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Saturday, May 30, 2015
Friday, May 29, 2015
Friday Q&A: Opening Your Hips without Knee Pain
Q: I have a question about hip openers. I teach to mostly middle-aged and older populations. Some folks are more physically active than others, but almost all of them spend a lot of time sitting, either in a car or at a desk. Many of them experience tightness in the hips and a smaller sub-set also have issues with painful knees - arthritis, meniscus issues, etc. I was taught that externally rotating the leg can be problematic for the knees, especially if they are already vulnerable. However it seems as though most of the best and most direct hip openers involve external rotation. Do you know of any postures that effectively stretch and release tension in the gluteals and the external rotators of the hip without compromising the safety of the knee?
To open the outer hip joint, you want to adduct the hip joint via poses that bring your leg across the midline of your body. You can do this movement with Reclined Leg Stretch (Supta Padangusthasana), bringing your lifted leg across the midline.
Opening the Back of the Hip Joint
If there is any knee pain when you try this one, you can move your bent knee foot slightly away from the hips.
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I searched the blog but wasn't able to find anything that addressed this issue, though perhaps I didn't search effectively. I'd be grateful for any insights you can share, from previous posts, or in the future.
A: Thanks for this question! I want to begin by reminding all of us that in yoga circles “hip opening” sometimes gets reduced to the combination of hip flexion, abduction and external rotation of the femur bone (thigh bone) in the hip socket, as in Cobbler’s pose (Baddha Konasana) and Lotus pose (Padmasana). But the hip obviously moves in many other directions, so “hip opening” should reflect the improvement of the full range of motion of the hip joint! So, in general, for yourself and your students, focus on good overall hip opening, which will have positive impacts on posture, locomotion, balance, and agility.
A: Thanks for this question! I want to begin by reminding all of us that in yoga circles “hip opening” sometimes gets reduced to the combination of hip flexion, abduction and external rotation of the femur bone (thigh bone) in the hip socket, as in Cobbler’s pose (Baddha Konasana) and Lotus pose (Padmasana). But the hip obviously moves in many other directions, so “hip opening” should reflect the improvement of the full range of motion of the hip joint! So, in general, for yourself and your students, focus on good overall hip opening, which will have positive impacts on posture, locomotion, balance, and agility.
Opening the Front of the Hip Joint
To open the front of the joint—the area your sedentary and seated students need mostly—you want to stretch the front thigh muscles, such as the quads and the psoas by extended the joint, so High Lunge (Vanarasana), including the classic and chair versions, and the Dropped-Knee Lunge, and Warrior 1 (Virabradrasana 1) for the back leg can effectively work those areas.
To open the front of the joint—the area your sedentary and seated students need mostly—you want to stretch the front thigh muscles, such as the quads and the psoas by extended the joint, so High Lunge (Vanarasana), including the classic and chair versions, and the Dropped-Knee Lunge, and Warrior 1 (Virabradrasana 1) for the back leg can effectively work those areas.
Opening the Inner Hip Joint
To open the inner aspect of the joint, you want to lengthen the adductor group of muscles via poses that take your legs wide apart, such as Standing Wide-Legged Forward Bend (Prasarita Padottanasana), Pyramid pose (Parsvottanasana), Triangle pose (Trikonasana) and Extended Side Angle pose (Utthita Parsvakonasana), and Wide-Angle Seated pose (Upavista Konasana).
To open the inner aspect of the joint, you want to lengthen the adductor group of muscles via poses that take your legs wide apart, such as Standing Wide-Legged Forward Bend (Prasarita Padottanasana), Pyramid pose (Parsvottanasana), Triangle pose (Trikonasana) and Extended Side Angle pose (Utthita Parsvakonasana), and Wide-Angle Seated pose (Upavista Konasana).
Opening the Outer Hip Joint
To open the outer hip joint, you want to adduct the hip joint via poses that bring your leg across the midline of your body. You can do this movement with Reclined Leg Stretch (Supta Padangusthasana), bringing your lifted leg across the midline.
Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana) with one leg crossed in front of the other can also be helpful.
Opening the Back of the Hip Joint
To open the back of the joint, stretching the hamstring stretch muscles by flexing the joint with straight legs is very helpful. Some poses that stretch the hamstrings effectively include Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana), Reclined Leg Stretch Pose (Supta Padangusthasana) Version 1, and Pyramid pose (Parsvottanasana).
Combinations of Movements
To address combinations of movements, especially those that include external rotation of the hip joint, which is necessary for poses like Cobbler’s and Lotus poses, Thread the Needle pose is a great way to release tension in the deep external rotators of the hips.
If you hold onto the top shin and stretch your bottom leg along the floor, you are essentially doing upside down Pigeon pose without as much potential strain on the knee joint for you folks with knee issues. Sorry I don’t yet have a picture of this variation!
In fact, regular Pigeon pose (Kapotasana) is one to avoid for those with knee issues, as it tends to put too much pressure into the front bent knee, especially when doing the forward folding version.
You can also get a nice stretch of the posterior gluteal muscles in all your Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) variations, even Half Downward-Facing Dog at the Wall.
You can also get a nice stretch of the posterior gluteal muscles in all your Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) variations, even Half Downward-Facing Dog at the Wall.
If you then bend your left knee a bit toward the wall and press your hips a bit to the right side of your mat while keeping your right knee straight, you can get a deeper stretch of the lateral gluteal muscles and the deep external rotators of the right hip. And it is easy on the knees! Of course, do it on both sides!
Also, the twisting version of Reclined Leg Stretch pose pictured above is also a good one, as are these versions of Marichyasana 3:
All this should keep you and your students busy for a while!
—Baxter
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Thursday, May 28, 2015
5 Ways Yoga Can Affect Your Health
by Baxter
On this blog, we often address the health benefits of yoga, from its ability to support a generally healthy lifestyle to specific therapeutic benefits that yoga brings to a whole array of injuries, diseases, and conditions (see Common Minor Problems That Yoga Can Help With and Common Serious Problems That Yoga Help With). Therefore, how we are using yoga for health benefits can vary tremendously. So I feel it will be helpful to have a clear framework to describe yoga’s various roles in affecting our health. This will give us a better understanding of what yoga actually has the power to do—or not—for different types of conditions.
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| Roots by Melina Meza |
Within the world of yoga, Yoga Therapy is a rapidly emerging specialty. It is interesting to consider the origins of the word “therapy.” It comes originally from the Greek language, and literally means “healing” or “curing.” As I considered how yoga fits into modern concepts of healing and treatment for conditions and ailments, I came up five different categories.
1. Preventative Medicine. Yoga can be “health promotion activity” that can prevent disease and create an overall sense of well-being. In choosing to practice yoga, you may not be targeting a specific disease or condition, but rather in a more general way you are promoting your general health and supporting a sense of well-being. We could say that in this way, yoga is acting as a form of primary prevention, addressing your overall health before any problems develop. Yoga can also be a form of secondary prevention for specific conditions that are present in a latent form or a presently asymptomatic, but if were left unaddressed, could progress to a more serious form. High blood pressure is one example of this. If we apply yoga to high blood pressure and it helps to normalize our blood pressure numbers, it could prevent the development of more serious conditions like Coronary Artery Disease and heart attacks. In this case, ongoing yoga practice will hopefully prevent future disability from the more serious consequences of untreated high blood pressure.
