September is National Yoga Month and the perfect time to start your practice or get back to it. If you have always wanted to try yoga, but haven’t signed up, there are opportunities to try yoga at studios around the country at no cost. The purpose of National Yoga Month is to build awareness in the community about the benefits of yoga and how the practice can help physically, emotionally and spiritually. The goal is to raise awareness of the benefits and encourage people to try yoga. As part of National Yoga Month, yoga studios around the country have chosen … Continue reading →

YogaFit is a form of yoga that is designed specifically for the fitness industry. YogaFit stands for Yoga for the Fitness Industry and was developed in the mid 1990s by yoga instructor Beth Shaw in Los Angeles. As a trained instructor, Beth saw the need for a specific type of yoga for health clubs, due to the differences in the environment from the gym to the yoga studio. The bright lights and cold rooms of the gym provide specific challenges that don’t exist in the typical yoga studio. YogaFit combines principles of fitness and traditional yoga asanas. A typical class … Continue reading →

If you’ve decided you want to become a yoga therapist, the next step is to select the right program. Ideally, you want a yoga therapist training program that fits your yoga philosophy, interests and experience. There are some questions you can ask to make sure a specific program is a good fit. Is the program generalized or specialized? Generalized programs provide a broad education that covers many conditions. Specialized programs focus on a specific health condition. There are programs that specialize in depression, multiple sclerosis and other conditions. Whether you want generalized or specialized programs is a personal decision that … Continue reading →

If you have begun to get serious about your yoga practice, you may have heard about the yoga way of eating and fasting. Yogis choose to fast for physical and spiritual reasons. People practicing a spiritual yoga practice generally choose to fast as part of their religious beliefs, just like some Christians fast for religious reasons. In addition, fasting offers physical benefits. Especially when your diet has not been healthy, fasting allows the digestive system to heal. Fasting helps to get rid of toxins from unhealthy foods or overindulgence. For this reason, fasting is a part of most detox regimens. … Continue reading →

The abs consistently makes any list of areas of the body that people want to change. There are certain yoga asanas that can be used to tone, slim and strengthen the ab muscles. Stronger abs not only looks better, but also improves digestion, create a stronger core and strengthen the back muscles to reduce injury and back pain. Cat and Cow Sequence: This flowing movement from cat to cow is used in most yoga workouts for the abs. breathe with the sequence and repeat the movement five to ten times with each practice to strengthen the abs and back. Plank … Continue reading →

Flexibility, balance, and toning muscles are some of the things that come to mind when people think of yoga. Some are surprised to learn that yoga offers some strength training benefits for both the upper and lower body. The best poses for building upper body strength are asanas that require you to support the weight of your body with your arms. In weight lifting, weights are used to build muscle strength. In yoga, the body weight is used. There are many poses that benefit upper body strength. Some to include in your practice are cobra, plank, side plank, upward facing … Continue reading →

Reasons to try yoga There are many physical, emotional and spiritual benefits to the practice of yoga. If you have been considering trying yoga, there are many reasons to give it a try. Yoga offers a wide range of physical benefits. The practice has been used for thousands of years and modern science has shown yoga to benefit a range of health conditions, including high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, arthritis and many others. Yoga helps to control pain. Whether you are experiencing pain or just want to feel better in general, yoga may help. When yoga is combined with meditation, … Continue reading →

Tantric yoga is focused on expanding consciousness. The meaning of tantric is expansion. This form of yoga is centered on realizing what is called the Supreme Reality. Although this type of yoga is often associated with sex, this is actually a misnomer. In order to achieve the goal of tuning into the spiritual energy to realize the supreme reality, the practitioner needs to bring the male and female aspects of the individual into harmony. This is where this form of yoga is often mistaken for meaning sex between men and women. According to Sri Swami Sivananda, a pre-eminent guru, there … Continue reading →

Purna yoga was developed by Aadil Palkhivala and Mirra and is an integrated system of yoga that is based on ancient yoga philosophy. The definition of purna is complete and that is a fair description of the philosophy of this type of yoga. Purna yoga is based on the teachings of the Vedas, Iyengar, and Patanjali and includes elements and principles of Ayurvedic and Chinese nutrition philosophy. The system is far more than the physical exercise of the yoga asanas and includes other elements that include meditation, pranayama breathing exercises and overall nutrition, health and lifestyle choices that reflect the … Continue reading →

Mantra yoga is a form of yoga that uses meditation and the chanting of mantras. A mantra is a sound, word or phrase that is chanted and repeated. During the chanting of the mantra, attention is focused on the mantra, which helps to clear the mind and transcend emotions. Mantra yoga is a spiritual form of yoga that uses chanting mantras for spiritual purposes. Using a mantra is an effective way to bring focus and attention into the present moment. Nearly everyone has trouble with the mind wandering and a mantra helps bring the mind back to the moment and … Continue reading →