yoga for dummies

There have lots of the "for dummies" books published over the last two decades. One of the most popular, is of course yoga for dummies. And while you can get a really good overview of the practice in different types of yoga by using yoga for dummies, there are also other resources that you might want to consider if you are really serious about practicing yoga.

If you're ready to get started and really jump into a good yoga system without having to read through tons of material, you might want to also consider the resource yoga book for anyone. Written by a master yogi from Kuala Lampur in Malaysia, this book will walk you from beginner to advanced yoga easier and faster than you might think it's possible.

The neat thing about yoga book for anyone is that the emphasis is placed on the simplicity and health benefits of yoga. You don't really need expensive clothing props or classes to do yoga. In India and Malaysia, close to the seat of the creation of yoga, you'll find people practicing yoga almost anywhere. No special equipment or suit is needed, just a quiet place and the right kind of teaching. If you have a few square feet where you can concentrate, even in your backyard, you can learn.

Mr. Saguna draws on his 40 years of yoga mastery while making yoga so easy that even your child can learn to do it with you. Instead of marketing clothing as requirements, Mr. Saguna instead merely goes through the process of teaching you how to completely revitalize your health through the simplicity and beauty of the yoga style.

You'll learn the 12 pillars of yoga as well as how to utilize yoga for weight loss, preventing or reversing arthritis, and even athletic performance improvement by using yoga book for anyone. You don't have to be a dummy to find a program that is simple and easy to use when it comes to yoga. They have book for anyone, while good for even the dummies it's also for you smart people as well.

Click to learn more about Yoga for anyone. 

teen yoga

Teenagers, unless they are interested, many tend to ignore physical fitness while they pursue more social activities. While this is not entirely a bad thing, it would be better if they could find a style of exercise that suited their personality. And they don't have to go to the gym or run 4 miles in order to achieve really great fitness. As a matter of fact, one of the best types of exercise for teenagers and even children is yoga.

One of the most overlooked aspects of fitness is flexibility. Football players, basketball players, and other sports put little effort and emphasis on flexibility and rely instead on brute strength and agility. But there are few athletes of any kind whose athletic performance would not improve with increased flexibility. One of the main reasons for this is that flexibility allows the body to put more strength into their performance.

But you don't have to be incredibly strong or agile to begin with flexibility. Playing professional sports is not one of your goals anyway, you can do just as much to lose weight or keep it off as well as improve posture and stave off stress with the regular practice of yoga as you could with any other combination of physical exercise combined. What does this have to do with teens? I'm glad you asked.

Yoga doesn't have to be practiced in public, although if you want to learn it with your friends that's always a good idea. All you need for yoga is a little peace and quiet and a few feet of open the floor space. While  yoga can benefit people of any age, young people tend to have more natural flexibility, and the early practice of yoga can lead to faster advancement than when your body has had years to get stiff.

Yoga has been proven to be one of the best ways of achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, posture and balance of all the available forms of exercise. It's cheap, easy and you can do it almost anywhere. Beginning to learn and enjoy yoga at 18 can put it somewhere on a lifelong pursuit of excellent health. Besides all of those benefits, is also an awful lot of fun, and once you learn some of the more difficult poses it's not a bad way to show off a little bit either.

dynamic yoga

There is something about Americans when it comes to exercise. While you can find great athletes all over the world, there is perhaps no other society where pushing the limits is more prevalent than in the United States. Yes, I know that there are more fat people here than in any other country as well. But there are also quite a few type A personalities that somehow believe that pushing yourself to the outer limits is the only way to go. It as a result, the more aggressive forms of yoga such as dynamic yoga and power yoga have become very popular in the US.

When you're talking about dynamic yoga you are most likely referring to the practice of a style called Vinyasa.  Vinyasa yoga, although it has many sub sets, is one of the more vigorous styles. It is based on a series of asanas called the Sun salutations that combine poses, movement and deep breathing and end with some very intense stretches indeed. But while this style is more aggressive than many other forms of yoga, it isn't at the top of the list.

Ashtanga yoga is a very intense form of yoga often referred to as power yoga. The poses, of which there are more than 200 are always performed in the same order.  These sets of the poses are done more quickly than in the other styles with coordinated breathing and movement. The entire experience is more like a rigorous dance or other athletic pursuit, and more closely resembles the kinds of work outs Americans typically enjoy. But this style of yoga is definitely not for beginners. You will need a certain amount of experience and flexibility before you will be able to complete an entire series of Ashtanga poses in a set.

