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Seen At 11: The Yoga Debate

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:54:39 GMT

NEW YORK (CBS 2) — Yoga is synonymous with health and wellness, but in some cases it is causing pain and anguish. Now, some are calling the practice unsafe, sparking a debate so fierce it’s shaking the normally Zen community to its core.

Looking at a yoga studio, you might wonder what could possibly go wrong in such a tranquil setting. It’s not like the gym, with all its high intensity. Nonetheless, thousands of people who do yoga end up in emergency rooms each year. Yoga instructor Cathy Lilly says she tore three out of four tendons in her shoulder. “It felt like my muscles were melting off my bones,” said Roxy Emory.

“I strained my back after doing an ‘upward facing dog,’” said Haemi Choi. Yoga, with all its benefits, has been around for thousands of years. Criticizing the ancient practice may seem like bad karma, but now more and more students – even instructors – are questioning the safety of their beloved exercise.

“It is an epidemic,” said Bill Broad. Broad has been practicing yoga for 30 years. He’s a New York Times reporter and author of The Science of Yoga, investigating it.

“It was sort of like you lit a fuse and a bomb went off,” Broad said. After five years of research, Broad says he determined certain yoga postures like head stands, shoulder stands and “the plow” are a big culprit when it comes to injuries – from dislocated hips to punctured lungs – even stroke.

“There are arteries that go through vertebrae. You start crunching around with them, you get clots, and they go to your brain and you have a stroke,” Broad explained.

“There’s two types of problems that people get into with yoga,” said Dr. Michelle Carlson, and orthopedic surgeon with the Hospital for Special Surgery. “They irritate a condition they already have and… they cause an injury.”Carlson says she’s seen in an increase in yoga injuries in recent years. “It’s just because yoga has become so popular,” Carlson said.

Yoga – kristin davis yoga – yoga retreat – sorts of yoga, what you have to have to know

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:55:06 GMT

To pick the great professor of yoga, as well as a suitable fashion Yoga, is much more intricate compared to vast majority of individuals know. Many the pupils of yoga of Tonsil Stones analysis would owe d’ accessibility by the various designs of yoga, within their community, so that you can figure out which can meet up with their wants most effective. It ya significantly of alternative, if l’ one particular considers, it exists 9 principal designs of yoga of l’ India. These 9 principal types are: Bhakti, Rajah, Karma, Jnana, Hatha, Kundalini, Tantra, Yantra and Mantra Yoga. Each individual certainly one of these variations of yoga distinct areas accent around the solutions d’ union of l’ spirit, your body, l’ emotion and l’ spirit. It ya also a number of countless sub-headings of such kinds of yoga. In addition to l’ India, Hatha Yoga, and its quite a few under-styles, is usually viewed. With all that with l’ spirit, future study fashion is vital. You will need to find out and also to compare and contrast the regional designs of yoga, that are at your disposal. Then, you subsequent components is easily the most critical shutter health and fitness – can it be should think about psychological, bodily, psychological, non secular, or possibly a Slipped Disc blend of individuals? Just about every 1 d’ concerning us n’ the very same requires will not have.

Such as: If you’re during the look for of relief on the worry, you could possibly not be inside the look for of ” Boot Camp Yoga, ” that has a ” sergeant of forage” with l’ bark from the orders and also the insults making sure that you ” sort or navire.” Having said that, Selected people today l’ adore boot camps of yoga to the inner thoughts d’ accomplishment and of l’ autonomisation, which relates to while in the every day daily life. On the other hand, for those who search for a ” push yoga”, a course which concentrates to the meditation Could won’t satisfy your preferences. The various benefits of the meditation simply cannot be completed by a shut spirit. You can not forces you to meditate and allow us not can possibly your professor of yoga. You could, for the incredibly the very least, test to meditate, but when you n’ don’t be receptive using this a single, you May-being preferable to attempt a bodily type or to choose a study course of Pilates. This n’ is just not meant to talk badly about designs of physics, or Pilates, even so it can make assume of the proverb which claims – ” You can’t coach a pig for being sung. C’ is often a losing of time and it annoys the pig. ” Then, what excellent can it be to waste materials time? To discover a form of yoga, which meets your preferences, and reward out of your existence. In case you search for a training of course of yoga, Hatha models, this sort of as Bikram, Vinyasa, Strength, and Sizzling yoga, May well currently being all you search for.

