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Virasana (Hero’s pose)

December 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Virasana is a sitting asana that looks as simple as it is, but can be challenging to a certain degree. The challenge of virasana pose comes from stretching of the feet, ankles, calves and maintaining the lower back straight. However, the asana can be done very easily with the aid of props. The English name for virasana is hero’s pose (vira = hero, asana = pose).

Virasana benefits:

  1. Helps in improving concentration, considered good for meditation practice
  2. Improves digestion process and kidney functioning
  3. Good for knee joints, ankle joints and calf muscles.

Duration : 2 minutes duration is ideal. However, you can stay in virasana posture as long as you are comfortable.

Contra-indications:  Not recommended for people suffering from knee or ankle problems, such as arthritis or osteoporosis.


Procedure

  1. Get into kneeling position on mat, if you find your knees hurting place a soft blanket under your knees for support
  2. Knees together and feet apart, slowly lower the hips in between your feet.  This position will stretch ankles and may be painful for some people, if so place a soft bolster under your ankles.
  3. Keep lower back straight. If you are not able to keep it straight, place a block in between your feet and sit on it. Maintain straight back and stay motion less
  4. When coming out of virasana pose, raise your upper body slowly into kneeling position and take a seating position sideways. Straighten your legs and do some ankle rotations.

Variation II (easy asana)

  1. Same as above
  2. Same as above
  3. Slowly raise right knee and place right foot flat on floor next to left knee.
  4. Right elbow on right knee and right palm under chin for support. Keep left arm resting on left knee.
  5. Keep back straight and close your eyes to relax.
  6. Repeat on left side too.

Virasana variation II is also called as thinker’s or philospher’s pose.

Filed Under: Asanas Tagged With: , , ,

Free iPhone/iPad yoga apps for home practice

December 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

iPhone is more than a phone when the power of apps takes front seat, the device has become more like one solution for all needs. With no exception, the device has decent number of yoga related apps too. Listed are the some of free apps that I use for reference and practice.

Yoga free 250 pose

As the title of the app says, this yoga app has 250 poses categorized into beginner, intermediate, advanced and guru. Under each of the categories the asanas are further categorized into standing asanas, sitting asanas, lying on the stomach, lying on the back and from the table position.

The illustrations are very basic and the instructions are brief. The app is someone that can be used as reference. Other features include a calendar, programming your own yoga routine by adding asanas of your choice.  The full version has video and voice instructions.

Click here
Pranayama

This is pranayama app for breathing practice. The free version has only beginner level practice. The app tells you when to inhale and exhale, there is a music change between inhale and exhale routines for us to know when to shift from inhale to exhale and vice-versa. You can program number of breaths per minutes (very limited in free version). The app is ideal for beginner level pranayama practice and everyday practice.

Click here

Daily yoga free

This is a yoga workout app. You can choose between 20 min or 40 min or 60 min yoga session. The entire session is in video format with voice instructions (as in similar to instructions from an instructor in a yoga studio). You can also choose to view individual pose instructions. If you count total number of poses, there aren’t that many poses compared to other apps.

There are 2 workout routines, the 2nd one is available in full version.  If you want have a feel of instructor led session, this app can come handy.

Click here

Pocket yoga free

Nice illustrations, you can switch between viewing angles to have a peek of pose from two sides. A short description of the pose and benefits listed for each asana.

In practice mode, to access the class routines you need to share the app info on Facebook to have access to the class routines. There are 2 sun salutation practices also that can programmed to perform in number of sets. The background voice is nice and you can add your own if you don’t like the default music.

Click here

Filed Under: Yoga Tips Tagged With: ,

Truth about weight loss with YOGA

June 22, 2011 By 2 Comments

If you here to find out if practicing yoga contributes to weight loss, the answer is YES.

The article is about my personal experience with yoga on losing weight and a bit of yoga concepts on weight loss.

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Let me give you few of my observations before we get into meat of this article, I have been to lot of yoga studios for drop in classes in US, India and South America.

Observation # 1: I noticed people who practice yoga on regular basis, majority of them are lean/skinny.
Observation # 2: Walk into a yoga studio and try to find people with excess weight Vs lean/skinny people. From my experience, I say chances are quite slim to find good number of overweight people.

Should I conclude practicing yoga will build lean and nice body??