2. Curative Medicine. Yoga certainly can help with complete healing, as is often noted with musculoskeletal conditions, such as common sprains and strains, and even more complex issues, such as back and neck pain. In addition, in some individuals, yoga seems to resolve serious issues like anxiety and depression, although it often does so as an “adjunct,” in combination with other forms of treatment. However, unlike an antibiotic prescribed for a specific infection for which it cures, yoga usually is not just used for two weeks and then discarded. So there is an ongoing “maintenance” aspect of yoga that differs from western pharmaceutical treatments. And before prematurely pronouncing yourself “cured,” you might consider monitoring your “cured” conditions for 1 to 5 years as they do with cancer treatment.
3. Maintenance Therapy. Yoga can be helpful as a maintenance treatment for ongoing conditions that are in a remission state. For example, someone with MS can practice yoga between flares of symptoms in order to help maintain the relative symptom-free remission periods. Or someone with asthma during could practice during symptom-free periods with the goal of extending those remission times. During flares, people with these types of conditions might also do a modified, gentle, restorative practice, which would fall into our next category.
4. Supportive or Palliative Therapy. This refers to a therapy that does not treat or improve the underlying condition, but instead increases the patient's comfort. Palliative care often refers to serious or terminal conditions, but is nonetheless related to supportive therapy. As an example, some of my students with chronic low back pain, often from ruptured discs that are not going to heal, benefit dramatically from the pain and stress-relieving aspects of their ongoing yoga practice. And for more serious situations, I think of a student of mine who had Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and used his pranayama and meditation practices even into the last stage of his life with some benefit.
5. Rehabilitative Therapy. Yoga is being used more and more to aid recovery from all sorts of acute conditions, such as following major surgeries to post-heart attack and post-stroke rehabilitation. In such cases, yoga is often introduced for certain periods of time, say two to four months, to accelerate recovery, and hopefully adopted for longer-term maintenance or supportive purposes after that.
Now, you might want to add more categories, or divide some of these into several, but my hope is that this organization, however simple, helps you to think in a clearer fashion about how you apply your yoga to health conditions.
3. Maintenance Therapy. Yoga can be helpful as a maintenance treatment for ongoing conditions that are in a remission state. For example, someone with MS can practice yoga between flares of symptoms in order to help maintain the relative symptom-free remission periods. Or someone with asthma during could practice during symptom-free periods with the goal of extending those remission times. During flares, people with these types of conditions might also do a modified, gentle, restorative practice, which would fall into our next category.
4. Supportive or Palliative Therapy. This refers to a therapy that does not treat or improve the underlying condition, but instead increases the patient's comfort. Palliative care often refers to serious or terminal conditions, but is nonetheless related to supportive therapy. As an example, some of my students with chronic low back pain, often from ruptured discs that are not going to heal, benefit dramatically from the pain and stress-relieving aspects of their ongoing yoga practice. And for more serious situations, I think of a student of mine who had Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and used his pranayama and meditation practices even into the last stage of his life with some benefit.
5. Rehabilitative Therapy. Yoga is being used more and more to aid recovery from all sorts of acute conditions, such as following major surgeries to post-heart attack and post-stroke rehabilitation. In such cases, yoga is often introduced for certain periods of time, say two to four months, to accelerate recovery, and hopefully adopted for longer-term maintenance or supportive purposes after that.
Now, you might want to add more categories, or divide some of these into several, but my hope is that this organization, however simple, helps you to think in a clearer fashion about how you apply your yoga to health conditions.
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Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Rapid Cellular Changes Triggered by Yoga
by Ram
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| Grasses in the Rain by Melina Meza |
Time and again, we have highlighted on our blog the benefits of yoga for both physical and mental health based on our collective experience and, in several cases, backed by empirical evidence. Evidence-based studies that we referred to in this blog included mechanistic understanding, anatomical changes, structural and functional studies, and molecular changes. But the answer to one question kept eluding researchers for long: How rapid are the yoga-associated changes at the cellular level? Do cellular changes occur over the short term or do these changes happen gradually? To understand this, let’s revisit certain sections of my earlier post on inflammation Chronic Inflammation and Yoga.
Our body’s defense system aka immune system detects and protects the body from a wide variety of foreign agents, including bacteria, viruses, worms, and toxins. Multiple defense mechanisms involving various kinds of cells, chemicals, and proteins exist that recognize and neutralize these pathogens. Inflammation is the immune system’s “rapid response unit team” that is characterized by:
- the presence of specialized chemicals that create a suitable environment for the body’s defense molecules to act
- the release of an entire arsenal of specialized molecules/cells that fight the invaders
If yoga were to trigger any rapid changes, obviously the immune cells would be the most attractive target to study. This is the approach taken by a group of researchers to understand changes happening at the cellular level through a yoga regimen (see Rapid gene expression changes in peripheral blood lymphocytes upon practice of a comprehensive yoga program). In a small study involving 10 participants, the researchers observed yoga’s impact on the immune system. The 10 participants, who also served as their own controls, practiced yoga (asanas, pranayama, and meditation) on days 1 and 2. Days 3 and 4 involved walking coupled with relaxing music. All the activities were performed at the same time of the day (6.30 am–8.30 am). Twenty ml of blood was drawn from each individual right before and after each activity. Blood cells were immediately isolated, and gene expression studies was conducted.
Music and walking changed the expression of only 38 genes. In contrast, just a two-day, 90 minutes yoga regimen changed the expression of 111 genes. Interestingly, 14 genes were commonly affected by yoga/music and walking, suggesting that these two regimens affected similar biochemical pathways to some degree. Since the work mostly involved understanding gene expression changes, the authors only identified two sets of genes and their roles. Yoga increased the expression of genes that were involved in blunting the stress response (not surprisingly), and yoga also increased the expression of genes involved in blood cell production and maturation (now we know why we feel energized after a one-hour yoga class). Though the number of participants was small and the study period was of a short duration, what impressed me about this study is:
- the participants served as their own control, thus minimizing a lot of systemic errors
- since participants served as their own control, it was possible to compare two different regimens within the same population
- the rapid changes triggered by yoga
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Tuesday, May 26, 2015
7 Ways to Cultivate Equanimity with Yoga
by Nina
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| Reflecting Trees By Melina Meza |
Self-possessed, resolute, act
Without any thoughts of results,
Open to successor failure.
