Yoga! For Science!

I haven't been doing enough yoga lately. I've been too distracted by the whole weight-training and better nutrition thing. I have to work pretty hard to build up habits and then I have to work even harder to integrate new habits side by side with the old. It's a problem.

Anyway, the point that I was getting around to - is that it's fairly obvious that I haven't been doing enough yoga. Not only because my backbends are already getting a little worse and my neck muscles are feeling tight... but because I have been in a foul mood. Yoga has always had a very nice chippering-up effect on me. There was a time when I had rage problems, but once I had thoroughly taken on yoga it pretty much went away. I became much more calm and level-headed. Lately - not so much. Bring back the yoga! Before I flip out on someone. Please.

It's not just me either - Science has proven yoga's magical mood-lifting abilities. Read about it HERE. (from Allure magazine of all places) Not that there's anything wrong with Allure. I just don't usually consider it my go-to reading material for all things Science.

More yoga - I'm putting it on the To Do List. Definitely.

Just Be Together

“Let’s trade in all our judging for appreciating. Let’s lay down our righteousness and just be together.”

— Ram Dass

Repeat After Me - Spread Your Toes

I may have said this before, but spread your toes. In every single pose - spread your toes. Standing on 2 feet, standing on 1, inversions, arm balances... lunges... everything. Spread your toes for balance, rooting, appropriate levels of "reach" through your legs, foot strength, knee therapy, etc.

Bruce Lee on Limits

Sorry if the font is too light and small... if you click the pic you should be able to make it bigger.

Picture Source: not sure, but it's not mine.

Beginner's Mind - Like a Fish

I spend a lot of time on this blog talking (and even teaching a little bit) about things I'm good at. I don't talk much about my weaknesses. One of my biggest weaknesses that I'm reminded of every summer is swimming. It's not like I can't swim, but I'm not even remotely a strong swimmer.

I can do challenging yoga for like 9 hours a day, and I can run for at least 5 miles without much work, but swimming in freshwater around 80 feet is HARD. I was at the lake yesterday and practicing maintaining my composure in water maybe 10 feet deep. I was swimming the length of the dock (80 feet or so) and then swimming back. I do this for cardio and for general practice. Ya never know when you're gonna need to swim. Every year I have to re-learn all these skills and work back up to being comfortable in deep water... then work on basic swimming skills... then on stamina and ability to hold my breath. It's crazy. It's humbling. I can outrun Adam by distance a thousand times, but he swims like a fish and I swim like a clumsy rock.

In Yoga we're supposed to at least attempt to always come at our practice from a space of being open and listening. Not cocky, not like we already know what we're doing. We're still supposed to take the time to quiet the mind, open to grace, feel what's going on and what can shine brighter. When you're just as open as a fresh newbie at her first class with no expectations and the willingness to try - This is beginner's mind.

What brings you back to beginner's mind? For me it's swimming. Definitely.

I Love Nature (Video)

Holy cow guys, this treehugging video made me tear up a little bit.
Fabulous poetic nature love... and tiny lizard foots.

Watch it! Watch it! Watch it!

Growing is Forever from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

PS... I know it's feet, so don't go all grammar nazi on me.

Dancers & Gymnasts

Dancers and Gymnasts make me look like a slacker. *sigh*

Photo Source: http://bgirlsofia.tumblr.com/post/6025960506/irina-kazakov

Wasting Time

Runners Lunge & Other Stuff

Yesterday I rambled on about the importance of stretching for runners. I promised a sequence for just that purpose. Here it is. Be sure and do a little warm up beforehand like 2 sun salutations to prepare.

Reach high - take a little backbend if you want.

Fold forward from the hips. Lengthen the side body.

Step back into a lunge, lower the back knee to the floor.
This much flair is optional - both hands can stay on the hip if you want.

Bend the back knee so you can draw your foot toward the outside of your hip.
Fingers and toes facing forward.
Step into a forward bend and repeat from the top.

Downdog!

Take a leg high - reach through your toes & your hands.

Bend that leg at the knee - draw your foot back towards your imaginary neighbor's hip.
Back to Downdog then repeat on the other side.

Back in Downdog - reach a hand for the outside of the opposite ankle, look up past your front armpit.
Shorten your stance if necessary to reach your leg.
Repeat on the other side.

Step back into a lunge - draw your back ankle down, torso up up up - for Warrior 1.

From Warrior 1 - straighten the front leg, shorten your stance, square your hips.
Hands can be in reverse prayer, hands can grab opposite elbows, or hands can be on hips.

Root down into your feet, draw your legs toward the midline
Fold forward drawing your head toward your shin.
Return to downdog and repeat Warrior 1 and pyramid on 2nd side.

