the wall. Relax any tension in the face and neck. Remember that your "center" resides in the area below the navel and in the belly, not in the neck and head. This exercise may feel very constricted if your head is normally forward of your shoulders. Use the wall to inform you, so that you know the relationship of your head to your shoulders, but try not to create more stress as you adjust your alignment.

On an exhalation, raise the arms up to the ceiling, bringing the elbows back by the ears. Let the arms grow from the shoulder blades. Stretch the little finger side of the hand and connect that stretch all the way down to the little toe and into the ground. Remember to keep the feet grounded, the legs strong, and the center of your pose in the area below the navel. Observe whether the movement of the arms has caused tension in the neck area. As you stretch up with the hands, bring the tips of the shoulder blades more deeply into the torso. Hold for a few breaths and then release on an exhalation.

Antidotes to Anxiety

2009-03-11T12:37:00.000+08:00

by Yoga Journal

While any yoga program can help ease social anxiety, three poses are especially helpful.

The practice of yoga offers solutions to all types of stress, including social anxiety. Here are three poses that can be especially helpful.

Crocodile Pose: This is a deceptively simple posture that can deliver dramatic benefits. Relax on your stomach with arms folded on the floor above your head. Similar to Savasana (Corpse Pose), in which you lie face-up, Crocodile Pose allows you to release all of your tension, but because it puts your belly and face to the ground, it can make a socially anxious person feel less exposed and vulnerable. In Crocodile Pose, you can practice yogic breathing (consciously using your diaphragm), which feels both calming and empowering.

Seated Twists: Seated twists of all kinds are powerful anxiety relievers. They teach you to relax even when you find yourself in a tight spot. Once a deep twist has been achieved in the pose of your choice, focus on the breath. You'll soon discover that breathing relieves the anxiety and discomfort of the pose. Next, you can apply this insight to other life situations—going to a party, sitting in a meeting, or talking with people.

Headstand: More advanced yoga students can practice Sirsasana (Headstand), which is great for increasing balance and strength and can also stimulate mental clarity. Holding Headstand can be tough, but it's an effective way to calm anxious thoughts and build confidence.

Learning Headstand

2009-03-10T12:15:00.001+08:00

By Aadil Palkhivala

The gifts of sirsasana are so great that even if you are not ready to do the actual pose, you can benefit by preparing for it. The preparations help you strengthen the latissimus dorsi muscles—the large muscles that attach the upper arms to the back—as well as help create the awareness required to spread, lift, and strengthen the muscles around the shoulder blades so that the neck is protected.

Start in Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog Pose) and focus on engaging the muscles that spread the shoulder blades away from each other, away from the floor, and toward the rib cage. This action will build the upper-body strength you will need, and when you re-create this in Sirsasana, both your head and neck will be protected. In Adho Mukha Svanasana, make sure that your shoulder blades are wide and your neck is long. (You can allow your head to rest on a block.) Check to see if your shoulders are below an imaginary line drawn between your wrists and buttocks—if so, you are ready to go on.

Learning how to set up your arms and head is the next step toward Sirsasana. Interlock your fingers and thumbs on the floor in front of you. Keep your wrists as far apart as possible and your elbows shoulder width apart, so that your inner elbows and inner armpits form a square. Place your head against your wrists and thumb mounds; your head should rest on the floor at your fontanel (the spot in front of the crown of the head) or slightly in front of it. You can find the fontanel by feeling for the big bump on the top of your head and then sliding your fingers forward; you will feel a valley (the fontanel) followed by a second bump. Then come out of the setup.

If you have stiff shoulders and a rounded upper back, try a Sirsasana preparation with firm pads against a wall. This helps flatten and open your upper back, create a soft neck, and encourage the sense of lift in your shoulders that is necessary for doing Sirsasana correctly. Set up your head and arms with your knuckles touching the wall, then walk your feet toward your arms and straighten your legs. Press your wrists down and try to take your shoulders off the pads; as you do so, you should feel your head lifting off the floor.

As a beginning yoga student, you should have 90 percent of your weight on your forearms and 10 percent on your head in Sirsasana. As you evolve in the posture, you'll put more weight on your head until eventually almost 100 percent of your weight is on your head. Many beginners find that Sirsasana is no longer scary when they realize there is very little weight on their head and neck.

The next step is Ardha Sirsasana (Half Headstand). There are no balance issues in this preparatory pose, because the arms are on the floor and the feet are pressing against the wall with the legs parallel to the floor. Start by kneeling with your back toward a wall, and place your arms on a sticky mat set a leg's length from the wall. To set up the pose, interlock your fingers and thumbs, place your elbows shoulder width apart, bring your fontanel to the floor, and make sure that your head is not tipped or twisted to one side. Lift your shoulders, moving your shoulder blades up and apart like water flowing from a fountain. Then slowly walk your feet up the wall until your thighs and legs are parallel to the floor. Hold the pose for about half a minute—being very aware of your shoulder blades lifting and expanding—and then come down. If your shoulder blades moved up and away from each other in the pose, you are ready for Sirsasana.

To move into the full pose, set your sticky mat next to a wall and place your knuckles next to the wall. To come up, follow the setup instructions for the head and shoulders; then, with your legs bent, gently jump both legs up and land with the soles of your feet touching the wall. Straighten your legs one at a time, pressing them together.

