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…
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…
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…
Simply put. Ashwini Mudra is to contract the anus. Squeeze it for 5-10 seconds. Then to let go and relax. Repeat this 10 times. It takes just a minute. Do it as often as you can. At least 6-10 times a day. While you sit in office, in a bus, watch TV, cook or walk on the road. No one will know. Repeating it often is key to quick remedy. In 21 days your agony will…
Does having to comb your hair sends shivers down your spine? You are not alone, because excess hair fall is a common problem these days. Try these yoga poses which can help stop hair loss. However –as in most things – prevention is better than cure. Read on to learn how the ancient science of yoga can help protect your crowning glory from hair loss. The condition…
The desire to become a mother is ingrained in most women. But what happens when this most basic biological function becomes a battle? For many women, getting pregnant does not take a lot of effort. But if you happen to fall on the wrong side of statistics, you may experience one of the most heartbreaking conditions – infertility. The inability to become pregnant…
Modern life poses many challenges when it comes to maintaining proper posture. We tend to slouch while typing on computers and often assume unhealthy positions when using their smartphones. Because many of us remain connected from morning to night, posture challenges can plague us for most of our waking hours. Bad posture isn t just a cosmetic issue; poor posture…
Pranayama Series Strengthens: Stretches: Intercostal muscles – ribcage Shoulder joints Scapula Ocular nerve Stimulates: Lungs Nervous System Circulatory System Benefits: Increases lung capacity. Increases lung efficiency. Opens the shoulders. Wakes up the body for class. What is happening in the posture: This energizing breathing exercise can fill your lungs…
Finding yoga pictures shouldn’t disrupt your daily meditation. That’s why we’ve worked hard to select and create the best yoga images. You’ll be able to discover a range of yoga pictures such as yoga poses, meditation, yoga classes, outdoor yoga, and more. Our yoga photos include images of men and women practicing yoga at different levels. You’ll be able to showcase…
(tah-DAHS-anna) tada = mountain Mountain Pose: Step-by-Step Instructions Step 1 Stand with the bases of your big toes touching, heels slightly apart (so that your second toes are parallel). Lift and spread your toes and the balls of your feet, then lay them softly down on the floor. Rock back and forth and side to side. Gradually reduce this swaying to a standstill…
Asana – the Sanskrit term for a pose in yoga, literally translates to “position of sitting”. Hence, yoga essentially means how you place yourself . This is precisely the reason why most yoga classes begin with sitting poses. However, there are other reasons to this as well, such as low risk of falling, more control over body, better joint and spine opening through…
Battling depression can feel like a fight for your life. Yoga can help you stop struggling. It happened 11 years ago, but I remember the night I had my first full-fledged panic attack as if it were yesterday. I was sitting in the cramped balcony of the Marines Memorial Theatre in San Francisco with my then-boyfriend, watching a devastatingly sad and incredibly…
Up until that point, I had never done a low bar squat; I had always performed the high bar variety. Getting the bar in proper position on the former requires a considerable amount of flexibility in the chest and shoulders. Your wrists need to be neutral, or straight, throughout the entire lift to avoid any of the weight being carried by your wrists or arms. If…
When Anna Pesce was visiting her children in Wagener, SC, in November 2014, the then-85-year-old Orangeburg, NY, native almost collapsed trying to climb a set of stairs. “I had this horrible pain shooting up my back, ” Pesce tells The Post. “I had to be carried up the stairs and put into a wheelchair for the rest of my stay.” For the past few decades, Pesce suffered…
Here’s a grimly edifying set-piece for twenty-first-century feminists to ponder: when my grandmother was a teenager at Greenwich Academy, a girls’ prep school in Connecticut, she and her fellow students were required to pose nude for photographs taken by the P.E. teacher. Once a year, in a mirrored studio on campus, they would shed their itchy, matronly uniforms—green…
For those with diabetes or pre-diabetes, adopting a regular yoga routine in addition to other healthy lifestyle habits can provide relief from diabetic symptoms and even help overcome the condition. The best beginning yoga for diabetes will include postures and breathing exercises that are designed specifically to target and stimulate the pancreas. By improving…
Being afraid I’ll end up looking like the humpback of Notre Dame when I’m older is a reasonable fear. Overall health and wellness has become much more of a priority now that I’m in my thirties. Good posture was something I may have only heard about from my mom when she told me to straighten up (or when I was acting out, more likely). As a yoga teacher I find…
Can’t quite remember the last time going #2 felt like, well, second nature? While it may be tempting to reach for some OTC relief, consider hitting the yoga mat instead. Can yoga poses really help? “Movement in general is important for stimulating the bowels to help move the food bolus, gas, and, ultimately, waste, through your system, ” says Rebekah Gross, M.D…
How we wish we were one of those people with hot bodies and great stamina. But for that, you have to pull yourself out of bed, and then get into your yoga pants, and then drive to a super expensive yoga class, and then struggle to fight with your insecurities of not being in sync with others. Or worse, being the sloppiest of all. So if you want to save yourself…
On the other hand, if even the thought of standing in Tadasana for five minutes makes you uncomfortable, then probably you have some work to do on your posture — and probably you should not even try the exercise. (A word of advice: do not ask your students to stand this long in Tadasana in class unless they have good posture and are very advanced. Otherwise at…
Sciatica is a very common problem. You’ve most likely experienced it yourself or you know someone who has. Sciatic pain originates anywhere in the sciatic nerve, which runs from your hip to your toes. When the condition flares up, it manifests with different symptoms related to movement and sensation, and leaves the sufferer in a considerate amount of pain and…
By Anne Bridges It’s no secret yoga has massive mind-body-soul benefits and the foundation of these benefits are its asanas. In yoga, the different postures, poses, and positions are referred to by this Sanskrit term meaning your “seat” or “manner of sitting.” Going even deeper into its meaning, the postures vary in ways they enhance your body’s functions. So…
In case you don’t already know, there’s a lot of value in having good posture. Not only does good posture boost your body image and make you look better in a suit, but it also helps decrease your likelihood of injury. It minimizes the load on your skeletal muscles, and enables your body to move more freely and efficiently. Poor posture can lead to anything from…
When I was in yoga teacher training, I was looking for a way to create reference notes that I could use to follow along as I taught my practicum classes. I tried written notes and found it was just too difficult to keep track of where I was. My instructor suggested yoga stick figures and for the next class I taught, I created a series of drawings that illustrated…
Sadhguru: When you experience everything as oneness in your consciousness, then you are in yoga. To attain that unity within you, there are many ways. You work with the body, then you move to the breath, then to the mind, then to the inner self. Like this, many steps have been created, but they are only different facets of yoga. It is important that all of them…
We ve been practicing, teaching and recommending the 5 Tibetan Energy Rejuvenation Exercises since 1998. You can do the whole routine in 15 minutes and only need enough floor space for your body while laying down and enough air space for your arms to be outstretched. The 5 Tibetans represent a great way to keep your body in shape when you have limited time for…
Sitting at a computer all day, driving long distances and even sleeping in awkward positions can not only cause a stiff neck, but may promote forward neck posture. Forward neck posture is commonly seen in the elderly as shoulders stoop forward, taking the head along with it. Unfortunately, incorrect neck posture leads to tension, strain and pain in the shoulders…