 

 

Runner's Lunge! 3 variations pictured - choose the one that feels best to you.
Turn your front toes out a smidge to provide a release valve to the knee.
Step back into Downdog and repeat on 2nd side.

Last but not least - Virasana (Hero Pose) for the intermediate student or beginner with a good teacher present. Virasana can be risky if done improperly. If done well it can heal the knees and open the quads from bottom to top.

Knees can be hip distance apart... spread your calves outward and sit between your heels.
Your 2nd toe should be in line with the outermost bone of your knee.
You can stay seated upright, lean back on your hands or elbows... or lie all the way down.

For more front-body opening - reach the arms overhead and reach from knees to fingertips.
Stay here for 30 seconds or more.

Finish with a 5-10 minute Savasana and/or meditation if you want to.
If you try this sequence - let me know if you like it. Let me know if you have questions. I'm always around. Namaste.

In general, this sequence is for anyone, but please don't try this sequence without speaking to your Dr. first if you have any medical/physical problems. Seek Peace At Your Own Risk!

Why do Runners Need to Stretch?

You're well aware that I am into fitness. I am a yogi first and everything else second, but I do love to work out and do whatever is active. Yesterday I jogged/ran 4.5 miles... and I think I need to up my pace because it wasn't all that hard. I mean, I was trying for steady moderate cardio, and I definitely did that but I could've worked harder without killing myself. It took me an hour (pacing ya know) and I watched a little X-Men while I was at it. Gotta love treadmill TVs.

Point being - runners need to stretch. A little stretching beforehand is fine, but afterwards it is absolutely demanded. If you don't stretch after a long run you'll fall over and die the next day. Well, maybe not die, but you might wish you were just dead with quads as tight as yours.

Why is stretching necessary? Because just like with weight training - when you work a muscle really hard it tears the muscle fibers up a little bit. They get all split up and so when they heal it's like they sew themselves back together. You get a little more tissue in the process (which makes muscles grow) and they tighten up so that the muscle will be better prepared next time and not get so torn up. Yay!

As great as that is - helping us get stronger, bigger, faster... whatever... it doesn't just tighten up metaphorically. Muscles feel tighter as they heal up from that work and if you want to keep your range of motion and decrease your chances of pulling a muscle or cramping up - you need to stretch that mess out. More on that tomorrow with a short specific little sequence of a couple of my favorite yoga stretches for runners.

Photo Source: not sure. Maybe http://fuckyeahyoga.tumblr.com/ or http://sweatsparkles.tumblr.com/
Definitely one of those... I know it's from tumblr and those are the only two tumblr blogs I watch.

There Will Be Blood - So Be Prepared

Wow guys... I have been having one of those weeks where I just have nothing to talk about. Most of these posts this week have been written at like 1am (like this one). I've been spending a bunch of time in the gym lately trying to jump start a serious gym regimen. Adam is officially being paid to workout regularly so we have no reason not to go.

I love working out... it's awesome. Some people really have trouble finding motivation to get to the gym... or the yoga studio, or wherever... but I don't have that problem. I'm just one of those people that is always up for doing something. However, part of being ready when you lead an active lifestyle is being prepared for something to go wrong. I don't mean big things like hyperextending a knee or dislocating a shoulder. I mean small things like your hair tie breaking or overworking a bit. Be prepared to go fish an extra hair tie out of your bag (because you carry those all the time right?)... or be prepared to run an epsom salt bath as soon as you get home to avoid feeling crippled the next day.

What my hand looked like before it got destroyed.

I had an ugly reminder of this yesterday when I smashed my finger between a 35 lb weight plate and a giant metal machine. I didn't exactly plan on such a thing, so when my finger was missing some skin and a small chunk of itself I wasn't prepared for all the blood. Seriously, it bled all over the place. It seemed to have no intention of stopping bleeding so I had to ask the front desk for a band-aid. I got lucky because they only had one left and it was barely big enough to do the job. By the time I got it on I had blood on my legs, arms, and clothes. I was a biohazard! My finger is still throbbing and it's been like 28 hours.

I learned a lesson here - you can't always count on the gym to have band-aids, so carry your own. No matter what you're doing there can be blood shed (as I've definitely learned in yoga, weight training, hula hooping, team sports, etc.) so I'm officially keeping a bag of band-aids in the car. 'Cause you never know when you'll be bleeding all over the equipment.

The Power of Visualization

When it comes to talking about "Visualization" I am not usually a big fan. If you suggest to me that I read "The Secret" I'll probably roll my eyes. I'm all about action - not so much about thinking your way to a better life. So let me tell you that what I'm going to talk about is not quite like that. It's similar, but not quite the same.

