YOGA AND ATHLETICS

Once you have loosened your spine, it makes sense to move to balance poses while your legs are still fresh. Balance poses will improve your core strength; strengthen your legs, particularly your lower legs and ankles; sharpen mental focus; and, obviously, improve your balance. Balance is especially important in offroad sports, where you must keep your body upright over uneven terrain.

Some principles apply in all balance poses. First, remember your alignment. Learn mountain pose well, and let it inform every other posture you take. Never hyperextend your knees in mountain or any pose. Next, breathe. It seems obvious, and at some point your body will insist you breathe, but you will find more control in balance poses by remaining aware of your breath and letting it stabilize you. Similarly, find a gazing point (drishti) to help you steady yourself; by keeping your eyes still, you encourage stillness in the body. Choose something that's not moving: the edge of your mat, a speck on the floor or wall, the corner of a window. Don’t attach your gaze to your own image in a mirror, and don’t focus on your instructor or a classmate. Physically this makes balance easier, and metaphorically it teaches you self reliance.

Many of these poses are asymmetrical, working the two sides of the body in different ways. For the asymmetrical poses, I describe the pose on one side and let you extrapolate the construction of the pose to the other side (simply swap right for left and vice versa). Be sure to spend equivalent time on each side. This can be measured quantitatively, say, by spending three or five or ten breaths in each pose or qualitatively, by holding the pose on each side until you get the impression of evenness. Taking some of each approach will allow you to notice which side is tighter and to work yourself toward balance by achieving equal release side to side.

Balance poses teach you to find the appropriate ratio of structural alignment, the position of your bones, to muscular strength. You may be able to power through a pose like the chair by relying on your muscles, but the pose will feel easier with appropriate skeletal alignment. In one legged standing poses, keep your supporting leg long but don’t lock out at the knee. You need structural support, but you want access to microadjustments from the muscles of the lower leg. On this issue, consider the importance of form and technique in your sport. Some folks can hammer up hills or shoulder their way through a swim, but they lose efficiency and endurance in the process. And repeatedly practicing with bad form can lead to injury, whether your sport is running, kayaking, or yoga.

MOUNTAIN

Mountain, side viewAll balance poses in fact, virtually all yoga poses are variations on mountain pose (tadasana), which is standing in neutral alignment. Mountain’s neutral alignment is also the base for your run stance, your bike position, or your streamlined body in the water. It's a pose you'll want to know inside out, or bottom to top.

Let's break it down from the ground up. Place your feet hip width apart. For our purposes, your 'hips' are the place where your femurs and pelvis meet, just below the anterior superior iliac spines (ASIS), or hip points. When your feet are in the right place, there's probably about a fist's width of space between your big toes. The toes of both feet should point straight forward. If one or both of your hips are very tight, you'll find that your toes point out to the side. Bring them as close to pointing forward as feels comfortable without tweaking your hips or knees. As you continue with yoga, it will become more comfortable to stand with your legs parallel.

Don't exaggerate curves in spineSpread your toes apart. Sometimes you need to do this manually, especially if your feet are gnarled from years of running. In time, you can get the toe spread by turning a foot to the side, then dragging it back to neutral while letting the stickiness of your mat hold the toes apart.

Your knees line up over your toes and below your hips. Engage your quadriceps a little to lift your kneecaps. Don't overtighten the thighs, though, and don't hyperextend or lock out your knees. Bring your pelvis to a neutral position between cat tilt and dog tilt. If your hips are unlevel, try to draw them on a line parallel to the floor. There may be a skeletal reason for this imbalance. If it is a muscular imbalance, the hips will become more level as you gain flexibility.

Exhale and tuck your lower ribs in toward the spine; this helps bring the belly in toward the midline of your body. While your chest should be broad and open, don’t puff it out military style. Let your shoulder blades relax down your back, without pinching them in toward the spine. Arms are relaxed and heavy.

Inhale and lift up from the crown of your head. This will lengthen the back of your neck, bringing your chin down toward your clavicle. Stand as though there were a string connected to the top of your head, with a puppeteer pulling you upright. The shoulder girdle and the pelvis balance around the midline of the imaginary string.

Return your awareness to your feet. Where is your weight borne? Slowly shift the weight around to find the four corners of your feet: big toe, little toe, inner heel, outer heel. Press down through all of them evenly. Feel stable, grounded, steady as a mountain.