Ashtanga is additionally bodily hard, nonetheless, l’ Ashtanga is definitely the phrase Sanskrit for ” 8 members, ” and is also a type of yoga explained by Patanjali, in its Sutras Yoga. Ashtanga is in some cases identified as, ” Raja” Yoga, that’s l’ one of many 9 principal types of Indian yoga. Now – permit us state that you will be d’ Center Age or even more – had been inactive through some time-can-being to possess bodily restrictions – so you look for a sort of yoga to help you you to acquire the utmost of your Best Way to Lose Weight existence. In such cases, softness Hatha Yoga under-styles, like as fixing, Iyengar, Kripalu, yoga and president, can assist you a lot more gracefully age. Finally, it’s a type of yoga for all, of any age, but that you simply want with exploration, d’ to teach you, l’ to check and discover the professor of yoga that’s adapted to suit your needs.

Yoga for mothers-to-be

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:43:29 GMT

PREGNANT women can now join a yoga class to help them give birth and stay relaxed during their pregnancy. The classes, run by yoga teacher Una Bentley, will begin on Wednesday at St Hugh’s Church Hall in Granville Street, Harborough, from 7 until 8pm.

She said: “Being pregnant involves major physical and emotional changes and can be a time of uncertainty and even stress for many women, especially if they are working full-time. These classes use holistic techniques of breathing, movement and relaxation to help each woman build inner and outer strength.

“Practising prenatal yoga is a great way to help prepare both mentally and physically for birth and can also help to alleviate some of the discomforts of pregnancy.”Una also runs one-off birth preparation workshops for couples.

GOOD FOR THE SOUL: Finding your centre

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:54:59 GMT

Some of them are harder than others but she always tells her students to be cautious. She takes her time to check that asanas are held correctly. Listen to your body, she says. Don't compete. If it hurts too much, don't do it. This is certainly not the no-pain, no-gain approach followed by many practitioners.

For 40 years this gracefully slender woman has been practising yoga, which she says has helped her lead a purposeful and honest life. "The by-product of this is that I have a joyful life," she says. Yoga, she adds, is good for everything. Looking at this almost-70-year-old, it's hard to disagree.

Yoga has long been touted as a gentle exercise that promotes good health and longevity. It is a relaxing activity that "creates space in the body and mind", according to the website of a local yoga studio. "In our time-constrained society, yoga is a refuge, allowing us to cultivate freedom when it's hidden from our reality." It is also believed to have therapeutic benefits, that it can alleviate pain from injuries and, by strengthening the body, it can help prevent new ones.

But, in a much talked about article, How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body, published in the New York Times recently, William J Broad describes that, in 2007, while doing "the extended-side-angle pose, a posture hailed as a cure for many diseases, my back gave way. With it went my belief, naive in retrospect, that yoga was a source only of healing and never harm."

Broad goes on to list a number of other horrific yoga accidents. The stories are disconcerting. He writes about people who have practised for years having strokes and breaking ribs. He quotes yogi Glenn Black, who had to have surgery after suffering injuries, saying that the vast majority of people should not do yoga at all because their bodies can't take it.

The article elicited passionate responses. People wrote about similar experiences, agreeing that yoga could be bad for you. But others defended its benefits. Von Wimmersperg adds a voice of reason to the debate and points out that any activity can be damaging if done incorrectly, and that these accidents can be attributed to a few things.

Firstly, she stresses the importance of holding postures correctly. Iyengar yoga, she says, is safe if practised carefully. This form of yoga was created by the Indian yogi BKS Iyengar and is known for its use of props - belts, blocks and blankets - which help perform asanas properly and this, in turn, prevents injuries.

Iyengar once told Yoga Journal: "I just try to get the physical body in line with the mental body, the mental body in line with the intellectual body, and the intellectual body with the spiritual body, so they are balanced. It's just pure traditional yoga ."The second point Von Wimmersperg makes about yoga injuries is that those teaching the poses might not be qualified enough to do so.

