Yoga

What Is Yoga?

Yoga can seem like a complicated concept - or, at the least, a dizzying array of physical manipulations that turn seemingly happy-looking human beings into happy looking human pretzels.

Even more disconcerting, a stereotype does exist in places where the term yoga is synonymous with cult, or some kind of archaic spiritual belief that compels one to quit their job, sell their house, and go live in the middle of nowhere.

In actual fact, Yoga is a very basic "thing". If you’ve had the opportunity to visit a country where it has been established for generations – India, Japan, China, and others – it’s really rather, well, "ordinary".

The practice of yoga came to the west back in 1893 when one of India’s celebrated gurus, Swami Vivekananda, was welcomed at the World Fair in Chicago. He is now known for having sparked the West’s interest in yoga.

Literally, the word yoga comes from the Sanskrit term Yug, which means: “to yoke, bind, join, or direct one’s attention”. At the same time, yoga can also imply concepts such as fusion, union, and discipline.

The sacred scriptures of Hinduism (an ancient belief system from India that has a global presence) also defines yoga as “unitive discipline”; the kind of discipline that, according to experts Georg Feuerstein and Stephan Bodian in their book Living Yoga, leads to inner and outer union, harmony and joy.

In essence, yoga is most commonly understood as conscious living; of tapping into one’s inner potential for happiness (what Sankrit refers to as ananda).

What Yoga Isn’t:

Sometimes it’s helpful to understand things by what they aren’t; especially when dealing with a topic, like Yoga, that is quite easily misunderstood.

Authors and yoga scholars Feuerstein and Bodian help us understand yoga by telling us what it is NOT:

Yoga is NOT calisthenics (marked by the headstand, the lotus posture or some pretzel-like pose). While it is true that yoga involves many postures – especially in hatha yoga – these are only intended to make people get in touch with their inner feelings.

Yoga is NOT a system of meditation – or a religion – the way many people are misled to believe. Meditation is only part of the whole process of bringing ourselves into the realm of the spiritual.

What is the essence of Yoga?

Virtually all yogic science and philosophy states that a human being is but a fragment of an enormous universe, and when this human being learns to “communion” with this vastness, then he/she attains union with something that is bigger than him/her.

This attachment or tapping into something bigger thus enables one to walk the true path of happiness. By flowing along with the force, the individual is able to discover truth.

And with truth comes realization; but to attain realization, our words, thoughts and deeds must be based on truth. People attend courses on yoga and go to studios to learn new techniques in yoga, but yoga teacher Tim Miller said that “True yoga begins when leave the studio; it’s all about being awake and being mindful of your actions".

What Is Ashtanga Yoga? Understanding the Methods

What is Ashtanga yoga? Find out what makes ashtanga yoga different to other types of yoga, who ashtanga yoga is suited for, and some of the types of yoga poses involved.

What Is Ashtanga Yoga? Understanding the Methods

Ashtanga yoga, also known as power yoga, is quickly gaining popularity among practitioners. So what is Ashtanga yoga? It is the form of yoga most used by athletes and those interested in quickly increasing strength and stamina. Because of that, Ashtanga yoga postures have a higher degree of difficulty than those in other styles. Additionally, they are done as part of series.

Usually, students doing Ashtanga yoga postures will move quickly from one to the other to maintain that focus on strength. That is in opposition to many other forms of yoga where the emphasis is on breathing, relaxation, and flexibility.

Who Should Practice Ashtanga Yoga?

Ashtanga yoga poses are for most anyone who is in decent shape. If you are new to exercise, this is probably not the form of yoga with which you should start. Even the very easiest of Ashtanga poses are very demanding on the body, especially since you will even start with a body warming routine that is designed to activate your muscles. Overall, Ashtanga yoga can provide you with a build up of strength, stamina, and even some flexibility which explains its popularity with those involved in athletics.

If you decide to give Ashtanga a try, you should expect things to progress quickly. You will likely start right off with a sequence of yoga poses. Those will be practiced until the teacher feels you have mastered it fairly well and have complete understanding of its fundamentals. Then, you will move on to another series and a higher level of difficulty. Overall, it is a very fast moving form of yoga.

Ashtanga Poses

As for the Ashtanga yoga poses, they range widely in terms of positioning. You will find yourself moving from standing, backbent, inverted, balancing, seated, and even twisting poses. In power yoga, the sun salutation sequence of poses is very popular as well, so you will often use standing forward bend, upward dog, downward dog, and many other poses sprinkled in as well.

