Showing posts with label Teach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Teach. Show all posts
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
Knee Story
If you've ever experienced knee pain or a chronic knee problem — you know how frustrating and limiting it can be. Unfortunately, it's not unusual for yoga students to practice asanas with small misalignments in the knee. Repeated over months and years, these small misalignments can contribute to pain and long-term joint problems. On the other hand, yoga poses practiced with conscious good alignment of the leg bones and joints can be a wonderful tool for building strong, healthy knees.The knee is so vulnerable and sensitive to alignment because it is a shallow, basically unstable joint. Imagine two long columns stacked atop each other, and you've got the thigh bone (femur) and the shin bone (tibia). The flat surfaces of the bones make the knee dependent on ligaments (which join bone to bone) and tendons (which join muscle to bone) to hold it together. Any side-bending or twisting forces endanger these supporting tendons and ligaments. For example, standing poses done with improper alignment can put great strain on the knee. The best indicators of knee alignment in standing poses are the relative positions of the foot and kneecap. The foot acts like a pointer showing the rotation of the shin and lower leg, while the kneecap shows the rotation of the femur. In Trikonasana (Triangle Pose), for example, the front leg kneecap should point over the center of the foot. If the kneecap points toward or even inside the big toe, you know that the columns are twisting. In Trikonasana, all yogis need a strong outward rotation of the femur bone in the hip socket to align the femur with the shin and foot.
Bent-leg standing poses can also stress the knee. As the knee bends, it should function like a hinge, with no sideways movement. In Virabhadrasana II (Warrior II), a common misalignment is for the front knee to point inside the big toe. In this position, the columns of the leg are not only twisting, they are also bent to the side at their junction. This widens the gap between the bones at the inner knee, straining the ligaments there, and compresses the outer knee, which abrades the joint surface and contributes to arthritis. As in Triangle, a strong outward rotation of the front leg femur is needed.
Seated poses may also put strain on the knee. In Virasana (Hero Pose), if your toes angle out to the sides instead of pointing straight back, you're twisting and straining your knees. The foot and lower leg are rotating out while the femur is, relatively speaking, rotating in. While Virasana does require the femur to rotate in slightly and while the knee can safely allow some twist in a bent, nonweightbearing position, Virasana with the feet turning out is an excessive twist which will damage the knee ligaments.
Cross-legged sitting poses such as Padmasana (Lotus Pose) can also be problematic for the knees. To sit well in Padmasana, the femurs must be able to deeply externally rotate within the hip sockets. When this rotation is limited, the knees will stick up in the air. If you then attempt to place the foot on top of the opposite thigh, the outer knee ligaments will be stretched and the inner knee surfaces compressed, causing pain, and if the pose is forced, injury. Before students attempt Full Lotus, they should increase their hip flexibility so the knees come near the floor when they sit cross-legged. To help improve external rotation, try this variation of Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle Pose). Sitting tall with your back to a wall, place the soles of the feet together and draw the heels in toward the hips. Either allow gravity to pull the knees down or very gently press the hands on the thighs, lengthening the thigh bones out of the hip sockets and down toward the floor. Sit in this position for two or three minutes, so the muscles and connective tissue around the hip joint can soften and release.
Hip joint flexibility can also be helped by lying on your back and crossing the right ankle over the left knee. Hold your hands behind the left knee and gently pull the legs toward the chest. You should feel a stretch in the back of the right hip, not at the knee. Because the muscles and fascia (connective tissue) of the hip joints are so strong, it may take months of work to improve hip flexibility enough to do Padmasana without knee strain. If your hip flexibility is adequate and you still experience knee pain in sitting poses, it may be due to previous knee injuries or strains. If that is the case, it can help to create a long thin roll with a washcloth or small towel. Holding each end of the roll, pull it deep into the back of your partially bent knee; hold the roll in place as you continue to bend the knee fully. Then try Virasana, Padmasana, or some other bent-leg sitting pose. The roll helps to keep the bones in their natural alignment, without twisting or side bending, and keeps a little space open inside the joint, avoiding compression.
All these cautions may sound alarming, but you really only need to keep a few simple principles in mind: always check your alignment, and if you ever feel strain in your knees, back out of the pose and experiment until you feel the stretch in your hips or groins instead. Practiced with care, asanas can contribute to the long-term health of your knees by strengthening your quadriceps, opening your stiff hips, and teaching your body improved alignment and movement patterns that transfer into your everyday activities.