Training varies. There are schools where you can become a teacher in just six months. Von Wimmersperg, on the other hand, trained for years and keeps learning from the Iyengar studio in India, which she visits frequently.

". To teach Iyengar yoga you have to practise with a teacher for three years and then it takes an additional three years to train as a teacher," she says. "You only qualify once you can hold, among other requirements, a headstand for five minutes, a shoulder stand for five minutes and do back bends."

We all have different body types, she emphasises, and it's important for instructors to understand how different people's bodies work. The third issue is that people take yoga out of context.

"Yoga has been corrupted. I am referred to as old-fashioned because I teach and practise classical yoga," she says. It becomes dangerous when different systems of yoga are thrown together, or worse, if it is combined with other exercises.

Von Wimmersperg cannot stress the benefits of yoga enough. "It builds strength and stability. It's good for vital organs. It gives the heart a good stretch.""Then don't forget that there is also a philosophical aspect to yoga. It slows us down in this fast life.

"I have had exceptionally good health for the past 40 years. I seldom get sick. "I have never been to a physiotherapist. It's been wonderful for me," she says.

Yoga in the classroom

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:31:26 GMT

On any given day at Coconut Creek Elementary school in Florida, it's likely that you'll find the children in an unlikely position: downward dog. They lean on their hands with their bottoms in the air, swaying and breathing and centering themselves. Then, they curl up into child's pose and listen to their breath while steadying their heart rates.

In the coming weeks, their yoga practice will intensify to help the children deal with No Child Left Behind testing in March. "There's a lot of high-stakes testing for No Child Left Behind," said Deborah Collins, a Florida-based school psychologist and co-developer of the yoga program. "A lot of the decisions are based on how they do, and the test is administered once a year. It creates a lot of tension."

To prevent the students from becoming too stressed — and to help them focus before the big day — schools throughout the country are counting on a technique that adults have long employed to deal with demanding work and home situations: yoga.

A study by California State University researchers in Los Angeles found that practicing yoga helps students' academic performance, overall health and behavior. And teachers and parents are hoping this new yoga fanaticism in schools will help foster calmer, saner, healthier children.

"Today, children are stressed about everything," said Michelle Kelsey Mitchell, yoga instructor and executive director of YoKid, a Virginia-based nonprofit organization that brings yoga to schools for underserved children. "Our kids are overscheduled, they have a full day at school, and oftentimes they have a multitude of activities that they're involved in after school and on the weekends. They don't necessarily get a break, and when they do get a break, it's in front of the TV or it's playing a video game, which isn't a true break for them."

The added pressure of bullying issues, combined with a decrease in sports and outdoor activities can even lead to stressed-out, sleep-deprived 3-year-olds, said Jillian Moriarty, a Minnesota-based yoga instructor and creator of Happily Ever Active, a brand consisting of yoga gear and DVDs.

That's where yoga comes in. But what do the kids actually do?

Yoga gives children breathing techniques and calming methods that they're able to call upon whenever life gets overwhelming, Mitchell said. And the inverted postures increase blood flow to the sleep centers of their brains, which helps them get a more restorative sleep at night.

In Mitchell's classes, she teaches kids ages 3 to 18 to lie down without sleeping. They learn how to appreciate their bodies and how to relax mindfully. Mitchell even recommends starting yoga for the diaper set. She does stretching and breathing exercises with her infant.

"It can be anything from physically moving and stretching them, or taking opposite fingers to opposite toes, hugging them close and breathing deeply with them," she said. "They sleep better, they cry a little less, and they seem to be overall more happy."

While there aren't any statistics as to how many schools are bringing yoga to their students, the anecdotal evidence of yoga in the schools appears to be growing, and it's being offered in public schools, private schools and after school.

It's especially crucial that children take the time to breathe and relax now, said Feather Hawk, a children's yoga instructor at Ananda Kula, a Florida yoga studio. "Everything today is constant stimulation, from the Internet to the television," he said. "They need to take an hour to disconnect and make room for play and self-expression."

The parents who usually drag their little ones into the studio tend to take yoga classes themselves, and they understand how important it is to take the time to decompress, Hawk said.