This equanimity is yoga. —translation by Stephen Mitchell
Recently I’ve witnessed some people dear to me suffering from serious physical problems. One is older and has a classic disease associated with aging and the other—who has a serious inherited condition that may lead her to life in a wheelchair—is only in early middle age. So once again, I’m reminded of how important cultivating equanimity—the third pillar of yoga for healthy aging—is for all of us. Even if we can extend our health spans (see What is Healthy Aging, Anyway?) though healthy practices, we will certainly have to go through poor health at some point. And even if we can prolong our independence into old age (see A Declaration of Independence!), we may eventually have to face the loss of that, however briefly. In addition, even if we are ourselves blessed with long and healthy lives, we’ll all have to deal with losing people we love.
Recently I’ve witnessed some people dear to me suffering from serious physical problems. One is older and has a classic disease associated with aging and the other—who has a serious inherited condition that may lead her to life in a wheelchair—is only in early middle age. So once again, I’m reminded of how important cultivating equanimity—the third pillar of yoga for healthy aging—is for all of us. Even if we can extend our health spans (see What is Healthy Aging, Anyway?) though healthy practices, we will certainly have to go through poor health at some point. And even if we can prolong our independence into old age (see A Declaration of Independence!), we may eventually have to face the loss of that, however briefly. In addition, even if we are ourselves blessed with long and healthy lives, we’ll all have to deal with losing people we love.
The Bhagavad Gita defines yoga as “equanimity,” and tells us that equanimity allows us to face difficulty with a “steady and quiet” mind.
He who hates no light, nor busy activity, nor even darkness, when they are near, neither longs for them when they are far.
Who unperturbed by changing conditions sits apart and watches and says “the powers of nature go round”, and remains firm and shakes not.
Who dwells in his inner self, and is the same in pleasure and pain; to whom gold or stones or earth are one, and what is pleasing or displeasing leave him in peace; who is beyond both praise and blame, and whose mind is steady and quiet.
And the Yoga Sutras tells us that regular practice (abhyasa), done with the right attitude (detachment, or vairagya), is what will quiet our minds.
1.12 Practice and detachment are the means to still the movements of consciousness.
1.13 Practice is the steadfast effort to still these fluctuations.
1.12 Practice and detachment are the means to still the movements of consciousness.
1.13 Practice is the steadfast effort to still these fluctuations.
1.14 Long, uninterrupted, alert practice is the firm foundation for restraining the fluctuations.
But what exactly should you be practicing to cultivate equanimity? Yoga has evolved quite dramatically since those two scriptures were written. New practices, such as restorative yoga and supported inverted poses, and new ways of doing old practices, such as guided forms of Relaxation pose (Savasana), are now part of the yoga lexicon. All these techniques work in different ways and have somewhat different effects (see Yoga Relaxation Techniques: They're Not All Created Equal). That’s why I’ve decided to list all these practices in one place today so you can compare and contrast them, and figure out which techniques are best for you at any given time.
Seven Ways to Cultivate Equanimity
1. Focused Relaxation. Yoga stress management practices help reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, calm your nervous system, and quiet your mind. These practices include simple breath awareness done in a seated or reclined position, any form of Savasana done with a mental focus (see Savasana (Corpse Pose)), and formal, structured forms of guided relaxation, such as yoga nidra (see Friday Q&A: What is Yoga Nidra?).
2. Restorative Yoga. Restorative yoga was specially designed to provide deep rest and relaxation. Rather than using your muscles to hold you in the shape of a pose as you would normally, the props hold you in the pose so you can simply let your muscles relax. With your muscles completely relaxed, you can then turn your attention inward, focusing on your breath, physical sensations, or any other object of meditation, which allows the relaxation response to switch on, calming your nervous system and quieting your mind. See Restorative Yoga: An Introduction.
3. Supported Inverted Poses. Practicing supported inverted poses for stress management is an effective way to calm your nervous system and quiet your mind because all you have to do is set yourself in the pose and stay there for a while. The shape of the pose itself causes your baroreceptors to trigger the Relaxation Response. See All About Supported Inversions.
4. Mindful Asana. Practicing yoga mindfully is a very powerful tool for improving your mental and emotional health as well as your physical health. When you systematically pay attention to your body, you will learn what it is telling you—if you are stressed, anxious, angry, and so on, and be better able to take appropriate steps to bring yourself back into balance. See Practicing Yoga Mindfully.
Practicing this way also helps you cultivate your inner witness, which you can use to teach your nervous system to react more calmly to stressful situations See Changing the Brain's Stressful Habits.
5. Meditation. Meditation is an effective way to trigger the Relaxation Response, calming your nervous system and quieting your mind. But more importantly it allows you to study your mind and gain more control over it. See Is Meditation an Essential Part of Yoga Practice?.
6. Pranayama. Practicing pranayama is a good way to take your mind off regrets about the past, worries about the future, or negative reactions to the present. You can also use specific practices to stimulate, calm, or balance your nervous system. See Pranayama: A Powerful Key to Your Nervous System.
7. Yoga Philosophy. Studying yoga philosophy provides you with an alternative way of thinking about your life, enabling you to be more content with what you have and what you don’t have, and to become more comfortable with change. The scriptures also provide useful insights into the nature of the mind, which can use to help change your mental habits and behavioral patterns. See Why You Should Study Yoga Philosophy and The Power of Svadhyaya (Self Study), Part 2.
According to a recent scientific study, these seven techniques are complementary tools that enable you to increase self-regulation (see Self-Regulation, Psychological Health, and Yoga). Behaviorally, self-regulation is the ability to act in your long-term interest, consistent with your deepest values. Emotionally, self-regulation is the ability and to calm yourself down and cheer yourself up. Naturally, being able to self-regulate, rather than reacting impulsively as a result of emotions such as anger or fear, contributes to your overall equanimity.
But what exactly should you be practicing to cultivate equanimity? Yoga has evolved quite dramatically since those two scriptures were written. New practices, such as restorative yoga and supported inverted poses, and new ways of doing old practices, such as guided forms of Relaxation pose (Savasana), are now part of the yoga lexicon. All these techniques work in different ways and have somewhat different effects (see Yoga Relaxation Techniques: They're Not All Created Equal). That’s why I’ve decided to list all these practices in one place today so you can compare and contrast them, and figure out which techniques are best for you at any given time.
Seven Ways to Cultivate Equanimity
1. Focused Relaxation. Yoga stress management practices help reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, calm your nervous system, and quiet your mind. These practices include simple breath awareness done in a seated or reclined position, any form of Savasana done with a mental focus (see Savasana (Corpse Pose)), and formal, structured forms of guided relaxation, such as yoga nidra (see Friday Q&A: What is Yoga Nidra?).
2. Restorative Yoga. Restorative yoga was specially designed to provide deep rest and relaxation. Rather than using your muscles to hold you in the shape of a pose as you would normally, the props hold you in the pose so you can simply let your muscles relax. With your muscles completely relaxed, you can then turn your attention inward, focusing on your breath, physical sensations, or any other object of meditation, which allows the relaxation response to switch on, calming your nervous system and quieting your mind. See Restorative Yoga: An Introduction.
3. Supported Inverted Poses. Practicing supported inverted poses for stress management is an effective way to calm your nervous system and quiet your mind because all you have to do is set yourself in the pose and stay there for a while. The shape of the pose itself causes your baroreceptors to trigger the Relaxation Response. See All About Supported Inversions.