N, O - Terms
Nada: Inner sounds that may be heard during advanced stages of meditation; nada may take the form of sounds such as bells, the blowing of a conch, and thunder.Nadi: A channel in the subtle body through which prana and kundalini flow. The channels loosely correspond to the central, sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Nadi also refers to the normal veins and arteries of the physical body.
Namaste: A tradtional Indian greeting. Two hands pressed together and held near the heart with the head gently bowed. Namaste means - 'I bow and honor the divine presence in you'. Namaskar is another variation of Namaste.
Nirvana: Characterized by bliss and freedom. Letting go of ego, passion and desire. Liberation.
Niyama: The second step in Raja Yoga, observance, purity and contentment.
Ojas: The subtle, health-promoting substance through which consciousness and Nature's intelligence are connected the body.
Om: also written as 'Aum' according the Yogi's and Rishi's OM is considered to be the sound that represents the Ultimate Reality, the primordial vibration, which is prefixed to many mantras. Om shares many of the same meanings with its Semitic counterparts: the Hebrew "Amen" and the Arabic "Amin." All three are used to open or close prayers.
Om Yoga: A practice that combines Buddhist meditation with an emphasis on alignment and fluidity.
Approaching Mastery
Learning simple asanas is easy enough, when you look at your yoga teacher and follow along. When you're ready for more complex postures, however, this Simon Says strategy may need to give way to a more methodical approach. So just how do you master a new pose? While every practitioner develops his own secrets of success, these tried-and-true principles can get you started. Break the pose into smaller bites instead of attempting to swallow it whole. Just as a pianist might practice the fingering of each hand alone before performing an entire piece of music, you can divide any pose into discrete movements and practice them one at a time.For instance, divide a standing pose in half. First, focus on the proper action of the legs and feet while keeping your spine in neutral and your hands on your hips. Then explore just the top half. Once you feel comfortable with each half, combine them to practice the whole masterpiece. Warm up with some simpler actions first. A handful of fundamental movement principles crop up again and again in both elementary and advanced poses. Exploring them first in a familiar posture can help you move toward a more complicated pose with both integrity and clarity. The principles of forward bending that you learn in a basic pose like Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend), for example, carry over to the more complex Prasarita Padottanasana (Wide-Angle Standing Forward Bend). Practice Uttanasana first, keeping the hips even and the spine long, folding at the tops of the thighs rather than from the waist. Then integrate these concepts into the more advanced pose.
Use props creatively. Props can help less-expert practitioners move toward challenging postures without compromising integrity and alignment. With a little creativity, you can discover innovative ways of using them to help you experience the essence of a pose without risking injury. If your fingers don't reach the floor in a standing pose, place a block between your hand and the floor. If you can't reach your big toe in Supta Padangusthasana (Reclining Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose), use a strap. If you have difficulty sitting with a long and neutral spine, support your pelvis on a blanket. Props are like training wheels--they can help you find your way in the beginning, even if you eventually want to wean yourself from them.
Practice, practice. With perseverance, postures that once seemed impossible will be within your grasp. Pulling off a new pose can be both gratifying and exhilarating, but remember that your spiritual evolution doesn't depend on your ability to stand on your hands or wrap your foot behind your head. In yoga, the journey never ends. When you master a new pose, an even more challenging one always awaits.
Sticky Deals or the Mat of my Dream
Maybe you don't even think about it, but before the invention of the sticky mat, doing yoga was a slippery proposition =) Those of you who can remember the days before color television will also remember what it was like to do yoga without a sticky mat... slippery. "My feet would slide apart and I had to tense my legs to keep from falling," yoga teacher Angela Farmer says. "I was desperate to find something that would give me traction." So Farmer tried doing yoga on blankets, bulky foam mattresses, and even spat on her dry footsoles to keep from slipping, but nothing really worked.One day while traveling in Germany, Farmer spotted a roll of matting at a local market. She squeezed the material between her fingers. It was thin, dense, and sticky. It was carpet padding. She bought a length of it and took it to yoga class. "It was heaven," Farmer recalls. She was able to grip the floor without straining. Farmer took this miraculous mat home to London, where other yogis took interest. Soon Farmer began toting rolls of carpet padding home every time she traveled to Germany. Richard Farmer, Angela's father, saw an opportunity. He contacted the padding manufacturer and soon became the first retailer of "sticky" mats, calling his new product "The Original Molivos Mat" in honor of his daughter, who led yoga workshops in Molivos, Greece. Export duties and international shipping costs made these European mats expensive in North America. Enter Sara Chambers, of Hugger Mugger, who decided to manufacture her own. With a chemist's help, she designed the first sticky mat specifically for yoga. Her "Tapas Mat" was more durable, less expensive, and available in colors.
