Sunday, September 30, 2012

Increasing Core Strength

Our friends in the Pilates world have long known about the importance of core strength, but it's a term that becoming more and more widespread in the yoga community. The core refers to the muscles of the torso, both front and back, which support your spine, affecting your posture, and integrate the workings of your upper and lower body. While many workouts approach the abdominals in a fairly superficial way, yoga positions can get deep into your midsection, working muscles you didn't even know you had, which is great for your long-term fitness and health.

Forearm Plank:

Step by Step
Start in Dolphin Pose, knees bent. Then walk your feet back until your shoulders are directly over the elbows and your torso is parallel to the floor.
Press your inner forearms and elbows firmly against the floor. Firm your shoulder blades against your back and spread them away from the spine. Similarly spread your collarbones away from the sternum.
Press your front thighs toward the ceiling, but resist your tailbone toward the floor as you lengthen it toward the heels. Lift the base of your skull away from the back of the neck and look straight down at the floor, keeping the throat and eyes soft.
Stay anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute. Then, release your knees to the floor with an exhalation.


Full Boat:

Step by Step
Sit on the floor with your legs straight in front of you. Press your hands on the floor a little behind your hips, fingers pointing toward the feet, and strengthen the arms. Lift through the top of the sternum and lean back slightly. As you do this make sure your back doesn't round; continue to lengthen the front of your torso between the pubis and top sternum. Sit on the "tripod" of your two sitting bones and tailbone.
Exhale and bend your knees, then lift your feet off the floor, so that the thighs are angled about 45-50 degrees relative to the floor. Lengthen your tailbone into the floor and lift your pubis toward your navel. If possible, slowly straighten your knees, raising the tips of your toes slightly above the level of your eyes. If this isn't possible remain with your knees bent, perhaps lifting the shins parallel to the floor.
Stretch your arms alongside the legs, parallel to each other and the floor. Spread the shoulder blades across your back and reach strongly out through the fingers. If this isn't possible, keep the hands on the floor beside your hips or hold on to the backs of your thighs.
While the lower belly should be firm, it shouldn't get hard and thick. Try to keep the lower belly relatively flat. Press the heads of the thigh bones toward the floor to help anchor the pose and lift the top sternum. Breathe easily. Tip the chin slightly toward the sternum so the base of the skull lifts lightly away from the back of the neck.
At first stay in the pose for 10-20 seconds. Gradually increase the time of your stay to 1 minute. Release the legs with an exhalation and sit upright on an inhalation.

For more information:
http://pilates.about.com/od/historyofpilates/a/JPilates.htm
http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/finder/browse_categories

Sunday, September 23, 2012





This weekend I will complete my certification in Restorative Yoga. I have practiced various types of yoga including restorative yoga to manage my stress as well as assisting in my recovery from cancer.

Restorative yoga can be helpful to anyone.  It will help those who suffer from neck and back pain, high blood pressure, headaches, life's everyday stressors and to those of you like myself, recovering from cancer.

Judith Lasaster, Ph.d., P.T. has an amazing workshop for yoga teachers and a book, Relax and Renew that anyone will find helpful. Judith lists how restorative yoga works:

Restorative poses help relieve the effects of chronic stress in several ways. First, the use of props as described in this book provides a completely supportive environment for total relaxation.

Second, each restorative sequence is designed to move the spine in all directions. These movements illustrate the age-old wisdom of yoga that teaches well-being is enhanced by a healthy spine. Some of the restorative poses are backbends, while others are forward bends. Additional poses gently twist the column both left and right.

Third, a well-sequenced restorative practice also includes an inverted pose, which reverses the effects of gravity. This can be as simple as putting the legs on a bolster or pillow, but the effects are quite dramatic. Because we stand or sit most of the day, blood and lymph fluid accumulate in the lower extremities. By changing the relationship of the legs to gravity, fluids are returned to the upper body and heart function is enhanced.
Psychobiologist and yoga teacher Roger Cole, Ph.D., consultant to the University of California, San Diego, in sleep research and biological rhythms, has done preliminary research on the effects of inverted poses. He found that they dramatically alter hormone levels, thus reducing brain arousal, blood pressure, and fluid retention. He attributes these benefits to a slowing of the heart rate and dilation of the blood vessels in the upper body that comes from reversing the effects of gravity.

Fourth, restorative yoga alternately stimulates and soothes the organs. For example, by closing the abdomen with a forward bend and then opening it with a backbend, the abdominal organs are squeezed, forcing the blood out, and then opened, so that fresh blood returns to soak the organs. With this movement of blood comes the enhanced exchange of oxygen and waste products across the cell membrane.

Finally, yoga teaches that the body is permeated with energy. Prana, the masculine energy, resides above the diaphragm, moves upward, and controls respiration and heart rate. Apana, the feminine energy, resides below the diaphragm, moves downward, and controls the function of the abdominal organs. Restorative yoga balances these two aspects of energy so that the practitioner is neither overstimulated nor depleted.

So I encourage all to give it a try! What do you have to lose? Find a teacher in your area that is certified in restorative yoga.  You do not have to be fit or flexible.  You just have to want to make yourself healthier and feel better.

If you live in the Dallas area, join me at Rescue Yoga in Carrollton on Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m for more info go to http://rescueyoga.blogspot.com/.

For more information about Judith Lasater go to
http://www.restorativeyogateachers.com/

Shanti :-)

Monday, September 17, 2012

Yoga Fun!

Join me at Rescue Yoga in Carrollton every Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Wednesday at 6 p.m. for Rescue Yoga, a restorative class. Go to our website for location map and a complete class schedule.

My New Blog

It is sometimes hard to learn something new. This is my new blog to share my love of yoga. I have never had a blog before and this will be a learn as I go experience.  Please view my profile to get to know a little about me. I have been practicing yoga for 14 years and teaching for 4 years. I would love to hear why you are interested in yoga or what led you to practice yoga.  Please feel free to ask questions.  "Yoga is a light, which once lit, will never dim.  The better you practice, the brighter the flame."  B.K.S. Iyengar