4. Mindful Asana. Practicing yoga mindfully is a very powerful tool for improving your mental and emotional health as well as your physical health. When you systematically pay attention to your body, you will learn what it is telling you—if you are stressed, anxious, angry, and so on, and be better able to take appropriate steps to bring yourself back into balance. See Practicing Yoga Mindfully.
Practicing this way also helps you cultivate your inner witness, which you can use to teach your nervous system to react more calmly to stressful situations See Changing the Brain's Stressful Habits.
5. Meditation. Meditation is an effective way to trigger the Relaxation Response, calming your nervous system and quieting your mind. But more importantly it allows you to study your mind and gain more control over it. See Is Meditation an Essential Part of Yoga Practice?.
6. Pranayama. Practicing pranayama is a good way to take your mind off regrets about the past, worries about the future, or negative reactions to the present. You can also use specific practices to stimulate, calm, or balance your nervous system. See Pranayama: A Powerful Key to Your Nervous System.
7. Yoga Philosophy. Studying yoga philosophy provides you with an alternative way of thinking about your life, enabling you to be more content with what you have and what you don’t have, and to become more comfortable with change. The scriptures also provide useful insights into the nature of the mind, which can use to help change your mental habits and behavioral patterns. See Why You Should Study Yoga Philosophy and The Power of Svadhyaya (Self Study), Part 2.
According to a recent scientific study, these seven techniques are complementary tools that enable you to increase self-regulation (see Self-Regulation, Psychological Health, and Yoga). Behaviorally, self-regulation is the ability to act in your long-term interest, consistent with your deepest values. Emotionally, self-regulation is the ability and to calm yourself down and cheer yourself up. Naturally, being able to self-regulate, rather than reacting impulsively as a result of emotions such as anger or fear, contributes to your overall equanimity.
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Monday, May 25, 2015
Changing the Brain's Stressful Habits (Rerun)
by Nina
Yesterday I read this article Yoga: Changing the Brain’s Stressful Habits in Psychology Today by a neurobiologist, Alex Korb, who took his first yoga class (which, surprise, surprise, turned out to be much more difficult than he was expecting!) and had a little epiphany:
“I came to realize that yoga works not because the poses are relaxing, but because they are stressful. It is your attempts to remain calm during this stress that create yoga's greatest neurobiological benefit.”
Ignoring for the moment that fact that this dude obviously knows very little about yoga (duh, some yoga poses ARE relaxing) and has only experienced an active asana class—from a single teacher yet—I hope he does his scientific research a little more thoroughly—I found what he wrote rather intriguing.
“Your brain tends to react to discomfort and disorientation in an automatic way, by triggering the physiological stress response and activating anxious neural chatter between the prefrontal cortex and the more emotional limbic system. The stress response itself increases the likelihood of anxious thoughts, like "Oh god, I'm going to pull something," or "I can't hold this pushup any longer". And in fact, your anxious thoughts themselves further exacerbate the stress response.”
In the past, we’ve written extensively about how to use yoga to trigger the relaxation response (see The Relaxation Response and Yoga) to help you manage your stress. In this case, we’re not talking about “stressful” practices but rather relaxing ones, whether that means restorative or supported inverted poses, meditation, breath practices, Savasana with a mental focus, or yoga nidra. But most of us also know from experience that an active asana class that includes some very challenging poses can relieve stress. We’ve mentioned that in that past, explaining that an active yoga practice is a form of exercise so it releases endorphins, the allover stretching you experience releases held stress from your body, and the mindfulness you bring to your practice gives you respite from your everyday concerns—and we’re not taking that back. However, this idea Dr. Korb expresses that by doing challenging yoga poses mindfully, with attention to breath and physical sensations, you’re teaching your nervous system to react more calmly to stressful situations is an interesting one:
“Even actions as simple as changing your posture, relaxing the muscles on your face, or slowing your breathing rate, can affect the activity in your brain (beyond, of course, the required activity to make the action). These changes are often transient, but can be long-lasting, particularly if they entail changing a habit.”
This reminded me of what I have already written about samskaras (the ingrained habits of the mind) in my posts Meditation and Brain Strength and A Pathway in the Mind. In case you haven't read those posts, here is Stephen Cope’s definition of a samskara:
“Yogis discovered that consciousness is dominated by highly conditioned patterns of reactivity—patterns that are deeply grooved, and very difficult to change once established.
“Every action based on craving or aversion leaves a subliminal impression on the mind. These impressions are called samskaras, or literally, “subliminal activators.” Yogis sometimes think of these subliminal activators as being pressed into the “hot wax of the mind.”
“Samskaras are like little tracks, little vectors, little ruts in the muddy road. The next time the car travels that road, these muddy ruts will have hardened into permanent fixtures, and the car wheels will want to slide into them. Indeed it’s easier to steer right into them than to try to avoid them.”
It seems to me that what Korb is saying here is that by using our breath and mindfulness to stay relaxed as we encounter “stressful” yoga poses, we are unconsciously retraining our nervous systems to stop reacting in our habitual way to stress. And that this retraining can help us handle stress more effectively in our everyday lives.
“Some people might think that the stress response is an innate reflex and thus can't be changed. To clarify, the response is partly innate and partly learned in early childhood. Yes, the stress response comes already downloaded and installed on your early operating system. However, this tendency is enhanced, by years of reinforcement. In particular, you absorb how those around you, particularly your parents, react to stressful situations. Their reactions get wired into your nervous system. However, just because a habit is innate, and then reinforced, does not mean it is immune to change. Almost any habit can be changed, or at least improved, through repeated action of a new habit.”
This seems like a worthwhile way to approach the practice of active asana, especially if you’re someone who habitually “stresses out” when encountering difficulty. I’ve worked this way myself in my own yoga practice, as I’ve faced down my fears of doing poses that scared me, such as Headstand in the middle of the room, and poses that were difficult and stressful for me, such as Upward Bow pose (Urdva Dhanurasana). So I’ve long been an advocate of incorporating challenging poses—and those vary from person to person—into your practice for this very reason. So if you’re not already doing this, as you notice a stress reaction to a new pose, to a pose you already hate (yeah, that happens to the best of us) or to holding a pose for a longer time than usual, focus on slowing your breath, especially your exhalations. It’s nice to know that this will not only make your experience of the dreaded pose more pleasant, but that you’ll also be retraining your nervous system to handle stress with more equanimity.
Okay, now that I’ve said some nice things about Korb’s epiphany about how “yoga” works, it’s time to return to some snark. Because now that he’s figured it all out, Korb concludes by saying:
“The good news is that you don't actually have to go to a class to practice yoga. The poses most people associate with yoga are just a particular way of practicing yoga called the asana practice ("asana" translates to "pose"). The asana practice challenges you in a specific way, but life itself offers plenty of challenges on its own".
