Posts Tagged ‘Yoga Class’

Good Yoga Mats

There is a very wide variety of yoga mats on the market. You will find both synthetic and natural yoga mats, and they come in many different sizes and colors. Which is best?

Natural or synthetic?

There two main types of yoga mat made from natural materials. The first is mats manufactured from natural fibers such as cotton. These can be good if you are in a power yoga class such as ashtanga yoga (or astanga yoga) where you will move quickly from one pose to another. If you are sweating you may be more comfortable on natural fibers. Check that the mat has a non-slip surface on the underside if you will be placing it directly on a hard floor.

You may also see some rubber mats. Rubber is of course a natural material. These will grip well on the floor but can become slippery if your feet and hands are perspiring.

Sticky yoga mat which is made from synthetic materials is the most popular form of yoga mat today. These are designed so that the mat will not slip on the floor while also providing good grip and cushioning for your feet and hands. Sticky yoga mats are good security for stretch poses and for balances. They are also lightweight and easy to roll and carry.

Size

Yoga mats come in various sizes but you will want to be sure that it is longer than your height so that you can lie stretched out with both your head and heels on the mat. For most women a 6 ft mat will be long enough but some men will need an extra long size.

The width depends on the poses that you will do and how you use the mat. Usually if the mat is 1.5 times the width of your shoulders, that is fine. Keep in mind that a wider mat will make a longer roll and may be more awkward to carry.

If your yoga style includes a lot of sitting and lying relaxation and breathing exercises, you may want a thicker mat for comfort.

Color

The color may not seem important but it is! Feel calm and relaxed when you are practicing, having your yoga mat a colour you like will help. Always avoid very bright colours. For most people green or blue mats are best. If you always practice in the same room it is good if the color of your mat harmonizes with it. Any clash of colors will affect your mood.

Grid patterns are printed on some yoga mats. This can help you check that your feet and hands are correctly positioned in the yoga poses.

Caring for your yoga mat

A yoga mat should be easy to clean and care for. Remember that your mat is used on the floor and often in public spaces, so for hygiene you should wash it regularly. If your mat is machine washable remember to keep it at low temperatures and do not spin or tumble dry. You can simply wipe down with a mild antiseptic household cleaning product with other mats. After cleaning the mat, leave it out to dry thoroughly. When yoga mats are wet never roll or store them.

If you found this article interesting please visit Hot Yoga Blog

Positions For Yoga Beginners

Most yoga poses can be practiced by people at any level, so yoga positions for beginners are not really so different from any other yoga poses. What you will find if you go to a beginners class is that there will be much more explanation of each pose and where all the parts of your body should be every time. The yoga teacher will also spend more time explaining the principles of yoga and making sure that you know how to practice safely.

In a beginners yoga class you will be told the English name for each position by the instructor.g. Downward Facing Dog) and not just the Indian name (Adho Mukha Svanasana). This is especially important if you are joining a power yoga class where students move quickly from one pose to another. You could be completely lost in an advanced class because the instructor may only say the indian names!

It is best to buy a beginners yoga DVD or video and watch it closely all through the first time before starting to practice along with it if you you are a yoga beginners or without an instructor.

Sun Salutation (Surya Namaskara)

The sun salutation is a series of positions that flow well in a sequence and give your body some well balanced stretches. Many yoga students each morning and evening perform sun salutations. This is a shortened version which forms a very basic series of yoga poses for beginners.

It is very important to go through the series in time with your breathing. You should have slow and relaxed breathing. You can strain your breathing by streching so much.

1. Tadasana – Standing Pose

Begin standing with the outer edges of your feet parallel and big toes together. Hands by your sides. Back straight, neck long, head well back on the shoulders. Practice by a mirror or against a wall at first to be sure you are straight.

2. Inhale – Urdhva Hastasana – Raised Hands Pose

Bring the arms straight out to the sides with palms up, sweeping up until they meet above your head and slightly forward. Look up at your thumbs but keep the back straight. Keep the shoulders down – do not stretch the arms up too high.

3. Exhale – Uttanasana – Forward Bend

Sweep the hands out and down, hinge at the hips keeping the head and back straight as you go forward in a swan dive. At the end of your dive, let the head hang and the back bend so that you flop forward. If you need to, bend slightly at the knees then touch the floor either side of your feet. Place hands flat on the floor if you can do this easily. Relax into this pose. Make sure you relax your head completely.

4. Inhale – Flat Back

Roll the spine up to come up to a flat back at right angles to your legs, chin up looking forward, fingertips touching the floor or just above it. Make sure the back is not hollow or bent.

5. Exhale – Return to Uttanansana – Forward Bend

6. Inhale – Return to Urdhva Hastasana – Raised Hands Pose

Reverse the swan dive of #3: roll the spine up to a flat back with arms out to the sides and continuing on up with a flat back, hingeing at the hips, to stand straight with the hands meeting above your head in the Raised Hands Pose.

7. Exhale – Return to Tadasana – Standing Pose

These yoga positions for beginners can be the first step in your yoga practice.

If you found this article interesting please visit Hot Yoga Blog

Setting the Mood with the right Bikram Yoga DVD

Bikram yoga has become the fastest growing yoga in the world. It consists of yoga posture and breathing exercise performed in a heated room. Its a series of postures which maximises oxygenation and detoxification of the entire body. Yoga is no longer practiced just in India or South Asia where it originated but has transcended all nations and ethnicities. Its becoming quite popular across the West as well.

Get a bikram yoga DVD if you are interested but do not have the time or the money to join a bikram yoga class. This way you can practice this in your own convenient time in the privacy and comfort of your home without having to pay for yoga club membership fees. With no money spent on expensive club membership and no instructor to keep a check on you, you have to make sure that you are very self-disciplined when practicing yoga at home. Ensure that you make the most of the bikram yoga DVD.