No, as a yoga teacher it would be too naïve on part of me to believe in such claims that yoga practice is a solution for weight loss. There are several reasons behind why someone is overweight, it could be a improper thyroid function, diet or some other medical reasons. Everyone is unique and we are all wired differently, however practicing yoga can help you enjoy a healthy lifestyle.

My Experience

I have been practicing yoga since I was in college, my body has always been skinny and I never attempted to gain weight or anything. I moved to US and my practice of yoga has been greatly reduced due to other commitments and I attempted to gain some weight to not look so skinny. After much difficulty I could put on 15 pounds, which isn’t much for my body yet. All I could notice was my cheeks got chubby and my waist size grew by 1 inch. Later, I went to India for a 4 week yoga teacher training, it was quite intensive and energizing. After 4 weeks, I lost all the 15 pounds I put on. It took so many months for me to gain that weight and in 4 weeks I lost all that. However, I didn’t lose anymore weight beyond that even after I kept practicing yoga. I was eating quite good all the time.
But what happened?

One of the result of my 4 week training was I got 4x flexible that I was before. All the postures I was doing everyday has stretched my muscles and tissues really good. We had to hold the posture for a minute or so and that generated heat in the body and guess what? fat meltdown all the way. I realized the weight gained before was nothing but extra fat in the body, no muscle or so. I checked my body fat percentage and it was 8%, which is in range for an athletes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_fat_percentage)

The common question I hear about weight loss is – are there are any particular postures for weight loss? The answer is Yes and No, because it depends on body type and also where the excess weight is i.e., abdomen or hips or neck or chest or any of the combination. A good yoga teacher will evaluate the student’s body and will make a plan on what postures she/he should practice for better results.

However, some of them cannot afford paying yoga teacher and try to find solutions over internet. Isn’t the reason you are here in first place? well, we can get some answers if not everything. Most of the excess weight tends to be  around waist, abdomen and/or hips area.

List of postures

For all postures, try to hold in the posture for atleast 30 seconds or so.
1. Tadasana I – Click here to see the posture in action
- Inhale raise the arms and push the palms towards sky. Bend sideways till you can and repeat the same on  other side, repeat 4 times on each side.
- Another variation to do along with above is to the twist and turn at the waist towards right and then left. Repeat 4 times on each side.

2. Uttanasana (standing forward bend pose) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uttanasana
Place feet one foot apart and slowly exhale to bend forward. If you cant touch your feet, its alright. Just let your body hang and leave it to the gravity to work. Stay in this position for 2 minutes for this one. While coming back to standing position, don’t forget to bend knees little bit and slowly raise your body.

The above 2 postures are very good for reducing waist and abdomen fat. Do it regularly for a week or 10 days in morning and evening and you should be able to see the difference.

There are more poses to work on, but they require series of steps involved to attain the final posture. The above 2 postures are easy and doesn’t require any steps to remember.

Thanks for reading :)

Pic source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/3206805049/in/photostream/

Filed Under: Thoughts on Yoga Tagged With: , , ,

Pranamaya – Paul Grilley’s Anatomy for Yoga review

March 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Anatomy for Yoga by Paul Grilley is not a regular yoga dvd that we usually find everywhere. This yoga dvd is very conceptual, educational and useful practical information based on Paul’s personal experience as a yoga teacher. In short, this yoga dvd is a blend of anatomy, yoga and his experiences as a yoga teacher.

Who should use this yoga dvd: Yoga practitioners, yoga teachers and everyone who is interested in developing knowledge in yoga from anatomy point of view. I came across comments on this dvd that it is highly recommended for yoga teacher, but I think it is highly recommended for yoga students or practitioners too. Because as a student, I find very hard to bring myself into a particular posture while the same posture might look super simple for someone next to me. To frustrate me further, a newbie yoga student might turn himself in to a pretzel with ease. Situations like this make me wonder what is wrong with me. This is where Paul’s Anatomy of Yoga dvd answers all your questions.

About the teacher: Paul is a yoga teacher who specializes in Yin Yoga. He also learnt anatomy and studied Taoism for years. He travels around the world and conducts workshops on anatomy, chakra meditation and Yin Yoga teacher training.

Paul wrote a book ‘Yin Yoga’ and released 3 dvds so far – Anatomy for Yoga with Paul Grilley, Yin Yoga: The Foundations of a Quiet Practice and Chakra Theory and Meditation with Paul Grilley.

