Hatha Yoga Tips: Hatha Yoga Is Preventive Medicine

August 26th, 2008 Shaka

Hatha Yoga Tips: Hatha Yoga Is Preventive Medicine

A regular yoga practice has many benefits, and some of them are the ones you don’t see.

The benefits of hatha yoga include the injuries not suffered because your muscles are balanced, the blood pressure that didn’t rise because you are managing stress, and the emotional arguments that didn’t occur with family members, friends, and co-workers because you have cultivated a sense of inner calm.

Any discipline of hatha yoga will, to varying extents, strengthen the muscles, reduce stress, and focus the mind and emotions.

In addition, certain hatha yoga postures are associated with specific health benefits. For example, forward bends are thought to improve digestion, as well as stretch the spine and hamstrings, and inversions such as headstands and shoulder stands promote circulation as well as build shoulder strength and core body strength.

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Hatha Yoga Tips: Hatha Yoga Class Combines Styles

August 26th, 2008 Shaka

Hatha Yoga Tips: Hatha Yoga Class Combines Styles

If you are reviewing a list of yoga classes and a class is described as simply “hatha yoga” it usually means that the instructor is combining several hatha yoga disciplines. Ask the teacher or yoga studio director some questions:

-Does the class include meditation or chanting?

-Does the class involve quickly moving through a series of poses?

-Does the class include the use of props to help with alignment?

Based on the answers, you can decide whether that particular hatha class meets your needs. Some “hatha yoga” classes are meditative, kundalini-style classes but another “hatha yoga” class could be power yoga in disguise. Don’t be afraid to ask and try a class. If one hatha yoga class is not active enough, or too active, try another one.

Teacher styles vary within the same discipline, so if you know people who attend yoga classes regularly, ask them which instructors they like and why. Most “yoga for beginner” classes are forms of hatha yoga that move through poses at a slower pace so the instructor can explain and demonstrate poses and adjust students’ alignments as needed.

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Hatha Yoga Tips: Be Aware Of The Breath

August 26th, 2008 Shaka

Hatha Yoga Tips: Be Aware Of The Breath

Attention to the breath is an important element of any hatha yoga discipline.

In yoga for beginners, you learn to use the breath dictate the length of time it takes to move into a posture. The benefits of regulated breathing in hatha yoga disciplines include facilitation of healing, preparation of the mind for meditation, and invigoration of the body during asanas.

Yogic breathing means inhaling and exhaling deeply through the nose. Breathing through the mouth is rare in yoga practices, although there are exceptions. If you are a beginning yoga practitioner and you have a hard time breathing only through your nose, don’t worry about it; you will develop the skill as you continue to practice yoga. Meanwhile, don’t hold your breath because you don’t want to breathe through your mouth. Holding your breath limits how deeply you can work in a pose.

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Hatha Yoga Tips: How Sit Comfortably For Hatha Yoga Poses

August 26th, 2008 Shaka

Hatha Yoga Tips: How Sit Comfortably For Hatha Yoga Poses

Hatha yoga disciplines involve seated poses as well as standing poses, and many classes will involve some time spent in one of several seated positions, usually a seated cross-legged pose (sukhasana) or thunderbolt pose (vajrasana) in which you kneel on the floor and sit back on your heels. In some Hatha yoga classes you will simply sit in these positions, or they may be used as preparation for other poses.

If your knees are higher than your hips when you sit cross-legged, it means that you have tight hips, which is especially common in runners. Try sitting on a block or blanket to help your hips open. Believe it or not, simply sitting in a cross-legged position will increase the flexibility in your hips.

Similarly, if you have tight hips and thighs it may be too uncomfortable for you to sit back on your heels in thunderbolt pose. If so, place a rolled blanket between your thighs and calves. Some people with tight ankles experience ankle discomfort in thunderbolt pose. If you are one of these people, place a rolled blanket or towel between your ankles and the floor to relieve the pressure on the tops of your ankles.

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Hatha Yoga Tips: Let’s Get Physical

August 26th, 2008 Shaka

Hatha Yoga Tips: Let’s Get Physical

The term “hatha yoga” is an umbrella term. Specifically, hatha yoga is the branch of yoga that includes the physical elements, namely the asanas, or poses, and breathing (pranayama). It includes all types of physical yoga disciplines with which you may be familiar, including Ashtanga yoga, Bikram yoga, Iyengar yoga, Kundalini yoga, and Svaroopa yoga.

In addition, lesser known styles including Kripalu, Ananda, and Ansura yoga fall under the hatha heading because they involve physical activity, although these three have a stronger meditative element and less of a “workout/fitness yoga” orientation.

Yoga is a centuries-old philosophy with a goal of spiritual enlightenment based on the integration of the mind and body through eight branches. Hatha is the physical element and is one of the eight branches of yoga. Simplified definitions of the other seven branches are as follows:

-Bhakti yoga: Achieving enlightenment based on devotion to a supreme being.

-Guru yoga: Achieving enlightenment through devotion to a yoga teacher.

-Jnana yoga: Achieving enlightenment through the idea that your current perception of distinct experiences will ultimately blend into one consciousness.

-Karma yoga: Achieving enlightenment by acting unselfishly and with integrity.

-Mantra yoga: Achieving enlightenment by using sound to harmonize the body and mind

-Raja yoga: Achieving enlightenment based on asanas, breathing, concentration, and moral discipline (this branch consists of eight limbs and incorporates ashtanga yoga).

-Tantra yoga: Achieving enlightenment through activation of the body’s spiritual energy (this branch incorporates kundalini yoga).

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Hatha Yoga Tips: Let The Breath Guide The Posture

August 26th, 2008 Shaka

Hatha Yoga Tips: Let The Breath Guide The Posture

How you breathe as you enter, hold, and exit a hatha yoga position contributes to how deeply you can work in the posture. In general, the body opens when you inhale and contracts when you exhale. Try to feel the breath flowing into the area of the body on which you are focusing in hatha yoga postures. The body moves in four directions: Forward bends (flexion), backward bends (extension), sideways bends (lateral extension) and twists (rotation).

Keep this breathing pattern in mind for these four natural motions when you move through hatha yoga positions:

-Inhale when moving into back bends.

-Exhale when moving into forward bends.

-Exhale when moving into side bends.

-Exhale when moving into twists.

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