The Long Stretch

The secret to long life and health is as close as the back of your legs. With the yogic power of Life Nerve Stretch you can maintain flexibility (the key to staying young), as well as give your whole body a tune-up. This nerve runs from the back of the heels, up through the sciatic nerve and through the lower, middle and upper back. Doing this stretch every day gives you a flexible spine, helps with emotional balance and strengthens the digestive system.

To stretch your “life nerve,” sit on your mat, inhale deeply and bend forward, grabbing onto your toes. If you can’t reach your toes, hold your ankles or knees. Keep the knees on the floor—no bending the knees. Gently stretch your chest down to your knees with long deep breathing, pulling back on the toes, so you can feel the stretch in the back of the legs for 3 minutes. This is a “wonder posture” for women, helping with urinary problems, cold feet, muscle spasms and fatigue. Stretch and flex to stay young and healthy for years to come!

Yogamint Food & Flow video demonstrating Life Nerve Stretch: Limber for Life

Recommended: Full-Body Flexibility by Jay Blahnik and Kundalini Yoga Ultimate Stretch Workout with Ana Brett and Ravi Singh

http://www.yogamint.com/mints-1/the-long-stretch

Yoga Poses for Beginners: How-to, Tips, Benefits, Images, Videos

The Yoga Poses for Beginners library serves as a comprehensive intro guide to the most popular yoga poses and sequences.

Becoming familiar with and learning these poses should get you through a class in any of the types of yoga styles. 

Please keep in mind, these are just some of the most common poses to look at (and not necessarily practice). If you'd like to get started with yoga, you should take a look at The Complete Guide To Yoga Video Course here at MindBodyGreen.






Seated Yoga Poses - Grounding and calming, these poses provide some of our deepest muscle opening and twisting.









Standing Yoga Poses - Good for strength, balance and focus. These energetic poses provide a straight line to shaping our best body.











Arm Balances - These yoga poses are good for strength, body awareness and focus, providing some fun challenges for every body.











Backbends - Opening up in the spine and chest feels great and strengthens our connection to intuition.









Inversions - Good for balance and concentration, as well as circulation.












Core Poses - These poses will strengthen your core and get your abs beach ready!











Yoga Poses for Weight Loss - These poses will help you shed unwanted pounds!











Restorative Poses - These yoga poses are great for winding down and connecting to our breath.











Yoga Poses for Back Pain - Whether the origins are some acute injury or long-term stress, there are a few simple poses that can help with back pain.









Yoga Sequences & Moving (Videos) - How we move and breathe is much more important than the exact shape of our poses, for clearing our bodies and minds and creating our own best health.









Yoga Pose Videos - Watch Michael Taylor take you through a number of yoga poses step-by-step.

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-682/Yoga-Poses-for-Beginners-Howto-Tips-Benefits-Images-Videos.html

Yoga for Weight Loss?

Source: http://www.webmd.com/

It can help you find your bliss, and some say yoga may also help you shed those extra pounds.

Jennifer Aniston does it. Reports are that Liv Tyler, Halle Berry, Madonna, David Duchovny and supermodel Christy Turlington do it, too. Many professional athletes are said to be doing it in an effort to improve their games.

The "it" is yoga, a sophisticated mind-body exercise many believe can do everything from tighten your buns to change your outlook on life.

But can this no-strain, work-at-your-own-level exercise really help you lose weight?

It's true most types of yoga don't have anything near the calorie-burning power of aerobic exercise. A 150-pound person will burn 150 calories in an hour of doing regular yoga, compared to 311 calories for an hour of walking at 3 mph. But it is exercise, after all, and many practitioners believe yoga can indeed help people take off extra pounds.

"Yoga is a phenomenal way to put you in touch with your body the way nothing else can, and yes, it can help you lose weight," says instructor Dana Edison, director of Radius Yoga in North Redding, Mass., and a certified personal trainer with the American College of Sports Medicine.

Celebrity yoga trainers Ana Brett and Ravi Singh, who have worked with such hotties as Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow, also believe in yoga's weight-loss powers.

"We have seen it in ourselves, we have seen it in our clients – yoga can give you a real workout even if you are a beginner," says Brett, who, with Singh, created the best-selling DVD program Fat Free Yoga.

How Does It Work?

In 2005, medical researcher and practicing yogi Alan Kristal, DPH, MPH, set out to do a medical study on the weight-loss effects of yoga.

With funding from the National Cancer Institute, Kristal and colleagues at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle led a trial involving 15,500 healthy, middle-aged men and women. All completed a survey recalling their physical activity (including yoga) and their weight between the ages of 45 and 55. Researchers then analyzed the data, teasing out other factors that could influence weight change – such as diet or other forms of exercise.

The end result: They found yoga could indeed help people shed pounds, or at least keep them from gaining weight.

"Those practicing yoga who were overweight to start with lost about 5 pounds during the same time period those not practicing yoga gained 14 pounds," says Kristal.

For the study, he says, practicing yoga was defined as at least one 30-minute session per week for four or more years.

