Mastering Yoga Poses

Yoga is an ancient practice that strengthens the body and mind. Learning about and engaging in yoga can relieve stress and help you tone all the muscles of your body. Master the art of yoga poses, and you will have a routine that you can engage in anytime, anywhere to help you deal with all of lifes little problems. Yoga is the key to empowerment in your life.

Before you can master yoga poses, you have to learn about and practice yoga positions and postures. These are the building blocks of the art of yoga. The right postures in yoga will help you to safely and effectively use yoga poses in the way they are intended. Yoga positions such as ananas will exercise the muscles, glands and nerves as they work to keeping the body and mind healthy.

Another important step in learning yoga poses is learning to breathe properly. Breathing is one of the ways yoga can reach beyond the physical realm and offer mental stimulation, relaxation and growth. You will find that pairing yoga with proper breathing will offer you a new level of mental and physical enjoyment through this exciting art form.

The most common form of yoga is Hatha yoga. This is the basic practice we know today. Hatha yoga uses healing yoga poses to refresh and stimulate your mind and body. Its popularity is a testament to its powers and it is a great way to ensure a more pain-free and relaxing existence.

In our health conscious world, it seems that there is always a new exercise trend. But yoga exercises have been around for thousands of years, so you know you can trust them to be a solid way to improve your health. Whether you need to rid your body of chronic pain, free your mind from the stress of day to day life, or you just want a refreshing daily routine, yoga poses are for you.

By Sarah Freeland

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Easy Ways to Practice Yoga at Home

Yoga is a spiritual practice which assists people in unifying mind, body and heart. Yoga consists of many Asanas and different yoga postures. For practicing yoga you are not necessarily required to join some sort of yoga classes, instead, you can easily practice yoga at home. Many times on account of many reasons such as lack of time, living far from yoga studios or unable to afford join yoga classes' people prefer to practice yoga at home rather than going anywhere else.

Sometimes people want to do Yoga in odd hours, like late night for peace of mind and at such time home is the best place to practice it. But to do that you should know how and what to do. There is below mentioned some points which you should keep in mind when you are going to do yoga at home -

Make a specific place for meditation. It may be either a room with door or even you can part one room into two sections with the help of furniture or a screen.

Arrange for tools required for doing yoga at home like yoga mat. It becomes easy to practice yoga with right tools.

Paint this place with soothing colors and decorate it with music, art and plants. Soothing music will help you in concentrating your mind.

Use some media assistance like yoga DVD. Then you will not have to worry remembering yoga steps and you will be able to practice well. During meditation if you are taking help of VCD or DVD voice then it prevents your mind from wandering anywhere.

There is no such compulsion that for yoga you must join some yoga studios. This is the best feature of yoga that you can do it anywhere you desire. When you are doing yoga at home then first of all you should make sure that you are physically fit and able to do it. If you are suffering from some sort of disease then doing yoga may be harmful. Hence practice yoga at home only when you are physically sound and healthy.

By Jim Andrews

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The 6 Styles of Yoga

Yoga as a form of fitness exercise has many benefits. Although you may not lose a significant amount of weight, you will improve your strength and flexibility. The traditional form of yoga originated from ancient India and the philosophy of connecting mind and body. This connection was achieved through the use of physical exercises in the form of postures. Several styles of yoga have developed over the years with each having a unique focus. These styles are named: Hatha, Ashtanga, Bikram, Iyengar, Anusara and Kundalini.

Hatha is the umbrella of yoga. It is the yoga of breathing and postures. The goal of Hatha is to teach you how to concentrate, focus and hold your postures. This form of yoga is more slower and relaxing than the other styles. This makes Hatha a good starting point for beginners.


Ashtanga Vinyasa is a form of flowing yoga. The goal is to flow from one posture to another. It's purpose is to increase the body temperature to allow purification through increased circulation and sweating. In addition, you build strength, flexibility and stamina. Ashtanga can be demanding on the body which may not be suitable for beginners. However, this doesn't mean you shouldn't try it on for size. Just recognize your limitations and don't overextend yourself.

Bikram or Hot Yoga consist of 26 postures done in a room heated between 90 and 105 degrees. The heat allows the individual members to achieve the poses more easily due to increased flexibility. In addition, the sweat allows body toxins to be released. This form of yoga increases metabolism and helps to alleviate chronic pain and symptoms of arthritis. However, if you have health conditions such as high blood pressure, or are pregnant you should avoid practicing Bikram yoga.

