Yoga Asanas - The Courage To Move Beyond Limitations
By Rebecca Prescott
When I was 21 I suffered a slipped disc in my lower back. I couldn't sit down during the acute phase, only lie or stand, though standing itself was uncomfortable at the time. Once the acute phase had passed (with rest, although acupuncture and shiatsu are great), I had the fortune to meet some yoga teachers and I started going to their classes. I started out with Oki yoga, which is a Japanese form of yoga, and very good for healing the body.
I was given a series of correcting and strengthening exercises designed to improve my back and specific to the meridians that were in need of attention in my particular case. Oki yoga has postures classified on how they affect the meridians, which are like energetic pathways within our body. And that was the one thing that helped restore my back completely, to a state that was actually better than it was before I injured myself. When you are suffering an acute injury though, yoga really shouldn't be attempted until that stage has passed.
That introduction to yoga ignited a deep love of it through which I began to see the more subtle health benefits it brought to my life. Yoga can help with a wide spectrum of physical issues and injuries, but it is also an excellent alternative to the gym for those that find the repetition and distraction of it not to their taste. It is great for toning up your body, whilst gaining flexibility.
Yoga has a reputation for flexibility, and deservedly so. But it can also develop strength. Developing strength is particularly important for women. Women tend to be more flexible than men, but not as strong, unless they have been involved in fitness regularly. But unlike many traditional forms of exercise, yoga also strengthens the inner muscles and organs in our bodies. It makes a great preparation for childbirth!
Yoga also develops discipline. This comes in making the time on a regular basis to either go to classes, or practice yoga in your living room, or in the morning sun in the garden. But there is a more subtle level of discipline. It starts with bringing your mind to focus on your breathing, and then feeling the effects of a posture on your body. This conscious exploration is quite a different experience of fitness than usually seen at the gym - where loud music, televisions and other external stimuli fight for your attention. You won't see people with headphones on, or reading a magazine, whilst doing yoga.
This conscious exploration establishes a relationship with your body, and its importance cannot be overstated. So often,
parts of us are frozen, or numb in some ways. This can express physically as pain, coldness, or stiffness. Energetically, it is as though despite trying to concentrate on an area, we just cannot feel connected to it.
In a more subtle way, when we feel the points of resistance within our body as we do a pose - when we breathe into that stiffness, and sometimes pain, we develop a resilience and mental fortitude. Yoga does, of course, help with concentration. But that process of releasing and going beyond the point of physical limitation is not limited to the body. It develops a quiet confidence and knowledge about one's own capacity that is not held back by the boundaries we may have falsely believed about ourselves before. With a yoga practice, we can get back in touch with what yogi's call our dharma, our purpose in life. And we find in ourselves, by virtue of our growing strength, the courage to follow that path.
And finally, a quote from a yoga teacher from Sydney, Australia, Eileen Hall, printed in the Australian Yoga Life magazine:
"Yoga is not about relaxation, it's not about losing weight, it's not about learning meditation. It's about discovering the divine being within ourselves."
References: Yoga Journal, November 2005
Australian Yoga Life, Nov 2005 - Mar 2006
Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com
If you'd like to learn more about the benefits of yoga, click here. The article talks about the psychological, physiological, and biochemical benefits a regular yoga practice can bring. To learn more about yoga breathing, click here. Rebecca Prescott runs the website Yoga To Health.
We strive to provide only quality articles, so if there is a specific topic related to yoga that you would like us to cover, please contact us at any time.
And again, thank you to those contributing daily to our hatha yoga poses website.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Power Yoga
Yoga Helps You Lower Blood Pressure
By Groshan Fabiola
Hypertension is a common disease nowadays, which, if it’s not treated corectly can cause many damages to the other organs of the body. People who suffer from high blood pressure need to lower blood pressure in order to neutralize the effects of hypertension on their body.
Changing the life style and sometimes taking medicines is recommended for the people who need to lower blood pressure.
