The Benefits of a Hatha Yoga Practice

The Western world only now understands the benefits of yoga. The greatness and efficacy of yoga and its principles are being understood around the world and more and more people are enjoying its benefits. If you want to make yoga a part of your life, there is no better way to start than with the simple Hatha Yoga.

What is it?

Hatha Yoga had its inception way back in 15th century India. The primary reason why Hatha yoga was constituted was as a means of strengthening and purifying the body. The term 'hatha' is used to denote two separate words: the sun and the moon. Hatha yoga comprises of breathing exercises and postures and poses with the view to strengthen the body of human beings. Hatha yoga is basically a slow and calm form of yoga. It is extremely suitable for those people who want to prepare themselves, their bodies and minds for a higher level of meditation and also those who want to relieve stress from their lives.

Hatha yoga asanas, postures and positions

Since yoga is now being practiced in many forms all over the world, it may become confusing for novices to understand what the different forms mean and whether they are all beneficial. The truth is that hatha yoga is the primary form of performing yoga, its postures and positions, also known as 'asanas'. Almost every yoga posture and postions can be done and practiced by everyone, including those who do not have too much flexibility or strength. If you are a beginner in yoga, it is a good idea if your hatha yoga session lasts for anything between 30 and 45 minutes. But if you happen to be an advanced yoga student, your session may easily last from 90 minutes to a couple of hours. The only requirements of practicing hatha yoga are comfortable clothing and a quiet room. You don't need any special equipment or props to practice this form of yoga. You can even do it in your hotel room if you are going on a vacation, so versatile it is!

Benefits of Hatha yoga

Yoga has many benefits to it, both physical and mental. Making it a part of your life will fill you with a new purpose and give you a spring in your steps every day. Following are the most important benefits of hatha yoga:

- Increase in strength and flexibility

- Posture correction and strengthening of the spine

- Betterment of any condition in the muscular- skeletal structure, like scoliosis, weak knees, sore shoulders and neck

- Improvement of the endocrine, respiratory, immune, digestive and circulatory systems of the body

- Improvement in attention span and concentration levels

- Improvement in muscle- joint mobility

- Alleviation of back pain

- Enhancement in grace, stamina and balance

- Decrease in stress levels

- Increase in awareness levels towards the outside world and the inner self

- Relaxation of the mind and the body

Logan Chierotti is a Denver, Colorado resident who has had experience as a real estate agent and currently works in the Yoga industry. Logan Chierotti enjoys writing about real estate, yoga, fly fishing and much more.

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End Chronic Fatigue With Three Simple Yoga Techniques

Simple techniques found in yoga can help to ease fatigue -- as a practitioner of Yoga, I'm often ask questions that pertain to Yoga. I feel most of the questions could be effectively clarified through meditation rather than from another person, but there are a few areas not often addressed with mainstream yoga techniques that I am pleased to share my thoughts and ideas about. Yoga techniques that helps to alleviate fatigue is one of them.

However, before I go into the actual yoga techniques, let me ask you a question: What is Yoga? Without over analyzing it, where's the first place your mind went? Although I personally don't associate yoga with an institutionally organized form of spirituality, I do honor the Sanskrit meaning of the word yoga, which translates into "yoke" commonly believed to refer to "Union." To me, union can have many meanings - more than the physical fitness aspect commonly associated with the word yoga.

That in mind;here are Three Yoga Techniques to ease Fatigue: The yoga techniques I'm sharing here are for everyone, even those of you who've never practiced Yoga. My reason for sharing yoga techniques that alleviate fatigue is simple, it wasn't until this year, 2011 that I gained an entirely new appreciation for the concept of fatigue. At the start of the year, I had the feeling that I was in the best shape of my life. Working out 5-6 days per week for 90 minutes at a time, and going on walks that lasted 2-4 hours on just about a nightly basis helped me think so. I had never been feeling better until I decided to clean up some of the more destructive habits, which I will not elaborate on now, from my life.

That's when disaster hit. In a matter of two weeks I was practically unable to practice any yoga techniques of any kind for even 20 minutes without tired to the core style agony - and even a simple short walk around the block was completely draining. With such a drastic drop in activity, I started gaining weight and feeling even worse about the situation.

Fast forward to now;my, things have transformed quite radically! I'm able to practice the yoga techniques I loved close to the level I was before a personal energy crisis hit. Additionally, going on walks is something that lifts me up energetically - and I feel divinely human throughout the day. What I'm about to share are the three unconventional yoga techniques that have helped me the most going from bunk and bashful to awesome:

Keep in mind, Yoga = Union - and union can mean much more;Here's the Yoga Techniques:

#1) Eat Real Foods:

Just about all of us, if we have even a small bit of common sense, would agree that infecting (the DNA of) our foods with unpredictable viruses isn't good for us. That is part of the process of genetic modification of foods. Currently, Corn, Soy and Wheat are the most commonly genetically modified foods "on the market." If you read the ingredients on just about any the packaged foods you could buy, chances are, you'll find at least one of the ingredients listed. Also, when we consume fish, poultry, and meat, rarely do we wonder just what those animals have been fed.