Iyengar yoga uses props to strictly focus on body alignment. The best form is achieved through the use of block and belts. Since this form of yoga is very structured beginners benefit. However, the downside to structure is that you are unable to gradually flow from different poses.

Anusara means flowing with grace and is about being free. Anusara allows the participant to move freely from one pose to another. A set of alignment principles, Attitude, Alignment and Action forms the foundation of each pose. These poses are modified with props if needed to help participants achieve the general form of each pose.

Lastly, Kundalini is a form of spiritual yoga. The purpose of this ancient practice is to free energy in the lower body which moves upward. The energy is formed by chanting, meditation and kriyas. Kriyas are a set of movements which are performed to achieve a certain outcome. Kundalini involves the use of fast repetitive movements and breathing to move deeper into each posture.

There are many different styles of yoga which makes this form of exercise so interesting. You can choose from slow and relaxing styles to an intense workout. Regardless of the type of yoga, you will definitely strengthen and improve your mind and body.

By Patricia Coates

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Yoga For Weight Loss

Many people claim that yoga helps with weight loss. However, there is no hard and fast scientific data to support this claim. Everyone acknowledges that yoga helps stretch the muscles and increases flexibility and limberness, but now people are claiming that you can use yoga for weight loss.

It may be hard to understand how yoga can help you lose weight, but studies have shown that people who practice yoga do lose weight. The weight loss is probably not the result of burning calories through strenuous exercise, because most yoga exercise is not that strenuous. Most people believe the weight loss is a result of reducing stress and learning to avoid bad habits that lead to overeating. By reducing stress, yoga helps you lose weight.


Any exercise that helps you get fit and in shape will help you lose weight. Also, by helping you reduce stress in your life, yoga helps eliminate destructive habits which lead to overeating, which in turn helps you lose weight. Yoga is very effective at reducing stress in your life, and a person living a stress free life tends to have fewer self sabotaging bad habits like compulsive overeating.

There may not be a proven medical link for weight loss through yoga, but this doesnt mean that yoga isnt beneficial. Yoga contributes to your general well being through stress reduction and flexibility. It may be that weight loss from yoga is a result of the other benefits that come from yoga.

Regardless of what individual facet causes it, you can use yoga for weight loss. It may not be the only thing in your life that results in weight loss, and it may not be the fastest way to lose weight, but there are few things in life that have as many positive benefits for you as yoga does. I guess that you can think of using yoga for weight loss as a nice, additional bonus!

By Sydney Heiden

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Learn the Power of Yoga

Yoga is a group of ancient spiritual practices originating in India. It has been defined as echnologies or disciplines of asceticism and meditation which are thought to lead to spiritual experience and profound understanding or insight into the nature of existence.

Yoga is a 5000 year old science whose teachings were first imparted not in a classroom but on the war field. In the epic Mahabharata, Lord Krishna is first said to have imparted the teachings of Yoga to his student Arjuna, in order to make him understand life, the body, the mind and the best practices to use them together to lead a better quality of life.


The Sanskrit root for the term Yoga is Yujir Yogeh which means to unite, to yoke, to join, to put together. Yoga is not about one facility over another. Yoga is about developing harmony between the body and the mind. In Yoga, you use your mind to understand and heal your body. Though originated in India, yoga is practiced by over 20 million Americans daily. While for Indians, yoga is a route to spirituality and eventually realizing god, Americans have adopted yoga for a completely different purpose, that is, enhanced quality of life and being.

Yoga has a great deal of benefits:

* Reduces stress and enhances relaxation

* Boosts physical strength, stamina and flexibility

* Increases powers of concentration and self control

* Inculcates impulse Control

* Enhances tolerance to pain and enhancing mental clarity

* Better functioning of the immune system

* Enhances posture and muscle tone

* Improves blood circulation

* Results in healthy, glowing skin

* Cleanses and improves overall organ functioning

* Bestows peace of mind and a more positive outlook to life

* Infuses a sense of balance and internal harmony

Yoga is all about feeling good, the energy pulsating through your mind and body and the bliss coursing through the entire being. Yoga is a way of life, it's not just exercise. The grace, poise and malleability of the body that you cultivate, is the natural outcome of regular work out. Yoga does not require bodily exertion. In fact trying hard will turn your work outs into a painful, sometimes even injurious routine. The therapeutic effect of Yoga is the direct result of involving the mind totally into breathing new life into the body.

