To do sun salutation poses in Vinyasa yoga, begin in Tadasana as you face the sun. With feet together, lengthen the spine, reaching up through the crown and down through the feet. Place your hands together in prayer pose at your chest. Hold this...
Yoga benefits both the body and the mind. Physically, yoga improves flexibility and balance. Mentally, it relieves stress and brings peace. If you know how good yoga could be for you but are struggling to fit it into your schedule, you may be...
Although seen mainly as a form of fitness in the West, yoga is an ancient art that encompasses healthy eating, physical conditioning, relaxation and meditation. Regular yoga practice leads to balance and harmony. In yogic terms, weight gain is...
Yoga is an exercise of the mind and the body. It burns calories, increases flexibility and relieves stress. The intensity of a yoga routine can be increased by completing the poses in quick succession. One of the key parts of any yoga series is...
Yoga is an ancient practice that originated in India. This physical exercise that takes the body through a series of poses and postures is designed to calm the mind while healing and strengthening the body. The best benefit of yoga is that it can...
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of formalized yoga pose sequences. Some are formalized and traditional, while others were developed in response to yoga's growing popularity in Western fitness circles. Sun salutation is one of the more commonly...
Modern science has only touched the surface of its research into the benefits of practicing yoga. What ancient masters knew intuitively, modern science seeks to quantify with statistics and in-depth studies. What cannot be discounted, though, is...
Ashtanga yoga, a form of hatha yoga developed in Mysore, India, by yoga guru K. Pattabhi Jois, consists of five increasingly difficult sets of postures. The first set, known as the primary series, ranks as most important and will sufficiently...
The Indian yoga master Sri Swami Satchidananda brought the concept of integral yoga to America in 1966. The style emphasizes the spiritual side of yoga, along with the physical. Many integral yoga sessions include as much chanting, meditation and...
Yoga as we know it today is taught as a form of exercise with benefits extending from disease prevention to stress reduction. Learning the history of this ancient form of exercise and philosophy can help deepen your practice and provide a better...
Yoga is synonymous with relaxation and calm. But yoga can be equally empowering and invigorating and can complement an effective weight loss program. This may come as a surprise to those individuals who think of yoga only as sitting in a...
Yoga is Sanskrit for "yoke" or "union" and refers to a connection between the mind, body and spirit, according to the "Yoga Journal." Beginning yoga helps you learn to control your breathing and movement while you transition through a series of...
Spinal stabilization refers to your spine's ability to maintain your posture, alignment and movement with the rest of your body when you move. Spinal instability often causes low back aches, or LBA, which can lead to spinal diseases and disorders....
Several styles of yoga are popular in the United States, including Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Iyengar, Anusara, Kundalini and others. Those that include a vigorous sequence of linked poses called the Sun Salutation require stepping or jumping back and...
The traditional way to greet the morning is with the yoga sun salutations, or surya namaskara. There are different sun salutations and many total variations from beginner to advanced levels. Beginners should perform the shortest version, the half...
Yoga has been used for thousands of years to maintain health and well-being. Besides emotional and spiritual benefits, yoga provides an excellent physical workout. Practicing yoga not only burns calories through movement, but it has also been...
Yoga is a philosophical practice that stems from Ayurveda, the ancient system of medicine from India. There are hundreds of asanas (postures) designed to help balance the body's energy. When practiced regularly, yoga may help relieve stress, pain...
There are several types of systems of yoga that include Ashtanga, Iyengar, which are classical, and off-shoots including "power yoga," or "hot yoga" and "vinyasa yoga." They have different leading teachers with distinctively different fine...
If you want to get rid of fat fast, then yoga won't help you. What yoga will do, however, is help you lose weight over time and give you the tools to help keep it off. Your biggest choices will be which style of yoga to practice and how many times...
Work can be hard on the back. Stress causes the shoulders and upper back to pinch up. Computer work encourages a hunched posture that stresses the lower back. This happens even while sitting in the nicest chairs. If you sit in a cheap chair...
It is really not possible to "spot reduce" and lose fat in just one area of the body. Instead, you can lose fat overall by doing vigorous exercise, including some forms of yoga. "Power yoga" and vinyasa yoga are variations based on classical...
Yoga embraces several components of health and fitness, including flexibility, breathing techniques, core training, balance and strength. Shakti refers to divine energy and a Hindu goddess. The practice of Shakti yoga centers on the sun salutation...
Foot drop is a disorder in which you can't raise the front part of your foot, causing difficulty walking, balance problems and a strange gait. This disorder usually stems from weakness or paralysis in the muscles of the calf and ankle. Foot drop...
In yoga practice, courses can refer to two different things. Traditionally, it refers to a sequence of yoga postures practiced in a particular order -- a practice similar to the formal katas and forms of martial arts training. As the yoga industry...
If you wake up in the morning with a million things on your mind, you may stress yourself out before you even walk out the door. Center both your body and your mind with morning stretching and breathing exercises. By starting your morning with a...
The word "namaste," pronounced "nah-mah-STAY," recognizes and honors the essence of our truest selves. This greeting, from the Sanskrit "namah" for "salutation" and "te" for you, is common in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism and translates to...
A staple at the beginning of most yoga classes is the sun salute. A fluid sequence of eight yoga poses that move you between forward bends and back bends, the sun salute is a useful morning exercise because it balances the body's energy...
Yoga workouts can range from relaxing to invigorating, depending on the type of yoga you do, your routine and the postures you choose. You can create your own yoga workout plan that meets your physical and mental needs, grows with you as your...
The bulk of time spent in a typical yoga class consists of a series of poses designed to tone your muscles, increase flexibility and connect mind and body. A yoga practitioner uses controlled and fluid movements coordinated with the breath to get...