Internationally recognized Iyengar yoga instructor Roger Cole will be teaching a series of classes at Clear Spring Yoga this weekend to clear up any misconceptions or concerns he said people may have about the safety of yoga.

Cole, who studied under B.K.S. Iyengar at the Iyengar Yoga Institute in India, said he began teaching the classes after an article and subsequent book titled "The Science of Yoga" by New York Times writer William Broad were published, in which he was quoted speaking about the risks of practicing yoga.

“It left people confused about what the real risks are,” Cole said of information in the article and subsequent book. “In the workshop, I will set the record straight on what the evidence really says, so people can make their own, informed judgments. My conclusion is that, although yoga is not risk-free, it is a lot safer than many other exercises and activities that we take for granted.”

Cole, who has been practicing yoga since 1975, said he teaches yoga from a scientific perspective to help concerned practitioners avoid injury when doing difficult poses. However, Broad said, he disagrees with Cole's stance about the potential for yoga injury. Since the article's publication, he said he has received numerous letters from readers concerning yoga injuries.

"If anything, the article understated the dangers, judging from the many letters I've gotten from yoga celebrities, teachers and studio owners who have suffered major injuries," Broad said. Cole said that if done correctly, yoga cannot only be practiced with a minimal risk, but can also improve the quality of life of the practitioner.

“If you practice yoga with common sense and learn some very simple safety rules specific to the discipline, you can practice for a lifetime not just injury-free, but much healthier and happier than you would have been without it,” he said. Cole's workshops, which will take place from Friday through Sunday at Clear Spring Yoga, will cover topics such as yoga adaptations for injuries, preventing injuries and inversions and alternatives to certain poses.

Each pose in yoga should be adapted on an individual basis and should focus on relaxation and ease of movement, Cole said. Most importantly is for each practitioner to get what they need out of every pose.
"In my classes, I really try to help students understand what they are doing from the inside out, so they practice safely and get the most benefit out of each pose ... My big emphasis, once people know what position they want their body to get into, is on learning to ease into the pose to their own capacity," he said.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yoga instructor Tao Porchon-Lynch helps a student through a yoga hand stand in her yoga class in Hartsdale, New York. Photo: Reuters

Read the rest of this entry »

Yoga instructor Ingrid Yang demonstrates the downward-facing dog pose. Ingrid Yang turned to yoga a dozen years ago as a way to deal with injuries she suffered as a distance runner.

"When I started stretching and doing some strength training -- not with weights, but with my own body weight -- I noticed I was becoming injured less and less," Yang says of her introduction to yoga.

Soon after, she started teaching yoga, eventually owning her own studio and teaching classes on both coasts. Yang has also, with co-author Daniel Dituro, recently released the book "Hatha Yoga Asanas."

"Yoga for me is very appealing because it's very healing emotionally," she says. "I realized I was complete and whole as I am. There's nothing wrong with me. It's OK to have goals, but yoga allows a sense of well-being. "That's what sets it apart from all other physical exercises, that sense of well-beingness, enoughness."

Yang has recommended six poses, with a flexible regimen. She suggests doing them daily -- some or all, depending on your needs and ability and you should notice a difference in less than a week.

Pigeon
No yoga routine would be complete without a hip-opener, Yang believes. With the right foot forward in a low lunge, walk the foot to the left and relax your knee and shin to the mat.

You may immediately feel a stretch in the outer hip, but if it is too intense or bothers your front knee, roll a blanket under the right hip. Switch sides for balance. "If you run a lot, pigeon is a good one because it stretches the outside of the hips," Yang says. Pigeon stretches the gluteus muscles and iliotibial band.

Downward-facing dog
Start on your hands and knees. Lift the hips up and back to straighten your legs. Keep your arms straight with your chest relaxing back toward your feet and head between your arms. Downward-facing dogis a great stretch for your calves and hamstring muscles.

