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Yoga Poses Tips
Make Your Downward Dog A Good Dog
Downward-facing dog is a restorative yoga pose that is done often throughout the course of many yoga classes. This yoga pose looks simple, but there are many elements you can focus on as you hold the pose.
Some tips for a good down dog include the following:
-Keep your hands shoulder-width apart and spread your fingers while pressing the palms into the floor.
-Tuck your tailbone. Many people make the mistake of arching the low back in this pose in an attempt to stretch the hamstrings. Instead, concentrate on lifting the sit bones towards the ceiling.
-Walk your dog. Slowly alternate bending and straightening each knee to stretch your calves and hamstrings.
-Keep the outside edges of your feet parallel to each other and keep your feet about hip width apart.
-Slowly raise your toes off the floor and lower them; this motion helps to release the hamstrings and bring your heels closer to the floor.
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Don’t Compete, Love Thy Yoga Neighbor
Gaiam Tip: Yoga is not a competitive sport. The best way to a yoga pose is to focus on yourself and what you can do on any given day, and not whether your neighbor on the next mat can put his or her foot behind his or her head.
Some people can do certain yoga poses more easily but they find certain other poses more difficult for many reasons, including body shape and history of other activities. For example, if you have long arms and a long torso, but short legs, forward bends aren’t difficult, but if you are a longtime distance runner with tight hips, a lotus position may not be something you can do anytime soon. If you are particularly tired, or sore from another workout, don’t let that worry you or keep you from a yoga class. Often, yoga helps relieve the delayed-onset muscle soreness associated with other activities, especially an Iyengar or Bikram-style class.
What counts in each yoga pose is that you be honest with yourself and work in the pose to the best of your ability, without being intimidated or distracted by the person on the next mat.
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Don’t Let Your Yoga Pose Get Stale
As you hold a yoga pose for a long period of time, it can be tempting to let your mind wander and lose your focus, and then you are no longer actively involved in the pose. If you aren’t feeling anything in your muscles, find a way to work deeper into the pose by bending your knee more, or deepening a twist.
To stay active in any yoga pose, breathe deeply and evenly, and engage your core muscles. Think about pulling your navel in towards the back of your spine. Also, think about tucking your tailbone towards your pubic bone. This motion helps to engage muhlabanda, or root lock, and concentrating on moving the tailbone towards the pubic bone helps to engage your core muscles. It sounds weird, but once you practice it a few times you’ll find that it does engage the core and help you stay aligned.
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Don’t Hold Yoga Positions To The Point Of Pain
Gaiam Tip: Ideally, you can hold a yoga position at least until you count to five, and some classes and teachers will instruct you to hold a pose for longer than that. But yoga is a personal activity, and if you are in great pain during a pose, back off and go to a restorative position, such as child’s pose, and wait for the class to move on to the next yoga position. Overstretching to the point of pain will only result in an injury, so challenge yourself, but know your limits. It's normal to feel some burning in your muscles, but be mindful of the difference between the discomfort of a challenging activity and the pain of trying to push it too far.
If you find yourself clenching any body part that’s not involved in the pose, ease off a bit to avoiding reaching the point of pain. During challenging poses, relax your jaw, relax your face, and remember to breathe deeply and evenly. Similarly, try not to clench your buttock muscles while doing backbends. If you find yourself clenching any body parts, release the pose and try entering it again.
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Order Of Poses Matters
There is a reason that the yoga poses in yoga classes and yoga videos or DVDs follow a certain order. Some yoga poses are invigorating and some are calming. The invigorating moves, including standing poses such as the warrior series, and balancing poses such as the standing big toe pose and half moon pose, are usually done earlier in the class, while seated poses and twists are done towards the end of a class to calm the body in preparation for final relaxation poses.
Some poses are done in preparation for others because their basic movements are the foundation of the more complicated postures. For example, dolphin, which is essentially downward-facing dog using your forearms instead of your palms, is often done earlier in a yoga class as a preparation for inverted forearm balancing poses later in the class.
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Keep Alignment In Mind
Gaiam Tip: The goal of any yoga posture is to align your body. Finding the correct alignment in a yoga posture involves finding a balance between basic opposing movements. Every movement in a series of yoga poses has a counter movement that helps keep the muscles balanced. Some basic movements and counter movements that play a key role in yoga postures include:
-Abduction vs. Adduction: Abduction means moving a limb away from the midline of the body, while adduction means moving a limb towards the midline of the body.
-Flexing vs. Extending: Flexing means bending a limb while extending means stretching out or returning to a neutral position after being bent.
