Yoga For Beginners Guide

By Faye Martins How do we start to train the mind and body? Many people practice yoga for its fitness benefits. However, this ancient system of complete health maintenance should be comprehensive when we train the mind and body. If you take specified yoga teacher courses that focus on training the mind and body, then you can help your students obtain the complete art from their practice.

By Gopi Rao How are happiness and the art of yoga connected? In the search for perpetual happiness, many men and women are turning to yoga classes a few times each week. In fact, certified yoga instructors will be able to help their students gently coax their bodies into various flexible positions. When the blood flows through the muscles in just the right way, peace and serenity can be restored to both the mind and the soul. Here are three yoga poses that will leave students ready to confront anything and everything that life can throw at them.

By Gopi Rao How can we protect the knees of our students during class time? Knees are one of the most vulnerable parts of the human anatomy. No matter what type of fitness regimen you choose, the knees will often take a beating. Very few sports spare the vulnerable knee, and it is common to see all kinds of athletes, including runners, tennis players, and dancers wearing knee stabilizers.

By Kimaya Singh What is aerial yoga? Are there any risks for students? What can teachers and students expect to gain by this modern practice? Wendy: "But, Peter, how do we get to Never Land?" Peter Pan: "Fly, of course. It's easy". The very name anti-gravity aerial yoga will inspire curiosity in most people. Certainly many questions will arise.

By Bhavan Kumar Those who survive a traumatic experience are subjected to a long and difficult journey through life and the process of recovery. Whether this trauma is related to an accident, a war-related injury, emotional or physical abuse, or multiple important losses in life, it can be difficult to overcome. Additionally, it requires time and effort to put one's past in its place. Patients who have suffered from some form of physical or psychological trauma can benefit greatly from practicing yoga on a regular basis during their recovery process. Yoga has enormous healing benefits for both physical and psychological injuries, and many people find that they can effectively utilize the art of yoga to reclaim not only their body, but also their mind.

By Faye Martins How can we help our students with arthritis? Arthritis causes pain and joint stiffness, decrease a positive mindset, and make it hard to function normally (mentally and physically). This condition takes the fun out of the day and discourages a person from participating in outdoor activities, such as swimming and biking. Even walking takes its toll on a person with Rheumatoid arthritis or a person with advanced stages of Osteoarthritis. Depending on the stage and type of arthritis, exercise can actually help to reduce those painful symptoms, and yoga provides a pleasurable alternative to strenuous exercise for people who suffer from arthritis.

By Faye Martins Can Yoga teachers create policies for preventing back injuries in class and why should they? Suddenly the yoga world is abuzz with concern over potential injuries. Why is the warning flag suddenly flying? Well, a few reasons come to mind.

By Faye Martins How can we establish guidelines for preventing hip injuries in Yoga classes? Yoga is good for you. No, yoga is great for you. No one should ever dispute or deny that. However, the adage, "too much of a good thing," can also be applied to practicing yoga and we have to create systematic methods for preventing injuries in our classes. Just because yoga has a good track record in comparison to other activities is not good enough. As more people become educated, the popularity of yoga continues to grow. Some people come into yoga classes with an overzealous approach that often backfires. It seems that the hips have proved to be a particularly vulnerable area to this overenthusiastic diving-in to the practice.

By Faye Martins What can yoga teachers do about preventing joint injuries in class? As yoga made the move from a spiritual practice to a fitness craze, the incidents of injury naturally began to climb. Factors such as students with pre-existing injuries, "no pain, no gain" classes, overcrowded studios, overzealous students, and aggressive instructors have all contributed to an increase in injuries.

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed A daily Yoga practice offers a practitioner many benefits. These benefits range from an increased range of flexibility to a more positive outlook on life. On a physical level, a daily practice of asanas, pranayama exercises and meditation will energize your body and calm your mind by balancing the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems. Of course, a regular practice of asanas increases flexibility and muscular strength and helps to prevent injuries due to misalignment and repetitive stress. There are even Yoga postures that help to undue some of the tension and stress that ultimately lead to Carpel Tunnel Syndrome!

