September is National Yoga Awareness Month. This is a great month to increase your awareness of wonderful benefits of yoga. Take this time to explore why millions enjoy practicing yoga.
National Yoga Awareness Month
Are you curious? Learn the therapeutic benefits of different yoga poses, how to use yoga for healing, fitness, preventing chronic diseases, and being more in tune with your body.
There are actually different types of yoga styles that are being taught and practiced. Choosing the right type of yoga style will depend on your specific needs and your own fitness ability. Whereas Hatha, Vinyasa, and Iyengar yoga styles can be safely practiced by anyone and are ideal for beginners.
If you need to read up before taking the plunge, spend a few minutes reviewing these articles: Yoga Self-Taught by Andre Van Lysebeth, Yoga For Beginners, Yoga Anatomy by Leslie Kaminoff.
Related Posts
- Tips for Yoga Beginners
- The Different Types of Yoga Styles
- Yoga for Weight Loss for Beginners and Essential Yoga for Inflexible People
- Review: MyYogaOnline.com
- The Benefits of Different Types of Yoga Pose
Whether you are a yoga beginner or an advanced yoga practitioner, you sure cannot forget to buy some wonderful yoga accessories for making your yoga and meditation sessions a more peaceful and more healing one.
Santosha.com provides an opportunity for you to go through their online shop and choose from among a wide range of yoga products right in the comfort of your home. So, you may choose to do as many yoga poses as you want during a yoga session, but don’t forget to get some great yoga supplies from Santosha.com .
Their wide range of yoga supplies include eco-friendly yoga mats and rugs made from cotton. And if you have yoga mats, you need a place to keep them. So, buy the very stylish yoga bags and totes from Santosha.com to make storage easier or to carry your yoga mats while you are traveling.
If you are a yoga beginner, Santosha.com has bricks, wedges, and blocks made of lightweight foam, and eco-friendly cork.
- Bricks can help the yoga beginner to modify poses depending on their individual flexibility levels.
- Wedges come as handy tools to help you perform squats and forward bends. They also have a complete set of shoulder stand foam set.
- And of course, stretching is made easier for a yoga beginner with the help of yoga straps. You can also buy yoga bolsters and cushions and yoga blankets to make your yoga session a more comfortable one.
- And then there are books, videos, and yoga music and audio. You can learn yoga asanas or yoga basics through their books and videos.
- For the accompanying music during your yoga and meditation session, you can choose from a wide range of dance music, healing music, and instrumental music products, all available on Santosha.com.
For making your meditation session a more peaceful and more healing one, don’t forget to buy some meditation cushions, aromatic incense, and meditation timers. There are also gongs and chimes available. You can use them for your various cleansing rituals or as decorative items. And don’t forget to pick some instructional and inspirational guided meditation audios and videos from meditation experts and books on meditation.
Santosha.com has a wide range of products available to help introduce the magic of yoga into your everyday life and make it more peaceful. There are jewelry and mala beads, decks, charts, and posters, essential oils, soy candles, and aromatherapy supplies. You can buy gift certificates for your loved ones or choose gift items from their “gifts from the heart” section. These include Om symbols, greeting cards, shawls, wall-hangings, statues, and chakra-inspired tea bags.
Their wellness and bodycare section includes neti pots, herbal eye bags, and soaps made from rose, sandalwood, and jasmine among many others. They also have a range of fresh, organic, and contemporary textiles to make sure that you get a peaceful sleep and are aptly called the Sleeping Buddha Bedding.
So, if you are looking for some wonderful and natural supplies for yoga and meditation or some products to make your life more peaceful, don’t forget to check out the wide range of products available on Santosha.com.
Yoga For Beginners
Review: Yoga for Beginners DVD by Barbara Benagh
If you are a yoga beginner and have no clue how to begin practicing yoga, buy the DVD . The DVD has been released by Body + Soul Magazine, and is specifically aimed at yoga beginners.
Beautifully shot video, a pace which is easy to follow, clear instructions, and suggested modifications for various yoga poses. You will get all this with this great DVD.
