Yoga Health and Fitness Notes

Many of us in modern life today are under stress all time. However, we still have to stay in control. If this goes on for a long time, we can react to stress with poor eating habits, release of more stress hormones, and even by manifesting cardiac risk factors. However, there is a way to reduce these risk factors and even reverse them without turning to prescription drugs. All it takes is some discipline and to develop some habits over your lifetime that will work in tandem with your ordinary diet and exercise programs. Yoga is one of these; it can help you relearn the state of peace and harmony that you want your mind and body to be in. It will help you relax.

Yoga is the most prominent form of the burgeoning mind-body health movement, which includes tai chi, qigong and other meditative forms of exercise. Mind-body fitness, which derives from Eastern philosophies and religions, improves physical and emotional well-being.

The overall benefits of mind-body exercise are documented in an increasing number of scientific studies. They include everything from reducing cardiac risk factors to enhancing mood.

The kinder, gentler movements typical of yoga improve flexibility, strength and muscle tone and can be more youth-promoting than the wear-and-tear of daily aerobics, weights and running alone.

The practice of yoga should integrate every aspect of human existence. While many modern Western practitioners focus on the physical asanas, for others, yoga is an all-encompassing way of life and a path to bliss.

Considering yoga’s lofty goals, it’s delightfully simple and can be done anywhere, anytime. Taken to its extreme, yoga encompasses everything from a moral code and dietary practices to deep meditation. Most commonly, though, it’s a combination of asanas, meditation and pranayama (breathing exercises).

Entire books have been written on yoga breathing. Deep breathing is both calming and energizing. The energy you feel from a few minutes of careful breathing is not nervous or hyper, but that calm, steady energy we all need.

Try this 5-minute Breath Break to release your stress and pump up your energy. (Read through the instructions several times before you try the practice.)

1. Sit with your spine as straight as possible. Use a chair if necessary but don’t slump into it. Feet flat on the floor with knees directly over the center of your feet. Use a book or cushion under your feet if they do not rest comfortably on the floor. Hands are on the tops of your legs.

2. Close your eyes gently and simply rest them, lids closed.

3. Picture your ribs at the back, front and sides of your body. Your lungs reside behind your ribs.

4. Feel your lungs filling up, your ribs expanding out and up. Feel your lungs emptying, your ribs coming back down and in. Don’t push the breath.

5. The first few times you do this, do it for 2 to 3 minutes, then do it for up to 5 to 10 minutes. At first, set aside a time at least once a day to do this. When you learn how good it makes you feel, you’ll want to do it at other times as well.

Tags: exercise, pilates

You can have so much fun whilst getting fit with Wii Fit,there are four main categories of games which are Balance Games, Aerobics, Yoga and Strength training, in all there are 40 different activities and exercises to choose from. WiiFit will calculate your Wii body fit age and you can daily monitor your progress by utilising the body tester.

Tags: yoga poses, poses

There are many benefits that anyone can gain from exercising regularly, however I have recently found a way to really ramp up my health and fitness progress in a shorter amount of time than ever before.

The key to seeing results when you exercise is to perform your exercises right and in the right manner consistently. The lack of knowledge for some people limits their fitness goals and the proper way to perform exercises correctly.

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Tags: yoga poses, fitness