For more information, please visit his website at http://www.paulgrilley.com/

Review: The duration of the entire dvd is approx. 4 hrs.’ and I had to finish watching the dvd in 2 separate sessions due to time my personal time constraint. It would be naïve on our part if we assume that by watching this dvd is enough to know everything about anatomy of yoga. In my personal opinion, this anatomy dvd is a supplement in our learning.

Compression and tension is the core of this yoga dvd. Paul goes in great detail on getting basics of compression and tension.

Questions such as –

What is compression? What causes compression?

What is tension? What causes tension?

The difference between tension and compression.

Will be answered in the beginning before he goes into full anatomical explanation.

Paul takes time to explain each topic in detail with demonstrations at the end of the topic. Paul took right kind of people for demonstration to explain why certain people are more flexible and some are not. And at each topic he also mentions what kind of postures does particular joint in explanation is affected. The dvd begins with major joints of the body with live demonstrations and goes through series of major topics such as shoulder, femur etc., Paul also suggests some work around to go deep into a posture. Besides the dvd’s valuable content, what I like the most is the easiness and pace of the DVD, its calm and very easy to follow. See short clip from the dvd -

Anatomy for Yoga with Paul Grilley

The dvd ends with Q&A session from the participants who took part in this dvd. There are few good questions and it is worth viewing this section of the dvd too.

Recommendation: Very recommended for everyone, this yoga video gives you some insights on compression, tension, flexibility and bone structures. This dvd will be very helpful if you want to deepen your yoga practice.

Filed Under: Yoga DVD Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Essence of Yoga

February 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

It has become quite common today that we hear from people about starting to do yoga or how yoga has become part of their life. Yoga is now turned into a popular activity everywhere and the demand for yoga studios keep on increasing. But what is yoga? How do you do this yoga in real? Is it something acrobatic stuff that we see in TV or magazines? Gymnasts can do better acrobats than yoga I believe, but they are not same, isn’t it? Let us examine into nuts and bolts of this yoga in this article.

My friend from Thailand has been teaching yoga for years, I was fortunate to attend her class when she was in India last year. And I remember the way she explained about yoga in simple words –

“Yoga doesn’t begin when you step into this yoga hall. It BEGINS when you step out of this yoga hall”

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Image: giena via Flickr

That is absolutely correct. She zipped all yoga talk in one short sentence. Let’s see –

We all pack our yoga mats, towel and bottle of water to yoga hall to do some yoga. We spend one or two hours doing some physical postures and satisfy ourselves how good it was. It’s true and there is nothing wrong or bad in it, it’s what we at least expect from it. However, the moment we step out of that yoga hall, we are back into our own world… we are back into our old patterns, everything is the way it was.

What does she meant when she said “yoga begins when you step out of the yoga hall? Does she mean we should spend our time doing yoga postures whenever it is possible? No, this is not what she meant. Before I tell you what she implies with that statement, let me give some insight into the essence of yoga.

There are hundreds or rather thousands of books on yoga and every author may have his own way of explanation on yoga, either they mention it directly or put it in a long way. Nevertheless it can be explained in few simple words. The core of the yoga lies in being in this present moment, being aware of every single moment with or around us. When we say living in present moment, what does it mean “living in present moment”? How do we live in present moment? To explain in non-yogic way to understand, how common is it for us to keep on thinking what has happened or spending tons of our time running simulations in our brain about future even when we are actively doing something. The analysis part of our brain running ifs and buts, why and why not’s and millions of random questions as we actively engaged in our job or school. It means our major part of our brain is focused either in past or in future, isn’t it why we tend to make lot of mistakes unconsciously because we aren’t focused on what we are doing now. Living in present moment means engaging ourselves completely in this moment with 100% attention on what we are doing.

The statement about yoga begins when we step out of the yoga hall – she meant that we should be aware of our actions, speech and every single moment we live. The more awareness we bring in what we are doing, the more insightful it will be. The more we live in our present moment, the less we hanker in our past or obsess with future. With awareness we bring more peace in ourselves and utilizing our brain more efficiently since we cut off those ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ from the equation. When we have beautiful moments now, will later be beautiful memories of past and future will be great anyway because our present is beautiful.

This is the essence of yoga.

Filed Under: Thoughts on Yoga Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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