Asanas In Yoga
Yoga Cat Pose - Variations of Majariasana
Strengthen and relax your back with different variations of Majariasana - Hatha Yoga Asana “Cat Pose”. Try it out - find out what is best for you. Demonstrated by Mahashakti, Yoga therapist and Yoga teacher at Yoga Vidya Germany. More infos on Yoga on http://my.yoga-vidya.org
Intermediate Yoga Vidya Class 20 Minutes
Recharge and relax - 20 minutes of Yoga for intermediate students. Sukadev Bretz leads you into the following exercises:
Kapalabhati, Alternate Nostril Breathing, Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation), Sarvangasana (shoulderstand), Halasana (plough),
Matsyasana (Fish), Ardha Matsyendrasana, final relaxation. Demonstrated by Carlotta, yoga teacher and ayurveda therapist at Yoga
Vidya Ashram Germany. More Infos http://my.yoga-vidya.org . Music by Yogi Hari http://www.yogihari.com . More Videos on
http://my.yoga-vidya.org/video
5 Reasons Why Athletes Should Do Yoga
Yoga offers tremendous health and wellness benefits for everyone. As a means of therapy, Yoga is becoming increasingly popular among athletes and sports enthusiasts. Here are 5 key reasons why Yoga can be beneficial for those involved in sports and athletic training programs.
1) Yoga enhances recovery - most vigorous sport activities generate lactic acid in muscle tissue. If lactic acid is not removed properly, it can adversely affect performance in future training sessions or events. Yoga exercises can help in the removal of lactic acid by gently circulating lactic acid out of muscle tissue and into the blood stream where it will make its’ way to the liver for processing. Yoga also has shown to improve sleep patterns. Proper rest and ample sleep are critical periods for an athlete’s recovery process.
2) Yoga restores balance and can help reduce injury. Many sport activities are dominant on one side of the body due to specific movements and joint loading. This mechanical dominance can create musculoskeletal imbalances that can generate chronic injuries. Yoga can be beneficial in reducing these tissue and joint imbalances.
3) Yoga improves biomechanics and energy conservation. Moving a joint requires energy. The more tension one has around that joint, the more energy is required to facilitate that movement. The goal of athletes is to have maximum performance with the most energy conservation. Yoga exercises that improve flexibility and joint range of motion reduce muscle tension and enhance sport biomechanics. This enhancement reduces the amount of energy needed for those movements, thus allowing an athlete to perform at higher levels and/or longer intervals.
4) Yoga improves body awareness and focus. Yoga employs physical and mental exercises that deepen one’s sense of body positioning and movement (proprioception). Enhanced proprioceptive skills are crucial in the development and progression of athletic training. Yoga’s use of breathing and centering techniques can be valuable tools for event preparation, routine and skill visualization, as well as stress/anxiety reduction.
5) Yoga improves breathing function. Yoga exercises, particularly pranayam exercises, have been shown to improve breathing mechanics and lung capacity. Focused breathing exercises develop one’s ability to maximize function of all breathing mechanisms (diaphragm and intercostal breathing). Maximal lung health is vital for athlete’s, especially for those who partake in aerobic-based sports and require efficient lungs to deliver sufficient oxygen uptake.
Caution for athletes doing Yoga. Although Yoga offers great benefits, athletes should be mindful of the type of Yoga they do and how it is integrated into their training program. For example, some styles of Yoga can be very vigorous (vinyasa yoga) or have dehydrating effects (Hot Yoga). An athlete adding Yoga to their program needs to insure that the style of Yoga does not introduce over-training or other adverse effects. It is ideal to discuss with a qualified coach/trainer how best to integrate Yoga into a training routine keeping in mind the cycling of events and peak training periods.
Athletes can be too flexible! As much as one can see the benefit of being flexible, keep in mind that joints need stability. Over-training flexibility can reduce the ability of muscles, tendons, and ligaments to stabilize joint structures. Understand the nature of joint loading that is involved in particular sports and be mindful to not overuse Yoga flexibility exercises on those joints.
Finally, it may be easy for some athletes to try Yoga for the first time and feel they can jump into intermediate to advanced postures. Just like the sport they are coming from, they took years to build a foundation of where they are in that sport. This same approach should be applied with Yoga. Athletes, regardless of fitness level, should start with beginner classes so they build a foundation of all aspects of the practice: basic posture alignments, breathing techniques, and meditation applications. Many intermediate and advanced Yoga classes are taught in a manner that assume students have these foundations in place. Therefore, by skipping beginner programs, an athlete will miss out on crucial foundation elements.