When you come out of Sirsasana and sit up, you should feel a peaceful, focused sensation in your brain and nerves. Your hands should be calm and steady. If they are not, you have stayed too long, worked incorrectly, or worked too hard. Never strain in this pose. Have your teacher check your pose frequently to see that your head and neck are in the correct alignment and that your shoulders are lifting and widening properly.

Shoulderstand Basics

2009-03-10T12:11:00.000+08:00

By Aadil Palkhivala

A healthy sarvangasana requires a strong opening of the armpits and a rolling of the shoulders back and toward each other to allow the neck to release properly. A good way to prepare for this is to stand with your back near a table, interlock your fingers, place your hands on the table, and bend your knees while lifting your chest. This replicates the movement necessary in the full pose but places no weight on the head or neck, allowing you to cultivate flexibility without risk.

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose) is another good preparation, because it distributes weight between the feet and upper body while protecting the neck. While in this pose, you can check to see if you've developed the necessary flexibility in your shoulders for Sarvangasana: Lift your pelvis, leave your shoulders on the floor, and notice your seventh cervical vertebra (C7), that big bump at the bottom of the neck. If it's pressing into the floor, you are not yet ready for the next step, or you will need firm blankets or foam pads to support your body. If you use blankets or pads, they should support your body from your elbows to your shoulders and upper trapezius muscles, which cover the upper-back part of the neck and shoulders. If you have stiff trapezius muscles, C7 will also rest on the pads. Eventually, your chest will touch your chin, indicating that your neck is mobile enough for you to practice Sarvangasana.

If you feel you are ready to move on, try Ardha Sarvangasana (Half Shoulderstand). This is done with the pelvis lifted off the floor, the feet on the wall, and the shoulders rolled under with two or three carefully folded blankets or firm pads under them to ensure that the neck is pain-free. The pads should be in the same position as described above for Setu Bandha Sarvangasana. In time, you will feel ready to do full Sarvangasana by lifting one leg at a time from Ardha Sarvangasana.

While pads are unnecessary for perfect bodies, for the rest of us, they are necessary. Ultimately, the shoulders themselves become the pads and no part of the spine touches the floor. In the meantime, the stiffer the shoulders, the higher the pads need to be. Though many instructors teach this pose without pads, I value my students' necks and consider pads to be an indispensable part of the posture.

After you come out of Sarvangasana, sit up and notice its effects. Your eyelids should feel heavy and your facial muscles soft and weighted, as if your jawbone is going to drop off. If you feel agitated, angry, or tense, you may have stayed in the pose too long or may need assistance with your alignment; in that case, consult a trained teacher.

When should I do inversions during a basic yoga sequence—in the beginning, middle, or at the end?

2009-03-10T12:06:00.000+08:00

by Natasha

Dear Jose,

Inversions are a tremendously valuable part of hatha yoga, and they can generally be modified so that they are appropriate for beginners. That said, they can also be very challenging for beginners who are still developing the necessary strength and flexibility to practice them safely. It is important to have a good understanding of correct alignment in these postures, so that you can practice them with integrity and without injury. It is also helpful to use props and/or a wall to modify many inversions. I want to emphasize that using props or a wall is not "cheating" but is instead a terrific teaching tool that can protect and support your body as it learns these important postures.

In terms of when to practice inversions, it really depends upon the type, level, and structure of the class you are taking. In most of my classes (generally hatha "flow" or vinyasa-style classes), I tend to introduce inversions toward the middle and end rather than at the beginning. This is because students who are tighter in their shoulders—a fairly common obstacle in inversions such as Handstand and Shoulderstand—can benefit from the heat and flexibility they have developed during Sun Salutes and standing or seated postures. I can also lay a foundation by teaching specific poses and actions that will make inversions more accessible and comprehensible, both physically and mentally.

The type of inversion also affects when it is taught. A pose like Handstand, for example, is heat-building and energizing, and therefore it is more likely to occur earlier in a class (in an Iyengar class, it is often used at the very beginning to create heat). A pose like Shoulderstand, on the other hand, is usually considered to be more of a cooling or "finishing" pose.

Freedom at the Edge

2009-03-10T10:58:00.000+08:00

By Shiva Rea

Imagine you are balancing on the edge. With a mixture of inspiration and trepidation, you contemplate your next move. You press down through your foot and hold yourself steady with one hand as you prepare to reach as far as you can with your other arm and leg. You make your move on an inhalation to harness the power of your breath and maintain your inner steadiness. For a moment, time stands still—no thought, no separation—just an expanded sense of being alive, of being whole, as you hover on the edge.

This edge could be a rock face in Joshua Tree or the pose Vasisthasana, in which you balance on the side of one foot and the palm of your hand, holding your big toe and extending your leg into the sky. Yoga and rock climbing meet at this potent place, "the edge"—where meditation happens spontaneously through intense focus, like a fire starting from a magnified ray of sunlight. The edge sharpens your concentration: Being several stories off the ground or standing on your hands naturally wakes you up. But it takes skill to be there and enjoy what the edge offers, not with reckless abandon but with mindfulness and respect.

Many people who practice hatha yoga and meditation are heading to the rocks for vertical yoga teachings: learning to move from the center, to cultivate meditation within action, and live within the present moment, breath by breath. What is often taken for granted on our yoga mats becomes pivotal on the rock. While awareness of the mound of your big toe is important in standing poses, it is sometimes all you have as a balance point when you're climbing. Being centered is the difference between reaching to the next level or falling into the ropes. Staying focused is the difference between moving with lightness or stalling from fear. Like yoga, what brings people back to the rocks is the transformation experienced at the end of a climb, when there is a reconnection with oneself, with nature, and with the joy of life itself.

