I Heart Yoga
“Yoga may be good for your body and mind and it may also calm your heart when it gets out of line.”
I Heart Yoga: MedlinePlus Health News Video
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Tag Archives: breathing
What a Little Deep Breathing Can Do for You
What a Little Deep Breathing Can Do for You
Breathing is one of those things your body does that you don’t have to think about. But we YOU Docs think you should pay attention to it every now and then, or you’ll miss out on some major health benefits, especially for your lungs. That’s because deep breathing:
- Brings oxygen deeper into your lungs
- Moves more nitric oxide (which widens blood vessels) to your lungs, which helps your blood vessels and lungs work better
- Removes toxins by getting lymph moving
- Calms you
Here’s a quick test: Stop reading, and inhale and exhale normally, looking down as you do. If you don’t see your belly moving, your breathing is short and shallow.
Now try this:
- Lie flat on the floor, one hand on your belly, the other on your chest.
- Inhale deeply and slowly as you count to five. Your belly button should move away from your spine, and your chest should widen and rise slightly as your lungs fill with air.
- Exhale slowly to a count of seven. Your belly button should pull toward your spine.
- Let your belly button be your guide. When you deeply inhale, feel your belly button go out as your lungs fully expand with air. When you deeply exhale, feel your belly button suck in as you blow out old air and carbon dioxide.
Take 10 deep breaths like the one you just practiced, morning and night, and take as many as you need when practicing your serve or chasing your dog.
Reposted from: RealAge Docs Daily Blog
DVDs for Yoga at Home
Recently, a friend asked for some recommendations for yoga DVDs.
These are some of my personal favorite yoga DVDs. My criteria are: 1) can I understand the instructions, 2) are they using language I can understand instead of arcane “yogaspeak”, 3) do I actually enjoy doing the sequences?
If you are inflexible I recommend starting with a slower-paced practice that will give you some time to get into the poses correctly and spend a few moments maximizing the stretch. Look for words like “gentle,” “hatha,” or “Kripalu.”
Ashtanga and Power Yoga may be too fast-paced to allow enough time for a real stretch if you are inflexible. They’d be better after you develop some flexibility.
Yoga Conditioning for Weight Loss
I love this one – Yoga Conditioning for Weight Loss – I think it’s a great beginner tape. You can ignore the “weight loss” part. I has 4 people doing the sequence with different levels of modifications. You can watch them as a group or just the one who is closest to your level of flexibility.
I also like the 2 DVDs of Kripalu Yoga. Kripalu Yoga is sometimes called meditation-in-motion because it combines the poses with breathing and relaxation.
Kripalu Gentle
“Two complete and distinct gentle yoga experiences: first flow 32 minutes, second flow 28 minutes. Includes warm-ups, a variety of floor postures, basic standing postures, a meditation-in-motion posture flow, and relaxation. A well-rounded experience-great for increasing flexibility, releasing tension, opening the spine, back care, and gentle strengthening. Appropriate for all levels. There’s no need to be especially strong or flexible to receive the full benefits of Kripalu Yoga.”
Available from the Kripalu Online Store
Kripalu Dynamic
“A dynamic sequence designed to awaken the wisdom of your body as you build strength, endurance, focus, and concentration. A classical series of 30 asanas including warm-ups, standing postures, salutations, balancing postures, floor postures, twists, and inversions, ending with a meditation-in-motion posture flow and relaxation. Postures familiar to most intermediate-level practitioners. There’s no need to be especially strong or flexible to receive the full benefits of Kripalu Yoga.”
Available from the Kripalu Online Store
Yoga for the Rest of Us: Heart Healthy Yoga
Lots of Sun Salutations – but at a comfortable pace. It’s both good cardio exercise and a comprehensive series of standing poses. Doing 10-20 minutes of Sun Saluations every morning totally changes my perspective on the day.
The Yoga Librarian 