So when it comes to dynamic yoga styles you have several options to choose from. We recommend that you begin with the more common form of dynamic yoga by learning and becoming comfortable with Vinyasa before attempting to move into the most rigorous of all - Ashtanga.  Either style is sure to challenge even the most fit and athletic person, whether they happen to live in America or not.

different styles of yoga

People can to speak about and think of yoga as though it were something unique in and of itself. But the more you learn about yoga, the more you find out that there are literally dozens of different styles and types of yoga.

Yoga, in a sense, is a bit like mentioning racquet sports in the fact that with in the larger category there are several different sub types. Tennis, racquetball and badminton are all racquet sports that use some type of projectile struck with a racquet on a court of one size or another. And while they all have have certain similarities, they all also have some major differences.  It is much the same way with yoga. All styles of yoga have certain major elements that define them as yoga, but within each of the major elements can be found some differences from one type of yoga to the next.

What most people in Western cultures typically overlook is the spiritual aspect of yoga. To a certain degree all yoga stems from a religious system. In traditional yoga practitioners seek to reach a state of enlightenment through meditation and physical practice of the forms. It since this type of spirituality is often incongruent with other forms of religion, it is often overlooked or shunned by those following other religious systems. The various different types of yoga are often defined by their approach to the emphasis or downplay of the religious component of the style.

Another factor that can define a yoga type is the actual practice of the forms themselves. Certain styles of yoga will rely more heavily on breathing and slow movement between the asanas, while others, such as ashtanga move much more quickly. From calm methods like Hatha to the most rigorous types in Bikram and Iyengar, there are broad varieties of physical emphasis on everything from more flexibility to perfecting posture and precision of alignment in the asanas.

You can define more than 20 major styles of yoga in the United States alone, and far more as you study countries where yoga has been practiced for hundreds or thousands of years.  Hatha is the most popular form and is typically referred to as the root type of most other styles.  We have also mentioned the challenging Ashtanga as well as Bikram and Iyengar forms, but there are at least fifteen more styles practiced in many countries that you can read about as well.  A good overview can be found at: http://www.matsmatsmats.com/yoga/yoga-disciplines.html if you want to know more.

yoga basics

The popularity of yoga tends to wax and wane in the United States according to how popular the person promoting this art form is at any particular point in time.  While there are always avid practitioners, it has taken more than 100 years for the practice of yoga to really take hold and get a following that could be described as anywhere near as large as other activities such as aerobics.

A big part of this has to do with a cultural difficulty that many people find it very hard to overcome. While you may think that yoga has more to do with standing in strange ways that you cannot positively imagine getting yourself into, its traditional roots focus more on the spiritual quest and a religious goal than they do exercise. Because they key components of a yoga are part of a larger religious practice with a direct conflict with the two major religious organizations prevalent in the West, yoga has either not been taught, or has had to delve more into placing its emphasis on the physical aspects of the style while gradually shifting away from the Zen and meditation practices that would be more common in Hinduism.

You can still find teachers of yoga that would be happy to train you in the spiritual aspects of yoga. However, if your association with Islam or Christianity would cause this to be a conflict, you can also find those who will happily teach you the poses and leave out the bits that might offend you and your religious sensibilities.

But understanding the roots behind those sorts of religious matters has virtually nothing to do with the fact that practicing yoga in its various forms has some tremendous health benefits for your body that you certainly might be missing in your regimen. Most Americans do not spend anywhere near enough time working on flexibility and posture. They tend to concentrate far too much on strength and endurance; as a result their bodies tend to become unbalanced because of tension unbalancing certain joints and areas of the body. Yoga can do wonders to relieve these muscular and skeletal stresses as well as improving your posture and even such things as your sleep patterns.

So whether you are wanting to learn yoga for just the physical or you want to include the spiritual aspects you are sure to find a teacher nearby that will walk you through the process. There are dozens of great resources available on video and online. Even though I don't go into the spiritual aspects of yoga I highly recommend yoga for anyone interested in finding out just how good they can feel.

indian yoga

In a certain sense all yoga is Indian yoga. While an American might think of the killer poses done by those who practice the art, it is actually a system of spiritual meditation that also includes those types of physical activities. Certain forms of yoga of are present in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.