Yoga For Beginners is divided into two parts. The first part of the DVD is meant to make it easy for the yoga beginner to learn and follow the different yoga poses. There are 5 basic short targeted routines.
- The first routine includes 10 minutes of backbends which are slow but aim at building intensity.
- The second routine includes 20 minutes of standing poses.
- he third routine is also of 20 minutes and is aimed at building strength and balance and teaches core strength breathing.
- The fourth routine is the 20 minutes sun salutation which is done smoothly and slowly.
- The fifth routine includes 30 minutes of seated hip openers which are performed entirely on the floor.
Whereas the idea behind the 5 basic routines is to get the yoga beginner comfortable performing the different yoga poses, the second part of the DVD includes the full workout sessions.
- Although it combines the 5 basic routines, it includes 3 new sequences. These are breathing and centering, restorative, and relaxation sequences.
- It includes 70 minutes of basics and includes breathing and centering, standing yoga poses, seated hip openers, and relaxation as its first routine.
- The second extended routine is the energizing routine and is 40 minutes long. It includes sun salutations, backbends, and relaxation.
- The strength routine is a more challenging one and includes sun salutations, standing poses, strength and balance poses, and relaxation.
- Then there is the 30 minutes long rejuvenate routine which specifically aims at relaxing and includes breathing and centering, restorative, and relaxation yoga poses.
- The 55 minutes long quieting routine includes standing poses, seated hip openers, and relaxation.
Barbara provides clear instructions on how to do the different yoga poses. For a yoga beginner, some yoga asanas may prove to be difficult to perform, especially if you are highly inflexible. This is why Barbara gives some great pointers for adjusting poses based on your current level of flexibility.
And to top it all, the background in itself will make you feel peaceful, calm, and relaxed. For a yoga beginner, Yoga For Beginners is perfect. As the yoga beginner gets used to different yoga poses and moves while practicing the basic routines, he/she can slowly proceed onto the extended routines. With the suggested modifications and easy to follow pace, Yoga For Beginners has indeed been made with the yoga beginner in mind.
If you enjoyed this article, please take the time and take our yoga survey so we may continue to research articles of interest. Click Here to take survey
Related Posts
- Tips for Yoga Beginners
- The Different Types of Yoga Styles
- Yoga for Weight Loss for Beginners and Essential Yoga for Inflexible People
- Review: MyYogaOnline.com
- The Benefits of Different Types of Yoga Pose
It doesn’t matter whether you choose to practice the Hatha yoga style or the Ashtanga yoga style. Each type of yoga has its own advantages. Similarly, different types of yoga poses have different advantages. The standing yoga asanas include the forward and backward bends, the twists, and the balance yoga poses and it is important that you incorporate a few of these in your daily sessions. Standing postures strengthen your muscles and increase your flexibility. But if you regularly practice them, this is not all that you will get. Here are some of the additional benefits that you can expect:
Relaxation
People often equate relaxation with lying down. But, actually it is not always relaxing. This is because it’s the thoughts and images of your daily life that leave you all stressed out and prevents you from achieving that perfect state of relaxation that we all yearn for. Now, wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were yoga poses that could keep your mind off these daily life pressures?
Standing yoga asanas can do exactly that. In standing yoga poses, you learn to focus on a particular point and this helps in removing all these useless thoughts and images from your mind. In a standing yoga pose, your full concentration is on keeping yourself upright and balanced. So, you are basically reorganizing everything in your brain. When your ideas and thoughts are not scattered, you are more focused, your mental capacity increases, and you handle every situation in a much better manner.
Balance
If you want to improve your balance, then standing yoga poses are perfect for you. Although all standing yoga asanas require some amount of balancing, there are some which are particularly aimed at it. Although not all of us are great with balance, the wonderful thing is that the human body is able to balance itself quite naturally. Until and unless, of course, you have a medical condition that negatively affects your balance.
So, what is it that prevents you from balancing your body? Well, it is your brain. When it does a little too much thinking, it gets in the way. Here again, standing yoga poses come to the rescue. How? Standing yoga asanas require you to concentrate and focus. This means that the body takes over from the mind. The more you practice these poses, the easier it is to balance.