Well, thank you very much Dr. I haven’t even finished my post-doc yet! I’m so glad you learned everything you needed to know about yoga in just a few classes with one teacher. I, on the other hand, have been taking yoga classes for decades, and continue to read and study on my own as well. And while I agree that you can use your breath and mindfulness to retrain your nervous system while facing life’s challenges, essentially practicing a form of “yoga” outside the yoga room, I’m pretty sure there is more to yoga than just that. I asked Dr. Ram Rao—a scientist who not only has finished his post doc, but who has also trained to become a yoga teacher—what he thought of this article, and here’s what he said:
People practice yoga not for the challenge per se, but for its overall profound effects, which they do not get from other life's situations.
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| Peeling Paint by Melina Meza |
“I came to realize that yoga works not because the poses are relaxing, but because they are stressful. It is your attempts to remain calm during this stress that create yoga's greatest neurobiological benefit.”
Ignoring for the moment that fact that this dude obviously knows very little about yoga (duh, some yoga poses ARE relaxing) and has only experienced an active asana class—from a single teacher yet—I hope he does his scientific research a little more thoroughly—I found what he wrote rather intriguing.
“Your brain tends to react to discomfort and disorientation in an automatic way, by triggering the physiological stress response and activating anxious neural chatter between the prefrontal cortex and the more emotional limbic system. The stress response itself increases the likelihood of anxious thoughts, like "Oh god, I'm going to pull something," or "I can't hold this pushup any longer". And in fact, your anxious thoughts themselves further exacerbate the stress response.”
In the past, we’ve written extensively about how to use yoga to trigger the relaxation response (see The Relaxation Response and Yoga) to help you manage your stress. In this case, we’re not talking about “stressful” practices but rather relaxing ones, whether that means restorative or supported inverted poses, meditation, breath practices, Savasana with a mental focus, or yoga nidra. But most of us also know from experience that an active asana class that includes some very challenging poses can relieve stress. We’ve mentioned that in that past, explaining that an active yoga practice is a form of exercise so it releases endorphins, the allover stretching you experience releases held stress from your body, and the mindfulness you bring to your practice gives you respite from your everyday concerns—and we’re not taking that back. However, this idea Dr. Korb expresses that by doing challenging yoga poses mindfully, with attention to breath and physical sensations, you’re teaching your nervous system to react more calmly to stressful situations is an interesting one:
“Even actions as simple as changing your posture, relaxing the muscles on your face, or slowing your breathing rate, can affect the activity in your brain (beyond, of course, the required activity to make the action). These changes are often transient, but can be long-lasting, particularly if they entail changing a habit.”
This reminded me of what I have already written about samskaras (the ingrained habits of the mind) in my posts Meditation and Brain Strength and A Pathway in the Mind. In case you haven't read those posts, here is Stephen Cope’s definition of a samskara:
“Yogis discovered that consciousness is dominated by highly conditioned patterns of reactivity—patterns that are deeply grooved, and very difficult to change once established.
“Every action based on craving or aversion leaves a subliminal impression on the mind. These impressions are called samskaras, or literally, “subliminal activators.” Yogis sometimes think of these subliminal activators as being pressed into the “hot wax of the mind.”
“Samskaras are like little tracks, little vectors, little ruts in the muddy road. The next time the car travels that road, these muddy ruts will have hardened into permanent fixtures, and the car wheels will want to slide into them. Indeed it’s easier to steer right into them than to try to avoid them.”
It seems to me that what Korb is saying here is that by using our breath and mindfulness to stay relaxed as we encounter “stressful” yoga poses, we are unconsciously retraining our nervous systems to stop reacting in our habitual way to stress. And that this retraining can help us handle stress more effectively in our everyday lives.
“Some people might think that the stress response is an innate reflex and thus can't be changed. To clarify, the response is partly innate and partly learned in early childhood. Yes, the stress response comes already downloaded and installed on your early operating system. However, this tendency is enhanced, by years of reinforcement. In particular, you absorb how those around you, particularly your parents, react to stressful situations. Their reactions get wired into your nervous system. However, just because a habit is innate, and then reinforced, does not mean it is immune to change. Almost any habit can be changed, or at least improved, through repeated action of a new habit.”
This seems like a worthwhile way to approach the practice of active asana, especially if you’re someone who habitually “stresses out” when encountering difficulty. I’ve worked this way myself in my own yoga practice, as I’ve faced down my fears of doing poses that scared me, such as Headstand in the middle of the room, and poses that were difficult and stressful for me, such as Upward Bow pose (Urdva Dhanurasana). So I’ve long been an advocate of incorporating challenging poses—and those vary from person to person—into your practice for this very reason. So if you’re not already doing this, as you notice a stress reaction to a new pose, to a pose you already hate (yeah, that happens to the best of us) or to holding a pose for a longer time than usual, focus on slowing your breath, especially your exhalations. It’s nice to know that this will not only make your experience of the dreaded pose more pleasant, but that you’ll also be retraining your nervous system to handle stress with more equanimity.
Okay, now that I’ve said some nice things about Korb’s epiphany about how “yoga” works, it’s time to return to some snark. Because now that he’s figured it all out, Korb concludes by saying:
“The good news is that you don't actually have to go to a class to practice yoga. The poses most people associate with yoga are just a particular way of practicing yoga called the asana practice ("asana" translates to "pose"). The asana practice challenges you in a specific way, but life itself offers plenty of challenges on its own".
Well, thank you very much Dr. I haven’t even finished my post-doc yet! I’m so glad you learned everything you needed to know about yoga in just a few classes with one teacher. I, on the other hand, have been taking yoga classes for decades, and continue to read and study on my own as well. And while I agree that you can use your breath and mindfulness to retrain your nervous system while facing life’s challenges, essentially practicing a form of “yoga” outside the yoga room, I’m pretty sure there is more to yoga than just that. I asked Dr. Ram Rao—a scientist who not only has finished his post doc, but who has also trained to become a yoga teacher—what he thought of this article, and here’s what he said:
People practice yoga not for the challenge per se, but for its overall profound effects, which they do not get from other life's situations.
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Saturday, May 23, 2015
Balance Pose of the Week: Consolation Prize
There is no balance pose from Baxter this week. Technical problems. (Yoga teachers have to be able to do so much more than, you know, just teach yoga these days.) Anyway, as a consolation prize, he does have a new hip opener video for you instead. I'm going to embed the video in this post using yet another technique to see if it will past the email test successfully. So if you can see the video in your email (and not just on the blog), let me know.
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Friday, May 22, 2015
Friday Q&A: Why Focus on Yoga for Healthy Aging?
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| Young & Old Irises by Melina Meza |
A: It is always hard for me to tell if I choose my specialty or the specialty chooses me! When I was in medical school, I thought I was going to choose to do a surgical specialty, as I was good with my hands and there was a kind of mystic healing that took place in the surgical suite. Yet, as I was exposed to all the different specialties of medicine in my training, I felt a new calling from family medicine. I realized I could affect so many more people, and of all ages. I enjoyed working with infants, children, teenagers, young adults, and older adults, so family practice kind of choose me.
