If you’ve been practicing yoga for a while, you understand that yogis tend to get into patterns. For instance, perhaps your first instructor always did Warrier I with her hands together overhead, so regardless of how your current teacher does it, you still do it the “old” way–partially in honor of your first instructor and [...]
Archive for the ‘fitness’ Category
Preconceived Motions
Posted in fitness, practice, yoga on May 9, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Feel the Flow
Posted in fitness, practice, yoga on April 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
When we practice yoga on a regular basis, it’s easy to get caught in the trap of concentrating too much on how perfect we can make our poses. Precision is certainly important in our routines. This helps us avoid injury and get the most physical benefit, but focusing too much on perfection can rob you of [...]
Warmer Means Deeper, right?
Posted in fitness, practice, yoga on March 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Experts often disagree about whether a practice room should be warmer or cooler during yoga practice. Some say the extremely warm rooms (90 degrees plus, such as in Bikram Yoga) breed bacteria, while others say practitioners need a warm room to deepen the stretches and prevent injury. My personal choice is to have a room that [...]
Injury Loves Company
Posted in fitness, practice, weight loss, yoga on October 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Being hurt is never a fun or easy thing. It’s even fewer giggles when it interferes with your practice on a long-term basis. Such is my case right now. Come to find out the spraigned ankle I experienced about 9 months ago was not, in fact, a muscle injury. My foot had been broken, but [...]
It’s Never Too Late
Posted in fitness, practice, sprituality, yoga, tagged Add new tag on October 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
One of the things I love about yoga is how it brings people together in a common struggle. It binds people, much more so that many other forms of exercise. I expect this has something to do with the fact that yoga should not be a competition. It is a battle with yourself–your own limitations, physically and [...]
Classes for the Masses
Posted in fitness, practice, yoga on August 20, 2008 | 4 Comments »
As instructors, it’s easy to fall into the trap of feeling more fit than others, but why do we do what we do? Sometimes instructors forget that their jobs exist so that others who need to get in shape can do so.
Unfortunately, I’ve seen many teachers who beleive they are superior try to make their class [...]
Group Energy
Posted in fitness, practice, sprituality, yoga on February 19, 2008 | 1 Comment »
My personal “yoga high” crept up on me, unexpectedly. I’d heard of that overwhelming, buzzing feeling regular practitioners get when their bodies are somehow in tune with their minds and being challenged to the right limits, but until recently, I really hadn’t experienced it.
My yoga high is dependent on a number of things, including building [...]
Yoga for Healing
Posted in fitness, yoga on January 20, 2008 | 2 Comments »
This week, I had a minor catastrophe. When quickly leaving my house, I slipped, sending my legs straight out from under me. My back came crashing down full force onto my front steps, and as one step slammed up into my right armpit, two others drove up into my mid-right back and my tailbone. I’m [...]
Mental Practice
Posted in fitness, martial arts, yoga, tagged fitness, martial arts, yoga on November 25, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Getting injured creates a snowball effect in your fitness and learning routines. It affects your spiritual state, because exercise contributes to our mental wellbeing. It slows our progress toward weight loss or conditioning, and it messes with our learning curve. If we can’t practice, we’re not getting any better at what we do, right? Wrong.
This is the [...]
Fear of the Unknown
Posted in fitness, weight loss, yoga, tagged fitness, yoga on November 25, 2007 | 1 Comment »
The scariest part of starting any new fitness program is walking in that door the first time. Many of us have come to realize that once you get that first class out of the way, the fear factor goes down considerably. Your hesitation is not unique. Even the most experienced, fit individuals can be “freaked [...]
