Yoga For Beginners Guide

By Jenny Park As yoga continues to gain ground and popularity, we can look forward to seeing more variations and interpretations of the basic ancient wisdom. The following are four modern yoga styles with their own unique focus, methodology, and philisophy.

By Virginia Iversen Anxiety is often defined as the fear of being hurt in the future. Anxiety is a form of fear, fear of physical or emotional harm in some form. Anxious feeling may be completely appropriate for the situation we are in, or the anxious feelings may be dramatically disproportionate for the situation at hand. In either case, the physical and emotional reactions to anxiety will remain similar in each situation. Your palms may sweat and your heart may beat faster. You may find yourself perspiring more and experiencing digestive distress. All of these physical reactions occur in order to prepare the body to fight or flee a dangerous situation.

By Sangeetha Saran Often times, our hamstrings are tight from many of the athletic activities we engage in. From the repetitive action of aerobics to skiing and running to cycling, our hamstrings tighten and shorten over time. There are a number of Yoga asanas that will keep your hamstrings strong and flexible. Maintaining flexibility in your hamstrings is important because you are much less likely to sustain an injury in your hamstring area or lower back area. Flexible and strong hamstring muscles will also help you to keep your spine in an easy, optimal alignment as you move through the course of your daily activities.

By Faye Martins The patients of physical rehabilitation centers have special needs, which yoga will be able to address. By offering yoga as a complementary therapy, physical rehabilitation centers can take care of the needs of individuals as a whole, leading to a swifter and less stressful recovery.

By Dr. Rita Khanna Our back or spine is like the pillar on which the entire body rests but the strongest part can also be the vulnerable spot if not taken care of well. About 80% of the people suffer back pain at some time or the other in their lives.

By Faye Martins Teaching kids yoga classes requires creativity, energy, and variety. Children will soon grow weary of a class that is the same every single time. While you don't have to reinvent the wheel for each class, it helps to have an arsenal full of ideas. There are many ways to spice up a class that has gone stale.

By Dr. Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500 A medical procedure, as traumatic as chemotherapy, requires patience, strength, and a fierce desire to get well. Chemotherapy affects the entire body and mind, causing patients to feel weak, tired, and sometimes, hopeless. The process of healing must involve the mind as well as the body.

By Kimaya Singh Many people choose yoga because it offers a gentle, relaxing way to maintain good health without the high intensity or jarring nature of other workouts. Practicing yoga can ensure strong, lean muscles, proper posture and alignment, and better circulation. Although traditional yoga gets newly oxygenated blood pumping into the heart, it doesn't typically raise the heart rate to levels that will make it stronger. Power yoga, however, provides the best of both worlds: You get the benefits of all the traditional yoga postures while also getting a higher intensity workout.

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 Dr. Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500 Vinyasa is a popular form of Yoga that, in the West, is characterized by movement - both while in an asana and when moving between two asanas. The breath initiates all movement in a Vinyasa Yoga class, resulting in a beautiful slow flow. Here are seven things that teachers of Vinyasa Yoga must know:

By Faye Martins A regular practice of Yoga poses, breathing exercises and meditation techniques is a very effective and hopefully enjoyable way to ease feelings of anxiety. There are many different Yoga poses that will help to release tension and anxiety. You may have heard about heart opening asanas (backbends), but forward bending Yoga poses are also soothing and nourishing. Forward Folds also help to calm you down because they encourage you to relax into the pose while pulling your senses inward, which allows you to rest for a few moments in your own inner essence. Forward Bending Yoga poses also allow you to curl your body into itself while protecting your heart and abdominal areas. Additionally, Forward Folds open up your hips and first chakra area, which releases stagnant survival energy and helps you to feel more empowered and grounded.

By Jenny Park Ready for a Yoga challenge? Spring is the time for changes and nothing freshens up a Yoga practice like changes and challenges. If your classes or your own practice feels stale, try making a commitment to do something new. Here are some ideas to inject new life:

By Dr. Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500 When you are teaching a Yoga class, remember that this time is not about your personal Yoga practice. Teaching Yoga is about giving your knowledge to others, demonstrating and explaining the techniques effectively, and putting your students' needs ahead of your own. You will probably still feel the benefits of a Yoga class, but it also might leave you yearning for more, or feeling as if you did not quite get adequate fulfillment. It is up to you, then, to find time when you are not teaching to squeeze in a personal Yoga practice, where you can accomplish a number of things.

By Faye Martins Yoga is an activity that doesn't discriminate against the young, old, injured, or disabled. Everyone can find a way to succeed while practicing yoga. While there are always necessary precautions to avoid injury, there are no "right" or "wrong" ways to perform yoga poses. As each person finds what feels best for them, they will begin to realize yoga's wonderful benefits. Sometimes when we practice yoga, we must look at the bigger picture to find an overall sense of peace and wellness, increased strength and flexibility, and reduced stress. How we get to those end results isn't as important as actually getting there.

By Jenny Park One part of the anatomy section in a yoga teacher training program to watch closely is why the skeletal system is so important during asana practice. In short, our bodies are uniquely different and our skeletons are almost as unique as our finger prints. As we age, our bones naturally become stiff and brittle. This makes getting around more difficult and much more painful. It is a little known fact that yogic exercise benefits the skeletal system. Yoga practice, which includes many standing, balancing, and inverted poses, has been proven to increase the density of our bones.

By Dr. Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500 During Yoga teacher training, interns commonly ask similar questions. However, when considering Yoga student safety, the most common question of them all might be the following sentence:

By Dr. Rita Khanna 'Breath is life; hence the better we breathe the better we live.' Of course we all know this, but we don't bother much about it and don't care as often as necessary.' To breathe slowly is to prolong one's youth and one's life.' So say the Yogic texts which caution us to breathe as if, at birth, only a fixed and immutable number of breaths had been allotted to us. If this is so, then each slow breath we take preserves our precious respiratory credit balance and prolongs our existence.

By Rebecca Chabot As I stand in Tadasana, the simple starting posture of many yoga classes, I reap the benefits of the stillness and focus that are required. As my legs engage and my spine lengthens, my body learns the correct way to stand. My body awareness is increased and my sense of balance is refined. My breath is steady and calm, increasing the oxygen that is circulated through my body. As with all standing poses in yoga, Tadasana not only helps to improve circulation, but also stimulates digestion and elimination, expels dullness and depression, and leaves me feeling invigorated, refreshed and light. The soothing calmness of my conscious breathing helps to cease the fluctuations of my mind.

By Kimaya Singh Yoga is one of the safest forms of exercise and can be practiced by people of all ages with relatively low risks. As a result, doing yoga at home can be a smart health investment, as long as careful preparations and a few minor investments are made.

By Kimaya Singh While practicing yoga is typically a safe choice for the general population, it is a good idea to take a yoga class before beginning at-home yoga training sessions. Yoga is designed to stretch muscles, loosen joints, and relax the body, and although it can be practiced by the healthy, injured, young or elderly, there are some risks involved.