There are five major branches of yoga that stem from the Hindu philosophy including Hatha, Jnana, Karma, Bhakti, and Raja, with the largest following being that of the Raja system.  Raja is so preeminent that it is known as simply yoga as part of the tradition of Samkhya. 

The word yoga has its origins in Sanskrit and the root "yuj" can mean something akin to the phrases: "to yoke," "to control" or "to unite."  The larger term is "yujir samadhau" and carries with it the idea of contemplation. While both terms are completely viable, the latter seems to fit better with the over-arching Raja traditions.

In countries outside of India the single word yoga is more than likely links directly to another form - Hatha yoga.  It is the most typical to see asanas used in yoga practice as a form of exercise that concentrate almost solely on the physical aspects of the postures while virtually ignoring the traditional Hindu spiritual teaachings.

Hatha is a particular style of yoga compiled by the yogi Swatmarama from the Hatha Yoga Pradipika some time around 600 years or more ago in the 15th century.  It is unique among other forms of yoga in that it concentrates on the phsyical far more than the internal aspects that are more prevalent in other forms and styles.

Yoga also has its place in Buddhism, but there it is primarily as a meditation exercise and has little to no physical component. For Jainism it can most properly be stated that some older form of Yoga developed into a full fledged relogious system.  In other words, Jainism is, in a way, yoga as a religion.

There is also a form of yoga present in Islam as Sufism, but this sect has been rejected in a fatwa in 2008 that stated that these hindu teachings could lead to blasphemy and is therefore forbidden. Likewise, Christianity considers yoga as a danger and warns that practices in Zen and Yoga can lead to a person degenerating into a form of cult of the body and mind.  Since yoga is also a primary focus and part of the New Age Movement, it is quite inconsistent with Christianity.

But regardless of all of the spiritual aspects in tradition surrounding yoga, there are still many people who find it physical benefit from the poses involved in forms such as hatha.  He does spiritual distinction goes a long way in explaining why people in the West and to practice the postures with little or no regard to anything that might be found in Indian yoga.

about yoga

When you're first starting to learn about yoga, the sheer volume of information can be a little overwhelming. So let's try to break things down to their very basic parts to give you a better idea about yoga and exactly what the practice of yoga may entail. In essence, yoga is really very simple, and as you learn it through practice the levels of complexity and intensity will flow quite naturally. In other words, you don't need to know everything about yoga just to begin practicing yoga.

While many people think that yoga is just a peculiar type of stretching exercise is really more than that. Stretching is certainly a part of yoga, but it also aids in the development of other physical benefits.  Everything from breathing and stamina, as well as some strength and definitely flexibility can be achieved through the regular practice of yoga.

Yoga is really all about balance. It helps to loosen what is too tight, strengthen those areas that are weakest, and bring the body back into a proper alignment. Whether or not you buy into this spiritual and meditation aspects of yoga may be beside the point. While many of its practitioners claim that it aligns both body and spirit, it most certainly can do you nothing but good as far as your body alone is concerned.

The term practice is used by yoga teachers to describe your personal sessions and experience of yoga. You will be again by practicing certain degrees of different poses, as well as how to move between each pose you move through the process of developing the physical ability to place your body in certain prescribed positions.  These sessions of moving from one position to another within a certain style of yoga are much like katas in karate. Each series of poses is meant to be done in a certain order, and as you practice these sets of poses, often called asanas, your body will become more acclimated and capable on either including new poses within each set, or moving on to a more advanced asana.

You don't need specialized props, mats or even clothing to begin practicing yoga. You can probably find everything you need just lying around your house. But the one thing that many be necessary when you begin to learn about yoga is instruction from someone who has been practicing yoga for years. There aren't many good books, videos and even online resources that can give you the beginning instruction you need when you start learning about yoga.

exc? n ��x � to draw from. But you may very well find everything you need to know to do some basic yoga practice during your pregnancy online. But yoga is considered by many to be one of the few excellent options to keep and even improve your health and conditioning during pregnancy. n't ev B m g ��x `y now. And you don't need any specialized equipment to start learning how to do that. imes U o ��x � p>

If you are new to pregnant yoga, make sure that you start in a class with a certified instructor who can supervise your progress.  It is important that you learn the poses and learn them correctly under the care of a qualified professional.  If you are practicing at home, limit yourself to poses you've learned during classes with supervision.  It is not a good idea to attempt new, difficult poses for the first time on your own.