MOUNTAIN BALANCE

While mountain may feel very easy, you can find ways to make it challenging, and in the process learn to find neutral alignment in motion, for example, while running. First, try lifting up to stand on the balls of your feet. Notice how your body weight shifts forward and back to find stability. Are you arching your back? Bending your knees? Can you both lengthen and straighten without making yourself rigid? Try to find the same sense of stability you had with your heels down. Return your heels to the ground and evaluate the difference.

Next, shift your center of gravity by raising your arms overhead and lowering your shoulders. Let your arms be parallel, palms facing each other, just as they were when they rested at your sides in mountain pose. Again, draw your edges in toward your center, so that you feel tall and steady.

If you feel unstable, this and every balance pose can be performed near or against the wall. Feeling the contact of your body with the wall gives you feedback about your alignment, while practicing just near the wall imparts confidence, since you can reach or lean to it if you get wobbly.

By Sage Rountree

THE LATEST YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA

YOGA AND MEN

Ask any man if he's heard of Downward Dog, the Cobra or the Tree Pose and you'll be surprised how many guys know they're all yoga poses, and not just from hearing their female friends or significant others talking about it.

Men and yoga, two words that you didn't much associate with each other, until now. Some men may be apprehensive to try it because they don't think they have the flexibility, or they may they think they may be shown up by a woman. But whether you are looking to learn relaxing breathing techniques, work out tightened muscles or to simply try something new, this is no girls' club, so men, come on in.

At the Tribalance Yoga Center for example, in Schaumburg, there are three male teachers, including the owner, and 35 percent to 40 percent of the clientele is male.

'Men have a preconceived notion that yoga consists of the lighting of incense, hitting of gongs, and bending into a pretzel,' says Corey T. Kelly, owner and teacher at the Yoga Center. 'We have anyone from couch potatoes to professional athletes looking for strength training, to people who are involved in martial arts, coming and taking a class.'

Kelly started taking yoga himself for bodybuilding training, and after looking at the clock for the first 45 minutes of the 90 minute class, he surrendered and just let the yoga take over. As soon as the class ended he had made the decision that not only was he going to become a yoga teacher, but he was also going to start his own yoga studio.

This is no sissy sport. This is an activity that makes you feel the workout for days and working muscles that you didn't even think needed working. Yoga works the mind and body at the same time. The feeling it gives you is different from any other exercise.

For guys who want to have a nice long sweat, then Bikram or hot yoga, usually conducted in a room that is 95 to 100 degrees, is a choice. Iyengar is for those men who are looking for some bodybuilding or strengthening exercises due to its focus on body alignment. For beginners and guys who are just looking for pure mind and body relaxation, hatha would work with its slow and gentle exercises.

And, guys, don't worry about the clothes. You don't need to come in funky pajamas. Just wear anything that you're comfortable stretching around it, and won't show what you want to keep hidden when you're trying that Downward Dog.

By Jennifer Rundell

THE LATEST YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA

YOGA AND ART

A place for yoga and art

Patanjali's Place, a 1,700 square foot space beneath a 25 foot ceiling dedicated to the teaching and practice of yoga and fingerpainting, opens Friday in the old Strawbridge Studios building, 410 W. Geer St.

The idea, said owner Bryan Carey, is 'Yoga for everyone,' from expectant mothers to teenagers and on 'through the dusk of life.'

Carey, a yoga teacher for more than 10 years, is also proprietor of the Shaw School and Studio of fingerpainting.

The fingerpaint enterprise, which carries on the artistic legacy of Ruth Faison Shaw of Chapel Hill, is coming under the same roof (literally) as the yoga studio, he said, but it will hold its classes and events at other times.

Patanjali's is named for a Hindu sage who codified the 'Sutra of Yoga' about 2,000 years ago. It opens with classes seven days a week and plans to enlarge the curriculum this fall, Carey said.

See www.patanjalisplace.com; or contact Carey at 475 1355 or patanjalisplace@gmail.com.

By www.newsobserver.com

THE LATEST YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA

YOGA AND VODKA

Shilpa Shetty's stardom is taking her places. Of late, she has been the eye candy of media more for her personal life than for her films.

Apart from promoting a healthy lifestyle through yoga, Shetty was recently in New Delhi to launch Romanov Red Vodka. She had a tough time explaining the contradiction between healthy living and drinking.

