Stretching 101

You may already know all of this, but I just wanted to cover the bases. I see so many people doing things wrong, well, not WRONG, but not in the best way, so let's clear things up.

DO NOT stretch before your workout. WHAT? A rather new idea, but study after study, article after article, journal entry after journal entry has confirmed that stretching pre-workout is inefficient and potentially damaging. 1. you are stretching muscles that have not been warmed up yet and are therefore not elastic, which can actually lead to injury. 2. stretching pre-run/workout/walk/whatever can actually weaken your muscles for the next 10-15 minutes (and who wants that when they're trying to bust out some 200's?). DO WARMUP. This means start with a nice easy jog or walk of 5-10 minutes before you try to break a world record.

DO stretch after your workout. Stretching your now warm and elastic muscles will really benefit you most for you NEXT workout. You are gaining flexibility/balance/strength that will help you be more relaxed and keep injuries at bay.

DO YOGA. If you are still doing the hurdle stretch and the old arm pull across the chest, you really should stop. Please do yoga. The benefits are overwhelming. Flexibility/balance/strength/focus are all part of yoga. You'll gain more from 5 minutes of yoga then 10 minutes of your 1950's toe touches. It's easy to browse a yoga index (provided by yoga journal and linked at left), check out some books from the library, or buy a few yoga videos (think Rodney Yee).

*extra bonus tip* runners who tone and improve core strength run up to 33% better (that can translate into big minutes!)

New Yoga Likes

Always on the look out for new vinyasas or different yoga poses, I found THIS and LOVE it.
Great for the knees and good for the tone.

Here's how my yoga class is currently operating.

Monday is about toning up and building strength. We move through the poses quickly, but add repetitions and do some lifts. I think of it as prep work for more advanced positions. Some students have now moved into the advanced poses and practice these while the rest continue building muscle and balance. We also spend some time in inverted poses.

Wednesday is endurance work. We warm up with the Sun Salutation and move right into all three warrior poses. We hold I and II for 2 minutes and Warrior III for 1 minute and a bit. We hold Downward Facing Dog for 3 minutes. We do a bit of plank work, holding in Plank Neutral and Star. This past week I also added THESE dancing moves and everyone enjoyed it. It's summer time here and I don't turn the AC on in our room, so we're all sweating pretty good--we love it!

Yoga for Balance

Here's another vinyasa you can look up on yogajournal.com and see pics. Having balance is so important...it touches on everything you do all day. It's also something that can be improved very quickly if you have none!

Balancing Series

5 poses…eagle pose, on right and left, then Standing Leg Raise, Front: Standing Leg Raise, side; and Airplane as a flow first on right side then left. Dancers Pose on own four times—right leg, left leg, repeat.

1. Eagle Pose
Right arm under left..elbows shoulder high. Bend knees to 45 right leg over left.
Two times on each side, end in Samasthiti
2. Standing Leg Raise, Front
Grasp big toe with fingers
3. Standing Leg Raise, Side
4. Airplane Pose (Dekasana)
Balance on 1 leg, hands on hips, right knee in to chest…in liquid motion, exhale and hinge forward and extend right leg behind. Open arms like wings
Lower leg and roll back to standing. Hands in Namaste on exhale and repeat the sequence of standing leg raise, front, side and airplane on the left side, end in Samasthiti

5. Dancer’s Pose
Grab inside of right foot with thumb pointing up. Inhale and stretch forward—hold 5 breaths and release and helicopter arms to change sides…repeat and end in Samasthiti.
6. Tree Pose

another note

After writing the vinyasas below I also wanted to add that I often run through the Sun Salutation a few times and then get to work on a specific move I'm trying to improve. I'll practice the headstand or dolphin or back bend for a while and then end in another Sun Salutation. Yoga isn't competitive and maybe I shouldn't just stop and work on a specific move, but I often get excited about mastering something new, not that yoga is about mastering things, and being able to hold a challenging pose. Yes, yoga is all about the present and flowing with the flow and rolling with the homies...but this girl is just a little too competitive for all of that sometimes. Don't tell.

Let's get down to Vinyasa

Here are two vinyasas to start you out. Go to yogajournal.com to look up the poses and put them into a visual sequence (vinyasa).

