[manu]

I have found the Surya Namaskar to work really well. You can increase gradually. It should be introduced to all schools, a half an hour a day and a better diet and most children could get off ritalin. Oh yea, the Bush family and big Pharma tieup wouldnt like that.

[Heineken]

You're surely right about the breathing thing, Loki. But I've found that focusing on it during yoga distracts me and interferes with relaxation. I do try to breathe through my nose rather than mouth (which the yogis say is "for eating"). Also, when I do a headstand and a few other positions I try to achieve deep, low, regular breathing. But all that huffing and puffing and in-through-the nose, out-through-the-mouth stuff just isn't for me.

Some yoga positions insist that you breathe "correctly." An example is the plough, which forces your mouth shut and compresses your lungs. Then you HAVE to think about breathing!

Probably the best position for the lower back I know (other than the scorpion and the wheel, which are very difficult) is the reclining spinal twist. For those unfamiliar with it, you lie on your back, bend your legs and pull them toward your head, and then twist them sideways so that they're on the ground, one knee on top of the other. Then you turn your head in the opposite direction from the one your legs are pointing in. Arms go out to either side, like Jesus on the cross (gives your shoulders a nice stretch, too).

Anyone can do the reclining spinal twist, although it can take a year or so until you can get your knees stacked on top of each other in ground contact and your arms flat on the floor.

The plough is another wonderful back exercise, as is something called the proud warrior.

I'm getting inspired to do them all right now!

[SinisterBlueCat]

i do yoga everyday! more acurately, i love to incorporating it into just about everything i do throughout the day.

i ride dressage where strength and flexibility combined with breathing and a calmness of mind and spirit are positively required and yoga is just the ticket to get there.

Heineken, thanks for this thread, i think it is wonderful that you find yoga such a benefit in your life.

[Heineken]

You're most welcome, Sinister.

I sure respect your horsey activities. Horses are just marvelous beasts and I love anything to do with them. I have a vacant 3-acre field on my land just aching to be fenced and occupied by a couple of horses. And I've created miles of trails. But the costs of horses!

Building a two-stall stable would be fun---I often think of it. I love swinging a hammer.

Yoga is an important part of my life and becomes more so as I get older. And it's always there for me. I could do it in a prison cell. Requires no equipment (although a rug or mat is nice), no other people, no dependency.

A curious offshoot of yoga for me is that all that getting upside-down inspired me to learn to walk on my hands. I became an expert handwalker and could even walk down a steep slope. At my peak I could walk the length of a football field in two or three stretches.

I still handwalk, although somewhat less ambitiously than in my youth. It provides an incredible high.

I wish everyone on earth could do yoga. It would be a different planet.

[blukatzen]

Hello Heineken!
I have done yoga, much like yourself, for the last 30 years or so, I remember the old PBS show "Lilias, Yoga, and You" back in the 70's, and thought it would be good to try. I kept at it, and although I expect my poses are not "tip top" shape, the result is to keep my body limber and the asthma under control with expanded lung function. Yoga is invaluable for asthmatics, as many of the breathing exercises are good for pulmonary rehab, as I had once back in the mid-90's after a 6 month bout with pneumonia, and recovery from it. (THAT was rough!) When I felt well enough again, yoga was something I did to re-expand my lung capacity.

It is a good and easy, gentle way to keep in touch with your bodlily processes too, and aids with elimination. You do enough exercises, and you can "stay in touch" with your alimentary tract.

The poses can be modified for seniors as well. As I had mentioned in another thread, I did elder care for 2 aunts, and the physical and occupational therapists did some poses for them that they could do modified in a chair, and it made them feel that they weren't useless inside a "failing" body.

It is important to "own" your body at each stage of your life, and whether practising yoga, growing your own herbs and making tinctures/tonics (just made some Essiac brew this morning..a 2 week supply!) for gentle cleansing..it is a wholistic lifestyle that I cherish.