Article by Kreg Weiss, BHKin
Get Yoga Smart with Your Lower Back
My Yoga Online has added a new Smart Yoga workshop video with Jesse Enright: Smart Yoga For The Lower Back. Jesse takes you through a fun review of the practical applications of the spine and relates key fundamentals in protecting the lower back while maximizing the benefits of yoga.
Click to watch Smart Yoga For The Lower Back
About Jesse Enright:
Seeking a deeper connection to myself through my physical being, I began actively practicing yoga fifteen years ago. My studies in yoga have included the systems of Sivananda, Ashtanga Vinyasa, Iyengar, Anusara and Vijnana Yoga.
It’s my understanding that the actual practice of yoga is not in the postures or movements themselves but in the way in which we consciously respond to the challenges that they represent. I want my students to understand that yoga requires an intelligent and deliberate response, which is why I call my classes SmartYoga.
SmartYoga combines deep conscious breath work, powerful flowing movements and meticulous alignment. Ultimately, I hope to inspire in students a sense of love, respect and compassionate curiosity for both their bodies and themselves.
New Yoga Video with Shiva Rea
My Yoga Online has added a new online yoga video with expert Shiva Rea: Surf Yoga Soul.
Just in time for summer, Shiva brings her organic yoga flow to the beach. After teaching yoga to surfers for over a decade, world-renowned yoga master Shiva Rea merges the two cultures in this first ever program to bring wave motion onto the mat. It’s a liberating approach to yoga that everybody can benefit from and enjoy.
Click to watch Surf Yoga Soul.
Shiva Rea, M.A., is a leading teacher of transformational Prana Flow Yoga and Yoga Trance Dance™. She began exploring yoga at the age of fourteen as a way to understand her name, given to her by her father, a surfer and artist. Her studies in the Krishnamacharya lineage, Tantra, Ayurveda, Bhakti, Kalaripayattu, world dance, yogic art and somatic movement infuse her approach to living yoga and embodying the flow.
She is known for bringing the roots of yoga alive for modern practitioners in creative, dynamic and life-transforming ways and for offering the synthesis form of vinyasa flow out in the world. As a global adventurer, she has led over 70 retreats and pilgrimages nationally and internationally as well as served as a creative catalyst for conferences, festivals and actions for the environment, yoga and the arts including the third annual Yogini Conference of Kripalu and Omega.
Shiva writes for Yoga Journal and is the author of award-winning CD’s and DVD ’s to empower and transform yoga home practice. She lives with her family near their favorite surf break at Sunset Beach in Pacific Palisades, California. See the seva page for more information on the service and action projects that Yogadventures supports.
New Yoga Video with Shiva Rea
My Yoga Online has added a new online yoga video with expert Shiva Rea: Surf Yoga Soul. Just in time for summer, Shiva brings her organic yoga flow to the beach. After teaching yoga to surfers for over a decade, world-renowned yoga master Shiva Rea merges the two cultures in this first ever program to bring wave motion onto the mat. It’s a liberating approach to yoga that everybody can benefit from and enjoy.
Click to watch Surf Yoga Soul.
Shiva Rea, M.A., is a leading teacher of transformational Prana Flow Yoga and Yoga Trance Dance™. She began exploring yoga at the age of fourteen as a way to understand her name, given to her by her father, a surfer and artist. Her studies in the Krishnamacharya lineage, Tantra, Ayurveda, Bhakti, Kalaripayattu, world dance, yogic art and somatic movement infuse her approach to living yoga and embodying the flow.
She is known for bringing the roots of yoga alive for modern practitioners in creative, dynamic and life-transforming ways and for offering the synthesis form of vinyasa flow out in the world. As a global adventurer, she has led over 70 retreats and pilgrimages nationally and internationally as well as served as a creative catalyst for conferences, festivals and actions for the environment, yoga and the arts including the third annual Yogini Conference of Kripalu and Omega.
Shiva writes for Yoga Journal and is the author of award-winning CD’s and DVD ’s to empower and transform yoga home practice. She lives with her family near their favorite surf break at Sunset Beach in Pacific Palisades, California. See the seva page for more information on the service and action projects that Yogadventures supports.