First is the Sun Salutation. I do this three times a day, usually after my run, yes or yes! I'll explain in layman's terms:

1. Mountain pose
2. breath in-arms overhead
3. exhale-swan dive down to forward bend
4. breath in-right leg back to lunge, extend arms in air
5. exhale-plank
6. hold breath-touch knees, chest and chin
7. breath in-cobra
8. exhale-downward dog
9. inhale-right leg forward to lunge, extend arms in air
10.exhale-step feet together, forward bend
11.inhale-sweep up to arms overhead
12. exhale-prayer pose

repeat coming down the same side you just went up...so after forward bend (3) you'd step the left leg back to lunge. Repeat this up to 6 times always sweeping up one side of the body and back down that same side.

Here's another take on the Sun Salutation with a couple of modifications (and some notes I wrote to myself):

Integration Series

1. Child’s Pose (Balasana)
a. Spread knees apart to edges of mat
2. Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
3. Ragdoll (Uttanasana)
a. Forward bend with legs hip width and grasping arms

Sun Salutation A

1. Samasthiti
a. “standing at attention”, arms at side
2. Mountain Pose-inhale
a. Arms over head
3. Standing forward bend-exhale
a. Hands on mat beside feet
4. Halfway lift (Urdhva Mukha Uttanasana)-inhale
a. Keep finger tips on floor, raise chest
b. JUMP BACK-exhale
5. Plank/High pushup (Dandasana)-inhale
6. Low Pushup (chaturanga dandasana)-exhale
7. Upward facing Dog (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana)-inhale
8. Repeat Downward Facing Dog-exhale 5 times
9. Jump Forward-hold exhale
10. Halfway lift-inhale
11. standing forward bend-exhale
12. mountain pose-inhale
13. Samasthiti-exhale

Sun Salutation B

1. Thunderbolt (Utkatasana)
a. powerful pose
2. Go though steps 3-8 of SSA
3. Warrior I
After warrior I place hands on mat and step back into High Push-Up. Then Low push-up, Upward facing dog, downward facing dog, warrior I on other side, high to low push-up, upward facing dog, downward facing dog—5 breathes, on last breath, exhale completely and Jump forward. Inhale to halfway lift, forward bend, back to thunderbolt—hold for 5 breaths, standing forward bend and begin again SSB. Repeat SSB two times, on the third round add Warrior II after Warrior I and end in Samasthiti.

**More excellent vinyasas to come!

Confessions of a Yoga Junkie

Over the weekend I heard good news from a yoga convert. She confessed that she'd never really been interested in yoga, always wanting to go, go, go instead. She finally gave it a try and is now an addict. I remember one student in my class telling me that her muscles would feel weird and she knew it was because she NEEDED to do half-moon pose. It is funny how your muscles can almost become addicted to the unique stretching techniques taught in yoga. My sister, a student of Bikram's yoga practices, put me through a mini-session this past weekend, and I can't wait to get a book and try it out some more. The technique is much different than my yogasport style practice, but I LOVED the ideas and poses.
So, for all those who are still avoiding taking me up on this...TRY it THIS WEEK! and by next week you'll be converted too.

Power Yoga

Just another yoga horn I'd like to toot! I just finished reading over "Journey into Power" by Baron Baptiste. Baron pretty much invented power yoga and brought yoga into the lime-light as he made it popular among the stars. His book covers everything from the meditative side of yoga, to a clean diet, to multiple vinyasas. Although there were only 2 poses that I've never taught, just reading it over made me excited to hit the mat!
I like Baron's approach in teaching every person to be their own self. The point of yoga is not to push and shove yourself into a pretzel position, but to allow yourself to find where your body can naturally take you. The series of vinyasas he depicts are great for beginners and advanced, so this is a book you can grow with.

If you're a first timer, I'm still going to recommend a video or class, so you can actually see and hear what you're supposed to do, but once you're familiar with some of the poses and language, this book is great.

What I'd really like to get across here is that I really do not think there is any substitute for yoga practice in a healthy lifestyle. It has a way of centering you, making you more aware of your choices, and freeing you that is incomparable. I know there is value in flexibility and muscle strength as we age. Yoga give us that...keeping us young and light. Sadly, there are people out there who won't give yoga a good try. Either it's too weird, uncomfortable, or even painful. Luckily, you can make yoga what you want it to be. A nice stretch after your workout. A time to meditate and grow. A strength training program. Whatever! I challenge everyone to give yoga a solid effort for two weeks. You'll notice what was "painful" at first quickly melts into relaxing and rejuvenating. That's what's exciting about yoga as well...you'll quickly see improvement!