Contrary to popular belief, Yoga positions are not about how far you can reach to touch your toes or how many repetitions you can perform. It is about realizing how your body feels. Yoga is all about breathing correctly. Yoga enhances your vitality, malleability, strength, energy, levels of endurance and self control. With constant practice your body and mind start to become more balanced until, eventually, you find it takes so much less energy to move through life.

By Paul P Harris

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Lose Weight With Yoga

Yoga is a form of exercise that varies greatly from all other workouts. It is designed to increase flexibility and strength, focusing not only on the physical, but also on the mental health of a person. The benefits and results of Yoga are absolutely amazing, and can be achieved faster than through other types of exercise programs.

Yoga is a workout of stretches and maintaining body positions. Stretching is essential to one's body and helps protect a person from injury and stiffness. Yoga also increases the blood circulation throughout the body. It strengthens the ligaments, muscles and even the bones. It also helps you to lose weight and tone your body.

Relaxation and concentration are essential components of a Yoga workout. They allow you to get in touch with your body and help you listen to it. This allows you to learn more about yourself and what your body needs, enabling you to take better care of yourself.



The benefits of a Yoga workout are immense. It helps to alleviate stress and decreases the levels of stress hormones. This relaxes facial muscles and decreases the evidence of wrinkles. Yoga is a great workout to do to relax yourself as you begin preparing to go to sleep. It even improves the quality of sleep. Pain alleviation is another one of the incredible benefits of Yoga. Those who regularly do Yoga exercises report a reduction in pain. Yoga also helps you relax and calm yourself during the day, by focusing on the breathing and relaxation techniques that are taught.

To someone who has never before done Yoga, it may look very difficult, however there are many videos that you can rent or purchase for beginners that will introduce you to Yoga and ease you into it. Try practicing Yoga every day for a minimum of 15 minutes. It's a short amount of time, but the benefits will last throughout your day and even improve the quality of your life.

By Gina E Clark

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Prenatal Yoga For Women

What is it? As many may know by now, or not, the word 'Yoga' is derived from an ancient Indian word which translates into union. Yoga is a practice of poses and postures connected to the development of a person's body strength and flexibility. Different poses or postures have, in themselves, different benefits.

Although it may look easy to a stranger's eye, the alignment of postures are physically challenging for beginners, many of them may giggle at the awkwardness of their posture.

I've personally thought and still think that yoga is a slow activity yet I find myself sweating profusely than any other sport that I've tried.

Prenatal Yoga (also known as pregnancy yoga) helps a pregnant mother to 'slow down', literally. During pregnancy, there will be many changes taking place in the human (mother's) body. Hormonal changes, circulatory system changes, respiratory changes, body temperature changes to name a few.

Prenatal Yoga helps and encourages women to adapt to these changes in a positive manner - positive growth. The yoga stretches and poses help in strengthening the birthing muscles, improves blood circulation, reduces backache that are common among pregnant women, reduces anxiety and postpartum yoga quickens the recovery process.

Mental Power

Yoga itself is a physical practice but it starts and ends with the mind. Firstly, free your mind and do not think of anything else during your yoga sessions. Keep in mind that you DO NOT HAVE TO worry about chores, responsibilities and a hundred other things. The priority is me, myself and I.
Second of all, be patient. Yoga is not a get-healthy-quick scheme. Yoga is health program by means of determination, persistence and perseverance. Results may not show immediately as it varies from individuals but the one thing that is certain; the most profound results of yoga are achieved after sometime and not the early stages of practice.

Last but not least, consistent by frequency is the key of yoga. Do it every day and make sure that you do it. Yoga cannot work under 'do-whenever-I-feel-like' circumstances, the right momentum is required.

Common Techniques

There are few common techniques that are recommended for pregnancy. DO NOT ATTEMPT WITHOUT FIRST SEEKING EXPERT ADVICE - I'm merely showing what it's about.

Backbend - Known as the bridge pose, is to lie on your back and bend your knees thereby lifting our hips by the strength of your thighs. This technique or posture strengthens your spine and thus spinal flexibility.

