Sahaja

I took a look at the Down Dog app, it looks like it would be useful for beginner yogis and as a basic workout for people that are working to change a sedentary life. I still recommend taking classes periodically, but using that app to encourage or enable a home practice can't hurt (unless you're a total novice trying to learn yoga from it instead of a teacher).

That's a tough bar to nail down. If you've had a sedentary lifestyle then any yoga is strength training (for the fist couple years after beginning a lifestyle change). If you're active then you'll only get more than minimum strength benefits if you're doing challenging poses like balances, inversions, advanced plank variations, hands off the floor lunge poses like exalted warrior, etc. Hatha yoga where you hold poses is going to be more useful for general strength training than vinyasa flows. Holding the poses allows more muscle fibers to engage and work/benefit compared to flowing through poses that only engage individual muscles momentarily. The more fit you are the more you need to either be a well practiced yogi or need to work with a quality teacher that knows your goals to use yoga for strength training in the sense you're looking for. I'm not familiar with that app, I'll take a look at it today and see if I can offer any tips for using it.

For me it's all about baby steps. Every time I make huge changes to my routine it lasts for a little while then I backslide or lose motivation, but when I make small changes one at a time and focus on making those changes habit, the changes stick and the need for motivation to keep them disappears. Then I'm ready for the next baby step.

As a beginner you're on the right track! I can offer a few questions and tips... -Are you working with a teacher? Yoga has a rep for being so gentle that a lot of people underestimate the potential problems that can come from learning bad yoga habits. -What flows are you using and are they made up of poses you're already confident and comfortable in? In the tradition I'm studying flows are an advanced practice that should only be used after all the individual poses involved are mastered. *the one flow we use right away in beginner practices is the basic Sun Salutation. If you're injury/condition free there's only a couple potential pitfalls. -On non flow days are you still warming up enough to sweat before you settle into long holds? Cold muscles and joints don't react well to long holds or deep stretches. (there are three major causes of 'yoga injuries'; habitual poor alignment, holding deep stretches that the body isn't properly prepared for, and trying to 'push through' pain when your body is telling you "I'm not ready for this!") -If your primary goal is weight loss, yoga is useful and will help you deal with the changes you'll be making in your life, but clean healthy well timed meals are more important than calories in vs calories out. Activity is an important part of the equation, but there would be a lot more people at their ideal weight if you could eat anything and just move enough to burn the calories. Especially starting from a point of needing to shed extra pounds, you need to recruit your endocrine system and metabolism and what we eat is how we most affect those.

Basic pose, stretches glutes, hammies, calves, ankles and the large muscles of the back. Once you get into the pose you can slowly pedal your feet, bending one knee then the other, to play with the intensity of the stretch. Make sure you're warmed up first and try to hold for at least 2 minutes at a time.

If the internal narration is what gets you refocused, keep it. If you eventually start to forget the narration and refocus automatically, then you can let it go, but there's no reason to push it out of your practice if it's still useful.

My favorite Green Bean recipe... nuke/steam a cup or two of green beans Drain off the water, sprinkle lightly with Knorr Aromat Seasoning, then very lightly saute in your favorite fat/oil (Mom an Granma used butter) you don't want to caramelize them, just coat with flavor and slightly cook it in, if you seen them browning at all stop cooking and serve em.

If you're near a lot of waterways, find the local outfitters that rent boats / run tours, they often sell off older boats cheap at the end of the season. Plus, that way you can rent one for an afternoon and see if you like it before buying.

I don't mean to imply that Tai Chi is easy at all, but the danger from doing it with poor technique is almost nil. Yoga done incorrectly can cause actually injury from minor sprains to fractures or spinal injuries. Demanding was a poor choice of words on my part.

I'd definitely suggest Tai Chi if you're forced to do without a teacher. I'm much less experienced with it, but I do know that it has less physical risk and even if the movements aren't done with perfect technique, connecting mindful intention to movement will offer a great meditation. I also have to advise against yoga without a teacher for a beginner. There are too many ways to injure yourself with improper alignment, stretching without appropriate strength, or challenging poses that you haven't prepared your body for. And I'd still encourage looking for a class, in my area the local Parks and Rec offers Tai Chi at very cheap prices, and most local places have 'first class free' policies whether they're Yoga studios or Dojos that offer Tai Chi. Not only can a quality teacher give you enough knowledge to keep you from hurting yourself, in a few classes they can teach the subtleties that these practices offer that would take decades to find by yourself.

