Creating a Mini Yoga Practice

by NinaPracticing with a Friend by Nina ZolotowMost of us start doing yoga in a class, and those classes are relatively long, usually ranging from one to two hours. So we often get the idea that practicing at home means doing the equivalent of a full-length class. Finding the time and/or energy to do that can be overwhelming, preventing us from ever getting started.But all of us here at Yoga for Healthy Aging believe that even doing a single pose...

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Hernias and Yoga

by BaxterAt the Yoga Alliance Leadership Conference this past weekend in Palm Springs, CA, I was presenting a session to and for yoga teachers. (By the way, the gathering was a great example of the positive benefits of “community” that Nina wrote about yesterday in her post What Really Helps Foster Healthy Aging!) It was entitled “Expecting the Unexpected,” and we discussed all the interesting injuries and maladies that yoga students bring to class,...

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What Really Helps Foster Healthy Aging?

by NinaLeaves Starting to Turn by Brad GibsonAs some of you may have noticed, the Sunday New York Times Magazine had an major article on aging with the rather overly dramatic title The Island Where People Forget to Die  about the island of Greek island Ikaria. A study at the University of Athens concluded that:“people on Ikaria were, in fact, reaching the age of 90 at two and a half times the rate Americans do. (Ikarian men in particular are...

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Friday Q&A: Low Blood Pressure (Hypotension)

Q: I've a question that I'm hoping you can address. I have low blood pressure and lately am finding that I am becoming VERY lightheaded moving from inversions, even simple ones like forward bend, to standing poses. I've spoken to my doctor about it and she has recommended the standard "eat move salt" approach, which I'm already doing. But I am wondering if there is any yogic therapy or advise for this issue? A: You are not alone! I have students tell me they suffer from low blood pressure on a regular basis. Maybe “suffer” is not the right word,...

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Featured Pose: Downward-Facing Dog Variations

by Baxter and NinaDownward-Facing Dog pose is one of the most effective and versatile upper body strengthening poses we know. Unfortunately, because the full pose requires you to bear weight on your hands with your wrists bent, many people find this pose inaccessible due to hand or wrist problems, such as carpal tunnel syndrome. But you just know we’ve got solutions for that, don’t you? Well, of course we do. And, yes, today we’re going to introduce...

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Sitting is Bad for You

by NinaSitting by Nina ZolotowYesterday’s New York Times article “Get Up. Get Out. Don’t Sit.” reported that two different scientific studies have added to a growing consensus that “the more time someone spends sitting, especially in front of the television, the shorter and less robust his or her life may be.”The studies, including one published in the October issue of The British Journal of Sports Medicine the other published on Monday in the journal...

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Healthy Treats: An Indulgent Yoga Practice

by NinaLast week I wrote about taking on a yoga challenge (see Taking on a Yoga Challenge). As I said in that post, working on a difficult pose can help you start a home yoga practice or inspire a practice that’s starting to feel a bit stale. But, as fate would have it, the very next day after I wrote that post, taking on a yoga challenge felt like the last thing I wanted to do in my home practice. I was feeling on the anxious side, so I thought...

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Friday Quote of the Day

Through the Leaves by Brad Gibson"If you are taking yoga classes but not practicing at home, you may be missing the best—and potentially most therapeutic—part of yoga. Your personal practice is where the deepest work happens, when you go inward and go at your own pace." — Dr. Timothy McCall from Yoga As Medic...

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Featured Pose: Warrior 3 (Full)

by Baxter and NinaWarrior 3 is the third pose in our upper body strengthening series because this pose provides unique upper body strengthening with no weight bearing on your hands. Last week, we featured the wall version of this pose (see Warrior 3 (Wall Version)), which makes it accessible to almost everyone. This week, we’re featuring the full pose. In the full pose, your back body muscles work more than when you’re at the wall, so the spinal...

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Abuse of Power in the Yoga World

by NinaReflections by Brad GibsonYoga is not about culling out spirits or surrendering one’s individual will power to a teacher who assumes the role of a yoga-sorcerer. No teacher in the world has a right to demand authority over others. The goal of yoga is Kaivalya, independency and not wrong devotion. —R. SriramThere is another scandal in the yoga world due to a famous yoga teacher abusing his position as a teacher and authority figure. This time...

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What Your Yoga Teacher Really Wants to Know

by BaxterBeans, Beans, and More Beans (from Wikimedia)You may recall one or more of us suggesting that one way to keep yourself safe as you are learning yoga, or dealing with an illness or injury, is to advocate for yourself when you are in class. But what exactly do we mean when we ask you to do this? Another way of thinking about this is that you should take responsibility for your own well-being when you head into any public class by telling your...

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Taking on a Yoga Challenge

by NinaA highlight of my week last week (at least from a yoga asana perspective) was getting up into handstand by myself again in my class. Although I was able to do handstand for a number of years, I lost the ability to do it due after some shoulder injuries (two frozen shoulders to be specific—who knew you could get that nasty condition more than once!). So I’ve had to go through the process three times of learning/re-learning to do this pose....

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Featured Pose: Warrior 3 (Wall Version)

by Baxter and NinaWarrior 3 is the third pose in our upper body strengthening series because this pose provides unique upper body strengthening with little or no weight bearing on your hands. Before providing instructions on how to do the full pose (coming soon), which can be quite challenging, we’re providing an alternative using the wall that is accessible to almost everyone.Warrior 3 is unique in that in this pose you keep your torso, arms, and...

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Osteoporosis, Balance and Yoga

by BradA couple weeks ago, I attended a very interesting seminar on “Bone Marrow Adiposity:  An Age-Associated Phenotype; What's between bone and fat?  New insights into age-related osteoporosis” by Dr. Clifford Rosen, MD.  Dr. Rosen is the Director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Research at the Maine Medical Center Research Institute in Scarborough.  His talk was fairly technical and had to do with the regulation...

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Yoga and Arthritis of the Hands

by BaxterEvery time I get a call from a student or patient about arthritis of the hands, it brings to mind an image of my beloved Grandma Lopresto, at her towering height of 4’11”, who lived to be 93 with the clearest mind you can imagine. She had arthritis in her hands. Yet I never recall her complaining about it. In fact, I never heard her complain about her body at all, even though she also suffered from post-herpetic neuralgia, a chronic painful...

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