Archive for the 'yoga exercise' Category

What Are The ‘Five Tibetan Rites?’: Yoga

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

The Five Tibetan Rites has many names including “The Five Tibetans”, “The Five Rites”, “The Five Rites of Rejuvenation” and more recently known as “T5T”. They are a system of yoga exercises which are older than 2500 years.

‘The Eye of Rejuvenation’ was written in 1939 by Peter Kelder. It’s about yoga exercises he gained information about from an Army Colonel from Britain while he was in California.

In the book he writes about the chats he had with this Colonel and about what the Colonel had learned while he was abroad in the Army. The yoga exercises had secrets to keeping young, getting great health benefits like greater eyesight, memory, potency, hair growth, less grey hairs, youthful looks, better sleep and inner peace.

Between each exercise make sure you stand up and place your hands on your hips. Then take two or three deep breaths. Each rite should be repeated twenty one times.

Below is a quick overview of the exercises. Please be sure to check with your doctor before performing the rites and consult with a yoga teacher skilled in the rites before performing. This will help you get the correct postures and breathing for the exercises. At first you may not be able to do the exercises 21 times. Your yoga teacher will guide and give you the correct advice suited to you.

1st Yoga Rite: Stand straight up with your hands outstretched horizontally and palms facing to the floor. Start rotating clockwise focusing on a fixed point like the wall or your hand. Do this twenty one times. 2nd Yoga Rite: While lying down on a mat or a soft floor and keeping your hands flat with palms down and fingers close, raise your legs until vertical and also raise your head. Hold the position for a few seconds and then lower both your head and feet. Do this twenty one times. 3rd Yoga Rite: Kneel down on the ground with your thighs and body upright and place your hands just below your bum and your thighs for support. Then bring your chin down near your chest. Next arch your head and shoulders back as much as you can while breathing out. 4th Yoga Rite: Sit down on the floor with a yoga mat and keep your legs straight. Make sure your torso is straight up. Make sure your hands are on the floor beside your thighs and with the fingers close together. Raise the body up and also bend at your knees so between the feet and to your knees are vertical and so are from your hands to your shoulders. The torso should be horizontal between the shoulders and the knees forming a table sort of shape. Go back to your starting position. 5th Yoga Rite: Lie down on the floor – face down. Your legs should be shoulder width apart and your heels lifted so you are on your toes. Lift the torso up with your hands so your head is up fully and back is bent smoothly. This is the starting position and from here lift up the torso and buttocks so the arms and the body form a part of a triangle. The legs form the other side of the triangle. The floor is the third side of the triangle. Use the shoulders and hips as points of pivot to move between the positions. Repeat 21 times.

Peter Sutherland is a freelance writer and writes for numerous UK businesses. For experienced teachings and training of The Five Tibetans Yoga, the Kundalini Kriyas and other yoga techniques we recommend Yogini Bristol – Yoga Bristol.

What To Wear For A Yoga Class

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011

Dressing up for yoga can be a little complicated from the lack of readily available yoga attire. Pajamas might suffice at home, but you might think twice wearing these to a yoga class.

Practicing outside of the house is different. A lot of factors have to be considered in choosing the right yoga cloths. Here are some tips to make you look like a professional.

Wearing typical street clothes to a yoga class is definitely not recommended. These can weigh anywhere between 7 and 15 pounds which is not what you want when practicing yoga.

When doing yoga light is right. Try sorting through your clothes to find the lightest pair of t-shirt and shorts available. This way you can save on having to spend on new attire. Avoid jean shorts and the thick cotton shirts as these get heavy when you start to sweat. Plus jean material is hard and not flexible.

Buying new clothes for your yoga is impractical. Just go find the lightest t-shirt and shorts you have at home. Don’t choose that heavy cotton shirts because when you will be sweating while doing the exercise, it will absorb more sweat than to light shirts. Avoid wearing jeans also, it maybe long or short. They are hard and not stretchy.

Tight clothing is recommended for women because usually they are flexible. To wear black clothes also is good because it can help you to sweat too much. Capris is also ideal for women doing yoga. This kind is usually are dark color, stretchy and light.