Experienced yoga students will have no problem finding plenty of instructional materials about which poses are appropriate during pregnancy.  A certified yoga instructor can help you out with which style of yoga is right for you.  Ask your instructor if you should be focusing on styles that benefit the nervous, glandular, or muscular-skeletal systems. 

As with any exercise system during pregnancy, it's a good idea to consult your physician before beginning a pregnant yoga program.  Also, ease into it especially if you are a beginner.  Remember that your body's top priority is to nurture and develop your unborn baby.  So use common sense and above all else, keep the child's welfare your number one priority.  If you feel uncomfortable or pain in any of the postures, regardless of your experience level, stop immediately. 

Pregnant yoga uses a lot of the poses practiced in regular yoga but there are some differences.  Remember, common sense!  It is not reasonable to expect that you're going to be able to stand on your head and do the splits when you are eight months pregnant.  You don't want to be putting any unnecessary pressure on the abdomen area.  Don't put any strain on this area even if you have been doing yoga for years as it could cause health problems or endanger your pregnancy.  Remember that during pregnancy, you do not want to over-stretch during any particular exercise since your ligaments are naturally looser around the joints during this time.

beginning yoga

The health benefits, as well as the relaxation that can be achieved by practicing yoga are well-known. What you might not know is that yoga can be very simple to learn as well. You don't have to worry about twisting yourself into a pretzel shape right away. You can, and should, begin with the most basic poses while gaining more strength and flexibility for the advanced things you can learn later on. But before you even begin yoga here are a few tips and things to think about to get you started.

Even though there are thousands of yoga related items available for you to purchase, you really don't need anything at all to practice yoga. Certain props and clothing can definitely make it easier, but all you really have to have is a few square feet of space on a carpeted floor or even a bit of grass in your yard during nice weather. A little peace and quiet can also help you to concentrate and relax.

If you do find that you are in need of a few props, you can probably find everything you will need to begin just sitting around your house. Hand towels, pillows to and even a stack of books can take the place of straps, padded mats and blocks. You can spend some time working with these basic items as you learn yoga, and move into props that you can buy once you know exactly what you need as you learn more about your event and the different poses in the form you are working with.

As far as clothing is concerned, you can spend everything from a few dollars to a big pile of cash for your the clothing. While vanity is not something that necessarily goes hand in hand with the peace and serenity you are trying to achieve with yoga, you might still want to look good if you are taking yoga classes in a public place. But specialized clothing isn't absolutely necessary. All you need is light, stretchable garments that do not get in your way as you are practicing your poses. Many people prefer to wear very little, or even nothing at all when they are practicing yoga in their home.

When you are beginning to learn the poses in a particular asana, work just as hard on moving fluidly between the poses as you do on the poses themselves. It is just as important to learn to move slowly and freely between each of those as it is to achieve proper positioning on the poses themselves.

In other words, start slowly and with the basics. You're not competing with anyone when you practice yoga, not even yourself. The whole point of yoga is to gradually train yourself to let go of your stress and tension until your body is capable of doing things you can't even imagine right now. And you don't need any specialized equipment to start learning how to do that. imes U o ��x � p>

If you are new to pregnant yoga, make sure that you start in a class with a certified instructor who can supervise your progress.  It is important that you learn the poses and learn them correctly under the care of a qualified professional.  If you are practicing at home, limit yourself to poses you've learned during classes with supervision.  It is not a good idea to attempt new, difficult poses for the first time on your own.

Experienced yoga students will have no problem finding plenty of instructional materials about which poses are appropriate during pregnancy.  A certified yoga instructor can help you out with which style of yoga is right for you.  Ask your instructor if you should be focusing on styles that benefit the nervous, glandular, or muscular-skeletal systems. 

As with any exercise system during pregnancy, it's a good idea to consult your physician before beginning a pregnant yoga program.  Also, ease into it especially if you are a beginner.  Remember that your body's top priority is to nurture and develop your unborn baby.  So use common sense and above all else, keep the child's welfare your number one priority.  If you feel uncomfortable or pain in any of the postures, regardless of your experience level, stop immediately. 

