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Yoga Poses for Easy Weight Loss

August 11th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

Want to lose weight the easy way? Yoga is a perfect solution for weight loss, and no, you don’t need to tie yourself up like a pretzel to do it.

Many yoga studios offer special classes for people who want to shed a few pounds. If no special Weight Loss Yoga classes are available in your area, any beginners class will be suitable, in forms like Hatha and Bikram Yoga.

As with any exercise routine, see your doctor first. Yoga is perfectly safe, but your instructor will want to know if you have challenges like high blood pressure, arthritis, or weak knees.

When you go to a yoga studio for the first time, tell the instructor what your health challenges are, and she or he will offer modified poses for you during class.

How Yoga Helps You to Lose Weight

Unlike other forms of exercise, yoga isn’t primarily an exercise routine; it’s a way of achieving balance by uniting your mind and body with your spirit. The word “yoga” comes from a Sanskrit word meaning, “to tie, unite, balance.”

So while the goal of any yoga practice isn’t explicitly to lose weight, this is one of the effects. Overweight is a sign that your system is out of balance, yoga brings it back into balance.

If you suspect that you’re overweight because you have emotional issues, yoga will help you resolve them. You don’t have to do anything special. As you practice, the poses releases deep emotions buried in your body’s tissues.

Many yoga practitioners find themselves spontaneously laughing, or weeping - this is just blocked energy releasing. Yoga is a great way to release stress.

Yoga Poses for Weight Loss

You can turn any of your favorite poses into a weight loss routine.

Here’s an example:

After a Sun Salutations warmup, go on to:

* A standing pose, like Warrior Pose; then

* A sitting pose, like Forward Bend; then

* A complementary pose like the Camel; and

* A Twist; and

* End with Corpse Post

Create your own routines, according to the time you have to spare. Just ten minutes twice a day will set you on the path to harmonious weight loss with yoga.

Enrich your life with yoga today

Read Yoga for the New You and discover everything you need to create a yoga practice right in your own home. Transform your life with yoga.

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Yoga Just for You - Fun Exercises for Every Day

August 8th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

Intrigued by yoga? This article will help you to discover a new fulfilling life: discover your body’s innate wisdom with some easy yoga exercises that everyone can do.

Here’s an essential point about yoga: it’s much more than exercises. If you think of yoga only in terms of “getting some exercise” you’re missing the point. Yes, yoga IS exercise, but it’s also an entire system of wisdom.

Yoga Helps You to Trust Your Body, because Your Body is Wiser Than Your Mind

Neuroscience is discovering what yogis have known for thousands of years. Your body’s wisdom, that instinctive intelligence Dr Candace Pert described in her book Molecules of Emotion, knows what’s best for you. It’s better than your forebrain in deciding what you should eat, and how you should exercise.

You already trust your body. You know to follow your gut - your instinct.

Let’s look at two simple exercises, which will help you to get in touch with your body’s wisdom. They’re both easy and fun, but don’t treat them lightly.

Mountain Pose - Tadasana - Be Right Where You Are

Stand straight, with your feet hip-width apart, and your arms completely relaxed, as they drop from your shoulders towards the ground.

Push your tailbone down slightly to straighten your pelvis, and feel your spine lift upward.

Press your shoulder blades downwards without straining. This will open your chest.

Breathe normally.

Relax, and be aware of your body, and your breath; maintain the pose for a minute or two.

Easy Post - Sukhasana - Just Sitting and Being

Basically, in Easy Post you’re just sitting cross legged. You’ll need a cushion.

Place your cushion on the floor, and sit toward the front of it so that your hips are higher than your knees. Straighten your legs, and then cross them. Ideally, your knees will be close to the floor; as you continue to practice, your hips will open more, making this easier.

Rest your hands lightly on your knees. As in Mountain Pose, press your shoulder blades downwards to open your chest.

If you can’t achieve this pose with a cushion on the floor, sit on a chair with your feet together on the floor.

Breathe normally, and relax. Be aware of your body, by scanning it with your mind and consciously relaxing those areas which are tight. Stay sitting for a minute or two, or as long as you wish, getting in touch with your body.

Mountain Pose and Easy pose seem simple, and they are. They’re also complex, as you’ll discover, in that they help you to become aware of your body. As your awareness grows, you’ll come to discover your body’s wisdom - this is the gift of yoga.

Enrich your life with yoga today

Read Yoga for the New You and discover everything you need to create a yoga practice right in your own home. Transform your life with yoga.

Corpse Pose - Savasana - Total relaxation

July 25th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

Savasana is a pose of total relaxation—making it one of the most challenging yoga asanas.

Benefits include:

Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression
Relaxes the body
Reduces headache, fatigue, and insomnia
Helps to lower blood pressure

In Savasana it’s essential that the body be placed in a neutral position. Sit on the floor with your knees bent, feet on the floor, and lean back onto your forearms. Lift your pelvis slightly off the floor and, with your hands, push the back of the pelvis toward the tailbone, then return the pelvis to the floor.

Inhale and slowly extend the right leg, then the left, pushing through the heels. Release both legs, softening the groins, and see that the legs are angled evenly relative to the mid-line of the torso, and that the feet turn out equally. You should narrow the front pelvis and soften (but don’t flatten) the lower back.

With your hands lift the base of the skull away from the back of the neck and release the back of the neck down toward the tailbone. If you have any difficulty doing this, support the back of the head and neck on a folded blanket. Broaden the base of the skull too, and lift the crease of the neck diagonally into the center of the head. Make sure your ears are equidistant from your shoulders.

Reach your arms toward the ceiling, perpendicular to the floor. Rock slightly from side to side and broaden the back ribs and the shoulder blades away from the spine. Then release the arms to the floor, angled evenly relative to the mid-line of torso.

Turn the arms outward and stretch them away from the space between the shoulder blades. Rest the backs of the hands on the floor as close as you comfortably can to the index finger knuckles. Make sure the shoulder blades are resting evenly on the floor. Imagine the lower tips of the shoulder blades are lifting diagonally into your back toward the top of the sternum. From here, spread the collarbones.

In addition to quieting the physical body in Savasana, it’s also necessary to pacify the sense organs. Soften the root of the tongue, the wings of the nose, the channels of the inner ears, and the skin of the forehead, especially around the bridge of the nose between the eyebrows. Let the eyes sink to the back of the head, then turn them downward to gaze at the heart. Release your brain to the back of the head.

Stay in this pose for 5 minutes for every 30 minutes of practice. To exit, first roll gently with an exhalation onto one side, preferably the right. Take 2 or 3 breaths. With another exhalation press your hands against the floor and lift your torso, dragging your head slowly after. The head should always come up last.

After completing these exercises, take a few moments to practice some deep meditation which is covered in the next section.

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