Yoga is an activity designed to improve health and prepare the body for day to day living, and it usually includes meditation. Don't be fooled by the idea that Yoga is just stretching, it's about health and strength and the flexibility is a side effect. Tai Chi is a movement based meditation designed to program self defense movements and keep the mind calm. It will help 80 year olds keep some flexibility, but isn't nearly as physical as yoga. Both have deeply ingrained energy components. So basically are your goals more about body or mind? Tai Chi and Yoga are both very useful and don't have to exclude practice of the other, BUT (and this is a big but)... If you want even the basic benefits of either it's very important that you learn from a teacher when you're beginning, even if it's just a couple classes so you can learn what NOT to do. Without a teacher you have no idea what you don't know and you're more likely to hurt yourself than master either art. DVDs are fine once you have some basic knowledge and can practice productively without danger.

There's a kind of coffee called Indian Malabar or Monsooned Malabar that is much less acidic than other coffee, if you normally don't like black coffee you still might like Malabar. It's spread out near the coast to let the monsoon rains rinse it clean so it has a very mild flavor and almost all the acid is washed out. The problem is it's not always available, to buy it local you probably have to have a really good coffee shop or roaster in your town.

Thanks, nice resource! You can also look into Chair and Wall variations of most poses for students that come to class with extra challenges. =)

Thanks for clarifying!

Caught this podcast today... http://www.artofmanliness.com/2016/03/28/podcast-kabuki-movement-system/ Tons of useful information from a powerlifter/coach

Oh man Darth, I might be reading in a tone you didn't intend, but please don't mischaracterize the training we RYT-200s go through. If you re-read the Yoga Alliance standards you'll see that the requirement is for at least 65 hours with the 'Lead' instructor (the founder of the school or someone certified to train teacher candidates), all our instructors were 'experienced'. The program I went through was close to 150 hours with the lead instructor and about 80 more with qualified yoga teachers and college professors that taught Philosophy, Anatomy and Music... but all 200+ hours were definitely with 'experienced' teachers. We studied from the Integral Yoga lineage in my 200 level course. Swami Satchinanda who founded Integral Yoga and Swami Satyananda were both disciples of Sivananda Saraswati, so the two schools have the same roots. The 500 hour course I'm taking now is taught by 2 teachers, one has close to 40 years in the Krishnamacharya tradition and the other (my original teacher) has over 45 years in Integral Yoga . Studying under the pair it's become obvious that there are some minor differences, but the two traditions are not incompatible or contradictory at all, in 10 years of yoga there's only one school I've run across that claims to be incompatible with the other major yoga philosophies. I haven't read the specific book you mentioned, but in the course I'm currently pursuing we regularly use Swami Satyananda's book 'Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha' and I find it incredibly thorough, I can only assume his other books are up to the same level of excellence. I would never discourage anyone from looking for more knowledge from books, but the importance of beginners learning in a class from a quality teacher really can't be overstated, and while it's true that all teachers aren't created equal, a little patience and some trial and error can really pay off for a student that's getting serious about yoga. Even a 200 level teacher can give most students the base of a quality asana practice and an introduction to the other limbs of yoga so that they can search for more as they grow into it.

You might want to consider lifting without a belt for a while. It's not meant to add 'support', it's there to give a little bit of stability to the lower back and as a reminder to keep your torso straight and active. A lot of people are becoming convinced that belts cause injury because when it's worn by people that don't already have good core strength and alignment, they think the belt is going to take the stress or somehow compress the core enough that it doesn't need to be active, and if you over tighten the belt you can't activate those muscles because they're forced into such an unnatural position. Especially if you're just getting started again after an injury, you might want to consider skipping the belt for a while, and doing some focused core and form work before you get back to really heavy lifts. In the most recent episode of 'The Art of Manliness' podcast powerlifter Chris Duffin spends several min talking about training both with and without a belt in order to cement proper form and core activation for heavy lifts.

I decided it would be easier to add the workouts to my lifestyle first, my diet wasn't terrible so the only change I made there was to make sure I got plenty of protein. I felt strength gains first, then start to notice muscle growth in the mirror, then realized that as I was gaining muscle I was losing some fat (but not weight). Now after about 4 months I'm about to switch up my diet to cut and I feel like I have several advantages since I adopted the workouts first... -I don't have as much to lose, some of that fat burned off as I was packing on muscle. -I think it's gonna be easier to change my diet because of the confidence and results I got from the habit changes I've already had success with. -Regular workouts have sped up my metabolism and muscle burns fat, so I should lose a little faster than if I tried dieting first. It just made more sense to me to change one habit every couple months instead of trying to change my whole lifestyle overnight. Small changes that stick help more than sweeping overhauls that are hard to keep up with and easy to give up on.