Choosing the Right DVD

Always keep in mind the level of yoru experties when looking to buy a good bikram yoga DVD. Do not choose anything that you find is very difficult which may discourage you from practicing. At the same time make sure that they are not too easy that it does give you the desired result. Choose a level which you think you can achieve, though challenging, if you had to push yourself a little more everytime. Its also a good idea to choose a bikram yoga DVD or hatha yoga DVD or any other kind of yoga DVD which comes along with a manaul. And when you are not practicing yoga and are curled up in your bed or are travelling in a train, you can keep flipping or reading the yoga manual.

Choosing the Right Spot

One needs to have a quite space while practicing the postures shown in the bikram yoga DVD. Make sure that there is on one around except people practicing with you while you concentrate on your bikram yoga DVD. Also make sure that the room is heated where you are practicing bikram yoga to sweat it out.

Try Yoga For Insomnia

Some people walk into their bedrooms and just pass out. You envy them because you can’t do that. You have insomnia: you can’t get to sleep easily, and when you do and you wake up, you can’t get back to sleep. Why not try Yoga for insomnia? Yoga can help relax you enough to let you sleep. When incorporated into your daily routines, you will notice that you get more sleep. Results like that count, especially when your insomnia is stress related.

You may have to do some research, as there are different schools or types of Yoga. You can start by Googling up Yoga online, to read more about this. But you may be taken aback by so much information about the subject. Also, Yoga sometimes is packaged in press releases with religious undertones. But you only need Yoga for insomnia.

What you could do is find a Yoga class, whose Yoga instructor can walk you through what Yoga will be taking from your usual work week and weekends. Yoga, as a routine exercises, is no different from scheduled work outs. The difference is the effect on your sanity and peace of mind. Think of your mind as a stressed out clenched fist. Yoga’s exercises can help you slide down from that tension and let your tight fist slowly unclench and relax. That helps a lot in getting you to sleep.

If you want to practice Yoga at home, you could do three things. Stay online and research until you find a site that provides exercises without too much reading into Yoga’s history. You can print the exercises and their directions and follow them. Or you could hire a Yoga instructor who will guide you through the stretching exercises and postures, all in the familiar and safe haven of your home. Or you could buy a book on Yoga and try out the illustrated stretching exercises and positions there. The benefits of all three options is that you stay at home, free to do Yoga at your time and pace, and most probably, before going to bed.

Please try to consult your doctor about your trying Yoga, just in case some positions may result in some injury or may aggravate an existing medical condition. The books may mention this, but one advantage of a Yoga instructor is that he or she can assess you and your body as to the state of readiness of both for Yoga exercises.

Before you dive into searching for Yoga websites, books, or nearby Yoga classes, what most information on Yoga will tell you about its connection to insomnia, is this. Yoga’s stretching and its many relaxation exercises will help you sleep, that there’s no age cap on practicing Yoga, and that’s its insertion into your routines will overall benefit your health and peace of mind.

Regardless of the type of Yoga for insomnia you will be practicing, you will probably be stretching to relax your body, doing deep breathing, and visualization exercises. Note that all three activities run counter to what a stressed out person usually does, which is going through the day with a tense body, not breathing deeply, and visualizing problems. Yoga tries to counter that and help you sleep.

Related Articles:

Sleeping aids for Insomnia Reviewed -> Sleeping aids for Insomnia

Ways to Remedy Insomnia

A Guide to Yoga Stretches

Yoga can easily be considered as one of the most respected, and effective exercises in the world. It is truly an all encompassing exercise, as it benefits body, mind and spirit. There are many physical benefits of yoga as well as mental, and it has both preventive and therapeutic advantages. It helps to improve flexibility and muscle joint mobility, strengthen and tone muscles, correct posture, strengthen the spine, improve muscular-skeletal conditions such as bad knees, and much more.

Swallow a pill will relieve the pain for a while but eventually, when the power of the pill wears off, you begin to feel that niggling pain again. To help you relieve the stiffness and pain at in your limbs, muscles and joints, you should do yoga stretches regularly. Yoga stretches will help tone your muscles and keep your joints more supple.

This is why as people age and get older they start to find it harder just to get around, because their bones and joints simply don’t work as well as they once do. Yoga stretching exercises certainly cannot completely prevent this, but they can help to keep your muscles long and lean and strengthening the muscle in your body so that you are not so affected by it.

In fact, if you do yoga stretched regularly, you will be able to rebuild your lost muscles and feel stronger. A lot of elderly people who are into yoga, reported that they feel a renewed sense of vigor after doing yoga exercise for sometime. 

Getting Started

Yoga stretches should be performed without causing any internal strains. To help you get started with your yoga exercise, you will need to work with a professional trainer or teacher. If you cannot afford to hire a personal trainer to work with you one on one, you can always enroll in a yoga class that is designed for people of advanced age or people with some medical problems.  

Look for a good class schedule. If you feel quite stiff when you wake up in the morning, you should not force yourself to go to a yoga class early in the morning. A yoga class sometime during the middle of the day or late in the afternoon will be better for you. Once you find the right yoga class, you should talk to the instructor and tell him or her about your physical problems. Talking to the instructor is very important so that the instructor can design a beneficial yoga routine that will suit your needs.   

It will take time before you can regain some of your muscle and joint flexibility. Depending on your age and your lifestyle it may take a few weeks to loosen up those joints and muscles. However, the good news is that once you have considerably strengthened your joints and muscles, it will be easier for you to move around and do whatever you want to do.