Improves posture and prevents back injuries
If improving posture is your objective, then there is nothing better than standing yoga poses. If back pain, headaches, and muscle spasms, have been troubling you, it’s quite possible that the reason is a poor posture. In fact, since poor posture puts excessive pressure on the internal organs, it could also cause constant digestive problems.
If your muscles are tight and not strong enough, you are bound to injure your back when you put strain on them. Standing yoga poses stretch your spine and require you to hold the position for some time. This straightens and strengthens the spine. Strong back muscles ensure that the spine is kept straight and it prevents the recurrence of any injuries. Standing yoga poses help in the proper alignment of the back, strengthen the back muscles, and increase your flexibility. All these factors are necessary for the complete health of your back and for preventing injuries.
So, make sure that you incorporate a few standing yoga poses in your daily workout. You will reduce the chances of injuring your back, your mind will be more relaxed, and your balance will improve drastically. So, which standing yoga poses are you planning on including in your daily yoga session?
If you enjoyed this article, please take the time and take our yoga survey so we may continue to research articles of interest. Click Here to take survey
Related Posts
- Tips for Yoga Beginners
- The Different Types of Yoga Styles
- Yoga for Weight Loss for Beginners and Essential Yoga for Inflexible People
- Review: MyYogaOnline.com
- The Benefits of Different Types of Yoga Pose
If you are looking for a website which provides all that you ever wanted to know about yoga, then you should definitely checkout yoga.about.com. The website is perfect for yoga beginners who have always wanted to take the plunge, but just didn’t know how to. Ann Pizer is the yoga.about.com guide. She is a registered yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance and she wants to make it easy for a yoga beginner to understand the essentials of different yoga poses and motivate them to make it a regular part of their daily schedule.
Ann Pizer Yoga Instructor
- For the yoga beginner, yoga.about.com offers a seven-week crash course. The course aims at helping a beginner pick the right yoga style, lose weight in a healthy way, learn about proper yoga etiquette, and how to avoid injury during yoga practice. The course teaches the principles and origins of yoga and also teaches the yoga beginner some easy to practice yoga poses or asanas.
Yoga.about.com offers comprehensive information about yoga basics and different yoga styles. The website offers quizzes, tools, and information to help you choose the right yoga style based on your individual needs and flexibility.
- If you are interested in learning yogic breathing and meditation, yoga.about.com provides detailed information about the basics and the philosophy behind them. There are articles which provide comprehensive information on the therapeutic benefits of different yoga poses. Whether you are looking for weight loss or for improving your sex life, yoga can help and the website tells you exactly how it can help.
- If you are pregnant, there is a special section on the website for you. There is a four-week course which provides you information about how you can modify yoga poses as your pregnancy progresses.
And the website is not only for yoga beginners. If you are interested in some advanced forms of yoga, there is a lot of information present on this website that you can use.
And if you are not sure how to design your yoga workout session, yoga.about.com can help you. It provides basic sequences which are suitable for the yoga beginner, for someone who is ready for advanced yoga poses, or for someone who is looking to design a yoga workout for a specific problem.
Yoga.about.com also offers information about different yoga equipment and supplies that can make your yoga and meditation session comfortable. You can find links and reviews of yoga pants, yoga mats, and yoga towels etc. available in different shops and stores. The information and the reviews definitely provide the yoga beginner a chance to browse over the different yoga supplies in an easy way and select the right equipment.
If you enjoyed this article, please take the time and take our survey so we may continue to research articles of interest. Click Here to take survey
Related Posts
- Tips for Yoga Beginners
- The Different Types of Yoga Styles
- Yoga for Weight Loss for Beginners and Essential Yoga for Inflexible People
- Review: MyYogaOnline.com
- The Benefits of Different Types of Yoga Pose
If you are interested in yoga, you cannot afford to miss yogajournal.com. Wonderful articles, answers to questions by yoga experts, subscription to a great magazine, and wonderfully shot DVDs showing the right way to perform yoga poses, are only some of the things that you get when you visit and join yogajournal.com.