The next time you find yourself going through the motions in your yoga practice, imagine that your mat ends at the edge of the Grand Canyon. As you look down within your imagination, the sense of expansive space can take you quickly out of the doldrums and help you, in the words of the late, great Poonjaji, "wake up and roar!" As you move through the asanas, explore the balance point within a pose as if your life depended on it. Seizing the moment, find freedom on the edge.

The Eight Limbs of Yoga

2009-03-09T12:06:00.000+08:00

By Mara Carrico

n Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, the eightfold path is called ashtanga, which literally means "eight limbs" (ashta=eight, anga=limb). These eight steps basically act as guidelines on how to live a meaningful and purposeful life. They serve as a prescription for moral and ethical conduct and self-discipline; they direct attention toward one's health; and they help us to acknowledge the spiritual aspects of our nature.

Yama

The first limb, yama, deals with one's ethical standards and sense of integrity, focusing on our behavior and how we conduct ourselves in life. Yamas are universal practices that relate best to what we know as the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The five yamas are:

Ahimsa: nonviolence

Satya: truthfulness

Asteya: nonstealing

Brahmacharya: continence

Aparigraha: noncovetousness

Niyama

Niyama, the second limb, has to do with self-discipline and spiritual observances. Regularly attending temple or church services, saying grace before meals, developing your own personal meditation practices, or making a habit of taking contemplative walks alone are all examples of niyamas in practice.

The five niyamas are:

Saucha: cleanliness

Samtosa: contentment

Tapas: heat; spiritual austerities

Svadhyaya: study of the sacred scriptures and of one's self

Isvara pranidhana: surrender to God

Asana.

Asanas, the postures practiced in yoga, comprise the third limb. In the yogic view, the body is a temple of spirit, the care of which is an important stage of our spiritual growth. Through the practice of asanas, we develop the habit of discipline and the ability to concentrate, both of which are necessary for meditation.

Pranayama

Generally translated as breath control, this fourth stage consists of techniques designed to gain mastery over the respiratory process while recognizing the connection between the breath, the mind, and the emotions. As implied by the literal translation of pranayama, "life force extension," yogis believe that it not only rejuvenates the body but actually extends life itself. You can practice pranayama as an isolated technique (i.e., simply sitting and performing a number of breathing exercises), or integrate it into your daily hatha yoga routine.

These first four stages of Patanjali's ashtanga yoga concentrate on refining our personalities, gaining mastery over the body, and developing an energetic awareness of ourselves, all of which prepares us for the second half of this journey, which deals with the senses, the mind, and attaining a higher state of consciousness.

Pratyahara

Pratyahara, the fifth limb, means withdrawal or sensory transcendence. It is during this stage that we make the conscious effort to draw our awareness away from the external world and outside stimuli. Keenly aware of, yet cultivating a detachment from, our senses, we direct our attention internally. The practice of pratyahara provides us with an opportunity to step back and take a look at ourselves. This withdrawal allows us to objectively observe our cravings: habits that are perhaps detrimental to our health and which likely interfere with our inner growth.

Dharana

As each stage prepares us for the next, the practice of pratyahara creates the setting for dharana, or concentration. Having relieved ourselves of outside distractions, we can now deal with the distractions of the mind itself. No easy task! In the practice of concentration, which precedes meditation, we learn how to slow down the thinking process by concentrating on a single mental object: a specific energetic center in the body, an image of a deity, or the silent repetition of a sound. We, of course, have already begun to develop our powers of concentration in the previous three stages of posture, breath control, and withdrawal of the senses. In asana and pranayama, although we pay attention to our actions, our attention travels. Our focus constantly shifts as we fine-tune the many nuances of any particular posture or breathing technique. In pratyahara we become self-observant; now, in dharana, we focus our attention on a single point. Extended periods of concentration naturally lead to meditation.

Dhyana

Meditation or contemplation, the seventh stage of ashtanga, is the uninterrupted flow of concentration. Although concentration (dharana) and meditation (dhyana) may appear to be one and the same, a fine line of distinction exists between these two stages. Where dharana practices one-pointed attention, dhyana is ultimately a state of being keenly aware without focus. At this stage, the mind has been quieted, and in the stillness it produces few or no thoughts at all. The strength and stamina it takes to reach this state of stillness is quite impressive. But don't give up. While this may seem a difficult if not impossible task, remember that yoga is a process. Even though we may not attain the "picture perfect" pose, or the ideal state of consciousness, we benefit at every stage of our progress.

Samadhi

Patanjali describes this eighth and final stage of ashtanga as a state of ecstasy. At this stage, the meditator merges with his or her point of focus and transcends the Self altogether. The meditator comes to realize a profound connection to the Divine, an interconnectedness with all living things. With this realization comes the "peace that passeth all understanding"; the experience of bliss and being at one with the Universe. On the surface, this may seem to be a rather lofty, "holier than thou" kind of goal. However, if we pause to examine what we really want to get out of life, would not joy, fulfillment, and freedom somehow find their way onto our list of hopes, wishes, and desires? What Patanjali has described as the completion of the yogic path is what, deep down, all human beings aspire to: peace. We also might give some thought to the fact that this ultimate stage of yoga—enlightenment—can neither be bought nor possessed. It can only be experienced, the price of which is the continual devotion of the aspirant.

