Archive for the ‘Yoga Tips’ Category

Yoga Poses for Losing Weight

Sunday, December 7th, 2008

yogavacation

Practicing yoga regularly offers numerous benefits including relaxing your mind and body, strengthening your muscles and organs, reducing stress as well as improving your mental and your physical well-being. One of the more popular reasons why many people are beginning to practice yoga would be its effectiveness in helping to lose weight.

Losing weight through yoga could depend on what type of yoga you practice. Some of the types of yoga that are recommended for weight loss would include: Ashtanga Yoga, Power Yoga and Hot Yoga. There are also some yoga poses that have been proven to help in losing weight more efficiently. Here are some of them.

1. The Dancers Pose

Start in the Mountain pose. Bend your right leg slowly behind you and then grab the inner portion of your right foot. Extend your left arm overhead and then bend forward up until your torso is parallel along the floor. Raise your right leg behind as high you can as you maintain your balance. Hold the position for a few breaths and then repeat on the opposite side.

2. The Chair Pose

Stretch your arms overhead and then bend your knees to a 90-degree angle. While in this squatting position, maintain the length on your back and your neck. Hold the position for 30 seconds and then release to the Mountain pose.

3. The Reverse Warrior Pose

Begin by positioning your feet apart. Slowly raise your arms to the sides. Your ankles should be underneath your wrists. Curve your left foot slightly inwards and your right foot outwards. Bend your right leg to a 90-degree angle, while keeping your left leg straight. Slide your left hand down your left leg and toward your ankle. Raise your right arm overhead and then bend back as you gaze at your fingertips. Hold the position for a few breaths and repeat on your opposite leg.

4. The Downward Facing Dog Pose

Start on all fours and position your hands under your shoulders. Lift your hips and lengthen through your spine and straighten your legs.

5. The Opposite Arm Extension Pose

Starting in the tabletop position, slowly lift your right arm and then extend it forward. Follow by raising your left leg and extending it back. Hold the position for three breaths. This move can actually strengthen your abs, back, legs, hips and buttocks, which are areas prone to cellulite. Repeat thrice on each side.

Keep in mind, though, that although these positions may help you in losing weight through yoga, it would still be advisable help to make sure that you have good eating habits by eating a proper diet. With a good combination of these, you would surely be able to shed more pounds easily and healthily.

Yoga Asanas for beginners

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

What does asana mean? It is a strange word and it is easy to get confuse with all the names when starting yoga. It is fairly simple: asana simply mean various yoga postures. There are good chances that you recently started yoga if you are reading this article, so it will be of great interest for you. The asanas presented in this article are in no way “expert asanas” are are meant to get you accustomed to yoga practices by gaining increased flexibility.

Asana happens to be one of the pillar of yoga practices and it is for a reason: through asanas, you will learn balance, patience, tolerance and perseverance.

How to perform asanas

Asanas can be performed in a lot of different positions: seated, standing, turning and twisting posture, balancing posture and supine. There are multiple levels in asanas depending on the level of complexity. These levels are pretty simple and are: beginner, middle and comple.

Which asana for what.

Depending on what you are looking to improve, there are different asanas you will want to consider. For example, if you’d like to make your back or hips stronger, you will have to look into sitting asanas. For your mental condition, balance postures will be your best bet. To enhance your flexibility you can use twisting and turning asanas and if you are just looking for tranquility and peace then relaxation is for yo.

Popular asanas

  • Shvasana: This asana requires you to lie on your back in a completely rested state. This is why this asana is called the corpse pose
  • Padmasana: This asanas will test your tolerance level because it is a sitting posture with errected back and with legs on opposite thighs
  • Navasana: To perform this asana correctly, you will be required, by being in a sitting posture, to lift your legs with a 45 degrees angle from the surface of the floor.
  • Utkatasna: This one is hard and will require endurance. This is because this pose requires you to be in a sitting position without any chair. While in this position, you will have to raise your handes towards sky.
  • Dhanurasana: This is a hard one and you will have to lie with the help of your stomach and thighs. Then, what you want to ahieve is a “bow” posture by simply taking hold of your legs with your hands.

Being aware of you level of skills is important when practicing yoga. If you are a beginner, concentrate on beginner’s asanas and slowly move to more complex ones.

Yoga breathing to beat the stress

Monday, November 24th, 2008

In today’s world, we all have a lot on our minds and we often feel overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. Whatever your reasons are to feel this way, fear and anxiety eventually leads to stress and it’s hard to be at your best under constant stress and pressure. Stress plays a big role in your general health, so it is extremely important to relax. By knowing this, why not learn today how to recognize and manage your stress levels so that you can go ahead in life and achieve your goals?

One way of doing so, is by the proactive of Yogic breathing exercises. These exercises offer you a way to manage your anxieties and live a more balanced live. A lot of Yoga students report the benefits of using the yoga breathing exercises when they feel overwhelmed or stress. This can be particularly useful for them in extreme stress situations like an exam. This can also be useful to you in your everyday life, before a supervision by your team manager or a meeting with new people.

You breath really is the essence of yoga as it’s your connection to life. This is an essential step into establishing control and balance over your emotions so you can get more out of your life.

The core of yoga is built on breathing practices called pranayama. If you want to reduce your stress levels, it is important you learn how to breath correctly and yoga can help you achieve that. The following yoga breathing exercises are among the most effective one and should bring you maximum benefit in releasing stress and tension. You don’t need any particular skill to practice them, they are fairly simple and can be practiced at any time of the day.

Diaphragmatic Breathing

This one can be practiced by lying down on your back(comfortable surface of course), sitting on a chair or even standing up and that’s why it makes that method easy to practice at any time. First, place one hand on your upper chest and the other hand on your belly. It is important to relax your belly and chest and keep your mouth closed for this technique to work properly so that you breathe in through the nose and feel your belly rising up, then the ribcage and finally the upper chest. It is advised to practice around five to seven rounds of this exercise before opening your eyes. Then, be still for a few moments and then you’re ready to re-engage with your day!

Watch The Breath

While sitting comfortably, close your eyes and become aware of how you are breathing. It is important not to change the way or the speed at which you breathe, but to just be aware of the movement of air going through your nose. Then, allow your breath stabilize and continue to listen to your breath breath for a couple of minutes

It is more than natural to lose concentration with this exercise. It is totally normal, so simply start over again when this happen.

Lion Roar

To perform that one, you are free to either sit or stand, but scrunch your face up. Open your eyes, open your mouth, look upwards, stretch out your tongue and finalloy just roar like a lion! We don’t recommend this one at work, but repeat until you feel powerful, calm and under control.