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By Faye Martins We often hear that asana is just one of many Yogic aspects, but a 200 hour Yoga teacher training program may focus on asana for 100 hours. Yoga asana is essentially a deep internal massage. As you move through a series of postures the muscles, bones and organs bend, twist, flex, contract, lengthen and release with each other. In manipulating the body this way, energy blockages are released and the internal organs massaged.

Are you suffering from back pain? Yoga exercises and yoga stretches can help you to get rid off your back pain in quickly. Review this DIY video for more information.

By Faye Martins If you have decided to become a yoga instructor for students who have had a previous stroke, there is much you should know about asana modifications and how to properly use props. Specialized yoga teacher training and therapy are needed in order to give students the best attention and care. A stroke can have devastating effects on the body. Victims can lose the ability to walk or even stand unassisted. Depending on which part of the brain the stroke affects, speech, balance, visual perception and memory can also be altered. Recent studies on the effects of yoga on stroke patients have shown positive results. Yoga helps patients regain balance and agility, and yoga can help patients release the negative emotions associated with this life-altering event.

By Narendra Maheshri The Salamba Sirsasana, or Headstand, is one of the poses most widely identified with yoga practice. Many practitioners view it as a pose that, while difficult, should be aspired to because of the mental and physical benefits it espouses. Many raw beginners worry that the pose is too advanced for them to master easily, and yet mastering several poses like Mountain Pose, Downward Facing Dog, and Shoulder stand can help prepare yogis for the shoulder lift and inversion of the more difficult Headstand.

By Bhavan Kumar The romance between yoga and your hinge joints is a bittersweet one. In addition to being very conscious of your knees, it is also imperative to be mindful of your elbows. Either of these complex hinge joints can easily be hyperextended, which can lead to injury and pain. Generally speaking, hyperextensions require rest to heal, which means that holding postures will be better for you than flowing through them. For teachers, this means recommending a student to the restorative class and advising him or her to avoid the vinyasa class. Additionally, postures that stress the elbows will not help the healing process.

By Kathryn Boland Do you notice how 99 percent of the time in yoga asana practices; we seek to make right angles (90 degrees) in one to many locations in the body? Do you find yourself often cueing your students towards this structure? Just like with buildings, square structure adds stability. A main reason for this is basic physics: when something is slanted, gravity can exert greater force on it. In the body, that means greater muscular force must counteract that force - or one falls to the ground.