Utkatasana

2009-03-07T13:24:00.000+08:00

By Kate Tremblay

Salabhasana

2009-03-07T13:17:00.000+08:00

Picture from Bikramyoga.com

By Kate Tremblay

Low cobra

2009-03-07T13:05:00.000+08:00

By Jason Crandell

You'll take a slightly deeper backbend with Low Cobra (photo right). From your belly, place your palms on the floor next to your chest, with fingertips in line with the front of your shoulders. Hug your elbows to your sides. Press your hands firmly into the floor and begin to lift your chest into a mild backbend. The muscles along your spine will begin to activate and support you. By engaging your spinal muscles this way, you'll begin to develop strength and suppleness in your back.

Keeping your elbows drawn into your sides, actively press your shoulder blades into your upper back. Now broaden and expand your chest, pulling your heart forward and up. Imagine your upper chest is a sail that has just caught a gust of wind. As you inhale, that sail rises, broadens, and floats with ease. Work your hands a little more firmly into the floor and allow this updraft to fill out your chest's natural contours with breath.

Without losing the height of your heart, draw your shoulders away from your ears. Instead of jamming your shoulders into your rising chest—which prevents the free, spacious movement of your heart—glide your shoulders down until your neck feels long and your arms stable and grounded. Continue to emphasize the length of your neck by lifting the base of your skull away from your shoulders. Keep your head perched over your heart rather than jutting your chin forward.

When you are ready to come down, slowly lower yourself to the floor, keeping your torso long. Observe your breath as it pulses through your entire body.

Sphinx Pose

2009-03-07T13:00:00.001+08:00

By Jason Crandell

Begin with the infant of the baby backbends—Sphinx Pose (see photo right)—by lying on your belly. Inhale and place your elbows under your shoulders and your forearms on the floor. Exhale, and feel your torso in a mild backbend.

Keep your thighs parallel to each other, firm your muscles, and extend your legs so your toes move toward the wall behind you. Internally rotate your legs by rolling your outer thighs toward the floor. This helps maintain width in your sacrum (the downward-facing triangular bone at the base of your spine) and length in your lower back, keeping it safe from stress. Extend your legs firmly. Stay passive in your tongue, eyes, and mind as your legs wake up.

Next, find the correct placement of your pelvis by reaching your sacrum toward your heels. Be careful—if you're overzealous and clench your buttocks, you risk crunching your lower back.

The final step to building a solid foundation in Sphinx Pose is to bring awareness to your belly. Focus on your lower abdomen—the part just above the pubic bone and below the navel—and begin to draw your belly away from the floor to create a dome that lifts toward your lower back. This is very subtle—no sucking in, hardening, or rigidity required. This abdominal lift supports you and distributes the curvature of your backbend more evenly, soothing your lower back and awakening your upper back.

Stay for 5 to 10 breaths, then slowly lower your belly and chest to the floor. Turn your head to one side and feel your back broaden and release with each breath.

Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose)

2009-03-07T12:56:00.000+08:00

By Jason Crandell

Imagine that you want to learn to play an instrument, say, the violin. When you sit down for your first lesson, do you start with the basic notes or a complex song? The answer, of course, is you start with the basics. If you launched into a complex song during those first couple of lesssons, you'd probably produce sounds more like a dying cat than a beautiful melody.

The same goes for yoga. If you approach your practice expecting to launch into a perfect backbend on the first try, you'll be disappointed when you discover you can't even lift your back off the floor.

Deep, complex backbends are visually dazzling—think of the rounded arch of Full Wheel or the strength and focus it takes to balance in Scorpion Pose. And you've probably read about their therapeutic benefits: they're energizing, they can help alleviate depression and back pain, they can even straighten out that unflattering slouch you may have developed from hours in front of a computer. With all that promise, you can easily be seduced into going all-out with this set of poses.

But if you push too hard or skip ahead to complex backbends without first learning the simple, foundational ones, you run the risk of crunching your lower back, depleting your energy, or even stirring up anxiety. In short, your backbends won't feel melodic or harmonious; they'll feel more like that screechy, dying cat.

Here's a way to radically rethink your backbends: Size doesn't matter. To reap the physical, energetic, and therapeutic effects of backbends, you don't have to create the deepest arch. Just think of creating a smooth, even arc in your spine. Rather than searching for intensity, search for evenness. You'll know you've found it when your lower, middle, and upper back all have the same degree of sensation.

Cobra Pose and its variations may seem like small movements—they're sometimes referred to as baby backbends—but they set the foundation for deeper backbends because they teach you how to work your legs, pelvis, and belly. When Cobra is done correctly, your legs provide the power and support for your spine to gracefully extend, and your pelvis and belly act together to decompress and support your lower back, which has a tendency to overarch. As you practice each variation of Cobra, be patient and curious. Observe how your spine feels and savor the sensations in your body.

The small vertebrae in the neck are easily injured. Should I be concerned about headstand?

2009-03-06T13:18:00.000+08:00

By Tony Sanchez

The vertebrae in the neck are fragile. Although Sirsasana (Headstand) can be beneficial, you need to approach it with caution—preferably with an experienced teacher who can guide you to prevent injury. Women who are in any stage of osteoporosis can be especially vulnerable to injury in Headstand if they don't perform it correctly or don't have the necessary muscular strength.

If you aren't steady on your way into or out of Headstand, consider working toward it in stages. Your instructor can help assess your ability and guide you until you're ready to do it on your own. For additional instruction, take a look at Anatomy of Hatha Yoga, by H. David Coulter (Body and Breath, 2001).

