Finish your core workout with this static stretching routine. Abs, obliques and lower back stretches to increase your flexibility and release all tension. Start the timer, play the music and relax! WARM UP AND WORKOUT Start your exercise routine with a core warm up, continue with a set of core strengthening moves and finish with these static stretching exercises…
Understanding the five elements—earth, fire, air, water, space—and their effects on your body can help you keep them balanced within yourself, leading to a healthier, happier life. In previous articles in this series, I discussed how to better connect to the fire element and earth element through a series of yoga poses. Next up is the water element, or Jala. The water…
Vary your yoga workout to keep yourself challenged. Bikram or Ashtanga yoga may give you a good workout, but their prescribed sequences may get, well, boring. Give your yoga practice a lift by trying some new poses. Nobody knows exactly how many Hatha yoga postures there are – some estimates say thousands – but there are plenty to choose from. For the best flow, move…
Related Articles Yoga poses have been catalogued since before written history. Depictions of yoga poses were found engraved on soapstone seals in the ruins of the cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, which flourished at least 5, years ago in the Indus River Valley. Many compilations of yoga poses exist, in ancient texts as well as the curricula of various modern-day…
Be aware of the way stretching helps your back muscles. The soft tissues surrounding your joints (shoulder joint, hip joint, sacro-iliac joint or low back) are not, by definition, flexible. However continuous range of motion exercises and daily activities can contribute to smoother movement in and around the joints. Stretching to relieve lower back pain is done by…
In the United States lower back pain is one of most common complaints. The Mayo Clinic states that most people will experience low back pain at some point in their lives. Lower back pain is experienced by sedentary people as well as highly-trained athletes. If you look at a typical weekday of an average American who works a nine-to-five job, it is easy to see why…
Downward Facing Dog Photo Credit: iStock.com Come into a plank position, bend your knees, and push your bum up and back like a dog having a big stretch, while keeping your spine straight. Benefits: Builds strength in arms, shoulders and legs Prevents bone degeneration Inversion poses bring blood to brain, improving brain activity and awareness Cobra Lie down on your…
Ones tend to repress their instincts and prefer to filter the world through their intelligence. Bow Pose provides a structured container for Ones to reengage with their more primal instincts, as well as soften around their limitations, as the posture puts pressure on the belly and stimulates the enteric nervous system (a.k.a. the “belly brain”). Mantra: I can lighten…
As a long-time yoga enthusiast, I’m always happy to hear about benefits newly attributed to this ancient practice. Doing yoga for a few hours each week helps me feel calmer and more balanced, both physically and mentally. Now, new research suggests that my habit also may be helping my heart. A review of yoga and cardiovascular disease published in the European Journal…
Below is a guest blog and personal commentary on the Cochrane review of yoga treatment for chronic nonspecific low back pain from Beth Novian Hughes, MS Yoga Therapy, C-IAYT, who has back pain and is a long-time practitioner and teacher of yoga. The results of the Cochrane review of yoga treatment for low back pain don’t surprise me at all. As a sufferer of low back…
Lower-back pain affects far too many people. It might not always be debilitating, but even a small amount of pain indicates that something is wrong, and you need to address the issue. When you have lower-back pain, the cause might actually be something that seems totally unrelated. Your body is linked together, and an issue in one area can result in a chain reaction…
When you feel tired and weighed down by stress, a lack of exercise, and poor food choices, give your body and mind a reboot with a detox. A detox doesn’t always mean a rigorous diet, juice fast, or ingesting a combination of nauseating herbs. You can detox through yoga too, with a practice that’ll leave you feeling cleaner on the inside and more energetic on the outside…
Not all meditation practice has to happen sitting perfectly still in Lotus Pose. By focusing your awareness inward, on the breath and the way your body moves through transitions and feels in poses, you’ll reap many of the same rewards that seated meditation provides— heightened focus, balanced energy, a sense of grounding, and blissful stress release. Practice tip…
Elizabeth Renstrom for TIME Not only does yoga offer (often intense) physical activity, but it imparts an extra mind-body benefit. “Yoga helps elicit what we call the relaxation response, which is essentially the physiological opposite of the stress response, ” says Laura Malloy, director of yoga programs at Massachusetts General Hospital s Benson-Henry Institute…
The most commonly practiced form of yoga is Hatha yoga. A physical form, Hatha yoga incorporates a series of poses called Asanas, while relying on a breathing technique, referred to as Pranayama. By adopting very basic and sometimes very complex body postures and breathing techniques, the goal of yoga is to provide the practitioner a number of physical and mental…
Top Exercises for Upper and Lower Back Muscle Spasms Back muscle spasms can wreak havoc on your world. They can cause you tremendous pain and suffering, as well as interfere with your daily life. If they’re mild, they may cause you just enough discomfort to decrease your enjoyment in normally pleasurable activities. And, if they’re strong and intense, they can keep…
