6 Ways to Completely Exhaust Yourself in a Hot Yoga Class. Have you ever left a hot yoga class and felt completely wiped out for the rest of the day?
I remember in my yoga beginnings about 8 years ago this would happen every once in awhile and always left me wondering why? Didn’t the instructor yammer on and on about how yoga was one of the few activities that gives you energy instead of taking it away. That it was the gas tank fueling us up for the rest of the day? Last night I taught the most amazing class. It was the kind of class in which the students move in exact synchronicity with one another. Not serious in a bad way – but curious, ready to learn, and seeking a greater discipline in their practice. How to stretch your neck and relieve neck tension effectively. If you google “neck stretches” or “neck stretching” you will get a number of variations of the following two options: Clearly, Option 2 is not the kind of stretching we are looking for, but Option 1 is quite common and is often recommended and frequently practiced in fitness and yoga classes.
It is common to begin a yoga class by leaning the head one way, taking few breaths, then another way, etc. Sometimes the hand is used for leverage as well. There is nothing wrong with these stretches, and they are definitely better then nothing, but ultimately, they are not that effective, especially if you do them at the beginning of the class. Why do we do forward bends in yoga? I heard an interesting theory that older women who have osteoporosis in their spine, shouldn’t practice forward bends because of the risk for additional fractures.
This theory is a result of a study of three patients who experienced new pain and fractures after doing “yoga flexion exercises”. I find it curious since our everyday lives are full of flexion. Try putting on pants or socks without flexing your spine. Should the women avoid those activities as well? After careful reading it becomes clear that when the study talks about “strenuous yoga flexion exercises”, it doesn’t mean just forward bends. How to use yoga to energize or unwind - Sequence Wiz - create effective yoga sequences. I am not a morning person.
7 Yoga Poses and Exercises for a Good Morning Stretch. Stretching in the morning totally is a great kick-start for the rest of your day!
Get some movement in the body, wake up your joints and muscles, and the mind is sure to follow. That might all sound nice and dandy, but in reality, my bed rules my mornings. The soft cozy, luscious swoon of the pillows usually keeps me in bed perhaps longer than I should stay there. 5 Reasons To Practice Downward Dog Every Day. Downward Facing Dog, or Adho Mukha Svanasana, is one of the most commonly practiced and most iconic yoga postures around.
In fact, I would be willing to bet that when most people think of ‘yoga,’ this pose naturally comes to mind. But how often do you pause and really take the time to dig into your Downward Dog, to really allow it to nourish and nurture your body? This pose has so many health benefits, and deserves to be so much more than a transition pose—which it so often turns into. Here are five reasons why you should mindfully practice this pose every day. 1. Walking, running, moving around, standing – most of the things we do during the day bring tension to the backs of the legs. Downward Facing Dog is an awesome posture for opening the backs of the legs because you have gravity to help you, and it is very easy to keep your spine in a beneficial position in this stretch. Keeping the spine long is not always so easy with other back body-openers like seated forward folds. 2. 3. 5 Secrets To Eating Like A Yogi. Surprise.
This isn’t a diet plan. There’s no “three green drinks in the morning followed by fasting” suggestions here. Instead, this is a challenge for you to step up to. How can you eat more like a yogi? Well hot fuzz, have I got the scoop for you, my friend. A Beautiful, Must-See Morning Yoga Sequence. Yoga Challenge: What Difference Can 30 Days Make? “Do you feel different?”
A classmate asks as we roll up our yoga mats on the last day of the 30-day yoga challenge and stow the studio’s blocks, blankets, and bolsters on the shelves. 6 sure ways to ruin your relationships with your yoga students. In my yoga teacher training we used to have Observation clinics, where we would observe each other both in static position (standing or lying down) and movement, and compare notes afterwards.
It comes as no surprise that those teachers who had more experience were able to notice much more than those who were just starting out. But the most challenging part in this exercise for most of us was to observe somebody without immediately jumping to conclusions. “Her right foot is turned out, she must have tight hip rotators”- may be she does, may be she doesn’t, it always requires further investigation. The strangest assumption I ever heard (elsewhere) was: “She complains of the pain in her right shoulder – that’s her Musician archetype is trying to get out.” What?! 5 ways to forgo the benefits of yoga poses.
Want pain-free shoulders? Cut down on your Downward dogs and Planks - Sequence Wiz - create effective yoga sequences. A fellow yoga teacher confided in me once: “I had quite a scare in my class yesterday – one of my students had dislocated a shoulder.
Luckily, there was a doctor there, who had just popped it right back into place!” Hmm, I thought, I wonder how that happened; and went to his class the following week. I could not lift my arms past my shoulders for three days afterwards. In fact, my shoulders start aching even now at the mere memory of that experience. At the time, I was a fit 20-something year old – what about other older, not-so-fit folks who attended that class? Unfortunately, in our quest for “power” we sometimes can take it a bit too far and our students’ shoulders suffer as a result. Take a look at the structure of the shoulder joint and compare it to the hip joint, both ball-and-socket joints.