With yoga for healthy aging, there was a similar draw. As I finished my yoga training, I was again thinking of how my new passion, yoga, and its health promoting and healing potential could reach the largest audience possible. And as I worked with yoga for the first 16 years of my practice, age itself may have been choosing this path.
And isn’t the concept of aging intriguing? At face value, from the day of conception, each of us is aging each and every day. The first 18 years or so of our lives are mostly about growth towards our adult bodies and brains, so aging is exciting, as we get closer to becoming mature adults—often considered a desirable threshold. Then, as we enter our young adult years, finding our place in society, and our first careers and important relationships, age seems have a neutral reputation for a while. And somewhere in mid-life, we realize we have been around a while and even begin to contemplate if and when this life might be over, and age’s reputation starts to tarnish. But all the while, we are getting one day older with each spin of the planet. And sometimes we are in good health, and sometimes we are faced with the myriad of physical, mental and emotional challenges humans fall prey to. Life.
I added yoga into the formula of my life around age 34, and have been reaping the rewards ever since, the ones we write about each week—flexibility, strength, balance, and agility, as well as the stress managing benefits and the sense of equanimity in the face of ever changing circumstances. But I have also seen these same benefits in the very young, the teenager, the young adult, and the much older adult who take up the yoga practice and make it a regular part of their lives. It’s quite powerful! So I want to inspire and teach as many people out there as possible about the wonderful potential yoga has for us as we travel our lifetimes. So, that is at least part of the reason why I have chosen to “specialize” in yoga for healthy aging. Thanks for asking and prompting me to sit and reflect in this immensely gratifying journey I am on with yoga.
—Baxter
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Thursday, May 21, 2015
Yoga for Healthy Aging: Our Philosophy and Our Tools
by Nina
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| Philosopher in Meditation by Rembrandt |
I always tell everyone, including Brad, that my husband is my worst employee. I mean, how long has it been since Brad has even written a single post for this blog? I don’t even want to know. But the reason I don’t just fire Brad—besides the fact that writing for our blog isn’t really a job and no one gets paid for their work anyway—is that when he does write a post, it is always really outstanding.
In my post Opening Your Yoga Toolbox I provided an overview of the basic tools in our yoga toolbox, saying we had divided them into three groups.
In this wisdom, a man goes beyond what is well done and what is not well done.
I’m bringing this up today because I just went and reread Brad’s very first post for the blog Full Disclosure because I’ve been thinking about how to express our basic intentions for teaching yoga for healthy aging. Just last week, Baxter and I discussed what we meant by “yoga for healthy aging”, and we agreed that “yoga for healthy aging” was both a set of yogic tools and a basic attitude or philosophy. You know, we said, that thing Brad wrote about the first week of our blog about acceptance and active engagement.
And lo and behold! When I went back to see what he wrote, I found he expressed our basic philosophy so well, there was no reason even to rewrite it in any way.
So as a scientist who studies the biology of aging and the many diseases that are associated with aging, I have come to my own personal conclusions on the importance of practicing a mind/body discipline like yoga. And as I approach my 59th birthday, the immediate realities of physical and mental loss become more apparent. And I am not one of those people who think I can avoid this. I do believe, however, that we have the capacity to regain some of theses age-related losses, and if not, at least slow down their progression. Regaining or maintaining a higher level of balance, physical dexterity, and cognitive function and resolution is therefore something that is attainable and has the capacity to make huge impacts on the quality of our lives. The aging component that works against all this and drives these declines, however, is scientifically and mechanistically poorly understood. This is what makes my scientific life and work so interesting. But as far as I can tell, the basic processes underlying human aging are largely inescapable, at least as we currently understand them. That doesn’t mean we can’t intervene or we have to give up, nor that some of the losses we associate with aging can’t be mitigated. We probably need to practice both acceptance and active engagement as we confront our own aging—part of the underlying philosophy of yoga that I am still struggling with. In any case, it can’t hurt to strive to feel better and think more clearly. There are few things that I would consider more important.
At the time, I felt what Brad had said was very important, so I went ahead and expanded on the yoga philosophy he alluded to in his phrase “part of the underlying philosophy of yoga.” In my post Acceptance, Active Engagement, and the Bhagavad Gita, I explained that the main message of the Bhagavad Gita—one of the most important of the yoga scriptures—was about the benefits of acceptance along with the need for action. This is what is meant by when Krishna tells Arjuna to work “not for a reward” or, as in another translation, without being “attached to the fruits of your actions.”
Set thy heart upon thy work, but never on its reward.
Work not for a reward; but never cease to do thy work.
Do thy work in the peace of Yoga and, free from selfish desires, be not moved in success or failure.
Yoga is evenness of mind—a peace that is ever the same. — trans. by Juan Mascaro
Krishna explains to Arjuna that work is a necessary part of human existence, so the only way to attain equanimity is to do your work without any thoughts of results, remaining open to success or failure. And that this approach—this letting of all results, whether good or bad, and focusing on the action alone—is the essence of yoga.
Krishna explains to Arjuna that work is a necessary part of human existence, so the only way to attain equanimity is to do your work without any thoughts of results, remaining open to success or failure. And that this approach—this letting of all results, whether good or bad, and focusing on the action alone—is the essence of yoga.
But how does this yogic attitude relate to healthy aging? Although we recommend that you practice yoga regularly with the goal of attaining a longer health span and maintaining your independence (see What is Healthy Aging, Anyway?, Yoga for Healthy Aging is Not Science Fiction, and A Declaration of Independence), we also believe it is important to keep in mind results are never guaranteed. As Brad said, the basic processes underlying human aging are largely inescapable, at least as we currently understand them. So we feel that at the same time that you work toward staying healthy by using the tools in your yoga toolbox you should try to let go of all thoughts of success or failure and simply focus on your practice. Then no matter what happens, you’ll be prepared to handle it. (See Acceptance, Active Engagement, and the Bhagavad Gita for background information about the Bhagavad Gita and its basic message.)
In my post Opening Your Yoga Toolbox I provided an overview of the basic tools in our yoga toolbox, saying we had divided them into three groups.
- Physical health tools for body and brain
- Stress management tools
- Equanimity tools
All of these tools—including asana, pranayama, meditation, and yoga philosophy—are exactly what you will use to do to do your daily work, which is your yoga practice. And this set of yogic tools plus a basic attitude of acceptance combined with active engagement is what yoga for healthy aging is all about.
In this wisdom, a man goes beyond what is well done and what is not well done.
Go thou therefore to wisdom:
Yoga is wisdom in work. —trans. by Juan Mascaro
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Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Balance Pose of the Week: A Test
Although I posted this last Saturday, the email version produced an error when readers tried to view the video from the email message. This has been a problem recently. So I'm trying an experiment with this post, and am creating it in a different way, hoping this will resolve the problem. Please let me know if I have succeeded (or not)! —Nina
Making Yoga Accessible
by Nina
I like to think that Baxter and I have a pretty good idea of the range of physical abilities that yoga practitioners have in the real world. We’ve seen some pretty fancy stuff in person, such as crazy arm balances and impossible-looking backbends. But we also know that that the average person, especially the average middle-aged or older person, isn’t able to do the fancy stuff and sometimes even the classic stuff, such as Triangle pose (Trikonasana) with the bottom hand on the floor. In fact, even Baxter uses a block in that pose (and see how happy he looks!).