Shilpa, however, had a piece of advice for the youth while endorsing the brand which was 'do not mix drinking and driving'.

www.newindpress.com

THE LATEST YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA

YOGA AND PEACE

At sunset, the Sullivan Farm offers a picturesque setting where the New Milford Youth Agency recently staged a 'Sunset Yoga' program for mothers and daughters.
The only disruption from the tranquility of the scene was the traffic on the nearby Route 202.

Still, the evening sun on the fields behind the farm offered a gorgeous view for the five mothers and daughters who found this to be just the right place to enjoy some relaxation and exercise. Birds chirped in a pleasant harmony with the traffic and soothing yoga music was played for the participants.

'It is a beautiful setting,' said Toni Bentley, who came with daughters Milan, 10, and Taylor, 6.

Yoga instructor Elizabeth Cotter, who brought her 6-year-old daughter, Olivia, played relaxing music as she encouraged the mothers and daughters to stretch, breathe and savor the smells and sights of nature.

Starting back to back, the mothers and daughters moved their bodies in slow, rhythmic patterns, allowing the stretches to extend the lengths of their bodies. They were also pushed to focus on their breaths, inhaling and exhaling with purpose rather than at random.

As the hour long session progressed, the mothers and daughters lunged, crawled and rolled back and forth, the yoga music reaching a crescendo as their movements become more bold. Cotter roamed the group to offer encouragement at each step.

'I think it's nice just to spend some alone time with my daughter and exercise,' said Danielle Sheehan, who came with daughter Brooke, 7. 'This is something healthy and fun to do.'

By Nanci Hutson

THE LATEST YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA

YOGA ABODE

Here's something I've been meaning to write about for a couple of weeks: omtastic website Yoga Abode has been around for a while, but recently had a fantastic relaunch. The site now has a cool clean look, a blog and a shop plus articles on yoga, teacher profiles, recommended poses and an online discussion forum.

Lucia Cockcroft, the site's editor, says:

'Our new eco friendly products shop brings a hand picked selection of premium mats and props together, taking the legwork out of sourcing yoga accessories that don't cost the earth. We hope that yoga fans can also have fun and make friends using our new social networking area.'

If you're into yoga, or you'd like to be, I recommend checking out the site asap.

By www.popgadget.net

THE LATEST YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA

MORE ANTI GRAVITY YOGA

Yoga can be challenging enough, but some practitioners are trying it suspended in the air.

Using special fabric hammocks that don't rip and don't stretch, Crunch Fitness's 'AntiGravity Yoga' may leave you feeling part yogi, part superhero.

The sport club's national yoga director, Jess Gronholm, developed the class in conjunction with the AntiGravity aerialist performance team.

'What we've done is we've worked with them to create that same kind of dynamic feeling that their performers have 30 feet up in the air, but within a gym setting on a much safer place,' said Gronholm.

The class, which combines yoga, a bit of dance, pilates and strength conditioning, starts out with a progression of simple moves to get bodies used to being supported by the hammock.

Then it builds up to back flips, forward flips and low flying yogi inversions that will do a little more than just sweep you off your feet.

'AntiGravity' yoga lets exercisers soar, swing

If you're in the mood to feel a little less grounded, a suspended yoga workout lets exercisers soar to new heights. Health reporter Kafi Drexel filed the following report.

Not only does it look cool, but Gronholm said the suspension helps to release tension in the joints and improve body alignment.

'It's really important. These kind of weightless inversions that we create really help as we turn upside down and hang,' said Gronholm. 'It helps to create that space between each vertebrae and create that length through the spine.'

Students agree that getting their feet off the ground actually helps them find new ways of getting their bodies into place.

'I find that a lot of poses on the floor, if you don't align yourself correctly you could do it wrong,' said participant Jun Sassa. 'But using the hammock, the gravity actually aligns you, you don't have to do anything. You just hang there.'

'In a normal workout, you just don't get the sort of total body experience that I usually get here and it's really fun,' said participant Judy Greengold. 'I mean, there is a sense of humor about it, and I've always wanted to be on a trapeze anyway.'

For those wondering about a weight requirement, the sling is sturdy holding at least 1,000 pounds, a half ton.

These trapeze inspired yoga lovers say it's pretty good comfort for doing everything from being able to hang like a bat to twisting themselves into the serenity of what could be called a 'fitness cocoon.'

By Kafi Drexel

THE LATEST YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA