Try Yoga to Enhance Your Sport
I instructed a yoga class for a high school football team last week. A bunch of the teens didn't want anything to do with yoga. I guess they thought it would have no benefit to them and I think they felt embarrassed to be out on the field in plain view practicing yoga.The guys that stayed had an open mind to a point, but mainly had the idea that this was an easy workout and they were humoring the captain by taking part.
We started with some sun salutations. It was a steamy hot day with the sun blaring, but from what I could see during the warm-up these guys weren't very flexible. I wanted to warm up their muscles so we could get into some stretching. We worked on standing poses and upper body strengthening, balancing and then some core work. Then we went into some deep muscle stretching and finished with relaxation ~ lying on the field and watching the white puffy clouds float by.
Being sport specific, these guys need it all. It is just the beginning of their season and I am sure they will be working hard. My goal was to give them an exercise practice that would help them recover from their workouts, gain some flexibility and strengthen their core to help avoid injuries.
The complaints began.... This isn't easy....wait, which foot? .... I can't reach my toes....and then the realization started....look, I can reach my toes now.... Is this right? As we worked through the practice they paid closer attention and complained less. At the end of relaxation I told them we could practice again if they liked it and I heard... let's do this every Friday.... let's do it before every game.
The point here, I guess, is that they gave Yoga a chance and it helped them. They realized it wasn't a girlie thing that they should be embarrassed by. I know, they are teenagers. So as adults what benefit will yoga have for you?
Do you golf? Then you are probably out of balance from swinging that golf club the same way all the time. Yoga can help with lower back strengthening. Repetitive motion of swinging the same way all day puts your body out of balance. Balancing poses help to correct that imbalance, as do the standing poses. Side stretching and twisting (both ways) also helps with the imbalance while keeping your torso flexible enough to follow through with your swing.
Do you play baseball or softball? Those explosive runs can be hard on your body. Again, swinging the bat in the same direction and throwing with the same arm over and over. Are you the catcher? You need some core strength to squat down and up so many times. You think about the leg strength but if you don't have core strength you are not taking care of your lower back.
Tennis? Side to side, explosive reaction; one shoulder gets more repetition. Volleyball? Jumping; explosive running short distances.
Are you a runner or a biker? Your continually work the front side of your body but the back side is left out. Usually runners are tight in the hamstrings and sometimes in the calves. You need to stretch those body parts out to bring some balance back into your body.
The flexibility and the core strength that yoga provides can help with all of these sports. Many people are tight in the shoulders - especially athletes. More flexibility means more safe range of motion. With any sport and for any person yoga promotes muscle recovery. We always feel better after we stretch out those sore muscles.
Are you open to trying something that will enhance your sport? Take a yoga class. Have an open mind and tune in to your body to see if you gained any benefit, during the practice and after. Many professional athletes practice yoga - maybe you should too...
By Kathi Duquette
Certified Yoga Instructor
Certified Personal Trainer
http://www.basic-yoga-information.com
Handstand - Fear Factor
I should say that inversions, and especially Handstand or Adho Mukha Vrksasana, are not difficult poses physically, although it do require a certain level of strength and flexibility. Instead, the real challenge of Handstand for many practitioners is working on the necessary physical skills in a calm, focused way while facing the primal human fear of falling. For a beginning inverter, the seemingly simple act of kicking the legs up to a supporting wall can be frightening. Even for more advanced handstanders, going to a next level with the pose (leaping up with both legs at once or balancing in the center of the room) presents challenges that call up the fear factor.As a result, you have a question - if Handstand generates feelings of anxiety in so many people, why should I learn it at all? The challenges of these asana are precisely what make it so valuable. Since Handstand brings you face to face with your anxieties and fears, it provides a wonderful opportunity to observe attacks of panic and work on overcoming all such emotions. Handstand offers a controlled situation in which you can develop self-confidence, courage, and a somewhat playful and curious approach to solving challenges. In addition, it increases your understanding and control of your body because it turns your world upside down and requires you to master an unfamiliar relationship with gravity.
Anjali Mudra
Practicing Anjali Mudra or Salutation Seal is an excellent way to induce a meditative state of awareness. Start your practice sitting in meditation in Anjali Mudra for five minutes. You can also use this hand position in Tadasana prior to beginning the Sun Salutation sequence, as you contemplate the "sun" or light of awareness that the yogis say is resident in your heart. Here are several steps to practice it:1. Sit comfortably in Siddhasana(Perfect Pose) or stand in Tadasana(Mountain Pose). Inhale and bring your palms together. Rest the thumbs lightly on your sternum.
2. Press your hands firmly but evenly against each other. Make sure that one hand (usually your right hand if you are right-handed, your left if left-handed) doesn't dominate the other. If you find this imbalance, release the dominant hand slightly, but don't increase the pressure of the nondominant hand.
3. Bow your head slightly, drawing the crease of the neck toward the center of your head. Lift your sternum into your thumbs and lengthen down along the back of the armpits, making the back elbows heavy.