-Internal Rotation vs. External Rotation: Internal rotation means rotating awareness towards the midline of the body, while external rotation means rotating away from the midline of the body.
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Staff Pose: Give Yourself A Firm Foundation
Staff pose (dandasana) is the foundation for all seated yoga poses, so it’s important to establish correct alignment.
Here’s how: Sit up straight with your feet straight out in front of you. Press outward through your heels and keep your feet flexed and your toes pointing towards the ceiling. Use your hands to move the flesh of the buttocks away from the sit bones to make sure that you are sitting on your sit bones as much as possible. Place your palms on the floor beside your hips and try to press down into your palms while straightening your arms and rolling your shoulder blades back.
This is an active pose, so keep your quads engaged and your feet pointing towards the ceiling as you hold the posture for several breaths.
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Benefits
Headstand, and other inverted poses, increase circulation, stimulate the brain, enhance glandular system functioning, and relieve pressure on the abdominal organs.
Remember that pregnant or menstruating women should NOT do inverted poses.
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Naming Yoga Poses
Keep in mind as you move through asanas, that each yoga pose represents a different symbol. Although each motion has a spiritual purpose, many of the poses are given common names such as "child's pose," "downward dog" or "sun salutation" to help you visualize how your body should move during each pose.
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Choosing a Style of Yoga
One of the best ways to decide which style of yoga is right for you is to take a look at the kind of person you are. How physically active are you? Are you more meditative than active? There are many yoga styles that appeal to a wide range of personalities. Ashtanga Viniyasa Yoga is good for medidating and breathing exercises. It can be very difficult physically, but the basis of Ashtanga Viniyasa yoga is the method and flow of breathing with the various yoga postures. Iyengar Yoga is a more passive and peaceful yoga exercise that focuses on posture and body alignment. Iyengar yoga uses blocks, ropes and other props to help in the various positions. This type of yoga is especially good for people with disabilities or injuries. Hatha Yoga is often referred to as "beginner yoga". The practice of Hatha Yoga combines physical and breathing exercises to calm the mind. Reviewing each style's yoga technique with an honest eye will help you find a style that works best with your personality.
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Improves Posture
Doing yoga is a great way to improve your posture. When poses are done properly, they encourage correct body alignment – standing tall, shoulders over hips, knees over toes, etc. Additionally, inverted poses like headstands decompress the spine helping to lengthen it. Both the improvement in posture and the spinal decompression and alignment will have the added benefit of making you feel taller.
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Before, During, After
Use Corpse Pose in the following ways: * at the start of your session, use it to relax and get your mind ready for the practice ahead; * during your session, between series of postures, to reap the benefit of the postures, and to refresh and renew before the next series; * at the end of your practice, to again reap the benefits of your session, and to prepare you to return to the outside world.
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Emphasis
The emphasis in Tree Pose is maintaining your equilibrium – which can sometimes be easier than others.
Remember to gently focus your gaze on a spot a few feet in front of you to help your balance.
On days when you can't seem to keep your balance, don't be discouraged. Often factors beyond your control, like subconscious thoughts and difficulties during your day, may just have you “off” balance. Try again another day – never force the posture.
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Pose/Counterpose
After doing Bridge Pose, don´t forget to do a counterpose.
You can either draw your knees to your chest and hug them with your arms; or you can roll onto your side while keeping your knees bent into your chest.
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Restorative Yoga Pose
A simple restorative yoga pose is a great way to rejuvenate your body and mind. The pose can be done by nearly anyone. Lie flat on the floor and rest your legs on a chair or up the wall. Be sure your body is in a comfortable position. If you need help, a bolster is available to provide support and relieve tension in your neck and chest while lying down. Doing this anywhere from one to fifteen minutes a day helps calm the mind and aids in headaches, digestion, elimination, insomnia and much more. Be sure to check with your doctor to be sure this kind of leg elevation is safe for you to perform.
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Benefits
The Headstand, Shoulderstand and Plow are so beneficial, they're often referred to as the King, Queen and Prince of asanas.
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Other Inverted Poses
Shoulderstand, Headstand and Plow are advanced inverted poses. But you can get some of the same benefits from other poses. Standing-Forward Bend and Downward-Facing Dog both reverse the body's relationship to gravity, and they do not require as much supervised training.
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Benefit
Spinal twists are gentle and effective ways to help realign and lengthen your spine. They also stretch and open back muscles.
As with other postures, the key here is to move carefully and deliberately. Don't pull or jerk as you twist; smooth, gentle movement is the right way to do these postures.