Warrior Two
From standing, lunge the feet apart and turn the back foot out at a 90-degree angle. Extend the arms out to the sides and gaze over your front hand. Warrior Two opens the hips, strengthens the legs and arms. and keeps you balanced and breathing.

Chair
With feet hip-width apart, sit back into the hips and bend the knees. Reach the arms overhead with the shoulders relaxing down. Chair pose strengthens the quadriceps and gluteus maximus.

Triangle
From Warrior Two,straighten the front leg,reach the upper body forward and stretch thefront hand down to the ankle. Reach the other handup to the sky with opposing force and keep the hipstucked under so they arein line with the legs and torso. Triangle strengthensthe core muscles, especially the back and sides of the body, and challenges your balance.

Boat
Starting from a seat-ed position, bend theknees into the chest and extend the feet forward. Reach the fingersalongside the knees andkeep the belly in and chest lifted. Boat strengthens the abdominal muscles.

Read the rest of this entry »

...says yoga guru Rajashree Choudhury, in a quick interview with Debarati S Sen as she explains hot yoga.

Not just a slim, svelte body, but also a mind that is healthy and stress-free -that is what regular yoga gives you. A daily session purifies and removes toxins from your body thereby improving the quality of your skin and hair noticeably. Yoga is therapeutic and uses high breathing techniques which help people to cope with day-to-day stress and also improves respiratory, cardiovascular, skeleton and digestive system. We get Rajashree Choudhury to talk about Bikram Hot Yoga.

How is hot yoga different from other forms of yoga?
It is not different; it is the traditional Hatha Yoga we practice in a heated room in which only 26 postures of Hatha Yoga are done over a 90-minute session under one instructor where teachers do not support the student to perfect any posture. Students are motivated to use their mental strength to perform.

How did Bikram come up with it?
Bikram Choudhury began learning Hatha Yoga poses at the age of three. At five, he began studying with Bishnu Ghosh (Paramahansa Yogananda's brother) and won the National India Yoga Championship four consecutive years in his teens.With the guidance of his guru, Bikram created his 26 posture series which restored his health. At 14, Swami Shivananda declared him "Yogi Raj" (King of the Yogis). At age 20, a weightlifting accident crippled Bikram. Although he was told he would never be able to walk again, with the help of Ghosh, he claims to have fully recovered within 6 months. As an adult he opened yoga schools in India and Japan, and in 1972 he opened his first U.S. school in San Francisco. Bikram arrived in the United States in 1973. Celebrities, athletes, and others began to flock to him. His main school is currently near Hollywood, California. In the 1990s he began offering nine-week teacher certification courses, and certified instructors now number in the thousands with Bikram Yoga studios all over the world. Bikram Yoga has been tested and studied by scientists and after their certification of being safe it was launched for people and since then the number of people benefited from it are innumerable.

Is hot yoga is more beneficial? Any side effects?
There are no side effects of Bikram Yoga. People try their high potential physically and emotionally. It is more beneficial because it is also therapeutic. It uses high breathing techniques which help people to cope with day-to-day stress and also improves respiratory, cardio vascular, skeleton and digestive system. The 90 minutes session requires a lot of concentration and balance and it is also tough. But when you finish the class, the person feels the best.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yoga refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India. It focuses upon developing a healthy mind and body, and on attaining self-awareness. The various practices and disciplines of yoga are available to everyone, no matter what their culture or other paths they may follow. Yoga practice also involves developing awareness on a universal and personal level through the yamas and niyamas, a series of ethics and disciplines intended to cultivate living in harmony with others and in oneness with our true selves.

Yoga has been practiced for thousands of years and consists of ancient theories, observations and principles regarding the connection of the mind with the body. The ancient Indian sage systemized yoga philosophy into eight paths or limbs: yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, samadhi. These limbs each express a different aspect of yoga and combined make up the path or yoga practice that unites the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels of our being.