And because our blog is pragmatic, rather than inspirational or aspirational, we are committed to making sure the poses and sequences we describe are actually accessible to most people, if not all. (The exception would be some of our challenging sequences, such as the Challenging Agility Practice.) This is why recently Baxter and I have been working together on choosing a basic set of essential yoga asanas (you’ve been seeing some of those in our recent Featured Pose posts) with four different versions for each pose.
The first version is always the classic version (done without props) of the pose. Then we provide three other more accessible versions. Sometimes the accessible versions use props, which help make the pose safer, more comfortable, or just plain doable for people (see 7 Reasons Why You Should Love Yoga Props). For example, this version of Upward Plank pose (Purvottanasana) with chair makes the pose accessible to people who can’t do the classic version without major straining or discomfort.
Other times, when a prop can’t really help, we simply change up the pose. An example of this is Side Plank pose (Vasithasana). In our post Featured Pose: Side Plank Pose, the first two variations of the classic pose, don’t use props but instead a slightly different shape to the pose (the first with a different foot position and the second with a different arm position):
The final version reorients the pose completely, so you’re standing upright instead of balancing on the edge of your feet.
Now you might be wondering why, if we’re so committed to being “accessible,” we don’t include chair versions of every single pose, such as Side Plank pose, so that people who can’t stand unaided, such as seniors and disabilities, can do all the poses. We do think that the chair versions of standing poses are truly wonderful and not necessarily for wimps (see In Praise of Chair Yoga). Here’s a good example of Warrior 2 done in a chair by the great teacher Eric Small:
Although in the future, we will include chair versions of some of the classic standing poses, we have decided not to include chair variations of every single pose because our blog is aimed at a different audience. Our intended audience is both middle aged and older people who want to use their yoga practice to foster healthy aging (see What is Healthy Aging, Anyway?). So we assume that you (or your students) can stand unaided, can get up and down from the floor, and are relatively healthy or are in recovery from illness.
This is why even though many of our poses and practices can be used by people who cannot stand unaided and need to practice in chairs or wheelchairs (office yoga poses and some chair poses, breath practices, meditation practices, yoga philosophy), we don’t have specific instructions for these groups. Of course, we do think that yoga can provide great benefits to those populations, but that’s just not our target audience. But rest assured that are many great resources out there for these groups, whether that is Sam Dworkis’ book Recovery Yoga, Eric Small’s book on Yoga for Multiple Sclerosis (which has great photographs of chair and wheelchair yoga), or Timothy McCall’s Yoga As Medicine (which includes some excellent poses for people who cannot stand unaided).
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Monday, May 18, 2015
SOLD OUT!
by Nina
Yes, we just heard that our first-every Yoga for Healthy Aging intensive (see Yoga for Healthy Aging Summer Intensive) is sold out. We’re letting you know this because Namaste Berkeley, the studio that is hosting the intensive, has started a waiting list. So if you’ve been seriously considering attending, you might want to get your name on the wait list as soon as possible. It is very likely that some people who signed up early might cancel, so there’s still a good chance you can sneak in.
To get on the wait list, you must phone the studio that is hosting the intensive, Namaste Berkeley, directly. Call 510-665-4300.
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Sunday, May 17, 2015
5 Simple Home Workouts to Lose Weight
It is very difficult to go outside of your house to the nearest gym during peak summers or winters. Fortunately, there are many exercises, equally effective, which can be performed at home in order to lose your weight and maintain a fit body.
Most of the exercises performed at home only require your body and no special equipment, but other might require some kind of equipment. However, in comparison to gym equipment, the equipment for home exercises are affordable. Be sure that you are comfortably dressed during the exercises and have the right motivation throughout your schedule.
Feel free to use the information of the following described exercises and use them to create your own personalized workout schedule or incorporate them in your present schedule if you haven’t:
1 – Circuit training and Calisthenics
With the help of circuit training, your entire body can be worked out without the help of any equipment. Don’t take it as a light exercise routine since the interval training can be quite intensive and help you lose weight quickly.
2 – Yoga workouts
Yoga is one of the healthiest form of exercises that one can perform to improve their overall fitness. However, it is essential to learn the proper forms and methods of yoga to create an effective routine for yourself. It is best practiced in the morning. Ashtanga yoga is considered as one of the most valuable form of yoga which helps you in a full body routine.
3 – Weight training
Weight training involves the use of manageable equipment such as dumb bells and weight bands.
4 – Running and jogging
These two exercises not only help in keeping your heart healthy but also improve the tone and strength of your lower body. They are the most convenient exercises which can be performed anywhere.
5 – Exercise machines at Home
Some expensive but effective cardio machines can bring utility and convenience right into your home.
If you can afford them you can buy some cardio machines that you can use to work out at home and there are four main types of home machines that you can use to exercise:
Awesome Upper Body Muscle Building Exercises
The reason a lot of people focus on upper body muscle building is because that is the first part of the body we usually see when looking in the mirror. Upper body muscle building also signals a lot of things to society, such as strength, power, health and confidence, to name a few.
We will in this article look into some essential upper body muscle building exercises that you can apply to your workout routine and enjoy the results with the consistent work you are putting into it.
Chest Area:
The first exercise for upper body muscle building will be the bench press. You can choose to do it with an incline bench or with a flat bench. The bench press is an excellent upper body muscle building exercise as it not only targets the chest, but also your shoulders and triceps.
I recommend that you do bench press for one week and the next week work with dumbbells to switch your exercises up and keep them exciting.
Another great exercise for your chest is the flyer exercise. Grab two dumbbells and with them straight over your head, slowly lower your hands to side of your body and push them back up again
Back Area:
For the back upper body muscle building you can do the dead lift. The dead lift exercise is great for building core mass, but it should be performed correctly.
Another effective exercise when focusing on the back is the seated row. Sit on the seated row bench and keep your elbows close to your body and sit in a 90 degree angle and pull it towards you.
Arms:
The first exercise for arm upper body muscle building will be for your biceps. It is the incline dumbbell curls. Sit on an incline bench and with your elbows firm and back, curl your biceps in a slow movement and return to the starting position.
You can also make use of the pull up bar for your biceps upper body muscle building. Grab the bar and pull yourself up in a slow motion and return.
The following upper body muscle building exercise for your triceps is a great muscle builder. Lie on a bench and take a close grip on the bar and perform the same motion as with the bench press for your chest workout.
You can also use the dip bar for the triceps upper body muscle building.
As you have probably found out by now, there are tons of ways of working on exercises for upper body muscle building. The above mentioned are just some that a lot of bodybuilders prefer because of their effectiveness.