It is very helpful in the treatment of hypertension the yoga lifestyle, which can really help you lower blood pressure. Yoga exercises, called asanas, involve stretching and moving the body into various positions. During these exercises any tightness or tension observed in the body should be consciously relaxed. Yoga practice offers stress management techniques, which are essential to lower blood pressure. There are many yoga asanas, maybe hundreds or even thousands, but only certain asanas can help you lower blood pressure.
The most efficient for lowering blood pressure are the forward bends, which have a pacifying effect on the brain, the nervous system, the blood circulation to the brain, and they also help you reduce the stress. All these lower blood pressure. Furthermore, these asanas slow down the pulse rate, so they lower blood pressure.
They are also helpful to lower blood pressure the sitting asanas, such as Upavista Konasana, which remove the tension from the ribs and the intercostals muscles, and also help you breathe easily. Many hypertensives have difficulties in breathing and these asanas help them in this matter and they also lower blood pressure.
Other helpful asanas are the supine poses, like Supta Baddhakonasana, which
relax the abdominal region and have a calming effect on the nerves, facts that lower blood pressure.
There are also recommended for those who need to lower blood pressure, the inversions, such as Halasana and Setubandha Sarvangasana, which have a refreshing effect on the nerves and reduce the sympathetic tone very fast. Usual practice of these asanas regularizes blood pressure, so lower blood pressure when it’s abnormally high.
At these previous asanas you can add the pranayama and the Svanasana, which relax the mind and senses, and stabilize the blood pressure, so lower blood pressure in case of hypertension.
Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com
This medical article is written by Groshan Fabiola during one research session on lowering blood pressure in a natural way, that will be using yoga. So, if you want to find out more about how to lower blood pressure, especially in a natural way, please click this link.
We strive to provide only quality articles, so if there is a specific topic related to yoga that you would like us to cover, please contact us at any time.
And again, thank you to those contributing daily to our power yoga website.
By Groshan Fabiola
Hypertension is a common disease nowadays, which, if it’s not treated corectly can cause many damages to the other organs of the body. People who suffer from high blood pressure need to lower blood pressure in order to neutralize the effects of hypertension on their body.
Changing the life style and sometimes taking medicines is recommended for the people who need to lower blood pressure.
It is very helpful in the treatment of hypertension the yoga lifestyle, which can really help you lower blood pressure. Yoga exercises, called asanas, involve stretching and moving the body into various positions. During these exercises any tightness or tension observed in the body should be consciously relaxed. Yoga practice offers stress management techniques, which are essential to lower blood pressure. There are many yoga asanas, maybe hundreds or even thousands, but only certain asanas can help you lower blood pressure.
The most efficient for lowering blood pressure are the forward bends, which have a pacifying effect on the brain, the nervous system, the blood circulation to the brain, and they also help you reduce the stress. All these lower blood pressure. Furthermore, these asanas slow down the pulse rate, so they lower blood pressure.
They are also helpful to lower blood pressure the sitting asanas, such as Upavista Konasana, which remove the tension from the ribs and the intercostals muscles, and also help you breathe easily. Many hypertensives have difficulties in breathing and these asanas help them in this matter and they also lower blood pressure.
Other helpful asanas are the supine poses, like Supta Baddhakonasana, which
relax the abdominal region and have a calming effect on the nerves, facts that lower blood pressure.
There are also recommended for those who need to lower blood pressure, the inversions, such as Halasana and Setubandha Sarvangasana, which have a refreshing effect on the nerves and reduce the sympathetic tone very fast. Usual practice of these asanas regularizes blood pressure, so lower blood pressure when it’s abnormally high.
At these previous asanas you can add the pranayama and the Svanasana, which relax the mind and senses, and stabilize the blood pressure, so lower blood pressure in case of hypertension.
Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com
This medical article is written by Groshan Fabiola during one research session on lowering blood pressure in a natural way, that will be using yoga. So, if you want to find out more about how to lower blood pressure, especially in a natural way, please click this link.
We strive to provide only quality articles, so if there is a specific topic related to yoga that you would like us to cover, please contact us at any time.