But the German manufacturers wouldn't give up. They developed a new line of high-quality mats in three different colors and varied levels of thickness. Their latest import is a thick rubber mat called "The Black Mat," favored by flow-style yogis for its length, durability, and crumple resistance.
When you thumb through a yoga catalog, you might be surprised or confused by the array of available mats. Ruth Steiger, of Yoga Props, fields mat questions daily. "The first thing I ask people is what style of yoga they do. If they say Ashtanga, I recommend a 4-millimeter mat. If not, I ask what kind of surface they work on," Steiger says. For those who practice on carpet she recommends a dense mat of medium thickness. This mat also works well on wood floors, giving a solid, grounded feel. "But some people need extra cushioning," Steiger observes. For them, she recommends the same mat she suggests for Ashtangis because it "pads and cradles the bony places." But when traveling, an ultra-thin mat might be your best companion. "It folds into the space of a pair of socks," Steiger explains.
Reconnect With Nature
Can burying your friends in the sand be a form of yoga? According to Russell Comstock, a yoga teacher and outdoor adventure educator based in Essex, New York, the answer is "absolutely." At a conference organized by the Green Yoga Association last September, Comstock and his wife, a psychotherapist, led an "Ocean Yoga" day for nearly 25 participants. The group practiced asanas in front of the waves, searched for stones and pebbles to create devotional altars, and buried each other in the sand in Savasana to encourage pratyahara (sense withdrawal). "Yoga on the beach is a wonderful way for people to reconnect with a sense of joy and wonder..", says one of the participants,"It was a total blast!"But the Comstocks aren't stopping there. They recently established the Metta Earth Institute on a several-hundred-acre farm in New York's Adirondack Mountains. In addition to hatha yoga and meditation classes, the small eco-school will offer sustainable-living programs that teach organic gardening, small-scale farming, permaculture principles, and green building techniques.
9 Things You Should Know About Yoga for Children
Here are some guidelines and realistic expectations for parents, who are considering Yoga for their children:1. Make sure your child starts with easy postures, and be patient with your child's progress. Some children can often be more flexible than advanced adult Yoga practitioners, but they don't know their own limitations.
2. Look for a qualified Yoga instructor, who has experience in teaching children. Make sure the child's Yoga instructor has adequate experience.
3. Discover your child's real passions. All children are different, and what is good for one of your children, may not agree with another. However, when your child wants to go to Yoga class, it is much better than what you want for your child. This is not to say that you should avoid guidance. However, it is not advisable to push a child into a Yoga class, if your child doesn't enjoy it - no matter how popular Yoga may be.
4. Encourage your child to see the deeper benefits of Yoga: learning to live within the moment, and appreciating the present situation, instead of focusing on desires, these are built-in mental assets of Yoga practice. Enhanced concentration skills are another benefit that will result in improved academic performance.
5. Watch your child practice, with his or her, Yoga teacher, and make sure you are comfortable with the environment, policies, and safety guidelines. Rules and discipline policies are usually in place so that each child can learn Yoga and get the most out of their experience.
6. For your child's safety at home: Parents who are not familiar with Yoga, should not let their "beginner Yoga children" practice anything beyond beginner techniques, without a competent Yoga instructor's approval. Once your child's Yoga instructor gives approval of home practice, you are fine.
7. A smaller kid's Yoga class is actually better than a larger one. This insures that your child's Yoga instructor can pay close attention to each student during practice session.
8. Price should not be the top factor in choosing your child's Yoga teacher. Would you choose the cheapest dentist, clothes, or car? Very often, "you get what you pay for."
9. In conclusion, with steady practice, you should expect to see your child gradually gain self-esteem, stress management tools, self discipline, enhanced academic performance, and improved athletic skills.
8 Simple Benefits of Yoga - Or Why Should You Start as a Teacher?
Someone says that Yoga is "the mother of all health maintenance systems". I hope it's enough to make this post at least worth reading ;) There are several things you need to know to realize the real necessity of yoga in your life, and not only yours.
First of all, every challenging occupation yields some sort of satisfaction, but the fitness professionals industry had an amazing 85% job satisfaction rate according to an Idea Health & Fitness survey.
