Yoga | Health, Fitness And Diets

I Did Yoga Every Day for Three Months and Here’s What Happened

Usually after a workout hiatus, I am more than ready to hit the gym, get sweaty and return to my normal routine. But this time was different. The harsh realities of life had left me not only weak in body, but also in spirit — and the last thing I wanted to do was bust out a set of squats. I turned toward yoga, not with any physical objective, but to simply regain my piece of mind. My first few ventures on the mat were half-hearted; I truly didn’t care if I regained my lost muscle or former level of fitness. I performed the posture for the sake of the posture and nothing else. I found that not having a goal was liberating; after weeks of being sedentary, it felt good just to move and breathe. I started to look forward to the next session, not as a workout, but as... Read more »

The Secret to Happiness, According to Yoga

“How is yoga meaningful beyond its poses? How can we practice yoga beyond the physical experience?” asks yoga teacher and blogger Rebecca Pacheco in her book, Do Your Om Thing: Bending Yoga Tradition to Fit Your Modern Life ($17; amazon.com). “What do we need to know to get the most out of our yoga, and by extension, our lives?” In this excerpt, she explains the yogic approach to happiness, and how to make it work for you. I’m not sure who said, “Happiness is an inside job,” but it’s a great thing to remember as a yogi. According to yoga philosophy, santosha, which means contentment, is a form of self-discipline. In other words, happiness is a skill and practice. Happier people do not have easier lives, with less hard work, grief, divorce, or financial strain than the rest of us. They’re simply more grateful for what they have and choose to... Read more »

Google Rolls Out Yoga Info Cards

Googling yoga poses has likely been a regular practice for a lot of yogis out there, especially for the Sankskrit. How DO you spell utthita hasta padangusthasana? What’s astavakrasana mean, again? But now Google, ever the yoga fans, have done you one better. Now when you search for a pose you get a handy little pop-up showing you pictures, telling you what muscles are being used and even what poses are good for prep. Rolled out by Google Hong Kong, the new “cards” as they call them in Googlespeak, seem helpful because they provide more info than your average shot in the dark web search and it’s all conveniently located in a tidy package. Via 9to5Google: When users search for a pose, a card with the pose’s Sanskrit name and other ways it’s known as will appear. The card also shows multiple pictures of the pose from Image Search and it also tells you what... Read more »

How to Shrink Your Waist With Yoga

In order to lose belly fat, you have to lose body fat. The best way to lose body fat is through a combination of healthy eating, cardiovascular exercise and strength training. When you focus on strengthening your core with yoga, not only can you relieve low back pain, increase balance and stability and improve posture, but you can also help to make your abdomen look smaller and more defined as you lose weight. Stand with both feet at the top of the mat, hip distance apart. Inhale and lift both arms up and overhead. Exhale and swan-dive your arms down to your mat, folding forward at the hips. Inhale and lift your torso up halfway, lifting your belly up toward the spine away from the thighs and finding a flat back. Rest hands on the shins or let fingertips graze the mat. Exhale and fold again, releasing your belly to your... Read more »

You should Learned to Stop Hating Yoga

It may be National Yoga Month — a time to celebrate the ancient practice by trying out new studios around your city — but stick me in a yoga class, and my mind and breath are bound to wander. Yoga for me has always been an hour and a half of feeling incredibly awkward and inflexible and wondering when it would be time for my favorite pose (Savasana, of course). I’ve heard from people who have a similar level of patience as me claim that yoga is also their least favorite way to work out. The slow pace is at odds with my workout of choice, running, and I imagine those who like to blow off steam at kickboxing class, for example, also find it hard to hold poses and quietly introspect while in yoga. After a few years’ hiatus from my very beginner’s yoga practice, however, I’ve begun to realize... Read more »

Surprising Health Benefits Of Yoga

Yoga increases flexibility and reduces stress, but the practice can do more than help you twist your body into pretzel shapes and find inner peace. These hidden benefits will help you in the kitchen, office and bedroom — and will give you five new reasons to show off your yoga skills (plus recommended poses for each one!). 1. Boost Immunity A recent Norwegian study found that yoga practice results in changes in gene expression that boost immunity at a cellular level. And it doesn’t take long: The researchers believe the changes occurred while participants were still on the mat, and they were significantly greater than a control group who went on a nature hike while listening to soothing music. Yoga also helps to boost immunity by simply increasing overall health, says Mitchel Bleier, a yoga teacher of 18 years and owner of Yogapata in Connecticut. “As you breathe better, move better... Read more »

GIVE YOURSELF SOMETIME!

I can’t speak for other places in the world, but among New Yorkers, the oft-uttered phrase, “I’m so busy,” is delivered as a simultaneous lament. Bragging, one to be interpreted as both “I wish I could cut back” and “I’m in high demand.” As eye-rolling as that may be, the truth is, for better or worse, we are busy. This leads to burnouts down the road that wreak havoc on our life when we forget about ourselves. I had never realized just how busy until a few months ago when I signed myself up for a ten-day mind-and-body cleanse that required me to stick to a few basic precepts: making all of my own meals, working out a few times during the prescribed period, taking one bath, and carving out ten minutes every morning and night to meditate. Simple enough, but my initial reaction to each task was, “Who has the... Read more »

Find your centre

Let yoga give you the strength you’re looking for September is National Yoga Month, and there are a miriad of events and new classes to try. One of our favourites is Ekhart Yoga’s 30:30 challenge – 30 minutes of yoga a day, for 30 days. Focusing on building strength and improving balance – both inner and outer – within two weeks you’ll notice your body feeling fit and toned, while poses you thought out of your reach suddenly become easier to achieve. Each day, the programme alternates between core work, balance and a general class, and a different teacher leads each session most days. We love the way founder Esther Ekhart structures her core sessions, seamlessly building on previous classes to make even challenging poses like bird of paradise seem easy. Don’t worry that its half way through the month – you can still start the challenge, as all of Ekhart... Read more »

How can we find quiet and stillness in our lives if yoga classes are so noisy?

Recently, I received the following email from a student and friend who shall remain anonymous, about a teacher who shall remain anonymous (I don’t even know who it is), at a studio that shall remain anonymous. I’m not in the takedown business. Bad karma, you know. Here’s what the email said: Oh my god, this past week one girl talked the entire time. I mean, never stopped speaking and teaching and speaking and teaching. It was like a 90-minute monologue. I wanted to die. I don’t know this teacher. Yet, we all kinda know this teacher… While I cringe to admit it, I’ve been this teacher. With the exception of the absolute most taciturn among us, we’ve probably all been this teacher, those of us who are yoga teachers. Those of us who are yoga students (side note: if you want to be a good yoga teacher, start by being a good yoga student)... Read more »

What Is Yoga, Really? An Interview With Arvind Chittumalla

Will the real yoga please stand up? This is a question many are asking today as yoga continues to expand as a commercial venture in the United States. According to statistics, $10.3 billion was spent on yoga and yoga-related products in 2012. Arvind Chitumalla has taken this query to heart. He is on a crusade to bring a more comprehensive understanding of yoga to western practitioners. Meet Arvind Chitumalla Born and raised in southern India, Arvind Chitumalla came to the United States just over ten years ago. He described his first yoga class in America as a “culture shock.” He said, “What was obvious was that it was a fitness routine and all the other aspects of yoga were left out.” Arvind felt a calling in that first class to bridge the gap between the yoga he knew in India and the one he found in America. The Steps Arvind’s newfound mission initially compelled him to become a yoga... Read more »