And again, thank you to those contributing daily to our power yoga website.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Health Benefits Of Yoga
Lower Your Blood Pressure By Practicing Yoga
By Groshan Fabiola
If you didn’t know by now, yoga asanas can help you in the treatment of high blood pressure, and help you lower blood pressure. Yoga asanas make stable your blood pressure, so lower blood pressure when it’s abnormaly high. Asanas have favorable effects on the nervous system. By practicing certain yoga asanas you can not only lower your blood pressure, but also reduce the effects of hypertension on the other organs of the body.
There are a few categories of asanas which are recommended to lower blood pressure: forward bends, sitting, supine and inversions group.
Forward bends have the best effects on high blood pressure, so they can help you the most to lower your blood pressure. These exercises have a calming effect on the brain, the blood circulation to the brain is normalized, and they help you reduce the stress from the sense organs, things that lower blood pressure. So, the brain, the sympathetic nervous system and the sense organs are relaxed, the cardiac output and the pulse rate decelerate at the same time, and blood pressure stabilizes, so it lowers blood pressure when it’s high. Other asanas which have beneficial effects on the nervous system and help you lower blood pressure are Uttanasana and Adhomukha Svanasana , which have to be practiced with the head resting on props, so the blood circulates more freely into the aortic arch. These help you lower blood pressure.
Baddhakonasana and Virasana are some of the sitting asanas which can be practiced in order to get a lower blood pressure by the hypertensives , which in most cases are hard breathing. These poses eliminate the tension from the ribs and the intercostal muscles, so they help you to breathe with no difficulty, and lower blood
pressure.
Other poses which help you lower blood pressure are the supine poses, like Supta Baddhakonasana which, by relaxing the abdominal region, and so the entire body, bring calm on the nerves.
Inversions asanasas such as Viparita Karanti and Halasana revitalize the nerves, assure the control over the lungs and diaphragm, so if you practice these exercises constantly, you will get a lower blood pressure. There are also useful the Svanasana and pranayama, which provide the control over the automatic nervous system. As the senses and the mind are chilling, the blood pressure stabilizes, and in case of hypertension it leads to a lower blood pressure.
Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com
This medical article is written by Groshan Fabiola during one research session on lowering blood pressure in a natural way, that will be using yoga. So, if you want to find out more about how to lower blood pressure, especially in a natural way, please click this link.
We strive to provide only quality articles, so if there is a specific topic related to yoga that you would like us to cover, please contact us at any time.
And again, thank you to those contributing daily to our health benefits of yoga website.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Basic Yoga Poses
Heigh Ho! Heigh Ho! It’s Off To Yoga I Go!
By Liana Mirkin
Can we be as harmonic as those seven fictional characters on their way to mine their day away when we have a back ache? Can we obtain relief or do we have to endure a day of aches and pains while on the clock?
An article I recently viewed on the ArgusLeader.com website, indicates that back pain is the second leading reason people miss work. Truck drivers repeatedly have to deal with back pain from the continuous vibration of the spine while behind the wheel. Heavy lifting of patients and children puts nurses and parents at considerable risk. Statistics obtained from OccupationalHazards.com reveal that in the U.S., nursing ranks as one of the top 10 occupations for work-related musculoskeletal disorders. And, an estimated 12 to 18 percent of nurses wind up leaving their profession due to chronic back pain.
Now it’s understood that the career we choose can have an adverse effect on our physical health. You can sit behind a desk all day long in air-conditioning, you can drive a tractor-trailer down Route 66 daily, or work in the hospital emergency room. Simultaneously, you are putting severe strain on your neck and back. Can we take the time to heal ourselves before our issues escalate? Can we do something to alleviate the pain if it is already present? Is there anything we can do?
What is Yoga? It’s a system of exercises practiced for thousands of years as used to promote control of the body and mind.