Yogajournal.com has some very informative and easy to understand articles which you can read for free. You can read about the philosophy and history of yoga and the advantages of different yoga poses. If you are interested in holistic healing, the website provides information on ayurveda and other facets of healthy living.
Yogajournal.com is a great resource if you want to build a sequence of yoga poses. The sequence of movements can be aimed at weight loss or just general well-being.
- You can have a look at the different yoga poses or yoga asanas and decide for yourself as to which poses complement each other and how you can shift your body from one pose to the other.
- There are 108 poses that are described on the website.
- The site helps you choose your poses depending on which parts you want to work on (anatomical focus), the illnesses that you want to combat (therapeutic focus), and the particular symptoms or problems you want to control (contraindications category).
If you are looking for some fantastic multimedia experience to enhance your yoga experience, then yogajournal.com will make sure that you get exactly that. There’s the yogajournal TV, a podcast, and some wonderful music to play as you go along practicing your yoga asanas.
If you want to lose weight or just want to eat healthy, you can get some wonderful information and some delicious but healthy vegetarian recipes on this website.
- Check out their wonderful quizzes and tools section and find out if you are a sweat-hog or a swami, meanings of different Sanskrit yoga terms, and get daily tips.
- And if you have a question in your mind or are just looking for getting to know some like-minded people, check out their community section.
- And don’t think that if you are a yoga instructor, you have nothing to look forward to because yogajournal.com has a section especially for yoga instructors.
You can buy some wonderfully shot DVDs with expert yoga instructors showing you the right way to move in and out of a yoga pose for best results and to avoid injuries. There are DVDs available for yoga beginners, advanced yoga practitioners, home practitioners, and for stress and pregnancy. If you are fond of reading, lots of resources on how to use yoga for healing, fitness, preventing chronic diseases, and being more in tune with your body.
It doesn’t matter if you are a yoga beginner or a yoga instructor. Yogajournal.com is an ideal website for everyone. Weight loss, fitness, or healthy living, whatever is your objective, yogajournal.com is a complete resource of articles, expert advice, DVDs, videos, and books on yoga and yoga poses.
Recommendations:
- For the beginner, the section on the basics is superb http://www.yogajournal.com/basics/.
- The intermediate or advanced student will love the Pose Finder Widget http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/finder/browse_categories/.
- If you enjoyed this article, please take the time and take our yoga survey so we may continue to research articles of interest. Also sign up for the HealthBeautyandFitness.com RSS feed or Fitness Mini Course to receive upcoming notices of articles and keep you updated on the latest news. Click Here to take survey
Related Posts
- Tips for Yoga Beginners
- The Different Types of Yoga Styles
- Yoga for Weight Loss for Beginners and Essential Yoga for Inflexible People
- Review: MyYogaOnline.com
- The Benefits of Different Types of Yoga Pose
If you are impressed with the many benefits of yoga and plan to include it in your exercise routine, then you are definitely on the road to leading a healthier and fuller life. However, often yoga beginners in their enthusiasm forget to consider a few facts that are essential to reap its benefits. This often leads an individual to lose interest and give up. So, if you are a yoga beginner, here are a few points that can help you easily move into a regular yoga routine and begin to reap its many benefits.
Choose a good instructor to gain the benefits of yoga
It is advisable for a yoga beginner to learn it under the guidance of a good and qualified instructor. A good instructor will understand the needs as well as the limitations of your body and accordingly suggest the poses that are appropriate for you. A good way of choosing the right instructor is to ask your friends, colleagues, or relatives who practice yoga regularly. Find out about how long the instructor has been practicing yoga and how long has he/she been teaching it. Choosing the right instructor can make it easier for a yoga beginner to enjoy the benefits of yoga and sticking to a regular schedule.
Practice yoga on an empty stomach
As a yoga beginner one thing that you should consider is the time of your session. The best time to practice yoga is early in the morning on an empty stomach. If not, yoga should be practiced at least 2 hours after a meal.
Wear loose clothes for your yoga session
Yoga beginners should pay special attention to the clothing that they wear during their session. Clothes should be comfortable and loose. They should neither be too tight nor too baggy.