Have someone spot you until you can move into, hold, and come out of the pose with control. If you're misaligned or your weight is poorly distributed, you'll not only have an imperfect Headstand, you'll also put excess strain on your upper body or overcompress or overstretch the vertebrae, ligaments, tendons, and muscles in the neck, which can lead to serious injury.

Keep your neck in alignment and distribute your weight evenly between your head, elbows, and forearms to prevent yourself from falling. Place your weight on the crown of the head. To ensure a solid foundation, grasp opposite elbows on the floor to measure the distance apart before bringing your hands forward and together. Once you're up in Headstand, focus on one point in front of you, breathe, keep your head centered, and don't turn your face to either side.

Go with your Gut

2009-03-05T11:09:00.000+08:00

By Peter Sterios

Haragei is a Japanese word that, when simply defined, means "belly art." It describes a quality of presence in which the intelligence of the belly is fully integrated into any activity, from the subtle protocols of a traditional tea ceremony to the unwavering intention of an archer drawing her bow or the elegant stroke of a calligrapher's brush. In the book Hara: The Vital Center of Man, philosopher and Zen practitioner Karlfried Dürckheim says that when haragei is cultivated, "an all-around transformation of all one's faculties takes place, unhindered by the limitations of the five senses and the intellect. One perceives reality more sensitively, is able to take in perceptions in a different way, assimilates them and therefore reacts differently and, finally radiates something different...The three fundamental reactions to life and the world—perception, assimilation, and response—change in the direction of an expansion, deepening, and intensifying of the whole personality." I find the qualities of haragei readily accessible in Mayurasana, the pose of the peacock, because it requires deep belly work. While this type of work is not exactly comfortable, it can be transformative.

Like most other arm balances, Mayurasana appears to require exceptional strength. What is actually needed, though, is patient, progressive work to develop a more intimate relationship with gravity. To begin doing this, you'll need to create a sturdy foundation for the pose using your hands, your forearms, and—you guessed it—your belly. Think of the hands as your feet and the forearms as your legs. Once you set up a solid base, you'll need to press your elbows deep into your belly, which might initially make you flinch and tighten your gut. It will feel counterintuitive to soften your belly around your elbows and dig your elbows into that flesh, but that's exactly what you'll need to do in order to complete the pose. Once you're able to do this, you'll find a strong set of deep abdominal muscles underneath the often-overused rectus abdominus (aka your washboard abs); these will keep you stable.

To finish the framework of Mayurasana, you'll also need open shoulders and wrists. The sequence that follows will help you develop them. Use it to cultivate three qualities in the physical body—a soft belly, open shoulders, and strong, flexible wrists. Go only as far as you can in each pose, staying present with your discomfort and deepening your relationship to resistance. These poses can be intense, but change will unfold if you consistently touch your discomfort as softly as you can. This approach will help you overcome difficulties and give you confidence to approach the final pose.

1. Balasana, variation

This variation of Child's Pose is a useful preparation for Mayurasana because it encourages you to redirect your breath and release unconscious holding in the belly. Placing the mat into the fold of your waist will compress the front of your floating ribs and diaphragm, just as the elbows do in the final pose. You'll notice that this squeezing of the abdominal organs is not conducive to the full front-body breathing pattern that most of us have adopted, and it often creates claustrophobia, nausea, or even a fear of dying.

Consider the pose an invitation to breathe, possibly for the first time, somewhere other than the front of your lungs, or in such a way as to avoid distending your belly as you inhale. By realigning the orientation of your breath into the back of the lungs, you'll create more internal space. Next, establish longer cycles of breath by slowing down each inhalation and exhalation. Visualize the breath becoming narrow as you channel it through your body. To lessen the feelings of claustrophobia and shortness of breath, consciously move that narrow breath into the compressed ribs and lungs.

To begin the pose, sit on your heels with your knees and feet together, in Vajrasana (Thunderbolt). Place a rolled-up mat deep into the crease of your waist, then bend forward on an exhalation. Keep your arms straight, your palms flat, and your head in line with your neck. With each cycle of breath, consciously soften your diaphragm and floating ribs as you exhale, and feel the weight of your abdominal organs dropping. If you feel a release in the waist and an invitation to go deeper, walk your hands forward and continue to fold over the mat. Once your head reaches the floor, bring your arms alongside you with the palms turned up. If it's difficult to reach the floor, come up and unroll the mat a little to make it thinner, and try again.

As you begin your next inhalation, imagine breathing into the back of your heart, and feel the breath lifting your thoracic spine (upper back) slightly. You may not get a full breath, but keep the rhythm of your breath long and slow, and the energy of your frontal chest, ribs, and belly quiet. As you exhale, release the weight of your abdominal organs, soften the diaphragm, and surrender the arms, feeling their weight pulling down on the shoulders, collarbones, and thorax.

With practice, you will notice more space in your abdomen as the organs become toned and supple. The pattern of breathing into your back will become familiar, and your spine will elongate freely as your breath works to release the tension in your belly center.

2. Dragonfly Pose

It may not be the most graceful pose, but Dragonfly is a great way to get the shoulder opening you'll need in Mayurasana. It releases the musculature of the upper back, increasing the range of motion in the shoulders. In so doing, it will increase your ability to bring the elbows together in Mayurasana. Broadening across the upper back also helps release the muscles in the area that chronically grip and, ultimately, create rigidity in the thoracic spine. As you gently surrender during this warm-up pose, you'll gradually feel a subtle elongation of your spine.

Another benefit of Dragonfly is that it compresses the chest and restricts the upper portions of the lungs—just as Mayurasana does. This is especially helpful for women, since they have breast tissue to manage, or for men with highly developed pectoral tissue, like weightlifters. As you did in the Balasana variation, realign the orientation of your breath into your back body and draw air into the back of your lungs. At the same time, slow your breath down and draw your narrow breath into the compressed space to bring more tranquillity to the nervous system.

To begin, lie on your belly with your legs straight. Bring your arms underneath you and across your chest as though you were giving yourself a hug. Keep your arms on the same line as your shoulders and stack one elbow on top of the other. Walk your fingertips apart as far as you can, palms facing up. Completely "empty" your arms, keep your hands passive, and consciously slow your breath down. With an inhalation, tuck your toes under and lift your hips and belly off the floor. Keep your knees and forehead on the floor. These movements will bring your center of gravity forward over your arms while giving you an efficient stretch. As you stay there, feel the fullness of your breath in the back of your heart. With each exhalation, soften the top of your lungs and feel the weight of your heart and chest sinking onto your arms. Feel your neck lengthening as the upper back releases, and gently slide your forehead forward, generating length in the cervical spine. Stay with this for 3 to 4 cycles of breath, then gently drop back down onto your belly.

3. Mandukasana, variation

Once you have prepared your belly and shoulders for Mayurasana, one last "edge" remains that, in this day and age of keyboard-generated wrist weakness, has become a major obstacle for many. If you have any symptoms of repetitive stress or carpal tunnel syndrome in your wrists, the discomfort you feel in your hands, wrists, and forearms can be excruciating in Mayurasana. If you are in an inflamed state, don't practice this series. But if you are in a recovery stage and you've checked with your health care practitioner, you might try this pose. Approach the discomfort that arises in this Mandukasana variation with patience, knowing that the resistance in the wrists will eventually yield, allowing you to build the strength necessary for Mayurasana.

Come into a tabletop position on your hands and knees and, with your knees hip distance apart, place the tops of your feet on the floor and bring them together so that your big toes touch. Next, externally rotate your hands 180 degrees, bringing your pinkies together, and place your palms flat on the floor. Walk your knees back a few inches, then sit back toward your heels, keeping your arms straight. The heels of your hands will peel off the floor, but go back only as far as you can while keeping your elbows straight and the pads of your fingers flat on the floor. When you reach the limitation of your wrists, stay there for 2 to 3 breaths.

If you want to go farther, slowly bend your arms, this time peeling your fingers off the floor, until your elbows touch the floor. Keep the very tips of your fingers on the floor, even if it's just your fingernails hooking into the mat. Gently soften into the top of the wrists, the bones of the hands, and fingers as you press the wrists forward. On an inhalation, release your hands and roll your wrists over in the opposite direction as if you were trying to touch your fingers onto your forearms.

As a counterpose, come back to your hands and knees and place the back of your right wrist onto the floor, with your fingers pointing toward your feet. Try to keep the weight of your body equal on both arms. Repeat with the back of your left wrist. Once you've trained the wrists and forearms—the areas of the body that make up the foundation of the pose—you'll be ready to take on the final challenge of Mayurasana.

4. Padma Mayurasana, variation

Mayurasana is like a human teeter-totter, and as any kid on a playground knows, a teeter-totter can provide hours of fascination, not to mention the experience of being "en-light-ened." With a stable base and relatively even weight on each end, there is a remarkable lack of effort required to seesaw, or move up and down. It can help to think of Mayurasana and this preparatory pose, Padma Mayurasana, in the same way. Binding the legs in Padmasana (Lotus) brings them closer to the pose's center of gravity (your arms) so that less force is required to lift off the floor.

In this variation, though, you'll keep your head and knees on the floor, so you don't have to worry about balancing. Attempting to balance too quickly in the pose often causes fear to kick in. Then you tighten your gut, which causes your elbows to slide and—guess what?—you lose your balance and feel frustrated. So, take the opportunity here to practice completely relaxing your whole body as you press your elbows into your belly center. Allow the folds of your abdominal flesh to roll over your elbows, and eventually you'll feel your elbows lock into the firmness of the deep layers of your abdomen.

To begin, sit in Padmasana. Roll up onto your knees, placing your hands flat on the floor in front of you. With straight arms, walk your hands forward into Simhasana (Lion Pose), keeping your head upright and your arms directly under your shoulders as the front of your pelvis drops toward the floor. Breathe deeply, feeling the sensation of your breath pouring into the floor of the pelvis. With each exhalation, soften your diaphragm and feel the weight of your internal organs drop. Soften your inner groins, and let your hips sink deeper as your waist lengthens. If you feel any compression in the lower back or sacrum, draw your tailbone down toward the floor, the navel in slightly toward the spine.

When you feel ready, rotate your arms so that your fingers are pointing toward your hips. Then lean forward, bend your elbows, and press your forearms together until your forehead touches the floor. Keep your belly and buttocks soft, and feel the flesh of your abdomen rolling over the elbows. Breathe into the back of your heart, and as you exhale, soften the top of the lungs, feeling your chest and outer shoulders releasing down toward the floor. With each cycle of breath, soften more deeply into the belly and feel your torso completely supported by your arms. Stay here for 3 to 4 cycles of breath, keeping your attention on the softening process of the belly. When you reach this stage of the pose and develop a degree of comfort in it, you are ready for the final liftoff.