Yama - Yama are ethical disciplines that relate to how we can live in a shared world with peace and integrity. Niyama - These disciplines relate to the individual and focus on living a healthy, fulfilled and masterful life. Asana - The word asana means ‘to be’, in the sense of being in a posture. The asanas were developed for the maintenance of a healthy mind and body, with each posture affecting the body, mind and emotions in a unique way and working as a pathway to balance and wellbeing. Pranayama - In the practice of pranayama, we develop breathing techniques that increase oxygen intake and strengthen lung capacity while also increasing the absorption of prana, or life force. In its simplest form, pranayama involves deep, full breathing. Dharana - Following on from pratyahara, dharana is the ability to be completely internally absorbed and focused. This practice of single-pointed concentration stills the mind and leads to profound quietness within. Dhyana - Following on from dharana is dhyana, or meditation – sitting where there is no focus, just stillness; no thoughts, only emptiness. Samadhi - In this state of absolute personal freedom there is union of the individual soul with the universal soul. It is the practice of living at one with all that is.

With regular yoga practice of yoga, you will get strength, flexibility and good health, the benefits of which flow into all aspects of life. Increased energy levels bring a new perspective on life, the increased feelings of self-love and inspiration lead us to discover talents and interests we never knew existed and problems that once seemed overwhelming become more manageable.

Read the rest of this entry »

This featherweight documentary by Peruvian-born director Carlos Ferrand plays like a 90-minute advertisement for the ancient practice of yoga. Om Wonderful Presents …

Nothing wrong with that, and far be it from me to come off as anti-yogic (is that even possible?), but it would have been nice to have a little more history, or the modern scientific/medical viewpoint, or the sexual upside, or – well, anything. Instead, the film bounces (limberly, it must be said) from yogi to yogi, for some soul-skimming interviews.

We learn, for instance, that the Montreal Canadiens practice yoga, which might account for why the Toronto Maple Leafs have not won a Stanley Cup since 1967, while the Habs have won 10. (The last one was in 1993, mind you, but yoga also teaches patience.)

Ferrand opens his film by saying that he’s tried yoga before but the chanting kept putting him off, a charge the movie might also have to answer for. In the end (spoiler alert?) he concludes: “Yoga has won me over. It has earned my respect.”

We’ve already guessed as much by the tone of the film, which includes animated flowers to signal transitions, and such yoga-friendly narration as noting the number of practitioners and concluding without irony: “Fifty million North Americans can’t be wrong.”

The film has a nicely local feel to it. Ferrand is based in Montreal, and although the doc is presented as a global survey, it gives our country the sort of preference usually reserved for America. Locations include Vancouver, France, Nunavut, India, Toronto …

It’s an interesting primer on the practice, but fails to go deep. One of the interviewees remarks that in yoga, “the questions are not easy but they’re simple.” Ferrand seems to have taken this philosophy too much to heart.

Read the rest of this entry »

IF you’ve ever wondered how Madonna and Sting stay in such good shape it might be worth taking a peek at what goes on twice a week at St George’s church hall in Gainsborough. On Monday and Wednesday evenings Roger Hooton can be found teaching ashtanga yoga, the keep fit regime followed by the famous.

The 55-year-old first learnt the techniques about 10 years ago in Ireland and in 2008 spent a month in India studying the discipline and practising seven hours a day. “There are many, many benefits with this type of yoga,” he said.

“It improves flexibility and makes you stronger, it’s great for rebalancing the skeletal system, it gives you core strength which supports your back, and teaches you how to breathe properly and deeper.”“It also improves your concentration and helps with relaxation.”

“I absolutely love it and wish I had started when I was eight.”Roger teaches primary level ashtanga yoga and he describes his classes as being like a sandwich, with the middle part of the session placed between starting and finishing sequences.

He begins with the sun salutation, a series of standing postures to loosen up, before moving on to the ‘filling’, a series of seated postures. “Then we have a finishing sequence of postures designed to bring you out of the practice. The whole lesson lasts for an hour.”

