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TITLE AND SUBJECT OF ARTICLE
Yoga for Women: How
to Gain a Shapely Waist through Yoga
The size of the waist is an indication of
overall fitness for many people. Most health experts
agree that a smaller waist is healthier than a big one.
The reasoning behind this is that increases in fat
around the waist usually result in increased health
risks such as diabetes, high cholesterol and blood
pressure.
In evolutionary and biological terms,
a small waist signifies youth and vitality. But doing
endless workouts of crunches alone will not allow you to
achieve that Venus-like waist of your dreams. You will
need to supplement specific waist-orientated exercises
with ones from various disciplines.
Specifically
you will need to work the inner girdle of muscles -
commonly known as the core muscles - with slow abdominal
exercises that work very deep into these muscle groups.
While usually associated with building
flexibility, some specific exercises from yoga-based
workouts also target the underlying core muscles around
the waist.
Yoga: How To
Develop A Home Practice
Many people ask how to start a home yoga
practice so here is some information to get you going.
First I will review the basics and then discuss how
often to practice and what to practice. Remember though,
the only right practice is regular practice! Don’t let
your desire for perfectionism get in your way. Just show
up at your mat and practice. Yoga is a life-long journey
– perhaps many lives!
Environment
The
space should be quiet, and ideally used only for yoga.
(Can be...
Yoga, Beginning Yoga, Practicing Yoga
at Home, Home Practice
Many people ask how to
start a home yoga practice so here is some information
to get you going. First I will review the basics and
then discuss how often to practice and what to practice.
Remember though, the only right practice is regular
practice! Don’t let your desire for perfectionism get in
your way. Just show up at your mat and practice. Yoga is
a life-long journey – perhaps many lives!
Environment
The space should be quiet, and
ideally used only for yoga. (Can be a section of any
room)
Place a mat, blanket or towel on the floor.
The temperature should be moderate - not too cold and
not too hot.
The room should have fresh air but not
windy or cold.
Sunrise and sundown are desirable
times for yoga (although any time works!)
Preparation
Wear light comfortable clothing.
A
bath or shower before is good for limberness -wait at
least 20 minutes after
practicing before bathing)
In the morning wash, urinate and move the bowels before
practice.
Practice before eating or wait two hours
after a meal.
Physical Practice (asanas)
Do not practice if there is a fever or deep wounds.
Consult a teacher if there is an illness.
Spend five
to ten minutes warming up/stretching before beginning
practice.
Do not force your limbs into a
difficult position. In time your body will open. We are
after sensation not pain!
Beginners should hold
each asana for 3-5 breaths. After about three months of
regular practice this can be increased to 5 to 10
breaths.
Always inhale and exhale through the
nostrils unless specified otherwise. Focus on making the
breath slow and smooth.
At any time you need a
rest come into child pose or shavasana (corpse pose)
Finish asanas with shavasana for five to ten minutes.
How often to practice.
The rule of thumb for
how often to practice is simple: It is better to
practice for short durations regularly than to practice
once a week for a long time. In other words it is better
to practice 4 times a week for forty-five minutes then
to practice one day for two hours.
With that
being said some people get what they need from
practicing just a couple of times each week while other
practice five or six times a week. It varies from person
to person. On average though you will get the most
benefit from your practice with average of four sessions
per week. The length of time of each session depends on
your experience with yoga, time constraints, level of
fitness, and motivation. A good idea is to have a
journal to keep track of your practice with information
such as date, how long you practiced, what you
practiced, how you felt during and after your practice,
what thoughts came to mind during practice, how you felt
later in the day as well as the next day, which postures
were challenging and which were felt good.
General framework for your session
Always begin
your practice with easy movements and build towards the
more difficult postures ending with a cool down. Imagine
a bell curve: at the beginning of the bell curve is a
moment of centering. As you move up the curve there are
warm-ups, then opening postures which help to build
heat/ flexibility/strength and at the top of the curve
are the most challenging postures. Moving down the other
side of the bell curve are cool down postures followed
by Shavasana.
Here is a template that you can use
to create your own practice session:
Theme or
focus (more on this below):
Centering:
Warm-ups:
Opening postures
Challenging postures:
Cool down postures:
Shavasana:
Which postures
to practice.
Sometimes it is fun to have a
practice without any preconceived notion of what to do
and just see what comes out. Sometime it is desirable to
tune into your body and see what your body is asking
for. Other times you’ll want to plan your session as
indicated above. It is during these session that having
theme will be helpful. Some classical themes include:
backbends, forward bends, twists, balance postures,
standing postures, seated postures, inversions,
restorative postures, hip openers, shoulder openers,
strength building postures, groin openers, hamstring
openers, and postures that build energy. Linking
postures together (vinyasa) is yet another way to create
a practice. In the Iyengar system we focus on linking
alignment cues from posture to posture. Of course you
may have specific health reasons that you are working
with for which it would be best to consult a qualified
yoga teacher to help create a practice. I encourage you
to be creative – come up with your own themes and see
how it is. It has been said that in yoga you are both
the scientist and the experiment!
In my book
“Beginning Yoga: A Practice Manual” I offer 20 different
practice sequences to guide your home practice as well
as a chapter on how to set up a home practice.
Yoga for Beginners:
How to take those first steps into Yoga
Yoga is all around us these days. From
Sting to Madonna, to maybe even your next door neighbor,
everyone is hooked upon this fitness craze and with good
cause. As a form of physical exercise, Yoga indeed is a
force to be reckoned with. But just how can one go about
using yoga for beginners? Let’s find out how today.