Neck Release
No matter how careful you are to avoid putting yourself in taxing situations, as long as you're living on this earth, stress will hunt you down and wreak havoc on your day. More often than not, it will set up camp in your neck and shoulders, causing even more tension and discomfort. If you're stressed out today, breathe deeply as you try this easy neck release:Stand in a strong but soft Tadasana (Mountain Pose), feet hip-width apart. Ground firmly into all four corners of each foot and create length in your spine, gently drawing your tailbone toward the floor and the top of your head toward the ceiling. Maintaining that sense of length, reach overhead with your left hand and hold under your right ear at the notch just behind your jaw; as your head tilts slightly to the left, make sure you don't tip it back and jut your chin toward the ceiling. Rest your right hand on your right shoulder, fingers pointing toward your neck. Take full, deep, but unforced breaths for a minute, letting your muscles relax and expand into that gentle rise and fall. Then deepen the stretch by gently pulling your head to the left and your right shoulder down, away from the ear. Pull right up to the edge of discomfort, then pause and relax into the stretch for another minute before repeating on the other side.
Kundalini Rising
We often think of the masculine principle as active and creative, while the feminine is passive and receptive. While in hatha yoga, these are reversed: The goddess Shakti (literally "power") creates and nourishes the world, while her spouse, the god Shiva (the "auspicious one") is her silent audience. Shakti and Shiva are the heroes of an old parable that epitomizes the practice and goal of hatha yoga. Briefly it goes: In a cave at the foot of mythic Mount Meru, the axis of the Hindu universe, the goddess rests after creating the world. She's pictured as a slumbering serpent wound three-and-a-half (sometimes eight) times around herself, and therefore called kundalini, or "coiled one." When the time is right, she awakens and laboriously ascends to Meru's summit, where she's reunited with the waiting Shiva.What do serpents, mountains, and unhelpful husbands have to do with yoga? Each of us is a composite of Shiva/Shakti energies. While we refer to them as distinct, they are actually inseparable complements, like the north and south poles of a magnet. When they are in balance, our lives are harmonious and joyful; but when one is set over and above its mate, we suffer from heartrending feelings of fragmentation, alienation, and loss. Shakti's climb and ultimate reunion with Shiva represents, in the context of our practice, the gradual awakening to and realization of our authentic Self. In our case, kundalini is at the base of our spine, "asleep" to our infinite potential but coiled like a spring under pressure, eager to spring to life. Meru is compared to our spine, the "axis" of our body, a universe in miniature. In turn, our spine is an image of the "ladder" of consciousness, starting at the bottom of the spine, where kundalini nests, and extending to the transcendent abode of Shiva at the pinnacle of self-knowing.
Many traditional texts make the spiritual conquest of Meru seem akin to the scaling of Everest and discourage all but the most dedicated from attempting the climb. But all of us have, in our heart of hearts, the longing to be whole and—as sincere yoga practitioners — all the mountaineering equipment we'd ever need. If we can't march all the way to the top, at least we can get a good way up from base camp.
Ayurvedic Bathing
Bathing, the daily chore or indulgence we've come to know as a way to wake up and scrub ourselves clean, is actually much more than a simple hygiene regimen. In many cultures, it's seen as the final step in a detoxifying process that can begin with circulation, digestion, breath, sleep, or even thoughts and emotions. Nowhere is this approach more evident than with Ayurveda. Ayurvedic bathing goes beyond soaking in a warm tub. It essentially consists of nurturing the body inside and out by balancing within ourselves the forces of the five elements: water, air, earth, fire, and space (which encompasses all of the others).One way this is done is with several types of internal cleanings. For instance, an air bath consists of deep breathing and focused awareness of the breath. "Air bathes the lungs, while feeding oxygen to the whole body and purifying it," says Sudhakar Selote, a visiting consultant at The Raj, an Ayurvedic health center in Fairfield, Iowa.
A space bath uses deep meditation to extend purification to all areas of the mind and body, according to Pratima Raichur, author of Absolute Beauty. A fire bath involves consuming spicy, warm foods and beverages to stimulate the digestive system and increase circulation, while a water bath—drinking water and herbal teas—hydrates and detoxifies the body.
Another aspect of Ayurvedic bathing involves the three doshas—vata (air), pitta (fire), and kapha (earth)—which are said to govern all mental and physical aspects. Everyone has a predominant dosha, and keeping that force balanced means following a certain lifestyle, including diet and exercise. For traditional bathing, Melanie Sachs, author of Ayurvedic Beauty Care, suggests bathwater temperatures should be suited to one's dosha. For example, vata types fare better in warm to hot water; kaphas gravitate toward warmer temperatures, too, but the already fiery pittas might want to run a cooler bath. Doshas are also balanced by certain essential oils. In Ayurveda, oils are recognized for their ability to anoint the body and harmonize the mind. In fact, Ayurveda prescribes an oil massage before bathing, says Selote, as the warm water will allow the oil to penetrate skin tissues more deeply and help mobilize toxins in the body.