Practicing yoga is already difficult alone without the problems of what shoes to wear. In choosing the right pair of shoes, one has to prioritize safety before comfort. If no shoes fit, then one can always go on foot.

Bottom-line is that whatever one wears, it has to fit well, and must easily be carried and expandable to allow body movement comfortably. Once you have chosen the right clothes based on the description, then you are ready to start preparing for the class.

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Yoga, Not Just Flexibility

Friday, May 6th, 2011

Everyday we encounter advertisements about fitness products to help us lose weight and tone our abs and body, but hearing about yoga, an exercise with all the benefits and much more- is rare.

Seen as many just as a way to maintain flexibility – something your everyday muscle building won’t do – yoga’s benefits extend far beyond that to a wide range of physical and psychological benefits.

Flexibility is recognized as the single biggest benefit of yoga. The positions the yoga practitioner can place himself in can leave many people shocked, if you’ve ever seen a yoga class or website. Yoga can help increase the range of motion in your hamstrings, back shoulder and hips.

The poses that you do in yoga, which may be held in long periods of time, can help build muscle tone and strength. While learning the poses you will also improve your balance.

Increased flexibility and strength also help in prevention of some types of pain. Think how good a stretch feels when you get out of the car from a long drive. Back pains, shoulder pain and even carpal tunnel pain are some of the pains relieved by yoga, these are just some of the benefits yoga extends to your body.

Breathing is extensively focused on during yoga. As you move through a pose, learning to take slower and deeper breaths benefits your whole body. Be prepared for some light-headedness while your are still learning how to breathe properly during yoga as your blood is carrying a better supply of oxygen. This will happen during your first few attempts but don’t worry, it will pass. Controlling your breathing helps in reducing stress and managing pain.

While any exercise carries mental benefits as well as physical, the benefits of yoga come not from endorphins but from concentration and calmness. Concentration on breathing and body positioning is very important in yoga, this is also a good tool for stress reduction and to calm your thoughts. You may find that yoga in the evening helps relax your mind and body for sleep.

You may need help beginning yoga, but that is as easy as enrolling in a class, buying a video, or even tuning in a television program. Getting yourself a yoga mat or if you have a carpeted area and some loose fitting clothes are also advisable. Listen to your body, whether doing yoga in a class or by yourself. When attempting to do a pose and you feel pain, try doing a modified version or do not attempt until you feel that you are in a level where you can physically do so. If you continue to do yoga, the poses will become easier and you might find that yoga is one of the best “you” times you can have.

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Chair Yoga For the Office

Friday, March 26th, 2010

By Angelena Craig

Learning to practice Yoga while sitting in a chair has a multitude of benefits for anyone of any age, shape, size or and fitness level. Chair Yoga is sometimes called Office Yoga. It is a wonderful alternative for anyone who sits at a desk long hours and needs a way to stretch those tired muscles, particularly the back, neck, shoulders and hips, without leaving the office station… and you get all the benefits of regular yoga without ever having to change your clothes or get up or down off of the floor.

Taking a Chair Yoga break, even a five minute break, can increase efficiency and effectiveness while at work and clear the mind. If you can do this several time during the day, even for a few minutes, you will be happier in your body and your mind will defog.

Here are a few easy seated yoga stretches for the back:

1. Push or roll your chair away from the desk so that you are back as far as you can go with your arms straight and your hands resting on the edge of the desk. Your head is between your arms and you drop your shoulders down away from the ears.
Press your hips back and your chest forward a bit more to make space between the vertebrae.
Hold for several deep breaths and then look up and lift the torso up to sitting.

2. Come forward to the front of the chair, with your feet firmly planted. Reach you arms back to the back of the chair and hold on. Press the front of your torso forward. Look up, but keep the shoulders down neck comfortable in this back bend. Hold for a few deep breaths.

3. Again, come forward to the front of the chair, separating you feet wider than your hips. Place your elbows on your thighs. Press the elbows and the hips back toward the back wall and look straight ahead for a lengthened spine. Then tuck your chin and look down between the legs of the chair as you release the neck. Come up slowly, one hand on one thigh and then the other to draw you up.