5. Mayurasana

Most arm balances require incredible strength in the core, and Mayurasana is no exception. The belly is the key to the pose, but it's the most difficult part to master. To be simultaneously supple yet firm in your abdomen, you'll have to keep softening your belly, staying with the discomfort of digging your elbows into it until you can trust that firmness and stability will come—and they will. But not in the surface layers of tissue or muscle. You'll have to literally move beyond your comfort zone into a space where you simultaneously balance effort and non-effort. Seek the place where you experience a more intimate relationship with firmness, where you overcome fear and can enjoy the exhilaration of flying. Now your belly is fully integrated into the pose—this is haragei.

Come into the Padma Mayurasana variation and slide forward on your forehead slightly so that your center of gravity shifts, creating lightness in the legs and more weight on the bridge of your nose. Feeling this, slowly lift your knees, keeping the belly soft, and extend your thighs away from your hips. Keep your head down until you feel your balance steady. Then slowly lift your head until your body is horizontal to the floor. Stay with Padma Mayurasana as long as you can maintain a smooth, even rhythm in your breathing. Release any gripping in your belly and feel your elbows dive deeper into your gut. Let your outer shoulders release down toward the floor and feel your upper back broadening. When you find a sure steadiness, carefully unhook your legs and extend them back, leaning forward over your hands to counterbalance the weight and extension of your legs. When the legs are fully straight, keep extending through the toes and stay for another 3 to 4 breaths. Then lower your feet to the floor gently and release the pose.

It will take consistent practice before your Mayurasana reaches that perfect balance of gravity and grace, where the effort you expend in the pose comes from integration rather than muscular exertion. But it's worth your perseverance. Ultimately, as you master this pose, you will gain tranquillity in the midst of discomfort, allowing you to move beyond your edge and trust that an inner elasticity will support you if you surrender.

Twist poses

2009-03-05T10:58:00.001+08:00

By Andrea Ferretti, sequence by Elise Miller

The first three poses in this sequence are often taught to people with hip or back stiffness, sacroiliac imbalances, degenerative disks, arthritis, or sciatica. With the exception of Paschimottanasana, do each pose in this sequence for five breaths on each side.

1. Bharadvajasana (Bharadvaja’s Twist), with chair

Sit sideways on a chair with your right hip facing the chair back and a block between your thighs. The chair will stabilize the lower back, pelvis, and legs, allowing you to safely rotate your upper spine. Place the hands on the chair back as you inhale and lift the spine. Exhale and twist, pulling with the left hand and pushing with the right. Allow the head and neck to follow the twist of the spine.

2. Parivrtta Trikonasana (Revolved Triangle), with chair

Place a chair in front of you and put your right foot between its front legs. Step your left foot back about 4 feet and turn it in 80 degrees. Place your hands on your hips and square them. Inhale, lift your torso, exhale, and fold forward, placing your left hand on the chair seat, in line with your right big toe. Place your right hand on your sacrum and twist to the right, bringing the right shoulder toward the ceiling and the left ribs forward. To go deeper, place the left elbow on the chair and raise the right arm.

3. Marichyasana III (Marichi’s Twist III), with chair

Place a block on a chair, then put your right foot on the block with the toes facing forward. Place your left hand on your right knee and your right palm on your sacrum. Inhale and lift the spine, then exhale and twist to the right, allowing your neck and head to follow. Keep the hips even and twist from the upper spine. Press the right hand into the back waist to turn the torso more deeply.

4. Parivrtta Parsvakonasana (Revolved Side Angle Pose)

Take a wide stance. Turn your right foot out and your left foot in 80 degrees. Square your hips toward your front foot, then bend your right knee directly over your ankle. On an exhalation, bring the left side of the body toward the right leg. Rest the left armpit to the outside of the right knee and press the palms together. Lengthen the spine and twist the ribs and torso to the right. To go deeper, bring the left palm to the floor or to a block and reach your right arm over your right ear. Gaze at your right fingertips as you lengthen your entire right side.

5. Parivrtta Dandasana (Revolved Staff Pose)

Sit up tall with your legs strongly extended on the floor in Dandasana (Staff Pose). Draw the flesh of your buttocks back in order to sit directly on your sitting bones. Roll your thighs inward and maintain a natural curve in your lower back. Bring your left hand to your outer right knee and place your right fingertips on the floor behind you. Inhale and lift the spine, then exhale and twist to the right. Keep the heels even and stabilize the inner left thigh.

6. Bharadvajasana (Bharadvaja’s Twist)

Sit in Dandasana. Bend your knees and bring your feet next to your left buttock. Place your left ankle on the arch of your right foot. If the left hip is higher, place a blanket under the right hip. Exhale and turn your torso to the right. Place the left hand on your right knee. Press your right fingertips into the floor (or on a block) behind the right buttock and breathe as you turn the spine. Draw the tip of the right shoulder blade in and turn the right shoulder back. Keep your torso upright without lifting the left thigh.

7. Ardha Matsyendrasana (Half Lord of the Fishes Pose)

Sit in Dandasana. Bend the right leg and step the right foot to the outside of the left knee. Bend the left leg and place the foot to the right of the right sitting bone. The foot should be resting on its side, with its inner and outer edges parallel. Press the right fingertips into the floor and draw your torso up. Move the back ribs in. Exhale and turn to the right. Bend the left arm, and press it against the outside of your right knee to help you twist.