“I teach using the mysore method, which is letting each individual work at their own pace, rather than having the whole class doing the same thing at the same time.”“It’s like having a private lesson within the class. Some people have strength but need to improve flexibility, and vice-versa. They learn the salutations and then I leave them to practise for a little while and it’s a gradual build-up.”

“I also do Pilates so if someone has a back problem for instance, I can modify things for them.”Jean and David Langford, of Westgate, Scotton, have been practising ashtanga yoga for nearly four years.

Jean, 59, said: “A family member in the south practises it but not a lot of people do it in this area so I was absolutely over the moon when I found out Roger was doing it.”

“It’s a way of keeping fit and can be quite tiring but it’s doing me the most good of anything I have done before.” “I’ve got improved muscle tone and can bend more, I can touch my forehead on my knees now.”

She said David, 60, had restricted movement because of health problems but he was also able to do more now than he could when they started. “You have to think about what you’re doing because the breathing is so important, so it forces you to focus,” added Jean. Julia Cullen, 46, of Highfield Terrace, Glentham, goes to the classes with her 13-year-old daughter Molly. “I was very inflexible, I couldn’t touch my toes at all, I couldn’t get past my knees hardly,” said Julia.

“Molly does gymnastics and is much more flexible but she decided to come along with me one day and she enjoys it as well.”“You get out of it what you put in, it’s about pushing yourself.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Your tween daughter is begging to take a weekly yoga class with her friends. Should you steer her toward a sport instead?

Once you've checked it out, I'd say let her go for it. As the parent of a girl this age, I think they can benefit from learning anything that increases their focus and ability to calm themselves, which I've found to be one of the great, lasting benefits of yoga. And while team sports are great, I think it's important to promote physical activities that kids can still be doing at age 80. Like yoga.

I would think the benefits of yoga would outweigh those of most other activities. Even if your daughter is interested only because her friends are and she's just following the pack, something might click, and she'll become involved in a body/mind practice that she can benefit from long after she'll have lost the ability to kick a soccer ball.

Teaching children about the mind/body connection, breathing and stretching can have lifelong benefits. Plus there's a fitness component, and it's a great stress reliever. Also, the noncompetitive nature of it can improve self-esteem in kids more than a team sport. And what tween couldn't use a bit of self-esteem?

Adolescence is actually a prime time for yoga, says Paula Walker, yoga instructor at Miami-based Green Monkey yoga studios, which partners with schools to offer children's yoga classes.

"Self-confidence, self-esteem and self-respect are the three most important things for preteen girls to develop as their bodies are changing," Walker says. "Yoga teaches them to become very in touch with their bodies from the inside out."

The breathing techniques, spiritual teachings and mindfulness meditations that accompany the stretches and other physically taxing parts of yoga classes can give tweens the tools they need to navigate any number of stressful situations.

"It teaches you to calm down your nervous system," Walker says. "You learn to calm down your anxiety and panic modes so when you're 13 and you're facing a big test or pressure from the outside world, you can control your breathing and think more clearly."

A few other benefits for tweens, Walker says: Nutrition awareness: "Yoga becomes a lifestyle that permeates the rest of your life. So when you leave yoga, you're not going to want to go eat at McDonald's. You start to choose all kinds of healthier ways to live."

Connectedness: "It builds a sense of belonging and community with the other people in your class. And preteens can take adult classes, so it's something that moms and daughters and sisters can all do together."Crossover: "Yoga makes you more flexible and strengthens your core. So if you do ballet or gymnastics, it's a great add-on. If you swim, if you do any other sport, it's going to elevate your skill set."

Posture: "It makes you sit up straighter and roll your shoulder blades back and just be more mindful of your posture." Just in time for prom photos.

Read the rest of this entry »

The West Coast is known for being laid back and carefree, but in spite of being a yoga mecca we are apparently becoming more stressed. According to recent Statistics Canada data, around 850,000 British Columbians reported experiencing “quite a lot” of stress, a number that has been growing since 2007.