[WildRose]

I'm fairly active with regular walking, swimming and lifting weights, and I do some stretching after each workout. But I'd like to investigate yoga. Somehow whenever I consider yoga, I always think "contortionist" - and it scares me off! However, the calming effects of yoga are appealing to me. It would probably do my left knee a bit of good, too. Perhaps a beginner class?

[Heineken]

Wie geht's, Blutkatzen! Was gibt es neues? Always good to read your posts---infrequent but all the more precious for that.

WildRose: "Contortionist," "human pretzel," and other rather pejorative terms are often applied by the mass culture to people who do yoga. It's the typical reaction of it to something it doesn't understand and that doesn't mesh well with the Micky D's way of life. All threats must be labeled and destroyed, or at least laughed at.

I've done vast amounts of conventional exercise, but yoga adds a crucial dimension they overlook entirely. As you get older, you will find that the muscles are willing, but the joints are less and less so. Finally, injuries will end many of the vigorous activities you thought would always be available to you. Only yoga can prevent that sad conclusion to a lifetime of physical activity.

There are also many benefits to the internal organs, as Blukatzen touches on.

And yoga is the ultimate stress buster.

[WildRose]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', '
')I've done vast amounts of conventional exercise, but yoga adds a crucial dimension they overlook entirely. As you get older, you will find that the muscles are willing, but the joints are less and less so. Finally, injuries will end many of the vigorous activities you thought would always be available to you. Only yoga can prevent that sad conclusion to a lifetime of physical activity.

There are also many benefits to the internal organs, as Blukatzen touches on.

And yoga is the ultimate stress buster.

[Loki]

WildRose, I can definitely see why someone who hasn't done yoga would see it as contortionism. To be honest, a lot of high-level yoga really is contortionist. But the yoga most people practice isn't. I'd suggest taking "yoga for relaxation" or something along those lines. That's what I took, and it really is relaxing. There's no expectation for you to be able to twist yourself into a pretzel. If you want to do that after a few years, you can, but that's not necessarily what yoga is about.

[WildRose]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Loki', 'W')ildRose, I can definitely see why someone who hasn't done yoga would see it as contortionism. To be honest, a lot of high-level yoga really is contortionist. But the yoga most people practice isn't. I'd suggest taking "yoga for relaxation" or something along those lines. That's what I took, and it really is relaxing. There's no expectation for you to be able to twist yourself into a pretzel. If you want to do that after a few years, you can, but that's not necessarily what yoga is about.

[Heineken]

Loki's advice is sound. There's no need to try to become a "human pretzel" right off the bat, or ever. Many yoga positions don't involve any twisting, but rely more on arching and reaching. A good example is the cobra.

Lie flat on your stomach on the floor. Put your hands palm down on the floor on either side of your chest, and tucked in close to your chest. Now raise the front half of your body upward on your arms (as if doing a pushup). Keep your elbows slightly bent and try to keep your hips flat on the floor (that's the hard part). You'll feel a terrific stretch in your lower back. Over a period of weeks or months, work toward holding this position for about a minute. Remember, don't force or strain.

Give it a try, WildRose. You'll see how stiff you (probably) are and thus how much you can benefit from this simple "asana." Over time, the move becomes effortless and you can keep your hips in flat contact with the floor. But no matter how good at it you get, it always feels great.

[WildRose]

Thanks for the suggestion, Heineken. I'll try that exercise this morning.

[Heineken]

I forgot to add that your head should be raised back (try to look at the ceiling as you do the position; even roll your eyes upward).

[undertaker]

I do A.M. Chi before yoga. It's a qi gong practice and it starts the fire like kindling. Then yoga is more like burning a regular sized piece of cordwood.

That is, the qigong "heats you up" and I found that I subsequently go deeper into the yoga asanas and I start sweating sooner.

Here's A.M. and P.M. Chi for 8 bucks on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/ ... UTF8&s=dvd

And here's Wai Lana:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/10 ... s=wai+lana

[BlisteredWhippet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('username', 'Y')oga can reverse random mutation in my DNA? Wow! I didn't know stretching could do that! I've got to share this magical anti-aging secret with the world.

[BlisteredWhippet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Aaron', 'W')ow...

