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Feb 15 2012
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Yoga

Trying something new or something for the first time? You might want to bring your inner peace along with you!!

Trying something new or something for the first time? Headed to the hills? Playing sports? You might want to bring your inner peace along with you in whatever you do… Yoga is not just a workout!

If you don’t currently have a yoga practice, there is no time like the present to start, if you already do have one you may like a restorative practice once in a while.  Yoga can help calm nerves, get you centered, and work though some tough sore spots. If you aren’t getting the results you’d like in your sport or by working out in the gym your body may have plateaued.  Try incorporating yoga to take your body to the next level.

I know many people are just into yoga for the workout, but yoga does a lot more for you than just any old plain exercise can, yoga will complement anything you are doing especially if you are trying a new sport or doing one that you don’t practice all the time.

A solid yoga practice will help even out the body’s imbalances by streamlining muscles and removing pain that may incur from daily life or forms of exercising.  New activities especially require use of muscles that aren’t activated all the time, even the most experienced athlete or very active person is likely to be more dominant on one side or in one direction.

Yoga will incrementally help to open, elongate, strengthen and stabilize the body over time, you don’t need to be flexible or strong or even in shape.  There is no starting or end point; yoga is a completely personal practice and every person has a different body, muscular and bone structure with different capacities and capabilities.

Start out with an easy restorative practice and work your way from there.   It really doesn’t matter what the person next to you is doing, just figure out how to move your body easily in and out of the poses with correct alignment. Get into your own zone, being tense and muscling through poses will completely defeat you. Yoga is all about breathing and being childlike, as long as you are breathing it doesn’t matter if you fall, or aren’t bending all the way.  Just keep a sense of humor about your practice and pretty soon the most daunting poses will seem natural.

I’d like to put flexibility in perspective – you really don’t see anyone new in a gym pick up the heaviest weights to prove their strength or running a 5 mile if they’ve never tried.  Please clear your mind of what you can’t do and start openly with what you can.  Lack of flexibility is a reason to start yoga – not hold off until you are even more crooked, rigid and sore or worse too late.

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Dec 12 2011
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Yoga

Stress got you in pain? Back that thing up, it’s not just in your back!

One thing everyone is always complaining about is low back pain. 
The reason being is that the most common muscle group to tighten is the psoas pronounced so-as, also known as the hip flexor (most people don’t even know what it is because you can’t see it or flex it).  The psoas muscle is one of the largest and thickest in the body, it connects your spine to your leg and assists in stabilizing and straightening the lumbar spine. This muscle group gets very tight and over worked because in North America we sit a lot at home, driving, school and at work.
The result of tight psoas muscles is over tightened hamstring muscles (hamstrings try to overcome the forward pull from tight psoas muscles). Tight hamstrings pulling on psoas muscles causes them to tighten up resulting in lower back pain.
Think of the body as a giant pulley system.  If one part of you tightens, it causes stress on another part of you – think front back and top to bottom.  Stresses in tight calves can result in shoulder and neck pain – NO JOKE!  Typically a lot of stress is held in the hips and neck and shoulders.  This accumulates from long periods of sitting hunched over or possibly stress without steady breath (have you ever noticed how you sit at work – shoulders practically in your ears when working under the gun or for long periods?).
To elevate pain, your body needs to be stretched and lengthened! I highly recommend taking some time to foam roll every inch of your body, starting at neck and working your way down the muscle groups.  You can foam roll every part and it truly feels amazing! I use a baseball to roll the triceps and biceps, upper back (lay on back) and chest (lay on stomach), and if you have digestion issues also use the baseball on your stomach to work things around.  I use the large foam roller to get into my glutes, hamstrings, inner and outer thighs, quads and then I go back to the baseball on my calves. When I find tightness I hold the roller or ball on the spot until it releases. 
Yoga is also great for opening up your entire body! Here are some great stretches for the Psoas, lower back and hips:
Deep forward lunge with hands on floor or front knee your back leg is extended (the knee can be grounded or lifted).
Pigeon pose or double pigeon (my personal favorite), stretches the both psoas and the piriformis (outer butt). 
Happy baby pose, lay on your back and grab the outter edges of your feet (knees bent), drawing the feet towards the floor, while keeping the lower back pressing on the floor.
Forward fold This pose can be done either standing just bend at the hips and let your body weight pull you down or sitting tall with feet extended, knees can be slightly bent either way. It’s not really about touching your toes, it’s about lengthening through your lower back. 
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Nov 21 2011
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Yoga

6 Ways to Stay Mentally Fit.

After completing an eight-day cleanse, I feel really amazing (in my body). The feeling right after cleansing is really the best, however it wasn’t just my body that went through the cleanse, I also sorted through some mental stuff too. Without even realizing or thinking about them, events re-surfaced in my mind. As they came up, I processed them and let them go.
This brought me to think about how many of us must have a lot of letting go to do. We all hold things in, and stuff that doesn’t matter gets caught lingering in our heads. We waste so much time and energy on irrelevant things and carry the burden inside ourselves, because we can’t get things off our chests. It is so important to take care of you first. Once you are good, you can make others feel good! When the haters are hating, you just need to let go. Here are 6 things I know will help you stay mentally fit!
1) Don’t be bullied or persuaded into doing things by friends. If you need a “you” day, whether it’s running errands or getting stuff done around the house – take it. If you don’t want to do something then simply don’t. If you don’t feel like eating BBQ and dessert then, don’t. If you don’t feel like going out drinking tonight, don’t.
2) Don’t gossip about people, events and situations. Speaking about things in a negative way brings additional attention and unnecessary negative energy. That said if you need to vent, do it. Write it down, write a letter, or confide in a friend you can trust. Don’t hold stuff in.
3) Deal with your thoughts. Is the situation mentally worth your time and energy? Think of all the points of view and possibile outcomes. Accept and understand the issues you’re dealing with; compartmentalize them in order of what is worth your head space; and generally let this “stuff” go.
4) Let go!! Don’t hold onto thins that don’t matter. This in itself is a huge process, partly because we hold onto stuff that we are unaware of. This additional mental baggage bogs us down, making it hard for us to move forward.
5) Pick (your) battles carefully. Sometimes it’s just not worth it, whatever it is – it will most likely work itself out.
6) Get rid of clutter. In your living space, to your mind to your life. All of it is heavy, and it will hold you back from moving forward.
 
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