Beginners should always learn in a class setting. There are just too many ways to hurt yourself if you try poses incorrectly, with bad alignment, or with physical issues that contra-indicate some poses. That said, yoga is taught in classes so that students can take their knowledge with them and develop a home practice on their own. Advanced students and even teachers are encouraged to practice in a class setting once a month or so, to reinforce their knowledge and make sure their personal practice is still growing and viable. So at home or in a class? Both are part of a complete practice.

It's a little more complicated than just suggesting a routine or series of asana. Your best bet by far is to find a registered teacher and take a few classes. The alignment, the way you attach the movements to the breath, even where your eyes should be focused, all affect your poses and it's impossible to describe how much easier, faster, and thorough it is to learn these things from a teacher instead of from a book or DVD. You can search for qualified teachers here... https://www.yogaalliance.org/ Let your teacher know what you're looking for and they'll be able to offer you specific tools to work towards your goals, and don't be shy about trying several until you find a teacher that you connect with and trust. There isn't really a system of progression in yoga, there's no ranks, weight classes, or badges. It's more about how you feel and the realization that difficult things are becoming easier, or that you can reach your toes with straight legs now. Since there are only a few asana that you should avoid before mastering others (head/handstands, balance poses and extreme back-bends), there's not really a learn A then B then C aspect to it. Everyone learning yoga is starting from a different place and has different results in mind, so it's more about learning basics, then building practices that will address your specific issues and goals. My background is in Integral yoga, and the course I'm taking at the moment draws on that and Krishnamacharya yoga. I don't have any experience with Prasara in particular, but the advertisement makes it look like typical yoga DVDs targeting the gym crowd. Learning asana and the physical aspects of yoga from a book or DVD is a lot like learning martial arts from a book or DVD... You'll pick up some information, but you're more likely to get hurt than master the skill if that's your only source of learning. *Having said all that, if you're looking for in depth information about yoga and how to use it, two of my favorite textbooks are 'Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha' by Swami Satyananda Saraswati, and 'Structural Yoga Therapy' by Mukunda Stiles. But keep in mind, these are dry technical textbooks that won't offer much to beginners. ... and again, there's no real substitute for a quality teacher.

Just carry a bottle with you all day and keep sipping. 3 Liters isn't extreme, when I work outside in the summer (in Virginia), I'll down 3 liters in a couple hours, and top it off with some coconut water when I get done.

I realize that I didn't pick very S.M.A.R.T. goals for my challenge here. This has been good for keeping them in mind, but I'm gonna take a closer look at what I decide to set up for future challenges. In the meantime, I'm already committed to living a fairly healthy lifestyle and I'm old enough that I'm not pushing for super power lifts or tiny body fat percentages, so I set up a journal in the battle logs forum. I'll use that to share what I can and look for support in the near future. Thanks!

Try therapeutic/restorative/beginners yoga. Different studios have different names, but they should steer you to the right class. A good teacher can give you tools to address your specific issues, while helping you get stronger and generally more healthy. I have a student that's in her 70s, weighs nearly 300Lbs, has 2 artificial knees and still comes to class smiling twice a week, her bridges are perfect! I also have a dentist that swears he would have had to give up his practice 10 years ago due to back problems if it wasn't for yoga class keeping it strong and healthy.

What I used and what I would recommend to anyone is a good yoga class. Not hot yoga, not yin style stretchy yoga, but traditional hatha yoga with a quality teacher. It has several huge advantages for people that are discovering a physical lifestyle; -it's completely non-impact so all the danger is out the window (with a skilled teacher!) -it focuses on the core, spine and joints (in beginner classes), so it safely gets the fragile parts strong enough to move on to more challenging activities. -it teaches balance and spacial awareness (where/how your various parts are moving). -it lets you experience a large amount of effort safely, so that you can learn to be comfortable doing difficult things like challenging exercises and sports. and this one is a biggie... -it promotes health, general well being and good habits instead of overloading beginners with technical jargon and pushing them to 'optimum performance' extremes. In other words it helps people new to the ideas of health and fitness learn at a comfortable pace so they're excited about coming back for the next class, and the next, and the next.

With a moderately strong core, the interior spinal muscles and obliques will take over for the abs if you don't focus on engaging them in plank. If you're strong enough to play with side plank and climbers then you're probably just cheating the planks by not squeezing.