One Year Of Yoga

The benefits of pet ownership to one’s mental, emotional, and physical well-being are numerous. Pets have been medically proven to reduce their owners’ stress, lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and alleviate the loneliness that even the most social of humans feel from time to time. And research shows that people who own dogs get significantly more exercise than people who don’t.

Walking the dog for even 30 minutes twice a day can really add up—that’s a total of 7 hours of exercise per week! That figure is even more stunning if you consider that the majority of Americans spends only 0-2 hours per week walking, running, or at the gym. And that 7 hours of exercise per week doesn’t count the weekend runs, games of frisbee, and hours of play in the family rec room that a fun-loving pup demands.

But for an ever-increasing number of pet owners across the country, old-fashioned activity just isn’t enough for their modern dogs in this modern age.

Enter: doga. You heard me, that’s doga—yoga for dogs.

via Downward-Facing Dog: Adventures in ‘Pets-ercise’ — ZooToo Pet News.

Today’s class was nice because you could actually see the ocean from the studio on the beach. I was encouraged to take this class by a friend so it is always fun to join friends in class. We did some arm weights and other movement in addition to the yoga poses. It was a good change of pace.

I LOVE APPLE products, particularly the fabulous and affordable health and fitness applications you can download on your iPhone or iPod touch.Sure, you dont need them, but they are cool, fun and may be just the motivational tools to take your fitness up a few notches.For more than a year now, Ive been encouraging everyone who has access to this technology to take advantage of these great apps, especially, the FREE ones.

via Kimberly Garrison: iPhone apps will polish your workout & diet | Philadelphia Daily News | 02/11/2010.

She recommends an app called “yoga RELAX”.  Sounds fun to check out.

So, today I decided to do a P90X workout with my husband. I was impressed with the knowledge of yoga that the trainer had. He is a real promoter of yoga which is great. This class provided a good cardio workout, as well as, the strengthening and stretching that a typical yoga class usually provides.

I have about a week’s worth of yoga classes to make up. I simply could not fit it in. I think my body had been asking for a little break as well. One thing I did notice in class today was that the pain I had been feeling in my arm from the time I went too far in wheel, is completely gone. That is very reassuring. I noticed some aches in my feet though. I have some kinks to work out over the next few practices.
Today’s class was a Led class, which I probably should avoid until I learn Anusara better. The teacher was OK, a very pretty blonde with green eyes, who had a bit of an ego, but really “led” us instead of teaching us. I went with a friend of my next door neighbor’s, and that was nice. We might try an ashtanga class tomorrow. Taught, not led, so it’s bound to be better.

The Yoga Alliance started Yoga Day USA in an effort to get people who dont normally attend a yoga class to try it out.

via Yoga Day USA.

Happy Yoga Day Everybody!

Bangalore: In the absence of effective counselling for those suffering from diseases like cancer, Aids and tuberculosis, researchers have now come out with a proven alternative way to tackle the shock from diagnosis and trauma of toxic treatment.The researchers, from Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana SVYASA and Bangalore Institute of Oncology BIO, tested yoga relaxation techniques on those suffering from breast cancer in second and third stage and found that the exercises were not only successful in fighting the side effects of the ailment, but also helped maintain immunity levels to fight the disease

via Yoga holds out a dose of hope for cancer-afflicted – dnaindia.com.

I am going to go to class today at noon, but I really don’t want to. I am in a funk and it is getting really hard to want to go to class. Hmmmm…I sure hope I can shake this. I am going to remain positive and believe that I will and feel motivated again. It might be that I need to change up the types of classes that I am going to. Maybe find a new type of yoga. I know my body feels so much better doing it. Maybe I should also get a progress Physical. It would be interesting if there have been any changes in blood, etc. A year is a long time to wait for results.

This was an advanced class and I really enjoyed it. It moved slowly but we worked deeper in the poses than usual. We did some exercises which really stretched the shoulders. We used a block between our forearms. My shoulders are pretty tight and I think that’s the reason my arm felt a little twinge of pain in Wheel pose. I would like to try to do this exercise regularly and see if that helps me prepare for wheel.

Cervical cancer can be remedied in ways alternative to conventional, damaging treatments. Instead of harsh treatments that can wreak havoc on the body, a combination of yoga, meditation, and a raw vegan diet can be a much more gentle and beneficial method for healing.

via Cure Cervical Cancer through Diet, Yoga and Meditation.