Pregnant yoga uses a lot of the poses practiced in regular yoga but there are some differences.  Remember, common sense!  It is not reasonable to expect that you're going to be able to stand on your head and do the splits when you are eight months pregnant.  You don't want to be putting any unnecessary pressure on the abdomen area.  Don't put any strain on this area even if you have been doing yoga for years as it could cause health problems or endanger your pregnancy.  Remember that during pregnancy, you do not want to over-stretch during any particular exercise since your ligaments are naturally looser around the joints during this time.

mens yoga pants

Listen up fellas, if you're going to be practicing yoga, then it really is essential that you get yourself a proper pair of mens yoga pants.  Even though at yoga classes you find that it is mostly women; there are plenty of us men out there who practice it too.  And the segment of men is growing!  Yoga has all of the health benefits for us as it does for women. 

Just as it is with women, it is important for a man to be comfortable while he is doing Yoga.  And that's why its paramount that you have a comfortable, good pair of mens yoga pants.

I bet some of you have been going to yoga class wearing sweatpants.   That works, but they're not made for yoga.  They don't breathe well enough (don't you dare attempt Bikram yoga in sweats) and they are not stitched properly for many of the postures.  Just imagine how embarrassed you'd be if you were in a room full of women doing a seated angle pose and your crotch ripped open.  Dude, you'd be so humiliated you'd probably have to find a new place to take classes.

But more important than that, its simply an issue of comfort.  You are going to be in challenging positions for long periods of time.  Yoga is challenging enough; you don't need to be uncomfortable at the same time.  Remember that part of Yoga is bringing your mind and body together.  That's a little hard to do if your focus is on the fact that you're uncomfortable. 

Once you have a comfortable pair of mens yoga pants, your mind can relax and you will be able to concentrate on your health and your body.  You are going to be incredibly more comfortable and your focus will improve. 

So get with it, keep practicing Yoga, get healthy, but make sure you make the most of the experience by wearing a comfortable, well-fitting pair of mens yoga pants. enC n e ��x `y nscious for you to recycle as it takes many years to decompose at landfills. 

Recently, Yoga equipment companies have begun to use more environmentally friendly materials such as PER which is a polymer that decomposes easily but still has PVC-like physical properties.  This allows for us to use a biodegradable material while keeping material costs low and allowing cheap, good quality, yoga mats to be produced. 

Before purchasing a yoga mat, consider one of the cheaper alternatives before assuming more expensive is better.  You may just find that you can save money without sacrificing a ton of quality!

hatha yoga - part 2

Hatha practitioners believed that only through strenuous and physically demanding postures and practice could the body become prepared for the long hours of meditation to come later. It was, and presumably still is, said by Hatha yogis that the body must be purified before the soul can be enlightened. It is certainly easier to sit still and comfortable in the meditative poses required by yoga if you are in pretty good shape and very limber. Many people find yoga quite beneficial when it comes to these aspects of physical exercise.

Even though yoga has been purported to fix everything from obesity (fairly likely) to cancer (not so likely), it is certain that it is beneficial for almost anyone from a physical standpoint. Spiritualism aside, there is nothing but good to be gained from increasing flexibility and balance. It is certainly the case that relieving muscular tension reduces stress in the body, which definitely has the nice side effect of reducing emotional tension as well. Many aches and pains are nothing more than one area or side of the body being tighter and the other side not tight enough. Yoga addresses this wonderfully, strengthening the loose parts and loosening the rigid ones.

Hatha is well known and widely practiced, so there is a vast variety of literature, online resources and classes to be found in almost every part of the country. You might have a little difficulty finding a good Hatha class (or any other kind of yoga for that matter) in rural Oklahoma, but any large city will have one (even in Oklahoma). You may have to search around a little bit to find someone who teaches the asanas only, if you prefer not to indulge in the spiritualism of yoga, but there are also good videos and books that deal with only the asanas and poses themselves that have already done the separation for you.

In the end, Hatha is a popular style both in Hindu and Western cultures because it is rigorous, both physically and spiritually if you like. And at an age of six centuries plus, it also has the weight of time behind the practice, and there are a wide range of sub styles stemming from Hatha. If you are just beginning yoga, Hatha is a great place to start - even if you just want to find out whether you will enjoy yoga or not. Keep in mind that Hatha is fairly difficult and demanding, so you might need a little time to work into it, but you will certainly find that while it may take years to completely master Hatha, you can begin to enjoy it, and it's benefits, from day one.