8. Parivrtta Janu Sirsasana (Revolved Head-to-Knee Pose)

Sit in Dandasana. Bend the right knee and press the right heel against the perineum. Twist to the right as you lengthen your torso over your left leg. Reach out and hold the inner side of the left foot with the left hand, thumb pointing toward the floor and left pinky pointing up. Stretch the right arm overhead and hold the outer side of the left foot. Bend and widen the elbows away from each other to spiral the waist, chest, and shoulders. Extend the spine and rest the left ribs on the left thigh.

9. Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward Bend)

From Dandasana, reach your arms overhead, exhale, and fold forward, grabbing the feet, shins, or thighs. Inhale and lengthen the torso up. Exhale, bend the elbows out, and take the torso toward the legs as you extend the front, sides, and back of the body toward the feet. Breathe deeply and steadily. Stay for 5 to 10 breaths.

Strength poses

2009-03-05T10:54:00.000+08:00

By Andrea Ferretti with James Higgins

Before You Begin

MEDITATE Sit in a comfortable cross-legged position with your eyes closed. Take 10 slow Ujjayi breaths. Create a clear stream of breath, filling your lungs to capacity while you explore the inner body.

Let your mind ride with the breath, making each consecutive breath smoother than the one before. Take your time and be thorough with your exhalation. Enjoy the experience of your breath.

After 10 breaths, allow your natural breathing to return. Release any hint of tension from the body. Keeping the mind quiet and relaxed, take time to experience your well-being and dedicate your practice to the greater good.

After You Finish

Rest Set up for Savasana (Corpse Pose) and stay for at least 5 minutes. Before you sit up, roll into the fetal position for 2 minutes of quiet nurturing. Sit up tall, and for a few moments mindfully direct your breath toward your well-being and the well-being of sentient beings everywhere.

Build up to holding each pose in the sequence for 1 to 2 minutes. The first 5 poses in this sequence will build heat in the body. When you come to the floor after Forearm Plank, you can begin to incorporate rest between each pose.

1. Utkatasana (Chair Pose)

Stand with your feet parallel and hip-distance apart. Bend your knees deeply. Roll your inner thighs down toward the earth and spread your sitting bones while you hug the shins toward each other and ground your tailbone toward your heels. Lift and roll your shoulders back, sliding the chest and armpits up. Breathe slowly and deeply and soften your face.

2. Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend)

From Utkatasana, straighten your legs and fold forward. Hug your shins in and feel the weight of your hips pressing down toward the feet while you pull all the leg muscles up and onto the bones. Draw your belly in toward the spine and roll the bottom of your rib cage toward the toes as though you were going to hook it over them.

3. Anjaneyasana (High Lunge)

Step your right foot back, keeping your heel lifted as you come into High Lunge. Lift the right thighbone up and, with equal emphasis, guide the tailbone down toward the floor. As you reach your arms up toward the sky, draw your belly in, roll your shoulders back, and lengthen the rib cage up, away from the hips. Breathe deeply into the fullness of your lungs and soften your face. Do both sides, then step into Uttanasana.

4. Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog Pose)

Step or hop into Downward Dog. Spiral your inner thighs back and hug your shins toward each other. Draw your belly and ribs toward your spine and lengthen your side body. Lift your armpits away from the floor as you press your shoulder blades flat onto your back. Melt the center of your chest toward the earth.

5. Forearm Plank

Come to a tabletop position and place your forearms on the floor. Curl your toes under and press back through your heels, taking your knees off the floor. Lift your thighbones up, pull your ribs toward your spine, and press your tailbone toward your heels. Feel your core engage and melt your heart toward the earth. When you release, rest on your belly, with your forehead on your hands, for 5 to 10 deep breaths. Relax fully.

6. Salabhasana (Locust Pose)

Rest on your belly with your arms by your sides. Roll the legs inward. Inhale and lift your arms, legs, torso, and head slowly off the floor. Hug your muscles toward your bones as you extend through the limbs out to your hands and feet. Keep your shoulder blades flat on your back and breathe smoothly and deeply. Do this twice, pausing to rest for several breaths in between.

7. Dhanurasana (Bow Pose)

From your belly, reach back and grab the ankles; softly lift the chest, knees, and thighs from the floor. Push your shins back to help lift and open your chest. Soften your face, breathe deeply, and feel your way into the full pose.

8. Balasana (Child's Pose)

Draw your hips back to your heels, with your arms outstretched in front of you, palms together. Separate your knees hip-width apart, with your big toes touching behind you. Gently bow forward and relax the hips and shoulders.

9. Sirsasana II (Tripod Headstand)

If you've never attempted Headstand, do so only with an experienced teacher nearby. If you have experience with Headstand but need the support, set yourself up close to a wall. From a kneeling position, place your palms and the top of your head on the floor. When you look at your forearms they should be perpendicular to the floor. Walk your feet in toward your hands, draw your shoulders away from your ears, and spread your collarbones wide. Press your hands into the floor, squeezing your elbows in. Engage the legs and lift them slowly overhead. Draw your tailbone toward your heels and press the thighs and lower rib cage backward while extending the legs, hips, and feet toward the sky.

10. Balasana (Child's Pose)

Come back to Child's Pose and connect to your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual centers. Feel the benefits you've received and surrender to your natural ease and goodness. Be humble and, with gratitude, open your mind and heart to the wonderful practice of yoga.