1 - Job Satisfaction
In the same survey, 98% of those interviewed felt that "My work gives me a feeling of personal accomplishment." Lack of personal satisfaction is the most frequent reason why people leave a job. These statistics make it obvious that this is an extremely harmonious atmosphere to work in.
For many of us who worked in the corporate world and shifted into the health and fitness industry, the energy felt in a health club, ashram, or wellness center is similar to being on vacation. There's always something to do, but the job itself is very gratifying.
2 - Rewards of Helping Family, Friends, Students, and Co-workers
Your self esteem improves as you find solutions for the pain management of others, ailments, fitness, stress management, positive thinking, etc.
The list goes on, as you continue your own journey of self improvement, but the feeling of gratification you get from helping someone find the right path, is beyond words.
You will always remember: That student who reaches their ideal body weight, the physically impaired student who finds that they, too, can live a better quality life, and the student who leaves your class without the headache or backache they came in with.
3 - Your Own Health
As a practitioner of Yoga, you have become more aware of your daily ups and downs. You monitor your breath, posture, moods, diet, and exercise on a daily basis.
As a Yoga teacher, you are setting an example to your students and teaching them to live a quality life. This path will enable you to live longer and live better.
4 - There is no Shortage of Work
When the working world is in the "9 to 5" mode, you have many opportunities with Corporate Accounts, The Fitness Industry, Senior Centers, Medical Centers, Referrals, etc. This is when you to teach them, with any free time you have.
Once I became totally self-employed, there were more daytime off-site Yoga teaching opportunities than I had time for in a geographic area that has many active Yoga teachers and studios. One of my best students, who became a Yoga teacher through our on-site program, inherited an area that I could no longer service due to time restraints.
The object is to contact them. This is where your post cards come in handy, if you don't have a personal referral.
5 - Continuing Education
Yes, learning new things keeps
keeps your mind stimulated and healthy. You will never tire of subjects to study, explore, and investigate. There are so many facets of Yoga, that one life span, is just not enough time to learn it all.
It's not a race, but it is a journey. You will find friends, colleagues, and students who are on the same path. This makes giving, receiving, and sharing a wonderful thing along the way.
6 - Time
You will have time to stop, think, breathe, relax, or meditate. You can always fill your plate beyond its limits, but you no longer have to.
You can determine whether or not you will be stuck in traffic during rush hour. You decide what hours you will work and what days you have off. You will come to the realization that your time is your own.
7 - Independence
Everyone wants control of their own life, but very few achieve it. Being in business for yourself, can help you control your own destiny and that of your family.
Sure there are limits to what one person can accomplish, but it is better to try than to have never tried.
8 - Success
No matter what you want, if you write down your short-term and long-term goals, you will make great progress toward them.
You should keep these goals in a place where you can see them daily and visualize yourself accomplishing your goals. You should be specific about time frames and ethical methods used to meet them. You can even use them in meditation.
Review your long-term goals at least once every season and every year. Review your short-term goals daily. You will see yourself make rapid success in this way.
Lastly, goals do not have to be material at all. For example: You may want to start teaching Yoga in a year, and the following year, get a part-time Yoga teaching position. This type of goal setting is realistic and beneficial to mankind.
That is the key - If you choose a goal that will benefit others, you will surely achieve it. Maintain a regular yoga practice, and you will see for yourself, how yoga can benefit you too.
Balance in Warrior III
In this version of Virabhadrasana III (Warrior III), you'll use blocks to support your upper body and a wall to take some of the weight off your lifted leg, helping you strengthen and stabilize your legs, hips, and sacrum. Start in Tadasana(Mountain Pose), with your back facing a wall that's about a leg's distance away. Have two blocks handy. Fold forward into Uttanasana(Standing Forward Bend), lift your left leg behind you, and press your left foot against the wall at hip height so that it's parallel to the floor. Inhale as you lift your spine away from the floor and place one block under each hand. See that your hands are beneath your shoulders.
Build your pose from the ground up. Spring the arch of your foot upward. Then press the outer edge of your standing leg inward toward your inner leg. Next, imagine zipping up a long zipper from your inner ankle to your inner groin to help you lengthen the inner shaft of your leg. Lastly, shave the outer edge of your right hip back toward the wall behind you. Stay here for a few breaths, making sure that the whole leg works evenly; no part of it should feel slack. Bring your attention to your upper body. Slide the front of your spine, from just below your navel, toward your heart. Do this without hardening your belly or sucking it back and up. Simultaneously, elongate the two sides of your tailbone away from your lumbar, toward the wall behind you.
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