Choose a good quality mat
Most yoga poses are done while sitting, kneeling, or standing. Performing it on a hard surface or a too soft surface is not advisable. Invest in a good quality yoga mat which can be easily found in the market.
Warm up before attempting yoga poses
A yoga beginner should always warm up before going into the more advanced poses. Although being a little sore after your first class is normal, excessive strains or aches after a yoga session means that you haven’t been warming up properly. Also make sure that poses progress from easy movements to more difficult ones. This will reduce the chances of injuries and also help you gain more benefits from yoga.
Focus on your yoga poses
Yoga is as much for the mind as for the body. So, focusing on the poses is very important. You should always try and get rid of any extraneous thoughts while going into a pose, holding it, or releasing it. Furthermore, distraction can lead you to overstretch your body and injure yourself. Click Here to take survey
Related Posts
1. Review: Yoga for Weight Loss for Beginners and Essential Yoga for Inflexible Peopl
2. Review: Myyogaonline.com – A Perfect Program for Anyone Interested In Yoga
3. The Benefits of Different Types of Yoga Pose
4. The Different Types of Yoga Styles
If you are planning on including yoga in your daily exercise routine, you need to know that there are actually different types of yoga styles that are being taught and practiced during this modern day and age. Although the yoga poses or asanas are similar in most of these yoga styles, the way they are practiced might vary. Here is a brief description of the various types of yoga styles that are quite popular these days.
Hatha Yoga
This type of yoga style is a combination of the positive current (“ha” or the sun) and the negative current (“tha” or the moon). Hatha yoga includes physical yoga asanas, breathing exercises, meditation, mudras, and purification procedures. It is gentle and slow-paced and a good yoga style to choose for a beginner.
Vinyasa Yoga
This yoga style is more vigorous than Hatha yoga. It involves a series of yoga poses called Surya Namaskar or Sun Salutations. Each movement in this series is matched to the breath and each pose is balanced with a counter pose. This type of yoga works wonderfully well for warming up and is an ideal preparation for more intense stretching.
Ashtanga Yoga
Popularly known as power yoga, this type of yoga style is fast-paced and intense. It is a physically demanding type of yoga with a focus on building strength and stamina. The yoga poses are more difficult and the individual has to quickly move from one pose to the other in a constant flow. It is not ideal for yoga beginners. However, those who are looking at building their athletic abilities, Ashtanga yoga poses are quite suitable.
Iyengar Yoga
The Iyengar yoga style focuses on body alignment and inner awareness. It emphasizes holding yoga poses for long periods of time and meditating in these postures. This type of yoga also encourages the use of props. It is ideal for beginners and for those who have never exercised.
Kundalini Yoga
This type of yoga style combines breath control, chanting, meditation, hand and finger gestures, and guided relaxation. Kundalini refers to the vital energy which lies at the base of the spine and this yoga style is aimed at freeing this energy for the purification of the mind, body, and emotions.
Bikram Yoga
Bikram Yoga is performed in a room with a temperature as high as 95-100 Fahrenheit. This loosens the tight muscles and leads to extreme sweating. This sweating is believed to be cleansing for the body. This yoga style is very intense and demanding and is only ideal for extremely fit individuals.
Besides these most popular types of yoga, there are a few other yoga styles which are practiced throughout the world. These include, but are not limited to:
Kripalu (spontaneous and meditation-oriented),
Sivananda (based on the 5 principles of proper exercise, breathing, relaxation, diet, and thinking),
Raja Yoga (attaining liberation through meditation),
Bhakti Yoga (devotional yoga), and
Mantra Yoga (liberation through repetition of sounds)
Choosing the right type of yoga style will depend on your specific needs and your own fitness ability. Whereas Hatha, Vinyasa, and Iyengar yoga styles can be safely practiced by anyone and are ideal for beginners, Bikram Yoga and Ashtanga Yoga are usually practiced by individuals who are yoga veterans. However, whatever the yoga style, you can expect to gain maximum benefits of yoga by a regular practice. Click Here to take survey
Related Posts
1. Review: Yoga for Weight Loss for Beginners and Essential Yoga for Inflexible People
2. Review: Myyogaonline.com - A Perfect Program for Anyone Interested in Yoga
4. The Benefits of Different Types of Yoga Pose
Yoga For Weight Loss for Beginners by Maggie Rhoades
Maggie Rhoades is a certified Yoga and Pilates instructor and her DVD Yoga For Weight Loss for Beginners aims at helping an individual reduce weight with an effective yoga workout. The DVD is aimed at individuals who have never practiced yoga. Although it uses traditional yoga poses beginner, they have been presented in challenging and interesting ways to help shed those extra pounds and also tone up and strengthen those muscles.
