How does one start yoga?
Question:
Answers:
Buy a few DVDs or yoga flash cards to provide you with an organized routine. You may want more than one video to keep your home practice fresh each session.
Step Two
Find a suitable place to practice yoga in your home. You will need a quiet, open space to spread your mat. You should try to practice on hardwood floors, but if your house is carpeted, then you should the hardest surface available. The softer the surface, the more likely you are to injure your joints.
Step Three
Pick a time to practice yoga when no one else is home, or at least at a time when you will not be bothered. Finding the time for yoga seems to be the biggest challenge and a main reason people choose to practice at home. Just be sure that you choose a time when you will not be distracted.
Step Four
Set up your yoga space. You may want to light candles or dim the lighting to set the mood. Lay out your yoga mat and assemble any props you will use during the session.
Step Five
Keep a bottle or glass of water near your yoga mat, along with a towel. A towel can used to wipe off any sweat, as well as to soften the mat during certain positions.
Step Six
Follow a regular yoga routine. Most yoga classes start out with stretching before moving to positions requiring more strength. Each position is also followed by an opposite pose in order to keep the body in balance. Your home practice should follow the same basic pattern.
Step Seven
Make a commitment to your home practice by making it part of your daily routine. Try to set up a regular schedule for your yoga practice. If you are doing one long session a week, you can supplement it with 15 minutes of yoga every day.
To lose weight, it is important to do so, not just by doing diets, or exercise programs, which are too tedious, which may yield results but which do not keep you that way. Sometimes after sudden loss of weight the skin sags making one feel worse. The best approach is to lose weight gradually and for good. Yoga offers a good solution to this problem. Yoga tones the body in a uniformed manner, unlike any " weight loss program" which claims to decrease your butts by this much inches and waist by this much, leading to side effects. Yoga can be practiced at any age to keep the body supple.
A plan to reduce weight naturally is:
Cleansing techniques: -
Kunjal Kriya (stomach wash and lung cleansing)
Basti (colon cleansing)
Laghu Shankha Prakshalan (digestive system cleansing technique)
Baghi(tiger exercise)
Yoga Asans (postures)
Sun Salute (Practise 2 times and hold each pose for 3 breaths), Tree pose, Angle pose, Triangle pose, Hero pose I and II, Locust pose, Cobra pose, Camel pose, Aeroplane pose, Wind releasing pose, Child pose (sitting), Spinal twists (sitting & dynamic poses), Cat pose
If you wish to work on one body part more like the hips or abdomen or thighs or arms or legs or chest you can incorporate the asnas specific to your requirement in the above plan.
Yogic Asans to tighten the abdomen are:
Abdominal lift, Child pose, Cobra pose, Wind releasing pose, Yogic seal pose, Spinal twist, Lying on back pose - baat pose, Naval Move Asana (lying on back).
Yogic asans for arms and legs:
Tree pose, Hero pose, Dog pose (face up), Dog pose (face down), Swinging lotus pose, Bridge pose (face up), Bridge pose (face down), Celebacy pose, Squat and rise pose.
Yoga plan to tighten the chest:
Triangle pose, Hero pose, Baat pose (lying on back), Cobra pose, Wind releasing pose, Dog pose (face upand down), Lumbar wheel pose, Spinal twist.
Yoga Asans to tone up thighs and hips:
Sun salute, Hero pose I + II, Triangle pose, Angle pose, Dog pose (face up), Dog pose (face down), Celebacy pose, Advanced wind releasing pose, Butterfly pose.
Pranayama (breathing exercises)
Yogic Breathing: Inhale. First blow your abdomen, and then expand the chest. While exhaling, first relax the chest and then the abdomen. Practise like this for 10 times.
Meditation and Relaxation
Focus your attention on your breathing, feel its temperature and keep your breathing, thoroughly equalised (i.e. inhale for 3 sec and exhale for 3 secs).
Naturopathic treatment
This can be done in conjunction with the above yogic exercise plan. For the naturopathic treatment you will need to consult an experienced naturopath.
Chromotherapy: refers to treatment of disease through sun-rays, directly or indirectly such as sun-charged water, oil etc.
(i) Green water: is neutral in nature and help to reduce excessive heat in the body.
(ii) Yellow\orange water - 25ml or ½ cup of this should be taken twice after each major meal. It is beneficial for cases in which improper digestion and flatulence is there.
Hydro therapy: refers to the treatment of disease with water.
(i) Cold shower: It should be taken after whole body dry friction, and helps in dissolving and burning fat. It also helps in cases of cellulite.
(ii) Steam/sauna / Hot foot bath: They all help to reduce fat by removing toxins and morbid matter from the body. Helps to dissolve fat.
(iii) Enema: This is a method of cleaning the intestinal tract, to know more about it Click Here.
(iv) Water intake: 8-12 glasses of water should be taken per day. Water should be taken at least ½ hour before meal .
Fasting: also helps in burning fat.
Dicto-therapy:
Carbohydrates is one of the major source of weight gain. Breakfast may consist of food consisting of proteins and fat. Lunch should consist more of carbohydrates and dinner should have more of proteins. In addition increase of vitamins and minerals through vegetables and fruit will help you fill stomach and change quality of calories and reduce fat. Roughage taken in form of wheat/oat bran are highly beneficial to detoxify digestive system and help to reduce fat from body
Yoga is great. Try borrowing an instruction video from the library. They have lots of good ones here. I got hooked by a very good and helpful teacher. Definitely need a mat, not just an exercise one because the yoga ones are textured. I go to a class 2x a week. So relaxing and I have noticed definition in my arms especially.
It depends on the form of yoga you do and you should try a few to see what makes you feel good after you're finished. Some types aren't for everyone. That said, if you do Ashtanga, flow, or power yoga you work up and unbelievable sweat, strengthen your muscles and stretch them, gain unbelievable stamina for other exercises, gain better breath control and balance. Calmer mind. I used to never have good muscle tone until I began doing yoga. Have you seen any of the yoga magazines? These people are buff. That's not the reason why I practice anymore but it does change your body.
Calorie burn is debated. If you wore a calorie counter on your arm through a whole class you'd find out what you'd burn more accurately. It builds muscle and creates heat in the body so it does burn fat.
Yes, you really do need a yoga mat. You slip on other surfaces wayyyyy too easily. Downdog while your sweating would be no fun, even if you weren't sweating it would be no fun. The mat gives you better traction so that you can really lengthen the body and also not break your face.
How often? It depends on your level of dedication. It is recommended you practice 3-7 days a week (in Ashtanga you practice 6 days a week) however that doesn't work for everybody. See how you feel and then decide how much time you would like to dedicate. You'll be surprised how it grows on you! Namaste
Yoga is wonderful . I been doing it for about 3 years. It build muscles that are lean but strong. I would suggest a yoga mat for more better feeling but, you do not need it. I busy now but, when I not I do it 3-5 days a week for about 10-15 mins. You can do it more or less it really up to you.
More Questions & Answers...