Hatha Yoga

hatha yoga

There are many forms of yoga, so many, in fact, that the volume of variations and styles can be a little bewildering to people in the west. It's just not a part of our culture like it is in India. It's a bit like trying to describe to someone from Russia (or even New York for that matter) the difference between tacos and chalupas, or one musical style from another. But when you think of yoga, more than likely what you would generally recognize as "yoga" would be Hatha yoga.

Hatha yoga dates back to around the 15th century in India and Swatmahara. The Yogi Swatmahara wrote his treatise on yoga propounding the two main components he felt must be necessary in order to prepare the body vigorously for higher meditation. These two, the Praana and Apaana are referenced by the words Ha (meaning sun) and Tha (meaning moon). Thus the term Hatha was born.

While most of us in western cultures tend to look more at the physical activities of yoga, dissecting everything to its working parts, as it were, hatha yoga asanas (which are the poses) are only one part of a larger system of ten more major topics, plus many minor ones. In other words, all true yoga systems, including Hatha, have a physical component, but the physical component is just a small part of an entire system of meditation and spiritual pursuits with the ultimate goal of enlightenment.

Regardless of how you feel about all of that, it is pretty difficult to completely sever the asanas from the rest of the components of yoga. Many people have no wish to do so either. But for those who find the spiritual components of Hatha and other yoga types incongruent with their belief systems, it is at least possible to take the more aggressive bits of the asanas and use them as a form of exercise. Hatha lends itself fairly well to this, since it is one of the more physically demanding styles, although not the most athletic among it's peers.

In part two we will look more at some of the other aspects of Hatha Yoga.

health benefits of yoga

 In this very commercialized world that we live in there seem to be an endless number of things out there telling you that you will just "take this pill" or "do that routine" you will have found the fountain of youth in some way. It turns out that it may actually take a little time and effort to be in good health, to say nothing of being in great shape. But of all the pursuits and products you might be trying to decide between, there may be no more complete answer then yoga.

While there is no one form of exercise or diet that can solve everything all at once, yoga is about as close as you're likely to get. You'll never see a Yogi bench pressing 200 pounds. But you are not likely to see a 300 pound Yogi either. When it comes to good overall health and fitness, you really can kill all of your birds with one stone in just a few minutes of yoga practice every day.

You see, there are four aspects of physical fitness you need to be aware of. They are: strength, endurance, flexibility and performance. Unfortunately, most people base their workouts around performance and end up never doing a very good job with the other three parts. While a yoga workout will not leave you in the kind of shape required to do any serious lifting or the endurance to run a marathon, it is a fantastic flexibility style of exercise. And the thing about flexibility is that it improves your strength, endurance and performance. Although all four parts work together, the one that you should never ignore is flexibility. But in fact, that is exactly what most people do.

 With that being said, if you learn one of the more aggressive yoga styles such as Vinyasa or even Ashtanga, there is a certain amount of strength and endurance you were going to have to develop along with the flexibility in order to perform those particular yoga styles. In other words, while you might not get to the point where you can pick up a refrigerator by yourself, that's probably also not something you necessarily want to be able to do. But for every day fitness for most people, yoga will do more to give you a complete level of fitness than almost any other single type of exercise.

Now, you can find sales pitches for yoga that declare it can cure you of your every ailment. We're not here to either debunk or sell you on those. But what is obvious is that yoga will promote excellent posture and will certainly realign your body and do wonders for your joints. These benefits have been shown to improve back pains, arthritis and a number of other health issues related directly to the bones, muscles and joints.

Almost any form of exercise is going to give you some help benefits. Almost everyone could use to do a little more exercise and be in better shape. It only makes sense that being in better shape will improve your health. The nice thing about yoga is that it's cheap, fairly easy to learn and doesn't take a lot of time. You also don't have to be particularly athletically gifted in order to master yoga. We'll let other people sell you on the specifics of the health benefits of yoga, but we will say that if your choice is whether to exercise at all or do any one thing, yoga may very well be your best opportunity for the greatest health benefits in a single exercise style.