Believe in Yourself through the Power of Yoga
Enjoy My Yoga Online’s latest yoga article by expert Kino MacGregor. Kino shares her insight as a teacher and as a practitioner in how to approach yoga in order to acquire holistic, grounded success physically, mentally and spiritually in your practice.
Yoga shows you the way and the spiritual community of friends and teachers illuminate the path, but you must take every step of the journey. The miracle you pray for is that you unroll your mat every day you can and get the courage to be a better person at the end of each practice. The long road towards enlightenment is a solitary path that is supported by friends and teachers but must be walked alone. Each footstep along this path of self-realization comes from your own inner fortitude. Each challenging posture that tests your limits of possibility is place where you flex your spiritual muscle and develop the gumption to imagine a life beyond anything you have known before.
All progress along the path of yoga denotes milestones crossed along the ravine of the human soul. You pay with the currency of your body and breathe and gain access to boundless energy, true power and compassionate wisdom. The story of you transforms from a tragedy into a hero’s journey into a purpose driven life. The practice of yoga has the magic to recast the pages of life in the new light of total presence and thereby set you free from past suffering. In the clear light of self-awareness you begin to see yourself for the free, happy and peaceful being that you are.
The understanding that you alone work diligently every day in your own practice means that you when the hard won fruits of your actions ripen you will know that you have played a vital role in this transformation. Teachers, guides and spiritual friends make the journey possible but if you do not learn and integrate the lessons even the best teaching is meaningless. You will look back at the years of life spent sweating on your mat and take stock for just how far you have come. This progress will not be measured in asana perfection, but instead in the steady knowingness that you have committed yourself to a more peaceful life. There is perhaps no greater sense of self-confidence that the certainty that you are strong enough to meet whatever challenges you face.
Before I started practicing yoga I did not believe in myself and I had no real way to measure success or failure. I judged myself by the external attainment of results and felt frustrated when I could not attain what I thought I wanted quickly. After I started practicing yoga I began to see that I am the master of my own fate and that my inner thoughts really did create my experience of reality. My thoughts defined my daily yoga practice and in the same sense my thoughts defined my life. In order to attain any level of accomplishment I had to start off my learning how to believe in myself. No amount of effort will produce the desired results without addressing deeply held beliefs about your sense of self-worth. The barrier between you and your dreams is more often my lack of belief in yourself than anything else.
Yoga is a paradoxical parameter with which you can measure your sense of self. If you enter the yoga world with a defeatist attitude you will experience more and more defeat. If you enter the same domain with happy disposition you will get more happiness. Kind of like a microcosm for life itself yoga is best understood as a playground where you test out your deeply help thoughts about yourself and see what kind of results you get from thinking the way you do. The kind of belief in yourself that you get with regular practice is not the kind of self confidence that comes from what you can and cannot do. Instead yoga helps you connect with a part of yourself that is beyond the physical and it is in that eternal place that your belief in yourself rests. Only when you touch the stable inner terrain of infinite self-realization do all the postures even start to make sense at all.
If you approach your practice from the perspective of attaining the perfect asana sooner or later you will fail. Even the strongest and most flexible person will get injured or grow older one day. When this happens it is not time to quit or time to punish yourself. Actually at the moments of perceived failure is often when the most yoga happens. Sometimes we have to gain the perfect yoga body and the perfect yoga postures just to “loose” it to injury or age so that we can see that the whole point of the journey of yoga actually has nothing to do with asana anyway. Yoga asks you to tap into a place within yourself that is able to have faith in the results that are not immediately evident. The only way that you can rest in the difficulty of the present moment is if you have full faith that your ultimate goal, the attainment of inner peace, is on the way.
In yoga you never fix yourself, but instead you reveal your true nature. This warm tender heart of compassion that beats strongly underneath any veneer of cynicism, anger or fear can never die. In fact it stays with you beyond your physical form and carries you forth into the next iteration of your life The eternal nature of the human spirit is what the heart of yoga really is. If you connect to that everyday then the journey is already coming to fruition.
About Kino MacGregor: Kino MacGregor is a small business owner (www.miamilifecenter.com), yoga teacher and freelance journalist who has produced two yoga DVDs and is currently working on her first book, Inner Peace, Irresistible Beauty to be released late April 2009. For complete details please see www.ashtanga-awareness.com.
Jul 5, The Yoga News - Our July 2010 Issue is here …
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