When I was in teacher training one of my fellow teacher trainees was sick... and we were going to do 27 sun salutations that night. Our trainer for the night informed him that if he didn't feel up to it or started to feel sick during the sequence - that he could lie in child's pose and simply visualize himself doing the work and it would still have some of the same effect as if he were doing the yoga. I was kinda skeptical, but didn't think too much of it.

Later I read somewhere that some scientific study had found that visualizing yourself doing something like lifting weights or doing yoga would provide you with 30% of the progress that physically doing the work would achieve. I was impressed, but still skeptical. I actually tried it last year when I was just starting to really work on Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana and trying to lose my reliance on the strap to reach my foot. That pose is a ton of work and it's hard on the body to do it all the time. I was already doing it at least once every 2 days and didn't want to overdo it... so I started doing a Pigeon Pose visualization meditation every day.

I would simply sit in meditation like usual and after I had myself centered I would simply visualize every single step of setting up and moving into the full pose effortlessly. I imagined it without the strap and happening with ease grace and beauty. Within a week or two I was strap free and have been ever since. Was it because of the visualization exercise? Or was it simply because I was working my ass off? I don't know... but I wouldn't hesitate to practice some visualization to get me into more difficult poses in the future. You know, just in case.

Your Future Self is Better Than You

People are naturally competitive... even when no one is around we tend to compete with ourselves. Yesterday's quote was all about this. It can be a major motivator, or it can be an anvil holding you down.

Generally yoga is considered non-competitive. Generally. There are asana competitions and there's many peoples tendency to eyeball the best person in yoga class wanting to have the ability to hold a textbook Utkatasana for minutes without a sweat. Humans compete - it's built into our genetics and instincts. If we weren't competitive the human race would've died out instead of the neanderthals. Competition is handy when it decides who lives and who dies. Its even helpful when you're trying to achieve a goal and you need something to help you do better today than 2 months ago. Competition drives progress.

However, sometimes that competitive outlook can weigh you down if you're not on top. If you're doing worse today than yesterday, or six weeks ago, or four years ago - your natural drive to want to be better than you think you were then is going to irritate and discourage you. It happens, but don't let it get you down. Just because you sat in painless meditation for 45 minutes yesterday doesn't mean you have to do it again today. Five minutes is just fine.

Let yourself be where you are today. Sometimes you need to compete with yourself on your ability to accept things as they currently are.

Dream Higher

"Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." - William Faulkner

Cobra Pose with Desiree Rumbaugh (Video)

Cobra pose is a classic. Most yogis do this pose a lot, but even for the most seasoned practitioner cobra is a lot of work. Some people don't get this simple fact. Either they've never done it... or they've likely done it wrong. I like to do one-on-one work with people on cobra because most people are skipping a few steps and going through all the steps is a whole different experience.

Here's a video from Bay Shakti of a Desiree Rumbaugh workshop cobra demo. Check it out!
You can also visit that link to see more pics and another video of said workshop in Rome.

Readers via Email - Click Here for the video.

Flip Flops Do What?!?

Fun Fact:
The primary reason for yogis to wear flip flops was originally because they stimulate a point in the foot that diminishes the libido.

Something to think about now that it's summer and we're probably all wearing them all the time. I learned this in teacher training years ago. Just thought it was funny.

Small Steps to Big Balance

Do you ever just feel "off"? Or maybe you have some small irritating pain in your wrist, knees, or shoulder? These things are generally created by a lack of balance. I don't mean the kind of balance that lets you stand on the head of a pin with one toe on top of a high rise. I mean the kind of symmetry we all Don't Have in our habits. A real obvious silly one is driver's tan. If you drive in the same places all the time then you'll get a tan (or sunburn) on one arm. Switch it up! Drive at different times, take a different route, be a passenger, or GASP - walk.

Small things can create bigger problems or at least big imbalances in your day to day and your asana practice. Luckily you can find balance in small simple acts.

• Carry your purse/bag on the opposite arm sometimes.
• Carry your child on the other hip
• Hold hands on the other side (with others or in clasped hand stretches)
• Step off the curb with a different foot forward - You probably tend to always use the same one.
• Check how you stand - Is most of my weight on one side? Shift into the middle; weight evenly distributed through all 4 corners of both feet.
• On a subtle level - If you always practice yoga in the same spot or do handstands at the same piece of wall you may end up imbalanced because of small angles of the floor.

Everything you do can have big effects - most of these listed can cause one tight hip flexor or a pinched nerve in one shoulder. Think about your small actions.

♥ Let it Spring From Love ♥

"The thought manifests as the word; The word manifests as the deed; The deed develops into habit; And habit hardens into character. So watch the thought and its ways with care, And let it spring from love. Born out of concern for all beings." - Buddha!

Jai Hanuman! The monkey god that is all about Love.