User blogs

October 01, 2012 Popular Indian Yoga Guru Could Influence Election by Rebecca Byerly

Every morning tens of millions of people watch Baba Ramdev, one of India's most popular yoga gurus, on television. Internationally known for reintroducing yoga and good health practices to the subcontinent, Ramdev is now using his powerful platform to send a political message.
... more

 

 Deborah Brauser

www.medscape.com

June 18, 2012 — Integrative body-mind training (IBMT), a type of Chinese mindfulness meditation, may induce positive structural changes in the brain's white matter, new research suggests.

Building on results from a study they published in 2010, investigators found that healthy college-aged volunteers who practiced IBMT for 4 weeks showed significantly improved mood changes compared with those who did not practice the meditation technique.... more

Namaste!

This may not be appropriate for beginners! Do what you can within your comfort zone. It is the path not the destination. But it's nice to have some idea where you are headed! (And we need to keep the more adept students from getting bored!) ;) Successive approximation will get you there, if you do a little bit often.

Strength Yoga: Abs and Arms (Tara Stiles) http://yo9a.com/yogaclass/ashram/video/view/23

enjoy!

Using the wall for posture feedback is an excellent technique!

Here is an easy one from a series of videos by 'TheYogique' that you will find quite useful!

http://yo9a.com/yogaclass/ashram/video/view/38

Wall Yoga - Side bends, Triangles and Half Moons

5 minutes and a Wall! Stretch the sides of your body against the wall. The wall helps you to align your shoulders and hips. Enjoy the contact, support and feedback of the wall.

Remember how to do breath-of-fire? Good!

Lying on your back, press your low back flat, into the floor, and lift your head and shoulders off the ground. Have your arms parallel to your legs, and the floor. Now lift your feet up so your toes are at eye level. Gaze out beyond your toes and begin breath of fire. Be sure to keep the low back pressed flat!
Do it for 10 seconds to start. When that becomes easy, increase up to 30 seconds. Then work up to 3 minutes!

When you are ready to stop take in a deep breath and perfect the posture for a few seconds then lay back down flat and relax. Let the energy flow for a minute or so.

If you need to get going right away then don't lie flat but pull your knees in, place your hands behind your knees, and roll forward to sit up.

The modified (easier) version of the pose is here (without B-o-F).
You might enjoy this as a preparation exercise, to do before and after. It will help you develop better awareness of the muscles involved, hence better control.

Note: If only it was as easy as touching your toes! This is an extremely
important lesson, hence longer text than usual,to make sure you get the
fundamentals down pat from the get-go. Start with a strong foundation
to attain the loftiest heights! Practice carefully and sensibly. If you
hurt yourself, you weren't doing yoga!

Without training, when you bend down to touch your toes, as soon as
you start to stretch the hams, the low back starts to bend forward.
This compromises the disks and reinforces the rounding of the low back
caused by sitting in chairs. Your chances of having a hernia or low
back sprain-strain go way up.

We call it a ham stretch because you feel it where the hams insert
behind your knees. But what you really want to do is flex the hips
without flexing the low back. When you do this you will feel the stretch
in the hips as well as behind the knees.

In order to protect the low back, and the knee menisci, we recommend
softening (slightly bending) the knees when you do forward bends.

Stand up and stack the backs of your hands over the low back. Tighten
the hips (gluts) to make the low back flat or hollow, not rounded. Now
keep that curve stable in the low back as you bend forward carefully.
Notice how far (not very) you get before the low back wants to give in
and start to bend forward. Back up until you can re-stabilize the low
back and then soften the knees and try it again. Pushing the belly
between your thighs. (Lead with the belly not the head!) You should be
able to go much farther, even if you have to bend your knees quite a
bit. Try to bend forward this way until your hands are touching the
floor in front of your feet.

Let your neck and shoulders relax so your head dangles down. By carrying
your upper body weight on your hands and arms, you should be able to
work on alternate legs, carefully straightening the knee and then
bending it again as you straighten the other. Pay constant attention to
the low back so you don't let it give in! If it does, back up,
re-stabilize it and try again. Avoid sharp pain! Stay just inside your
comfort zone!

It's OK to use a block on the floor to make it easier to reach. You can
even put your hands on the desk to do a modified version of this since
bending to 90 degrees without rounding the low back is extreme enough
for beginners! Work on keeping the whole spine flat or arching backwards
as you bend the hips forward, hands on desk.

Half-Dog Pose -video!
http://yo9a.com/yogaclass/ashram/video/view/26

The key thing to get and own is how to be aware of, and keep, the low
back stable, with knees soft, when you do forward bends. If you do it
right it will actually feel really good, not like torture! You will make
progress faster and greatly reduce chance of injury.

Tight hams tug on the pelvis and cause rounding of the low back which
hastens degeneration and leads to low back pain, arthritis, even disk
herniation.

If this is really difficult for you, be not discouraged! If you go to
your comfortable limit several times a day, and stay there for a couple
minutes, you will make progress most quickly.

Note: When you bend forward it is considered "normal" for the low back
to twist one way or the other. The problem is that we get in the habit
of always twisting the same way every time we bend. This is at least
partly why it is usually easier to bring your forehead to(ward) one knee
than the other -why one ham/leg seems more limber than the other. If
you can notice this subtle phenomenon, pay special attention to getting
it to twist the other way when you bend toward the tighter side. (Lead
with the belly!)

You can also do this sitting on the floor. Avoid the temptation to grab
your ankles or feet and pull. Try "pushing" your feet away from you, as
you "walk" your hips backwards, and see what happens!

In order to do the more advanced postures and exercises it is strongly
recommended that you master the head-to-knee pose first. Meaning knees
straight and forehead touching them, while you are still perfectly
relaxed and not straining or feeling pain!

Be gentle, don't force it. Learn that you can relax into the stretches
slowly by using just enough force but not so much that it causes the
muscles you are stretching to go into painful reflex contraction.

Trying too hard only slows you down because your body has to put so much
energy into repairing the (micro-)damage!

Forward Bending videos:
http://yo9a.com/yogaclass/ashram/video/view/19
http://yo9a.com/yogaclass/ashram/video/view/18

To understand what we mean by keeping the low back flat or hollow, and
stable, watch this!: http://yo9a.com/yogaclass/ashram/video/view/11

All videos. <http://yo9a.com/yogaclass/ashram/video>

Enjoy!

I sent out the first STRETCH BREAK  post!

Well, it took a lot more time and effort to get this up and running than you want to know! My brain is full of technical stuff I hope I don't have to dwell on again, for awhile, anyway.

I think the oxwall platform is quite wonderful, after trying out about a dozen other options. That is what took time and created lots of aggravation! I won't mention names unless you ask me privately.

I'll be inviting in a few select folks for a little while to help get things going. Official public launch will be later in August. If you are here already it is because you are probably someone who already has an idea how the site can serve you and your yoga family.

The better the site gets and the more activity, meaningful activity, the quality instructors we will attract, and that is when things are really expected to pick up. Lots of new lessons all the time and experts you can consult.

Lot of stuff planned! But I'm open to your input too! Be sure to let me know what you like and what you hope to see here! All in the spirit of advancing real yoga and making it accessible to all who seek it out. Safe, effective, and efficient!

And now you will have a real yoga family to share it all with!

Can 10,000 yogis change the world? Stick around and find out. You can be a part of something that is bigger than all of us, too!