Though much of the focus in Ashtanga yoga poses is on the development of stamina and strength, you will also, as with any yoga, be focusing. You will be asked to focus your eyes on a point as you move through the poses given out by your instructor. In order to get the full effect and benefit of Ashtanga, you should make sure that your muscles and perhaps even the rooms are very warm. This ensures maximum flexibility and minimal injury as you work through the demanding postures.

If you are into athletics, exercise, or just want a new physical challenge, perhaps you should consider giving Ashtanga yoga a try. The clear choice of athletes and an increasingly popular form in general, it is perfect for those that are in decent shape and want to increase their strength, stamina, and flexibility. Power yoga is a series of poses taken in a quick and free flowing sequence. Even the classes move quickly with teachers adding more difficult sequences every time one is fairly well mastered. So if you learn fast, like to work hard, and think you are up to the challenge of power yoga, then you may benefit greatly from Ashtanga yoga poses.

Yes it is true that people are living longer today but the real question is what is their quality of life? If you have the option to start now and exercise your body using a low impact stretching and toning exercise, enabling your body and mind to get into a place of optimal health and well being or to have to rely on doctors to poke and prod at you and prescribe medications after medication what would your choice be?

Hopefully as yoga grows in popularity citizens of the world will enjoy the benefits of this low impact exercise and increase the positive energy in their mind and bodies enabling them to live longer and healthier lives.

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Using Yoga to Improve Your Health and Well Being

There are many things you can do to improve your health. It is a fact that you will need to adopt some sort of exercise program. Although everyone perfers differnet activities for exercise Yoga can by far provide you with so many benefits both physically and psychologically. Find out how Yoga can improve your over all well-being.

Using Yoga to Improve Your Health and Well Being

With all the new television infomercials on gadgets and videos on improving one’s health and wellbeing there is one strong hold on low impact exercise that not only improves your body but also improves the psychological state which give your entire being the sense of positive well being. By being involved in Yoga on a regular basis one can expect to feel better and more alive. Yoga does promote positive energies within the body which in turn will create positive energy in the mind increasing your total well being.

One of the physical benefits you will experience is increased flexibility. As most people know Yoga consist on many movements, stretches and poses which act on various joints in your body. Many of these joints are joints that are rarely used. So the stretching and use of these joints, ligament and tendons help to increase your flexibility. These movements also provide flexibility to the supporting joints, ligament and tendons.

Yoga provides massage to all your organs and glands including the prostate which never gets external stimulation. The gent stretching of your muscles and joints when doing yoga maximizes blood flow in your body enabling your body to flush toxins, provide nourishment to your body and in turn slows aging and increases energy.

By stretching and using muscles to hold many of these positions, Yoga helps to tone the body provide correct posture and keep your body tone and firm.

Yoga is an excellent exercise which helps with all aspects of your life both mentally and physically. Yoga has been used to improve sleep, decrease pain in joints, increase energy, range of motion and also has many psychological benefits.

An exercise like Yoga through the bending and stretching of the spine builds strength, endurance and lowering the stress hormone that cause aging. The reduction of stress will reduce the acid conditions within the body and enabling your body to intake more oxygen. It also balances the nervous system helping to reduce depression and anxiety and increases your concentration and enhances your mood.

Yoga when practiced regularly puts your body in a positive healthy state. This in turn puts you mind in a positive healthy state which helps to keep your body looking and felling good. Yoga provides a continuous loop of positive well being and continual rejuvenation. The stretching also contribute to improving your posture allowing you to stand straighter with your back erect and your hamstrings fully stretched and flexible leaving you in a alert and confident state.

Yes it is true that people are living longer today but the real question is what is their quality of life? If you have the option to start now and exercise your body using a low impact stretching and toning exercise, enabling your body and mind to get into a place of optimal health and well being or to have to rely on doctors to poke and prod at you and prescribe medications after medication what would your choice be?

Hopefully as yoga grows in popularity citizens of the world will enjoy the benefits of this low impact exercise and increase the positive energy in their mind and bodies enabling them to live longer and healthier lives.

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Using Yoga For Weight Loss

Yoga can be put to good use for taking off excess pounds through the power of creating a state of mental and physical well being. The basic tenets of Yoga promotes a healthy lifestyle and when combined with a calorie reduction can help to speed up your weight loss. It will increase your metabolism by increasing the caloric burning process. All weight loss is based on using more calories than you take in. It will also allow you to increase your ability to concentrate and focus.