As for adding essential oils to bathwater, rose, rosewood, rose geranium, and neroli work well for exuding calm and warmth with vatas. For pitta types, calming and soothing oils for the skin and mind include jasmine (for women) and vetiver (for men), as well as mint and lemon. Kaphas can be stimulated and uplifted by rosemary, juniper, orange, and bergamot oils. However, soaps are generally discouraged in Ayurveda, says Sachs, "as they can be too scouring for dry types, causing dryness for vata and skin irritation for pitta."
Yoga 'Vitamins'
If you're developing a dedicated yoga practice, you have surely heard of the yamas and niyamas of Patanjali's classical yoga, which include such virtues as ahimsa (nonharming), satya (truthfulness), and samtosha (contentment). Lesser known are the "yoga vitamins," as B.K.S. Iyengar named them in The Tree of Yoga. These five partner virtues, set forth in the Yoga Sutra, reinforce the classical practice of yoga and generate an abundance of good karma for the practitioner.The first vitamin is sraddha, usually translated as faith. But many interpreters of Patanjali have also translated it as many other things - 'trust and confidence'(in the rightness of what you're doing and in the sympathy of the divine), 'firm conviction'(which is free of doubt), 'positive attitude'(even in the face of momentary setbacks), 'acceptance'(of traditional teachings and the words of your teacher), and 'sweet hope' in the ultimate success of your practice. In Sanskrit, sraddha is a feminine word, suggesting that faith is gentle and supportive. Indeed, the sage Vyasa, who is credited with writing the oldest surviving commentary on the Yoga Sutra, said that faith is: "benevolent like a mother; she protects the yogi." When the practitioner holds to faith, the mind becomes tranquil and, as Vyasa concluded, "strength gathers in him."
Such strength is known as virya, the second vitamin. Virya is usually translated as 'energy' or 'vitality', the sort that comes from knowing you're doing the right thing. But it's also characterized as 'courage', 'strong will', 'enthusiasm', 'stamina', and 'dedication'. As virya gathers in the practitioner, said Vyasa, "intentness attends upon him."
'Intentness' is one interpretation of the Sanskrit word smrti, the third vitamin. Usually, smrti is simply translated as memory, but in this context, it's better understood as mindfulness. What are you supposed to be mindful of? Some commentators talk about the practice of constantly minding the more palpable aspects of your life experience: your body, the contents of your consciousness, your surroundings, your breath. Others interpret mindfulness as a diligent remembrance of and reflection on the true nature of the Self. Still others believe that memory also includes the recollection of what you've studied in yoga scripture. In any case, mindfulness focuses the energy of consciousness and so serves as a prelude to meditation. According to Vyasa, - "At the presence of intentness, the mind, free of disturbance, becomes harmonized and established in samadhi."
Samadhi, the fourth vitamin, is a highly technical term in classical yoga that literally means 'putting together'. It ultimately allows the practitioner, said Vyasa, to "perceive things as they really are."
This perception of things as they really are leads to the fifth and final vitamin, prajna , which is actually the goal of yoga practice. It roughly means 'knowledge', but Patanjali wasn't talking about knowledge in a worldly sense, of course. The great 20th-century sage Sri Aurobindo defined the term prajna as the 'knowledge that unites' all the loose ends of one’s self in the Self...
Kitchari Diet
In US downing a hearty grain dish would not be called fasting. But in India kitchari — a soupy porridge made from rice and mung beans, lightly spiced with ginger, cilantro, and other spices—is considered a fasting food and is used to purify digestion and cleanse systemic toxins.Ayurvedic physicians often prescribe a kitchari diet before, during, and after panchakarma, a rejuvenative treatment that cleanses toxins stored in bodily tissues as it restores systemic balance. Kitchari provides solid nourishment while allowing the body to devote energy to healing. You can safely subsist on kitchari anytime in order to build vitality and strength as it helps balance all three doshas. For restless vata, the warm soup is grounding; for fiery pitta, its spices are calming; and for chilly kapha, it provides healing warmth. Ayurveda believes that all healing begins with the digestive tract, and kitchari can give it a much-needed rest from constantly processing different foods while providing essential nutrients. The blend of rice and split mung beans offers an array of amino acids, the building blocks of protein. Its mixture of spices is believed to kindle the digestive fire, the Ayurvedic description for your innate digestive power, which can be weakened by poor food combinations.
Kitchari tastes like a cross between a creamy rice cereal and a light dal, or lentil soup. If it is a cold, blustery day or you are feeling under the weather, a steaming bowl of this classic Indian comfort food can both warm up your bones and restore sagging energy. Here's the basic recipe(serves 3):
1 cup basmati rice
1/2 cup mung beans (whole, soaked overnight)
6 cups boiling water
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 pinch asafoetida (a spice also called hing—available at Indian groceries)
1 cup chopped vegetables, such as zucchini, carrots, cauliflower, or anything you choose (optional)
1 teaspoon ground cumin, coriander, or any other spices you choose (optional
1. Combine the rice with the mung beans and wash twice.
2. Place rice and beans into boiling water, adding the turmeric and asafoetida.
3. Cook over medium heat until the water is mostly absorbed.
4. Add one more cup of lukewarm water, vegetables, and optional spices if you're using them. The final dish should be a stew with a very moist and soft consistency.
Preparation: 30 minutes
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