Yoga teaches harmony of body and mind

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:20:19 GMT

So much to do. So little time. Everyday we plan more activities. The quality of what we do gets compromised and the stress gets out of hand. Time for ourselves. What's that?
Yoga and de-stressing have always been synonymous. Hearing so many positive comments about yoga, but never having participated, I felt the time was right to learn a little more about what many cheer about.

Word had been spreading about a new yoga studio opening in Castle Shannon. A dream of Bethel Park resident Lesli Kotloski, in early January she opened Yoga and More on Willow Avenue and began welcoming long-time yogis and others like me.

A step or two into the door, peace and serenity becomes delightful. The comfortable and colorful sitting room begins a sense of much-needed calmness. Cushioned chairs and huggable pillows and a wish to stay all day takes over.

This gathering room was just the beginning. The homey décor continued into the dressing room, the kitchen (yes, a kitchen) and the quiet, serene space to place floor mats for the centuries-old healing practice of yoga.

I didn't realize how much I needed to release the tenseness I hadn't known was within me. Obviously, I had started the day with anxiety, but the stretching and breathing had me feeling good.
"Is this yoga, I thought. Why did it take me so long?"

As a young girl, Lesli was a dance student, later graduating from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto with a focus on opera. She continued her education in the health field from the University of Michigan. An avid athlete focusing on exercise and healthy living, this new studio is her dream come true.

An energizing lifestyle continued to be her goal after being diagnosed with life-threatening issues years ago. With difficulty functioning as the stress surfaced, Lesli set out to gain control.

For more than 18 years, she has set her sights on fitness, making it all-important to share her knowledge with others.

Men and women from all around the South Hills knew of Lesli, her yoga and wellness programs along with nutrition and cooking classes. In October, 2011, she felt it was time to combine her programs at one location and soon started searching for the perfect place.

Lesli knew immediately that this empty storefront on Willow was just what she wanted. It would take a lot of work, but the potential was there. The shop had been empty for 10 years, but it seemed perfect. Excitement prevailed. With an eye for color and design, the interior blossomed with bright walls and new floors. Special touches in place and the welcome mat was out.

Clients who had practiced yoga and fitness classes for years followed Lesli. Ages 8 to 73 began to arrive each week to stretch, unwind, relax and de-stress. Now folks come to weight train, learn Pilates or rejuvenate in a therapeutic class to help recover from injury or surgery, improve balance or to just feel good.

"I've practiced yoga for more than nine years," said Pascale Kippelen of Upper St. Clair. "With the stress and crises I've endured, yoga has given a balance to my life. I visit this studio twice each week and practice about a half hour each day at home."

"I was concerned with my posture," said John Hesemann, also of Upper St. Clair. "It's been 10 years and I like feeling good. I'm enjoying the flexibility and calmness."Cheryl Graziano of Whitehall had recent surgery and looks to yoga for therapy to strengthen her body.

By working the whole mind, body and soul, a balance is achieved, a union or yoga. Practicing yoga, "asanas" or postures are performed by stretching and strengthening muscles, working beneath layers of skin and muscle.

"Look for a yoga class that fits," offered Lesli. "An inviting space of calm, a teacher who is comfortable to be with and a practice that incorporates breathing, meditation, stretching, strengthening and relaxation is what is needed to deal with life and its issues. Instilling peace and calm into our every day life helps to prevent injury, illness and can even make peace with the challenges we already face."

Yoga Can Be A Cardio Valentine To One's Own Heart

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:47:45 GMT

Beth Shaw, the creator of YogaFit training systems, the largest yoga fitness training school in the world, believes that yoga can help people expand themselves mentally and stay physically fit.

"Yoga is good for our hearts because we practice cardiovascular fitness when we are moving and breathing, letting the blood flow throughout our bodies, keeping our heart rates up, and also to improve our circulation especially when it is cold outside," says Shaw.

Yoga poses can help accomplish those goals. The poses are helpful with that because they are opening up the heart center, for Valentine's Day, as well as making sure our circulation does improve," says Shaw. The esteemed yoga coach shares with NY1 three poses that are very beneficial.