Kristal says it's not clear just how yoga might help people keep off the pounds, at least from a scientific standpoint. His own opinion is that the effects are subtle, and related to yoga's mind-body aspects.

"The buzzword here is mindfulness -- the ability to observe what is happening internally in a non-reactive fashion," he says. "That is what helps change the relationship of mind to body, and eventually to food and eating."

How To Yoga Stretches for Low Back Pain & Sciatica Relief by Jen Hilman

Yoga, Acupuncture and Massage: All Can Help Relieve Chronic Pain

Source: www.copyrightfreecontent.com NewsUSA

Many people who take medications for chronic pain sometimes wonder whether there is more they can do to manage their condition better. More and more, medical research is showing that the answer is a resounding yes.

While prescription and over-the-counter medications can be useful in treating chronic pain, efforts to manage pain can often be enhanced by using an integrative approach to care that combines traditional medicine with complementary and alternative therapies. 

Integrative care can include a variety of methods such as yoga, acupuncture, massage, physical therapy, biofeedback, tai chi and meditation. Many experts agree that integrative care must be tailored to the patient, as not every treatment will be effective or appropriate for everyone. Each patient should have a plan that meets his or her individual needs.

“A pain management plan that utilizes an integrative approach yields the best results for many people with pain. In combination with medication, alternative and complementary therapies can help patients better manage their pain and lead more fulfilling lives,” says Robert Bonakdar, M.D., of the American Academy of Pain Management. “There is no one-size-fits-all solution, so people with chronic pain may need to try different therapies to find the best approach to pain management. Communicating openly and honestly with your healthcare provider is essential to finding the right approach.” 

Today, integrative care is becoming an increasingly popular pain management strategy. In fact, the National Institutes of Health reports that 38 percent of adults in the United States (about four out of 10) use some form of complementary or alternative medicine to treat common problems such as back, neck or joint pain.

People with pain should ask their doctor if an integrative approach to pain management is right for them. Additionally, Partners Against Pain, a national educational program provided by Purdue Pharma L.P. at www.partnersagainstpain.com, contains an array of information on pain conditions and pain management.

Cancer Recovery and Yoga

The Power of Yoga for Cancer Recovery: Find Your Inner Yogi!

Photo: themindbodyfitness

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

Besides Yoga being a FABULOUS form of physical fitness, it is equally an integral part of our inner ecosystem for its mental, emotional therapeutic powers. It really is the definition of a mind body connection.

We live in a world where its go... go... go... faster... harder... push... push...
Psychologically: we can get frustrated, irritable, brain fog, dare I say bitchy... feeling we are never productive enough

Physiologically: we don't breathe properly, therefore we are not oxygenating our body properly, we produce stress hormones such as cortisol, we have been known to consume the wrong foods in such a state...

The ultimate power of Yoga can be seen in a true Yogi - Now I say "true" because like anything else there are plenty of wannabe yogis: they might know the moves, but the true spirit, physicality, art & magic of the yoga has not been integrated into their being, therefore, sorry, they cannot communicate & share the true power of yoga with others.

I insist we all emit an aura. People feel a perception of us being around us. Our eyes, smile, posture, body language, scent, the way we carry ourselves... all contribute to our personal aura. There is a peacefulness, calm, friendly & welcoming positively contagious aura emanating from a yogi. A sense that is so relaxing, cathartic... makes you want to just stop and breathe, like basking in that ray of sunshine smiling through the window, you know the one the cat usually usurps! Makes our qi gush, not just flow.

Unfortunately there is a paradigm of fitness that it is all about the hard rocking and bopping until you drop - and sure I do find that a fun aspect of fitness - I love a filthy, sweaty workout. Yes, it serves an important purpose. We do have many studies that show us that relentless gruelling exercise can create damaging oxidative stress, and yes shorten lifespan. The physical flexibility & strength of yoga are matched by the mental flexibility and strength of yoga, which is equally critical to our health and wellness.

Everybody talks about stress, which is rooted in an upset in our inner ecosystem, interruptions and blockages in our flow of qi, life's energy. The ancient arts of fitness such as yoga and tai chi provide that cleansing calm to oxygenate & restore to a stronger self.

As I personally work with people on exercise for disease recovery, I know besides our knowledge of disease, exercise science, knowing the appropriate exercise protocol..of equal importance is our aura that we transmit to others. So often I believe this is even more powerful, as it allows the person to envelop the deep healing potential of the exercise. I personally use smiles and humor - By smiling together we open the windows to our souls to truly allow healing on every level. The fitness industry again unfortunately, because it sells TV shows, has pushed a boot camp, brow beating, push till you cry ( or throw up) view of exercise. What people don't see is how NOT sustainable that is, other than for another season of absurdity. If we model fitness with humor, love, peace, creating an inner symphony, than we can create a lasting, sustainable passion for health & fitness.

That peaceful calm, gentle smiles, inner strength that exudes from a yogi creates a beautiful habitat for healing. Especially working with those recovering from cancer, a yogi trained with the science of exercise for cancer recovery can truly provide the mental & physical strength, stamina and calm, allowing cancer treatment to be maximized. If you need to breathe, think better, feel better, be better... embrace the power of yoga.