Why Yoga? Because it can help. It has consistently been used to cure and prevent back pain by enhancing strength and flexibility. As many practitioners can attest, Yoga can offer effective healing that's relatively free of side effects. The slow movements and gentle pressures reach deep into troubled joints. Additionally, the easy stretches in conjunction with deep breathing exercises relieve the tension that binds up muscles and tightens joints. Yoga is exercise and relaxation rolled up into one.
Who is a candidate? Each year, millions of Americans suffer from debilitating back pain. Both acute and long-term stress can lead to muscle tension and exacerbate back problems. Despite Western medicine's phenomenal advances and powerful technology, two of the most commonly prescribed solutions—painkillers and surgery—do little to address the underlying causes of pain and can potentially cause side effects. In truth, a one-size-fits-all solution is impossible given that the causes and manifestations of pain—arthritis, strained ligaments, scoliosis, and herniated disks, to name a few—vary widely.
How does Yoga assist pain management? Yoga helps reduce pain by helping the brain regulate the secretion of natural painkillers into the body. Breathing exercises commonly used in Yoga can also help reduce pain. Muscles tend to relax when you exhale, because of this lengthening your time of exhalation can help produce relaxation and reduce tension. Maintaining a certain awareness of ones own breathing helps to achieve calmer, slower respiration and assist in relaxation and pain management.
What do I do to get started? First, rule out potential serious causes of the back pain. See your primary care physician and speak to her/him of your concerns. He will
know how to proceed from there to investigate the cause of your back pain. Then, also inquire as to whether or not it is safe for you to practice Yoga as part of your recovery program.
Treat the injury with extra care. When you are in a lot of pain, usually the tissues are inflamed, it’s critical that you proceed at a slow pace. If you work in an aggressive fashion in order to improve your strength or flexibility too early on, it can cause you even more pain.
Looking for an experienced teacher with substantial training and experience should be your next course of action. A Yoga therapist will assist you by creating a program that is specific to your needs and limitations, especially those pertaining to your injury and medical condition. They will observe your form and practice, and track how you respond to the exercises. He or she will gauge which elements are likely to be helpful and determine whether modifications are necessary.
Studies have shown that strict bed rest can cause you more harm than good. Go ahead and try breathing exercises and practice a gentle asana as soon as you experience pain.
Stomach crunches are often prescribed by doctors in order to prevent recurring episodes of back pain. Looking at this from a yogic perspective this is imprecise. By doing to many crunches or ab exercises you can increase the tightness in the hip flexors, and potentially making the back problems worse. With Yoga, the approach is to examine which muscles need to be strengthened and which ones need to be stretched, and finally designing a program that would work on those specific needs.
Do avoid poses that worsen or aggravate your problem. If you have a lumbar disk problem, be careful with forward bends, especially those that include some form of a twist. Also, during transitions take care, attention tends to wander. Sudden changes of position should be avoided and stepping rather than jumping should be the standard.
Lastly, make certain to consult your physician before proceeding with any exercise program, including Yoga. Also, if Yoga is approved for you be sure to receive proper training from a qualified Yoga instructor.
Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com
Liana Mirkin is the IT Director for Spina Systems International, Inc., a company which specializes in distributing the Accu-SPINA machine, which treats chronic back pain in 86%-94% of patients without surgery. You may find the website at www.spinaprogram.com
We strive to provide only quality articles, so if there is a specific topic related to yoga that you would like us to cover, please contact us at any time.
And again, thank you to those contributing daily to our basic yoga poses website.
By Liana Mirkin
Can we be as harmonic as those seven fictional characters on their way to mine their day away when we have a back ache? Can we obtain relief or do we have to endure a day of aches and pains while on the clock?
An article I recently viewed on the ArgusLeader.com website, indicates that back pain is the second leading reason people miss work. Truck drivers repeatedly have to deal with back pain from the continuous vibration of the spine while behind the wheel. Heavy lifting of patients and children puts nurses and parents at considerable risk. Statistics obtained from OccupationalHazards.com reveal that in the U.S., nursing ranks as one of the top 10 occupations for work-related musculoskeletal disorders. And, an estimated 12 to 18 percent of nurses wind up leaving their profession due to chronic back pain.