Your thyroid regulates your metabolism and is responsible for the chemical processes that transform food into energy. Yoga uses a series of twisting poses that will help to stimulate the work flow of the internal organs. This will cause your metabolism to increase and burn more calories which will eventually cause you to have a lower body weight. Another side effect is that it will help to improve your circulation and increase your energy level.

The various back bends combined with the forward bends will help to stimulate the metabolism. The poses that affect the neck region can be helpful in stimulating the thyroid if the weight problem is caused by a hormonal imbalance. Poses that will help the most for this include the camel, rabbit, plow, bridge and head stand. Going quickly between the various poses can help to accelerate the weght loss. Beware though that those seriously overweight may find some of these poses extremely difficult and should start slowly with the easier poses and add others as they become more confident in the easier ones.

You can use standing poses to increase muscle strengthening such as the warrior. These will help to create higher endurance and increase your caloric usage.

Remember that a gradual approach is best with all Yoga practices. The long term effects on your weight loss regime will become evident and even more so the inner peace and general well feeling that Yoga will promote within you.

a humidity of around 40%. Generally a sequence of 26 different poses is practiced during a Bikram Yoga class and the hot temperature helps to loosen muscles. Due to the high temperature most people sweat a lot during the class and this helps to cleanse the body of toxins.

If you’re just starting out or have never done any Yoga before, I recommend trying a few different types of yoga to find out what you like best.

Remember, there’s no rule that says you have to stick to one type of Yoga. I like Ashtanga Yoga best, but I also go to occasional Iyengar and Hatha Yoga classes for a bit of variety.

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Understanding the different types of Yoga

Confused about the different types of Yoga? Read this quick guide to find out what's right for you.

Understanding the different types of Yoga

Yoga is becoming a more and more popular activity in the Western world today. The number of places holding Yoga classes is on the increase and there is a plethora of different types of Yoga. With a choice of Hatha Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, Power Yoga, Iyengar Yoga, Bikram Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga and many more it can be easy to get confused

The article will help you to understand the difference between the most popular types of Yoga so you can choose which type is right for you.

Hatha Yoga – in Sanskrit (an ancient classical language of India) “Ha” means “sun” and “tha” means “moon”. This type of Yoga is relatively slow paced, gentle type of Yoga and is a good place to start if you are completely new to Yoga and don’t know any of the asanas (poses). Like all types of Yoga, Hatha Yoga aims to unite the mind, body and spirit.

Ashtanga Yoga – this is the type of Yoga that I practice on a regular basis and means “eight limbs” in Sanskrit. It’s a fast moving, intense style of Yoga practice and is based on a progressive set sequence of asanas, synchronized with the breath. Ashtanga Yoga can be quite physically demanding as you constantly move from one asana in the sequence to the next, so you’ll find that it will improve your stamina as well as your flexibility and strength..

Power Yoga – this is a western interpretation of Yoga and is based on Ashtanga Yoga. A Power Yoga class may not necessarily stick to the exact sequence of poses like Ashtanga Yoga does, but it does involve practicing a series of poses without stopping and starting.

Iyengar Yoga – This type of Yoga is based on teachings by B.K.S Igengar and concentrates on the correct alignment and form of the body. Unlike Ashtanga Yoga, there is an emphasis on holding each pose for a long period of time rather than moving constantly from one pose to the next. Iyengar Yoga uses props such as blocks and straps to help align the body into the different poses.

Vinyasa Yoga – Vinyasa means breath synchronized movement and is another fast paced type of Yoga, with an emphasis on breathing. A practice typically starts with sun salutations and moves on to more intense stretching. Throughout the practice each pose is balanced with a counter pose.

Bikram Yoga – otherwise known as “Hot Yoga”, is practiced in a room heated to 105 degrees, with a humidity of around 40%. Generally a sequence of 26 different poses is practiced during a Bikram Yoga class and the hot temperature helps to loosen muscles. Due to the high temperature most people sweat a lot during the class and this helps to cleanse the body of toxins.

If you’re just starting out or have never done any Yoga before, I recommend trying a few different types of yoga to find out what you like best.

Remember, there’s no rule that says you have to stick to one type of Yoga. I like Ashtanga Yoga best, but I also go to occasional Iyengar and Hatha Yoga classes for a bit of variety.

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