Cat and Cow Stretch - is to pose on all fours (hands and legs) like how a toddler crawls. Keep your spine straightened as a neutral pose. Cow stretch is done by attempting to look at the ceiling by first movement of the tail bone then the spine and finally the neck. Cat stretch is the opposite movement of cow stretch, attempting to look at your abdomen/stomach by first moving the tailbone, followed by spine then neck. Repeat poses alternately.

These are good for beginners to start with. For other poses, seek appropriate instructions:
Cobbler's pose, extended triangle pose, goddess pose, half-moon pose, knee to ankle pose, pelvic tilts and one-legged pigeon pose.

By Brenda Williams

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Yoga to Lower High Blood Pressure

Yoga attempts to unify the body, mind and spirit and to heal one is to heal all. Yoga makes use of a whole range of stretching positions to align, center and ground the physical body - balancing the mind and relaxing and uplifting the spirit.

The healing power of yoga has been known for centuries and in India, yoga is used to treat many diseases and conditions. Many, many people have achieved a lower blood pressure by using yoga and by adapting to its benefits.
Yogas power lies in the way it combines body, mind and spirit - synchronizing them to one entity instead of three separate ones. This allows for healing to be received and accepted.



Learning Yoga
It's not hard to learn yoga although it may look like it is at first. It's really more about the state of mind you achieve during the stretches than about the stretches themselves. There are several styles of yoga and all provide the same healing benefits.

If you are a novice who wants to learn yoga for blood pressure treatment then the Hatha Style is best. It's the commonest in the west and an easy in route for a beginner. Hatha poses are gentle and easy on the body and each class starts with a mediation session. The breathing techniques and patterns used in yoga help to promote relaxation and will lower BP in the process.

Lowering Your Blood Pressure with Yoga
Yoga lowers high blood pressure by encouraging you to relax using deep and correct breathing. Most of us do not breathe properly - we breathe from our chest not from our lower diaphragm. Yoga teaches you both the correct way to breathe and also different types of breathing techniques.

Yoga meditation will teach you to properly and fully relax. Being able to mediate is something we can all do but for many it will be hard at first to make their minds go quiet and passive. Keep trying - practice makes perfect.

If you really want to lower your blood pressure through yoga then you have to practice it every day for at least fifteen minutes each time. Be patient. Persevere. The benefits are worth it.

Once you learn to control your mind, you will be able to control your blood pressure!

By Gordon Cameron

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Teaching Hatha Yoga Steps to Professional Development of Yoga Teachers

Over the past two decades, professional development of Yoga teachers has grown, in parity, with the volume of new students. Let's look at some easy steps any Yoga instructor can take toward taking his or her knowledge and teaching skills to new heights.

Before you make a decision toward developing your skills, you may want to compile a list of areas where you feel you might want to go. Consider your performance reviews, feedback from program coordinators, students, or colleagues, and the input of your mentor, if you have one.



Ultimately, it is your decision to choose which direction of development or education to go in. If you have a wide variety of needs, you have to decide which ones are a priority - based upon a mix of rational thought and intuition.

Assess all of your options before choosing a path toward continuing education. When it comes to education, some of us are like kids in a candy store. We have difficulty making a decision about which course to take or which direction to go in.

Yet, there is a simple way to decide your direction. What are your students' needs? After you become a certified Yoga teacher, your decisions are based upon the needs of your students. If your students are a particular age, have similar health conditions, or there is a predominant ailment among them, this may be your calling.

On the other hand, if you cannot see a particular need, there are many training methods, and many areas of Yoga, where we could use improvement. Some skills are on the fringe of teaching, such as communication, public speaking, and marketing. One teacher may feel these skills are not necessary, while another may see a value in improving areas, where he or she needs help.

Most importantly, choose an option that suits your specific situation. Finances and time should be given consideration. Do you have the means to travel, a budget for continuing education, or the time needed to attend an intensive for Yoga teachers? Are you a self-starter, who can learn from books, DVD's, CD's, and online sources?

This brings to light a variety of choices Yoga instructors have when taking courses to enhance their education and professional growth. While training intensives are an option, so are home study, independent study, online courses, and correspondence courses.

No matter which direction you choose, professional development will be the end result.

? Copyright 2008 - Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

By Paul Jerard

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