Now it’s understood that the career we choose can have an adverse effect on our physical health. You can sit behind a desk all day long in air-conditioning, you can drive a tractor-trailer down Route 66 daily, or work in the hospital emergency room. Simultaneously, you are putting severe strain on your neck and back. Can we take the time to heal ourselves before our issues escalate? Can we do something to alleviate the pain if it is already present? Is there anything we can do?
What is Yoga? It’s a system of exercises practiced for thousands of years as used to promote control of the body and mind.
Why Yoga? Because it can help. It has consistently been used to cure and prevent back pain by enhancing strength and flexibility. As many practitioners can attest, Yoga can offer effective healing that's relatively free of side effects. The slow movements and gentle pressures reach deep into troubled joints. Additionally, the easy stretches in conjunction with deep breathing exercises relieve the tension that binds up muscles and tightens joints. Yoga is exercise and relaxation rolled up into one.
Who is a candidate? Each year, millions of Americans suffer from debilitating back pain. Both acute and long-term stress can lead to muscle tension and exacerbate back problems. Despite Western medicine's phenomenal advances and powerful technology, two of the most commonly prescribed solutions—painkillers and surgery—do little to address the underlying causes of pain and can potentially cause side effects. In truth, a one-size-fits-all solution is impossible given that the causes and manifestations of pain—arthritis, strained ligaments, scoliosis, and herniated disks, to name a few—vary widely.
How does Yoga assist pain management? Yoga helps reduce pain by helping the brain regulate the secretion of natural painkillers into the body. Breathing exercises commonly used in Yoga can also help reduce pain. Muscles tend to relax when you exhale, because of this lengthening your time of exhalation can help produce relaxation and reduce tension. Maintaining a certain awareness of ones own breathing helps to achieve calmer, slower respiration and assist in relaxation and pain management.
What do I do to get started? First, rule out potential serious causes of the back pain. See your primary care physician and speak to her/him of your concerns. He will
know how to proceed from there to investigate the cause of your back pain. Then, also inquire as to whether or not it is safe for you to practice Yoga as part of your recovery program.
Treat the injury with extra care. When you are in a lot of pain, usually the tissues are inflamed, it’s critical that you proceed at a slow pace. If you work in an aggressive fashion in order to improve your strength or flexibility too early on, it can cause you even more pain.
Looking for an experienced teacher with substantial training and experience should be your next course of action. A Yoga therapist will assist you by creating a program that is specific to your needs and limitations, especially those pertaining to your injury and medical condition. They will observe your form and practice, and track how you respond to the exercises. He or she will gauge which elements are likely to be helpful and determine whether modifications are necessary.
Studies have shown that strict bed rest can cause you more harm than good. Go ahead and try breathing exercises and practice a gentle asana as soon as you experience pain.
Stomach crunches are often prescribed by doctors in order to prevent recurring episodes of back pain. Looking at this from a yogic perspective this is imprecise. By doing to many crunches or ab exercises you can increase the tightness in the hip flexors, and potentially making the back problems worse. With Yoga, the approach is to examine which muscles need to be strengthened and which ones need to be stretched, and finally designing a program that would work on those specific needs.
Do avoid poses that worsen or aggravate your problem. If you have a lumbar disk problem, be careful with forward bends, especially those that include some form of a twist. Also, during transitions take care, attention tends to wander. Sudden changes of position should be avoided and stepping rather than jumping should be the standard.
Lastly, make certain to consult your physician before proceeding with any exercise program, including Yoga. Also, if Yoga is approved for you be sure to receive proper training from a qualified Yoga instructor.
Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com
Liana Mirkin is the IT Director for Spina Systems International, Inc., a company which specializes in distributing the Accu-SPINA machine, which treats chronic back pain in 86%-94% of patients without surgery. You may find the website at www.spinaprogram.com
We strive to provide only quality articles, so if there is a specific topic related to yoga that you would like us to cover, please contact us at any time.
And again, thank you to those contributing daily to our basic yoga poses website.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)