Maggie Rhoades begins the DVD with an introduction to yoga and how it can help attain harmony and balance in your life. The video offers routines for yoga beginners. The viewer can choose a routine according to his/her interests and requirements. The basic poses are demonstrated in a step-by-step manner. The instructions clearly specify how each pose is to be done along with the benefits of each pose.
There are basically three sections in the DVD. And each section has multiple workout routines.
- The first section is specifically meant for yoga beginners. The poses in this section involve slow and continuous movements and flow from one to the other. Clear instructions about when to breathe in and out make it easier for a beginner to understand the importance of proper breathing in a yoga session. The pace of the workout is neither too slow nor too fast. The poses included work wonderfully well in shedding extra pounds and promoting flexibility, balance, and strength.
- The second section of the video gets more challenging. This section also includes poses that flow from one to the other, but they are of varying length and the focus also keeps shifting from one part of the body to the other. The workouts in this section are ideal to lose extra pounds and provide a good workout for the muscles.
- The third section gets more interesting. The workouts in this section combine yoga poses with the use of light weights and resistance band. It’s a unique approach to yoga and is ideal for more strength training. You get all the benefits of yoga with some extra toning for your muscles.
Clear instructions, poses that promote strength and flexibility, and routines designed to easily lose weight even for yoga beginners makes this DVD a worthy buy. Combined with the beautiful landscape and the relaxing sounds, the workout routines in the video not only promote weight loss and muscle toning, but also leave you more relaxed and more energetic at the end of it. So, if you are looking at losing weight with some yoga, this Maggie Rhoades DVD is highly recommended.
If you have tried a few videos which claimed to use simple yoga poses, but found them to be too fast paced and too difficult, this DVD is just right for you. The years of yoga experience that Maggie Rhoades has can be seen in the clear instructions and her understanding about the body of highly inflexible individuals.
- It is, therefore, perfect for yoga beginners who have a low level of physical strength and endurance and who want to improve their flexibility.
- The video is slow paced and allows a yoga beginner to progress at his/her own pace. The pace of the video allows the viewer enough time to move slowly into the pose and get the proper alignment of the body.
- Maggie Rhoades provides clear instructions about how to perform a pose and also provides information about its purpose and benefits.
The video is divided into three sections and each section is more challenging than the previous one. Different routines are provided in the various sections.
- Some routines are as short as 6 minutes, whereas a full routine can be as long as 90 minutes. So, you can pick up a routine depending on the time available with you.
- The shorter routines often focus on one type of yoga poses (for example, sitting poses or standing poses) or one body part.
- The full routines provide a complete workout for each and every part of the body and include different types of yoga poses.
The instructor also uses props such as a chair and a blanket while performing the yoga poses. This makes it easier for an inflexible yoga beginner to move into a pose easily and at the same time aids in stability.
In summary, if you never tried yoga or gave up on it because you found it too difficult, this Maggie Rhoades DVD is perfect for you. The Yoga Poses Beginner workouts are slow-paced. Clear instructions make it easy to move in and out of the different yoga poses. You can pick a routine depending on how flexible you are and how much time you have available. Combined with beautiful scenery and the soothing voice of the instructor, the routines in this video will leave you relaxed and energetic. Click Here to take survey
Related Posts
2. The Benefits of Different Types of Yoga Pose
3. The Different Types of Yoga Styles
4. Review: Myyogaonline.com - A Perfect Program for Anyone Interested in Yoga
5. The Wonderful Benefits of Yoga