That being said, I decided to do something many of us would consider a tad radical - even unrealistic. I pretty much eliminated fish, poultry, meat, corn, soy and wheat from my diet. Some would think of this as vegan, but I just think of it as a way of eating that carries with it a lot of freedom. As soon as I start name calling and labeling, I'm "locked in" and that becomes part of my identity. Even thought that last bit may be besides the point, so far, I've had great results. After the second week my energy more than doubled and weight that I had gained is quickly disappearing. The e-book I wrote about eating gives an easy to follow explanation, but the important thing, in my case, is that I feel better!

#2) Just Breath:

It's not like we're never heard this before and I know the statement can seem cliche. But think about stress for a moment; As kids, growing up in the states, most of us had times of feeling carefree. As we grew physically and age-wise, into adults, much of that freedom was replaced with responsibility - even the underlying expectation that we all have to live up to a set of standards that create the need to sacrifice our freedom. While the last pat of that statement may have been vague and done with the intention to cause you to think, that doesn't change the fact that many of us are stress cases to the extent of feeling worn out.

Another way I have though of stress is as constriction, or Subtle Tightness in or around the space our body occupies. If we are always walking around with tension, it's only a matter of time before something gives. Unfortunately for many of us, as I discovered, it's often our vital energy level. There are many reasons we become stressed or tight, and what I think of as "Intentional Breathing" provides an opportunity to simply focus on breath, going in and out of the body, as well as the sensations within.

It's simple yoga technique to practice. I suggest laying flat on your back, placing the tip of your tongue gently on the roof of your mouth and breathing first into your belly, then as that fills allowing the breath to expand the ribcage. When full, simply exhale through your nose and repeat. After a (very) short time, its common to feel a greater sense of ease, less stress and greater relaxation. It's simple.

#3) Sit in a way that aligns your spine:

Of all the simple yoga techniques you would do, a reduction in internal pressure could be one of the best and most effective ways to boost your energy levels quickly. The way you posture your body has a lot to do with the way you feel as well as the way your internal organs function. Unfortunately for most of us, our posture often constricts and reduces the space our internal organs have, in turn causing discomfort, stress, constriction - even pain. Alignment is simple practice that I learned from the American Yoga Foundation. In fact, it can go hand in hand with "Intentional Breathing" if you would like it to. Since learning Alignment in 2003, I have made may adjustments to my posturing and felt a lot better as a result. Since a recent bout with fatigue, this yoga technique, being aware of my sitting posture and applying Intentional Breathing to my sitting posture has made all the difference in the world when I am sitting for an extended time.

Practicing is simple while you are sitting, elongate the back of your neck, dropping your chin towards your collarbone, allow the ribcage to "lift" so that you can comfortably breath, by default, into your lower stomach and do the best you can to identify, with your mind areas in your body where you feel tense. As you feel these areas, simply focus on your breath and do what you can to find a greater sense of comfort. You may find that with every exhale you can become more comfortable. I'm not certain exactly how you'll choose to go about practicing, but whichever you choose, I wish great results to you.

Paul Bunting enjoys Yoga, Natural Foods and Sharing. www.PaulBunting.net for more...

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The Power and Growth of Hot Yoga

At the request of President Nixon and the encouragement of his teacher Bishnu Ghosh, Bikram Choudhury came to the United States in 1973 to "heal" the bodies of the west. His sequence of 26 poses in a hot room has done more than just heal the bodies of his students. It has fueled a yoga economy like no other.

Since 1973 Hot Yoga has been the largest growing trend in the Yoga field. When studios began to open in Asia, they operated Hot Yoga classes for the first 3 years before other styles of yoga began to gain interest and popularity. This has developed into a trend that began in the West Coast USA and has been growing ever since, with studios opening internationally and inspiring new styles of Yoga such as Bikyasa, or Hot Power Vinyasa, as it is commonly known on yoga schedules.

Hot Yoga creates amazing effects in the body. Whether you seek to lose weight, detoxify the body, promote healing of injuries, open up the body from muscular restrictions, or to practice increased mind-body awareness, hot yoga provides many unique opportunities and challenges to any practitioner.

From the very beginning, Bikram targeted professional athletes and Hollywood stars whose bodies have been subjected to years of tension. Kareem Abdul Jabbar publicly stated that Hot Yoga healed his injuries, while Madonna hailed Hot Yoga before she began her Ashtanga Vinyasa practice. Since then, many other professional athletes and stars have added hot yoga to their regular training routines in order to increase strength, flexibility, stamina, balance, and focus. Hot yoga allows one to push body, mind, and spirit to the edge, enabling growth and a strong connection to one's inner-self with each practice.