If you just include a couple of the exercises mentioned in this article, you will soon start to see results that are worth showing off for.
Are you tired of not being able to wear the clothes you want, not feeling comfortable in your body, not liking what you see in the mirror and not being able to go to the beach?
We will in this article look into some essential upper body muscle building exercises that you can apply to your workout routine and enjoy the results with the consistent work you are putting into it.
Chest Area:
The first exercise for upper body muscle building will be the bench press. You can choose to do it with an incline bench or with a flat bench. The bench press is an excellent upper body muscle building exercise as it not only targets the chest, but also your shoulders and triceps.
I recommend that you do bench press for one week and the next week work with dumbbells to switch your exercises up and keep them exciting.
Another great exercise for your chest is the flyer exercise. Grab two dumbbells and with them straight over your head, slowly lower your hands to side of your body and push them back up again
Back Area:
For the back upper body muscle building you can do the dead lift. The dead lift exercise is great for building core mass, but it should be performed correctly.
Another effective exercise when focusing on the back is the seated row. Sit on the seated row bench and keep your elbows close to your body and sit in a 90 degree angle and pull it towards you.
Arms:
The first exercise for arm upper body muscle building will be for your biceps. It is the incline dumbbell curls. Sit on an incline bench and with your elbows firm and back, curl your biceps in a slow movement and return to the starting position.
You can also make use of the pull up bar for your biceps upper body muscle building. Grab the bar and pull yourself up in a slow motion and return.
The following upper body muscle building exercise for your triceps is a great muscle builder. Lie on a bench and take a close grip on the bar and perform the same motion as with the bench press for your chest workout.
You can also use the dip bar for the triceps upper body muscle building.
As you have probably found out by now, there are tons of ways of working on exercises for upper body muscle building. The above mentioned are just some that a lot of bodybuilders prefer because of their effectiveness.
If you just include a couple of the exercises mentioned in this article, you will soon start to see results that are worth showing off for.
Are you tired of not being able to wear the clothes you want, not feeling comfortable in your body, not liking what you see in the mirror and not being able to go to the beach?
Choosing A Gym – 10 Things To Look Out For
Now you’ve built your motivation for you to start a working out program, the next thing is to decide what gymnasium that you feel relaxed. In case this isn’t, then chances are you aren’t gonna keep with any sort of a plan all of which will sooner end up totally. You’ll know if the gymnasium is for you, you must help yourself and think ahead for your goals in realizing your fitness and health.
Bear in mind if the gymnasium isn’t for you, you can surely build your home gymnasium which you could find comprehensive exercises privately in your area. There are many home fitness devices around which include the many tools you’ll want to consider the many essential lifts that you can make into just about any work out program.
1. Place
Who needs to waste time driving just to get into a gymnasium in order to start your workout? From a long time work anyone doesn’t want to spend good hours on a traffic, yet another hours doing exercises, then after that another thirty minutes traveling to your home. Take into consideration in selecting a gymnasium that may be based closer to your home or maybe along way travel to or from work. This is would be great selection considering that if you can pass by that place daily, you’ll always be reminded that the you have to be doing exercises if you opt to miss it.
2. Membership Charge
Gymnasium subscriptions will surely have different fees so it’s recommended that you search around before you ended up for your final decision. In addition check how long you’ll be signing a contract for this could be different too. A lot of health fitness love to string anyone for a year and if your not satisfied it’ll become a long-term arrangement, maybe it would be better to find for short-term.
Moreover, if you possibly could wait until late summertime as well as end of calendar to subscribe, you can find a lot of health clubs that have special offers occurring right now.
3. Membership Market
Yet another component to take into consideration will be the membership market that goes to a fitness center. A number of girls will certainly like to go the all-ladies gymnasium mainly because it improves her convenience. While other people, the gymnasium will be the excellent option since 50 % of the reason why they’re going to the gym is to get friends or perhaps to find someone to stick around.
No matter what the needs you have, be sure to check into this specifically and take for consideration.
4. Extra Benefits
You may inquire if the gymnasium gives any extra services as well as benefits that goes along with your membership and if there’s an extra price for these. This sort of cases can be daycare solutions, physiotherapy, therapeutic massage, nutritionary therapy, and fitness examination.
5. Time of Operation
Often to check the operation time of the gymnasium. As a day exerciser you’ll want to make certain that they be able to serve this specific choice. Moreover ask about thier holiday guidelines. A lot of people feel more relaxed from doing exercises during holidays since it is just a tranquil day to get an excellent exercise. I you get too excited about this you might find the gymnasium closed. In the same manner there are many folks who like doing exercises in the evening consequently you’ll need to be sure that this can be a scenario which possible to do.
6. Fitness Services
Just having the right, good quality fitness trainers is very important who can assist you to understand your full physical fitness prospective. Although you may usually great along with your system today, take into consideration in which in the whole year you could be more stable and needing any ‘check-up’ likewise on your existing program.
Getting to choose a knowledge staff is greatly not enough.Several fitness gyms just employ anyone who is not well in fitness, just make sure you check into their particular qualification for these kind of instructors they holding.
7. Group Physical Fitness Lessons
Make sure you inquire about the group physical fitness lessons that’s available on the health club you are looking for. Usually, when getting bored goes in to your exercise program, this is merely the best thing you can go on again.
Today you can find nearly a thousands of different physical fitness courses you can choose from, this will surely you can find something the might fit your needs.
Any time examining through to this kind of, once more find out when you can find any extra charges connected with that and that means you have decided regarding when you attend subscribe.
8. Sanitation
A single aspect you would like to try to find could be the sanitation in the health club. You may not wish doing exercising with the gym equipment which is not clean since fitness gyms are prone to germs and viruses. Furthermore ensure they’ve got towels and sprays in several areas of the health club that you can simply use after workout, and also check the bath rooms and also the changing areas that meet your standards.
9. Type and Quality of the Equipment
Considering the quality of the equipment supplied by the health club will be another thing you need to focus in. In the event you choose free weights, ensure there is enough dumbells because its very hard to obtain this one during rush hour.
Also, if you want to use guided machines for your wight training, make sure that they have enough equipment or devices that can work mostly on any part of your muscles that suits your arm, chest and shoulder exercises. When you’re doing cardio exercises, ensure you can find enough equipment accessible.
There’s nothing more dissapointing getting in a health club when you find out there’s not a single machine available around. You may ask if they have a sign-up record list to reseve you a machine. This could be perfect remedy for the fitness gyms to satisfy their members to get thier workouts in.
10. Cancellation Guidelines
Now, have you ever looked of the gym’s cancellation guidelines. In the event you join 3 years contract and find yourself relocating some place else after a year, wll they give you a refund partially? You’ll be in bad situation if they have no refund policy.
Several fitness gyms are good at this and severals are not thus you will need to ponder to cancelling other things that were previously mentioned above when you make decision.
In picking a fitness club make sure to consider all of these great factors.Ignoring just one can cause you to be unsatisfied with your exercise facility and can turn out to be not sticking to your program.