Sit back in your chair and let those stretches settle in.

Chair Yoga DVDs may be purchased which then can be slipped into your computer to help guide you. Some of them are segmented so that you can focus on the particular body part you need to stretch, such as the shoulders, the neck or the wrists.

Chair Yoga for Boomers, Practice Yoga While Sitting, Chair Yoga, Office Yoga, Easy Seated Stretches for the Back,Promote efficiency and effectiveness at work and clear the mind, Chair Yoga DVDs.

Chair Yoga for The Office
by
Angelena Craig

Angelena Craig

Angelena Craig is a professional level Kripalu Yoga Instructor with fifteen years of teaching experience. She was the founder of Beacon Light Yoga Center of Boston and has trained thousands of beginning and more experienced yoga students.

As a teaching consultant for the Massachusetts Department of Housing of Finance she created her Chair Yoga program primarily for seniors. She then produced Chair Yoga DVD, “Angelena’s Yoga Using a Chair” to make this easy to follow program more accessible to anyone of any size, shape or fitness level in a format that can be used in the comfort of the home or the office.

In 2008 Angelena opened her new business The New Aging Movement, how to stay young while growing older. She offers private and group Yoga classes and Wellness workshops in Sarasota Florida and in the Boston area and each winter leads a yoga retreat to Jamaica, WI.

She may be reached at http://theNewAgingMovement.com

Article Source: Chair Yoga For the Office

Yoga Exercise: 12-Step Salute to the Sun

Monday, March 8th, 2010

One of the best yoga exercises is the 12-step salute to the sun. You should do it when you first get up in the morning.  Going through it once or twice will help relieve stiffness, invigorate the body, and give you energy for the day. Amazingly, doing it again at night will help you to relax; some insomniacs find that doing as many as 12 repetitions can help them fall asleep.

  1. Stand with your feet slightly apart, palms together, thumbs against your chest.
  2. Inhale deeply while you slowly raise your hands above your head and bend back as far as you can, while tightening your buttocks. Hold in this position for three seconds.
  3. Slowly exhale while bending forward, keeping your knees straight, until your fingers touch the floor outside your feet, or as close to this as you can reach. (Don’t worry – flexibility will come with practice.) Bring your head in toward your knees.
  4. Slowly inhale, bend your knees, and if your fingertips aren’t outside your feet on the floor, place them there. Slide your right foot back as far as you can go, with the right knee an inch or so off the floor, into a lunge position. Now arch your back and bring your head back so you are looking up as far as you can.
  5. Before exhaling again, slide your left foot back until it is beside the right one, and with your weight supported on your palms and toes, straighten both legs so that your body forms a flat plane. Make sure your stomach is pulled in.
  6. Slowly exhale, bend both knees to the floor, bend with your hips in the air, lower your chest and forehead to the floor.
  7. Now inhale slowly and look up, bending your head back, then raising it, followed by your upper chest, then lower chest. Your lower body – from the navel down – should be on the floor, and your elbows should be slightly bent. Hold for three to five seconds.
  8. Exhale slowly and raise your hips until your feet and palms are flat on the floor and your arms and legs are straight in an inverted V position.
  9. Inhale slowly and bring your right foot forward as in position 4. The foot should be flat on the floor between your fingertips. The left leg should be almost straight behind you, with its knee slightly off the floor. Raise your head, look up, and arch your back.
  10. Slowly exhale and bring your left foot forward next to your right one. Straighten your legs and stand, trying to keep your fingertips on the floor, and try to touch your head to your knees as in position 3.
  11. Slowly inhale, raise your arms up and stretch back as in position 2. Don’t forget to tighten your buttocks. Hold for three seconds.
  12. Slowly exhale, lowering your arms to your sides. Relax.

That’s all there is to it.  After a few times you will start to remember the steps without having to look, and you will be able to flow along more smoothly.  You should repeat the series a few times during each session to get the most out of it.

Namaste

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