“People think – because we have beautiful mountains, waters, beach – that this is somehow a much more relaxing city,” said clinical psychologist Joti Samra. “The reality is we are a large urban centre and all the stresses like the cost of living are really high and that increases other stress factors independent of the environment we’re in.”According to Samra, even those hoping to relax at a yoga class or at the gym can face increased stress.

“We really need to start paring down the expectations of what we do,” she said. Yogi Marie-Eve Boudreau admits some of those who take up Living Your Moksha — a seven-week challenge starting Tuesday at Moksha Yoga, in East Vancouver — will lose sight of the program’s goals while stressing over minor details.

Studio co-owner and instructor Boudreau said many people forget yoga is as much about tuning in to your body as toning it. “We all have an understanding in North America that our health is physical — but health is not just the physical aspect,” she said. “It’s also the social. It’s also our mind. It’s our relationships and that’s what we start seeing when you start practicing.”

As part of the course, Living Your Moksha participants are given a new challenge each week that’s intended to bring them peace, such as spending one hour in silence each day for a week, something Boudreau said even she has difficulty following.

“I will do 10 minutes and be very proud of myself,” she said, noting it’s important for people to adapt the challenges to their fit their own lives instead of stressing. “(Yoga) is more than just the practice in the hot room of the postures,” Boudreau said. “Moksha, the word, means ‘freedom.’”

Read the rest of this entry »

No, it’s not a breakfast recipe. Instead, the Three Minute Egg is a more ergonomic take on the traditional yoga block. Hatched, shall we say, by Jason Scholder – a North Carolina-based former craftsman with serious back issues and a penchant for egg puns – the foam, oval-shaped props are steadily gaining popularity among yoga devotees.

Toronto-based yoga instructor Duncan Parviainen is among the recently converted. “The Eggs are a great tool to have for a slower, therapeutic practice,” he says, noting they’re especially helpful for inflexible types who are “chronically tight.” Sound familiar?

The Eggs are available in two densities: The softer Namasteggs can be used for most exercises, and the firmer Hard-Boiled Eggs are recommended for arm-balancing poses, like upward-facing dog or plank, in which the majority of your weight is bearing down on the Eggs. A set of two in either density will run you $44 (threeminuteegg.ca) – which, it’s worth noting, is almost double the cost of a pair of regular rectangle-shaped foam blocks.

Three minutes are said to be all it takes to fall in love with the Eggs, but they start winning my affections within 30 seconds. Mr. Parviainen positions me on my back in a supported fish pose, with two Eggs – resting on their ever-so-slight curves – under the middle of my back and another one lying flat underneath my head. I raise my arms over my head, take several deep breaths and immediately feel a much-needed release in my lower back. Then I do the same pose using rectangular blocks. It still feels good, just a little less comfy.

Next we move to the downward dog. “A lot of people experience tension in their wrists when doing this position,” says Mr. Parviainen. With the Eggs resting on their curves and my palms pressing down on the front of each Egg, there’s definitely less strain on my wrists. Another bonus? My abs are working harder thanks to the somewhat unstable surface. (The Eggs can also be used for push-ups with similar wrist-relieving results.)

His third favourite use for the Eggs is for squats. “If you can’t keep your ankles on the ground and they’re flapping in the wind, it’s hard on your joints,” he says. Indeed, thanks to the Eggs – on their curves once again, this time with the front of each wedged underneath my heels – I’m able to squat deeper with less pressure on my ankles.

On my own, I try out the Three Minute Egg Alignment & Flow DVD ($25). After two 27-minute workouts – the first a series of gentle poses and the second a more challenging circuit – I’m not entirely convinced that the Eggs have any benefit over a block (or even a rolled-up towel) for certain purposes, say, when lying flat on the ground to support the head. Holding one Egg lengthwise overhead does help to keep arms shoulder-width apart, but then again, the same can be said for a block. When taking advantage of their curves to alleviate pressure, however, it’s fair to say these Eggs are everything they’re cracked up to be.

Read the rest of this entry »