The fittest walrus on the planet
The owner of The Whole Body Spa, where I teach, shared this video. She’s showing it to her clients as a reminder.
No excuse not to exercise
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Tag Archives: endurance
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.
Why Post-Holiday Fitness Resolutions Fail
By the end of January many of the holiday resolutions to exercise and become more fit will be broken.
Most people know that exercise is good for them. What gets in the way is emotions not determination.
Read about the Top Reasons Those “Get Fit” Resolutions Don’t Stick
Women may be more self-conscious than men about going to a gym. Women may feel more intimidated by the equipment, feel pressure to exercise in trendy clothes, and feel uncomfortable about exercising in front of the opposite sex.
I got some advice many years ago from a friend when I first started going to a coed gym. She told me that the men in the gym were far more interested in their bodies than they were in mine – and she was right.
And some other thoughts:
- Avoid an all-or-nothing approach. Instead of committing to daily classes at the local gym, you might start by making smaller, incremental changes, such as taking the stairs or parking at the far-end of the parking lot.
- If you really can’t find the time to exercise for an hour, break your exercise into more manageable (10-15 minute) chunks.
- Small changes to diet can also add up to big weight loss.
- And if you miss a day of exercise or break your diet, pick up where you left off. It’s not the end of the world.
- If a big gym makes you uncomfortable, look for a specialty gym that caters to just woman or to your age group.
- Or skip the gym and find an activity you really love – dancing, swimming, bicycling, walking….
National Institutes for Health (NIH) has several guides to help you choose a good mix of exercise activities which include strength-building, endurance, and balance.
The Yoga Librarian 