Practicing in a heated room warms up the body from the inside out, allowing muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints and all body systems to retain warmth and to function at a more optimal level. Heat enables increased flexibility and range of motion with a lower risk of injury, allowing one to reach maximum flexibility in a shorter amount of time.

The Ashtanga Vinyasa system creates heat through intense breath awareness, while Hot Yoga creates that heat through modern technology. Heat in the body activates cellular metabolism, enhancing weight loss. The heat stimulates circulation, making the heart stronger. It helps bring fresh new blood and oxygen to all body parts, flooding cells with nourishment, which is vital to their healthy functioning.

In the last decade, recognizing the benefits that lie from the Bikram system as well as the Vinyasa model, a new style of Yoga has evolved; a style that combines the benefits of both of these practices. This style is known as Bikyasa - a hot yoga flow experience, combining Ashtanga principles of breath-coordinated movement, which ishow heat is produced internally, with external heat and aspects of Bikram's 26 pose sequence.

Bikram Classes are easily found in any authorized Bikram studio, though today Bikram Hot Yoga is also taught in CorePower Yoga and other studios under the name Hot Yoga. CorePower uses a different dialogue and does not restrict the class to 90 minutes. CorePower, along with many other studios around the world such as Haute Yoga out of Southern CA, Absolute Yoga in Thailand, and Bodhi Yoga international to name a few, are studios out of many who offer Hot Flow yoga classes, which are a mix of Bikram and Vinyasa - Bikyasa Yoga.

While they might not be using this term, Bikyasa is a term coined by Gabriel Azoulay, international Yoga professional who has been developing teacher training programs for large yoga brands around the world, and who has been teaching both Bikram and Ashtanga for over a decade. Bikyasa Yoga is a practice that intelligently combines silence with music, and Bikram's healing power, which is scientifically proven, with Vinyasa breath principles, which are also scientifically proven to enhance and heal the body. Bikyasa Yoga classes are found in Sumit Yoga studios throughout AZ and the world and Intentional Yoga Studios throughout the Midwest and the East coast.

Besides numerous physical benefits, heat adds an element which can challenge both the mind and spirit. Finding and maintaining focus despite the challenging environment can make one stronger and more balanced, building willpower, determination, and concentration. The body works hard, but the mind works harder, and following a hot yoga class practitioners often experience a sense of complete relaxation and surrender.

Bikyasa is an amazing practice that can lead to personal transformation on many levels. With that said, heat is not for everyone, so individuals with any concerns should speak with their physician before beginning a practice.

Gabriel Azoulay was born and raised in Jerusalem, Israel. At the age of seventeen, Gabriel moved to Durham, NC, and at the age of twenty, while attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a book by Tom Robbins sparked an interest in India's religious studies. His first book on yoga, checked out from the University library was Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, from there Gabriel embarked on a yogic journey that continues to this day.

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Is It Ok to Do Yoga When Pregnant Even During the First Trimester?

Yoga is an exercise that many individuals take part in for a variety of reasons. It can be helpful to relief stiffness, reduce stress, and some women continue or begin the exercise during pregnancy. Its relaxing benefits may prove helpful in relieving stress that can come from pregnancy as the body goes through changes that may make women uncomfortable. No matter their trimester, whether first, second or third, women have found success through this practice.

Restorative yoga is a common form of the exercise for women who are pregnant, as well as those who are still trying to conceive. It is a form of restful yoga that uses props such as blocks, pillows, blankets, chairs, walls, and others to put the body into certain poses. By using these props to hold the body in a specific position, little to no exertion is required. Note that restful is not the same as sleep, however, as the stretching and relaxation can benefit the body as women go through changes throughout their pregnancy.

If you're pregnant, make sure that you inform your instructor before your class. Some classes are designed specifically for women during pregnancy, but it is still a good idea to let the instructor know which trimester you're currently in. He or she may offer alternative stretches for you that suit your condition so you do not injure yourself or the baby.

For instance, women should be aware of their shifting center of gravity during their pregnancy. Poses that you may have done with ease in the past may become more difficult as you put on more weight and you begin to show more and more. If something doesn't feel right, stop immediately. It's not worth getting in that pose at the risk of falling or getting injured. Listen to your body and do not push yourself. It's best to avoid poses that require you to stand on one foot, or that otherwise require you to balance yourself.

You should also avoid poses that put you on your stomach. Also try to avoid any twists or jumps, and do not hold your breath or breathe more rapidly. Breathe normally or practice the breathing that you'll have to do while giving birth. Do not assume any pose that will put you upside down, and after your first trimester your doctor may encourage you to avoid poses that put you on your back. It's a good idea to consult your doctor before you begin any routine to get some general guidelines.

Arianna has discovered more information on strengthening and breathing during pregnancy with restorative yoga. Take a look at your convenience at http://www.DomarCenter.com for pain and stress relief and see how it helps during a pregnancy.

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