"The first thing that is beneficial is to warm up, so we will do some 'cat and cows,' which warms up the chest, the mid-section and the back," says Shaw. "So we are going to just align our hands under our shoulders, our knees under the hips, keep a flat back and bring the heart center towards the sky, looking up, and then exhale and round the back.

"Next we are going to extend into a modified side plank position," continues Shaw. "So much of life is for reflection. We are at computers, we're over desks, we are bent over a lot. So it is really important to open up our bodies and our heart center at the same time.

"And a nice heart opener, also for back strength, is to place the forearms down for cobra pose, extending yourself onto the mat," Shaw then says. "And those of you who'd like a little bit more work, you can press into your palms and take your ribs a little bit further away from the floor."

Yoga for you, yoga for me

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:46:47 GMT

Yoga is an exercise that has gained a lot of popularity in recent years. It has also become some people’s primary source for exercise, relaxation and even medical healing. It’s so popular that even the Associated Press reported that the San Francisco International Airport just opened up a yoga room with low and warm lights, offering travelers a place to do a few downward dogs before jetting off.

If you think yoga is only for girls in Lululemon pants, think again. Only a few days ago, FOX News Channel reported that celebrity yoga coach, Gwen Lawrence, has been working with the New York Giants for 11 years.”

Here in Las Vegas, yoga studios have sprouted up all over the city: next to grocery stores, coffee houses and in professional business complexes. You can opt to do yoga in a room heated to well over a comfortable temperature and nearly sweat your a– off next to other yogis sweating theirs off. UNLV even offers a yoga class for credit, candlelit and all. Las Vegan Terri Smith has been practicing yoga for a year at Bikram Yoga Summerlin. Bikram is the term for the heated yoga referenced earlier.

Smith was involved in a car accident that caused her many injuries and yoga helped her overcome it.
“Within a couple of months starting yoga, I started to feel better,”Smith said. Yoga not only helped her physically, but mentally as well. “It gives the body an euphoric feeling after each session of yoga,” she said. Dixie Tailor, a 20-year-old UNLV student, said she was afraid to try yoga at first, but relaxed after seeing how calm the instructors were.

“They were willing to help me with positions and breathing. Their positive energy helped me a lot,” Tailor said. She started to become more flexible and realized that she had more energy than ever before. “I wanted to be more productive and I was always relaxed,” she said. She noticed that her skin started to look better as well. Some yogis claim that yoga supplements therapy for physical problems, including bad posture and other injuries.

When Smith was involved in the car accident, she acquired scar tissue in joints, which left her in pain. She believes that yoga helped break down the scarred damage and helped build new tissue.
“After I started to do yoga regularly I saw how it affected my posture,” Smith said. “I was standing straight again.”

Today, Smith says she is healthier and happier than ever. Many students say yoga is difficult and uncomfortable at first, but once they get in the groove it improves their everyday life. College can bring a lot of stress into our lives. Tailor said that practicing yoga turns that stress into positive energy that she and anyone who tries it can channel towards productivity.
“You feel better doing everything you do,” she said.

There are several types and levels of yoga available so that no matter what age you are you can give it a try. Whether you have physical or emotional pain, practicing yoga is a possible way to start healing.
If you want peace of mind or simply to try something new, give yoga a chance. Its benefits just might make a difference in your life. Yoga is offered at the Student Recreation and Wellness Center. For specific days and times visit the front desk or http://go.unlv.edu/srwc.

'Green' yoga teachers could kill

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:28:57 GMT

Over-eager "green" teachers are leading beginners to perform certain relatively advanced poses that can trigger lethal strokes if executed incorrectly. Exercises like the plough and shoulder stand require participants to "crank your head around a lot", which could result in the linings of arteries running through the spine in the neck to be torn, according to William J. Broad, a Pulitzer Prize-winning science author.

Blood clots can then form, which can cause ischeamic stroke if they become lodged in the brain. Mr Broad and a long-time yogi, discovered the dangers while researching his new book, The Science of Yoga: The Risks and Rewards. He said that while yoga was of tremendous benefit to many people, able to improve sex lives and even lengthen life, it did carry certain risks.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I have been doing yoga since 1970 and I love it. It has been a great thing in my life. "But as I pursued my research I discovered to my horror that there are some poses, which have a very low risk of happening, but if they do, have extremely high consequences."He went on: "The number one danger in my book has to do with the neck. "If you twist your neck around a lot there are these kind of fragile arteries that go through the vertabrae, called the vertrebral arteries, and their linings can get torn and produce clots.