I can't believe nobody has flamed this thread yet.

Stretching is a good thing.

[BlisteredWhippet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Loki', 'e')ric_b, I occasionally tweak my lower back and find that just hanging out in a forward bend (whether standing or on the ground) works wonders. Obviously you have to do it slowly and don't strain. Just bend and relax. I forget what's it called, but I also like being on all fours and slowly rolling my back up and down while also moving my head/neck in the opposite direction (so when you roll your back up, you point your head down, and vice versa). Very gentle movement that's mostly just a warm-up technique, but if your back is messed up, gentle is good.

Heineken, breathing is half of yoga. It's extremely important. I was taught to especially avoid holding the breath (with some rare exceptions). Breathing is as much mental as it is physical. Deep breathing can give you a nice "high" (for lack of a better term) and can help your body relax into the poses.

And thanks for the thread---I have a couple yoga DVDs that have been sitting around for a while unwatched. I'm watching one now. Not following along (obviously, since I'm typing), but just watching to see what it's like. Looks like it would be a good routine, though the instructor talks way too much---very distracting. DVD is "Journey Into Power: Baptiste Power Yoga, Level 1" (got it on Netflix). It's reminded me of a few poses I haven't practiced in many years.

And speaking of yoga products, I highly recommend B.K.S. Iyengar's Light on Yoga. Probably not the best beginner's book, but Iyengar is a big name in the yoga world and his book is pretty comprehensive. He's got some crazy poses in there---I doubt I'll ever be at that level, but it's interesting to see what elite yogis can do.

[Heineken]

A trilogy of good posts. Sharp as a whip(pet).

Yes, yoga is SO much more than "stretching." But one has to get into it to understand that, I think.

And although I very much agree with your response to the "can't do it" mindset, I can say with a sort of grim certainty that I will never be able to do the full lotus or the half lotus. I have large, muscular legs and that seems to limit what I can do in that department, alas. But I'm happy to be able to do the scorpion, wheel, the headstand, the crow, and a few other toughies.

Some people have injuries or handicaps or health conditions that may severely limit what they can do in yoga. But of course, that's not the point. Yoga will expand their abilities.

Yoga is all about the journey, the doing. There is no destination, no "winning," no competition, none of that crap.

And, frankly, for me it's an endless battle. Not the yoga, but what the yoga is opposing. Stress and stiffness are the lions yoga keeps at bay, but the lions are always there waiting in the shadows.

[BlisteredWhippet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'A') trilogy of good posts. Sharp as a whip(pet).

Yes, yoga is SO much more than "stretching." But one has to get into it to understand that, I think.

And although I very much agree with your response to the "can't do it" mindset, I can say with a sort of grim certainty that I will never be able to do the full lotus or the half lotus. I have large, muscular legs and that seems to limit what I can do in that department, alas. But I'm happy to be able to do the scorpion, wheel, the headstand, the crow, and a few other toughies.

[Heineken]

Lunges are murder on the knees (at least on my knees). I'll never do them again.

I used to run, BW, but now I mostly walk, with occasional stretches of jogging thrown in. My knees are still pretty good, but I figured it was time to stop running so much. I walk about four miles three times a week. It's good, but I miss running and that aerobic high.

Sitting on one's ankles provides an excellent knee stretch from the flexion side, and also stretches the ankles. Of course, like everything else, one has to work gently into it.

I lift weights a little and do squats with a 45-pound dumbbell held behind my head. This strengthens the quadriceps, which help keep the knees stabilized. I could use heavier weights but I don't want to overdo anything in the knee department.

One of my favorite exercises is pullups. They stretch the arms and torso (including the back) while providing superb strength-training. I built a pullup bar and use it each time I pass by it on my exercise walk.

I'm also big into forearm, wrist, and hand strengthening; many wonderful exercises are available. This is essential for preventing injuries and problems (like tennis elbow and golf elbow) in people who do lots of physical labor. And I get a kick out of having forearms like Popeye (well, I'm not quite there yet!). For a good source of both information and equipment, see www.ironmind.com.