Yoga for beginners
Yoga is all around us
these days. From Sting to Madonna, to maybe even your
next door neighbor, everyone is hooked upon this fitness
craze and with good cause. As a form of physical
exercise, Yoga indeed is a force to be reckoned with.
But just how can one go about using yoga for beginners?
It is my hope that as a Yoga practitioner and
enthusiast, this article will be of assistance in this
regard.
If you have been considering learning
yoga or have recently begun a yoga practice, I hope to
provide you with some useful and helpful tips in which
may be helpful to you in using yoga for beginners.
I have been doing Yoga for quite some time now, 6
years to be exact and since the first day I swore of
free-weights and exercise machines, my use of Yoga and
other body weight exercises like Hindu-Push ups (in my
honest opinion a Yoga derivative) has been the main
method for keeping fit. (in addition-of course- to my
diet which co-incidentally changed when I started Yoga
as a beginner those 6 years back.)
I will now
enumerate the yoga poses to be learned as a starter
which can aid or supplement your knowledge from your
yoga classes, books and or DVD’s.
Yoga for
Beginners: Yoga Poses to Learn first.
The Sun
Salutations: Okay, this is the core of Yoga itself. This
exercise is a combination of Yoga Poses, Breathing
exercise, Sun Bathing and Prayer. It is the warm-up of a
yoga class or personal yoga session and is a combination
of poses, 12 to be exact, that are performed in a
synchronized motion with emphasis on rhythmic breathing.
They mildly exercise the arms and legs and are often
recommended for obesity, depression and fitness.
Friends, several Martial Artists, Indian and African
Wrestlers perform tons of rounds of these exercises
alone, so in learning yoga, for beginners, this will be
a guaranteed must-know.
The Shoulder Stand:
Don’t be intimidated by the name at all. Even for a
beginner, this yoga pose is a piece of cake, really. It
is actually a very important pose though, arguably the
most important as its Sanskrit name (Savangasana)
actually means the “all members” or “all limbs” pose,
meaning it affects all parts of the body. As a beginner,
be aware that some poses (such as this one) do have
specific counter poses, so if you’re taking a Yoga for
beginner class or learning from a DVD, make sure you are
taught these poses to counter-act and balance the
effects of the Shoulder-stand pose on the body, these
are the Bridge and fish poses. Here’s a hint or ratio to
adhere to in their combined execution: 6:1:2 , meaning
the ‘bridge’ and ‘fish’ poses should be held for a sixth
and third of the time you spend in the Shoulder-stand
Pose respectively.
The Corpse Pose: You’ve got
to learn this Yoga Pose as a beginner. It is the
relaxation pose that is usually executed during and
after your session as a means of relaxing the muscles
used for your yoga exercise. At the end of a session, it
is usually done for about 15 minutes and one always
comes out feeling refreshed after its execution.
Arguably, these are the 3 main poses you have to lay
emphasis on in learning yoga for a beginner, but there
are other poses that should be included as you go
further. They are
1. The forward Bending
exercises: Head to Knee pose, Plough Pose and Wind
reliving pose
2. The Back Bending Exercises: The
Bow, Inclined Plane and Wheel Poses.
3. The
Spinal Twists
4. The Balancing Exercises: The
Peacock, Crow, Side Plank and 4-limbed staff Poses
5. The Exercises in Sitting and Standing Positions
6. The Abdominal and Breathing Exercises.
Each of these groups has several variations on the root
poses; however, let me tell you a secret that would go a
long way in aiding you as a beginner learning Yoga. Do
at least 24 round of the previously mentioned Sun
Salutations and the ease in executing these poses will
come almost naturally. Trust me.
There are
several styles of Yoga to pick from and in seeking the
right style of Yoga for a beginner; it might be quite
difficult to pick the best. However, since Iyengar Yoga
seems to involve a lot of props that can aid till
flexibility is re-gained or enhanced, it may be one of
the easier choices to pick. Kripalu and Bikram Yoga may
also be quite easy to pick up as well as a beginner.
To find the best yoga for beginner class around you,
you can always check your local YMCA or YWCA branches as
they almost always carry information on Yoga classes for
all stages: from beginner to intermediate.
One
other factor that I must stress is the need to also pick
up a Yoga diet for health and aiding these poses to both
strengthen and detoxify you. This will-as a result of
the symbiotic relationship that exists between Yoga and
a proper diet-speed up an increase in fitness, weight
loss, focus and the ability to execute these poses
easily.
Though Yoga for beginners may best be
learned from a certified instructor, your own practice
will remain paramount for your mastery of this form of
physical culture and there are tons of books and DVD’s
to help in regards to this. Moreover, keep in mind that
as a beginner doing yoga, not unless you intend to do
lots of Sun Salutations as mentioned above, you may
still want to incorporate some body-weight resistance
poses (that co-incidentally are still Yogic in origin)
such as the Hindu-Push-ups and Squats and the Bridge
(now this is and the first one are basically Yoga poses
in motion friends...).
This combination will see
that till you have mastered the use of Yoga poses to
make a complete session, you are still burning up enough
calories and exercising the muscles for both weight loss
and fitness.
Doing Yoga is fun, exhilarating and
extremely rewarding for lots of reasons that may have
already got you researching about it, so needless to
say, choosing this exercise, even as a beginner, will go
a long way into making for a fitter and healthier you.