"And if those clots go into your brain you can have a stroke."The book itself cites three examples from the medical literature of strokes caused by what he described as exercises involving "extreme bending of the neck". But Mr Broad emphasised: "This is not anecdotal and it is not freak accidents."He said there was "clinical report after clinical report after clinical report with yoga practitioners suffering these kind of strokes", of which one in 20 was fatal.

Both the plough and the shoulder stand are 'inversions', involving lying on one's back and bringing the legs, almost straight, over the head to the floor to create an A shape. Mr Broad said these exercises were taught at "many beginner classes" even though they tended to be for the more advanced. He continued: "The real dangers are these green teachers, who don't have the experience, who don't have the eye, who think everybody's as flexible as they are and they should all be looking like these models on the front of a glossy magazine. And that's wrong. "We all have these different limitations and capabilities and smart teachers who've been around for a while realise that."

Pierre Bibby, chief executive of the British Wheel of Yoga, accepted there was a problem with underqualified teachers. There is no legal duty to be registered or trained, he noted. He said many people liked the idea of being a yoga teacher because it offered an "alternative lifestyle", but he warned in reality it paid "pin money". People should ask their teacher what training they had and where they qualified, he said, pointing out that the Wheel demanded 500 hours of training before deciding whether or not to give a qualification. He also remained unconvinced yoga caused many strokes, saying he had never heard of it happening in Britain.

"I'm sure there is empirical evidence that he has based his book on," he said. "But it's a question of quantifying it, isn't it?" A spokesman for the Stroke Association said researchers there had never heard of a case of yoga causing a stroke.

Insufferable Yoga Everywhere Trend Now Extends to Airports

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:36:23 GMT

Once upon a time, the airport was where you waited to take a plane to go somewhere. Now it's a place where you can make yourself at home, and live for years, if you're so inclined.

In the old days, you might be hungry or thirsty while you awaited your boarding call, and so you ate or drank. Sometimes you read, or chatted, or, eventually, listened to iPods, talked on the phone, worked on your computer, or watched TV. When you could smoke without being confined to a horrible little smoking room filled with a cloud of carcinogens, you smoked. A whole subset of businesses grew to take advantage of the ever-increasing time that you must wait for your flight to take you away from the airport to the place where you actually want to go. Those businesses have grown to include shopping for clothes, souvenirs, trinkets, perfume, alcohol, and, now, most amazingly, services.

Manicures and pedicures. Massages. Dry cleaners. Pet hotels. Churches, and/or meditation centers. Fancy VIP clubs for frequent travelers to meet and mingle. And, at San Francisco International, a 150-square-foot yoga room, open to ticketed passengers, that airport officials believe is the "world's first" airport yoga studio. The room used to be a storage area, reports the Associated Press' Terence Chea, and its conversion cost between $15,000 and $20,000.

In it, there are "a few chairs and yoga mats but no instructors or televisions." Signs ask for quiet. Essentially, it's your chance to go in, grab a mat, and do some yoga freestyle for a few minutes as you wait for your flight. (There's no mention of showers.)

Jokes about Northern California notwithstanding, is this really necessary? Sure, traveling is stressful. And stretching and all that jazz is good for you, especially when your legs have been pinched into a tiny space as you hurtle 30,000 feet above terra firma. But wouldn't it be better if airports spent more time finessing the travel experience to minimize our time spent in them, and less time adding "perks" to comfort us during our time there? And let's not even mention the recent debates about whether yoga is even good for you.

Perhaps we're just traditionalists, but we find the unhealthy environment of the airport, full of Us Weekly and bad pinot grigio and greasy snacks somehow soothing. That it lacks the added pressure of having to get up and exercise makes it even better. Still, if the aspiring yogis want to spend their waiting time sweating and doing downward dogs, we suppose that frees up bar space for the rest of us. Not that we want to sit next to them on the plane.