By Faye Martins What doctors should know about yoga is obvious? New research and studies take place everyday. Yoga is being studied more and more, following an explosion of interest in it over the last ten years. As a result, experienced practitioners feel gratified that their claims of derived benefits have been and will continue to be substantiated by science. However, not everyone in the medical community is on board, and there are a few things to keep in mind when talking to doctors about yoga.

By Marie Jerard, E-RYT 200, RYT 500 Most people, in the general public, recognize the health benefits of Yoga. Injury prevention, stress reduction and weight management are just a few of the worthy side effects of a regular yoga practice. Due to the lure of lower health care costs, and fewer workers calling in sick, many corporate executives are instituting Yoga training into work-sponsored employee health programs. Many Yoga teachers are taking advantage of this dependable source of income. What are the pros and cons of teaching Yoga at a corporation?

By Marie Jerard, E-RYT 200, RYT 500 If you have long been avoiding teaching yoga to pregnant students, you can complete a few basic training requirements that will allow you to move ahead without worry. As a certified instructor, you can enroll in a specialist prenatal training program for yoga teachers. Since pregnant students will necessarily have different needs than yoga students who are not pregnant, you will undoubtedly want to learn about the anatomy and physiology of pregnancy itself. Once you've been officially designated a Certified Prenatal Yoga Teacher (CPYT), you'll be qualified to lead women through the various physical and emotional challenges that precede childbirth.

By Faye Martins What is all the fuss about slow flow yoga? If you want to get in shape by trying a low-impact exercise, then slow-flow vinyasa yoga is the pace for you. Stretch your way to good health with slow movement that gradually warms up muscles, joints and connective tissue. Vinyasa is popular because people want a movement-based form of Yoga, but most vinyasa classes are fast-paced and risky movements may not be in your best interest.

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed How do we go about nurturing harmony in our Yoga classes? According to BKS Iyengar, who is one of the most well loved and highly respected Yoga teachers of our time, "Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind and spirit." He goes on to state that, " When one is free from physical disabilities and mental distractions, the gates of the soul open up." Ultimately, the goal of all Yoga practices is to know God intimately in the depths of one's own being. Along the way, of course, you may experience a stronger, lighter, more flexible body and a trained mind.

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed Creating healthy habits can be difficult for many of us. Establishing a regular time to practice Yoga is one of the primary keys to benefiting fully from this ancient system of physical postures, pranayama exercises and meditation techniques. For instance, engaging in a thirty-minute practice several times a week, or even daily, will benefit you much more fully than a longer Yoga practice of two hours or more, once in a blue moon. When I was first starting to practice Yoga on a consistent basis, I didn't believe that this was true! I would wonder to myself why a practice that is 2 to 3 hours in length, once a week, would not benefit me more fully than a 30-minute practice on a daily basis?

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed Are you interested in methods for improving Yoga student safety? The safety of students can be improved by encouraging open and forthright communication, between a Yoga teacher and his or her students. Whether or not a student is new to your class, encouraging open lines of communication is of paramount importance when you are guiding a student through a series of physical postures and pranayama exercises. Over the course of weeks, months or years, a student's physical and emotional health may shift and change with various experiences in life. By encouraging open communication, you will be able to guide your students in their practice through your professional feedback and recommendations.

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed. Teaching outdoor Yoga classes can be a special treat depending on your climate. During the balmy days of summer, teaching classes outside can easily facilitate a sense of gratitude and appreciation for the natural beauty that surrounds us. If you live in a temperate climate zone in the United States, you may find that it is possible to teach Yoga outside from early spring until the late fall season. Of course, this will depend on the daily weather patterns, including any rainy or windy weather. However it is possible to teach classes outside most of the time, even if a particular day is overcast or slightly windy, especially if you can locate a protected space where you can teach your classes.

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed. Choosing effective themes for teaching Yoga classes is one of the subtle nuances of teaching that will help to keep your classes fresh and engaging. Sequencing a series of physical postures, breathing exercises and meditation techniques that nurtures your students' well being, in a balanced and effective manner, is similar to a stringing a handful of loose pearls together. Choosing effective and appropriate themes for your classes is the very glue that holds together the individual postures and gives the class itself a deeper and more profound meaning than the simple practice of individual asanas and pranayama exercises.

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.