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Yoga Keeps You Fit?

Yoga keeps you fit? That's stretching it! Studies reveal getting into the lotus position will NOT get you into shape...

By Peta Bee

Encouraged by A-listers such as Trudie Styler and Christy Turlington, who claim they owe their perfectly honed bodies to yoga, around half a million of us now regularly attend yoga classes.

Many more diligently practise our downward dogs at home — according to Amazon, yoga DVDs regularly out-sell other home workout programmes — and luxury yoga retreats have become the cooler alternative to a spa break.

And the popularity of yoga shows no signs of waning, with the growth rate set to reach 25 per cent this year. But, last week, one of Britain’s leading fitness experts, celebrity personal trainer Matt Roberts, suggested that yoga isn’t doing much for our fitness levels, at all.

‘You may feel that you are keeping fit by doing a weekly yoga class, but you aren’t,’ Roberts said. ‘The reason why everyone likes yoga is that it isn’t very hard.

‘Yes, there are individual parts of your body that are being worked hard, but with every form of exercise you should ask yourself is it intensive enough? Is my heartbeat raised? Am I out of breath and sweating for at least 25 to 30 minutes at a time? The answer when you’re doing yoga is, I suspect, no.’

His comments will undoubtedly unsettle yoga enthusiasts everywhere. Yet, Roberts isn’t alone in suggesting that yoga offers less of a workout than we have been led to believe.

John Brewer, professor of sports science at the University of Bedfordshire, is keen to debunk the myth that celebrities achieve their streamlined appearance solely through endless sessions on a yoga mat.

‘You just can’t achieve weight loss and a high level of fitness through doing yoga alone,’ he says. ‘These people probably devote hours a day to running, cycling, the gym and do yoga on top of that for its relaxation and flexibility benefits.’

Brewer says that other than leaving you with better balance and flexibility, yoga doesn’t provide too many benefits, because the most important muscle in the body is the heart and this workout doesn’t really work the cardiovascular system at all.

Quite how limited a workout yoga provides was put to the test when the U.S. consumer watchdog, the American Council on Exercise (ACE), commissioned researchers at the University of Wisconsin’s human performance laboratory to investigate its fitness benefits.

What the exercise scientists found was surprising. In their trial, a group of 34 previously sedentary women were asked to take part either in three 55-minute hatha yoga classes — the most popular variety in the West — a week for two months, or to abstain from exercise altogether.

‘You get changes in strength and muscular endurance, flexibility and balance — all those types of things — but, in order to improve aerobic capacity, essentially the efficiency of your heart and lungs, you really need to be working in the training zone where your heart rate reaches 70 to 80 per cent of your maximum,’ says Professor John Porcari,  who led the study. ‘Based on what we found, the intensity just wasn’t there.’

In other words — doing three sessions of yoga a week led to no significant improvement in aerobic capacity. An additional study by Porcari and his colleagues monitored the exercise intensity of a group of intermediate-level yogis as they took part in two sessions: one hatha yoga, and one power yoga, which is said to be more aerobically-challenging.

They found that 50-minutes of hatha burned just 144 calories, no better than a slow walk. Even the 50-minute power yoga class burned only 237 calories (half the amount of a circuit class) and boosted heart rate to only 62 per cent of its maximum, meaning it provided only a mild workout for the heart and lungs. But Brewer stresses that yoga does have its place in a fitness programme if you want to improve flexibility.

Read on here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2038876/Yoga-keeps-fit-Thats-stretching-Studies-reveal-getting-lotus-position-NOT-shape-.html

Yoga – An Exercise Regime Or A Way Of Life?

India.com Health, Aug 10, 2012

Yoga has become very popular in the last ten years or so with stars from Bollywood and Hollywood endorsing it. It has suddenly become the new trendy exercise in town. So is it merely an exercise regime or a way of life? To find answers to these questions we called upon Mamta Arora, yoga guru and instructor, who runs the Yoga Blessing studio.  Excerpts from the interview:

Yoga’s become a fad these days with the classes mushrooming everywhere particularly with Bollywood popularizing it. Many Yogis offer miracle cures for chronic ailments and fast weight loss. How do people differentiate the good yoga classes from the bad ones? What should they adopt?

Mamta Arora: Yoga as a discourse has its roots in the ancient texts like the Vedas and the Upanishads. Not only has it has been extensively written about by learned sages and gurus, it also features prominently within the Bhagavad Gita. The Gita revolves around the principles of karma yoga, jnana yoga and bhakti yoga.

The Bollywood fuelled trends prevalent today (such as hot yoga and power yoga) do not make an appearance anywhere in these texts. Combining yoga with other forms of exercises is resulting yoga losing its roots. While it is true that yoga does enhance physical fitness, the benefits of yoga transcend physical benefits. It rejuvenates the mind, body and soul.

Should yoga be treated only as a form of exercise in order to lose weight? What are the other benefits of yoga?

Mamta Arora: No. While yoga is indeed a very rewarding form of exercise, it is not just exercise. It is a way of life. When a person practises yoga, he or she embarks upon a journey into a world of self-discovery and spiritual growth and experiences both physical and mental changes over time. Yoga harmonises thought, action and speech. It is based on 5 holistic principles:

• Proper exercise
• Proper breathing
• Proper diet
• Proper relaxation
• Positive thinking and meditation

It is this umbrella approach of yoga that differentiates it from solely physically-oriented pursuits such as aerobics or weight training. Thus, yoga is a strict and holistic discipline that has no shortcuts.  Physical exercise focuses on the health of body, but yoga focuses on the health of mind, body and spiritual growth. Furthermore, physical exercises don’t have the cleansing power that yoga does.  With the help of kriyas (deeds), yoga brings a sense of internal discipline and change. The superficial nature of pure physical exercise draws prana out of the body while yoga draws in the prana within a person and contributes to spiritual growth.

Yoga has innumerable benefits that physical exercise does not. It leads a person from darkness to light, ignorance to knowledge and makes a person feel complete. It also increases productivity, improves immunity, enhances clarity and heightens self-awareness.

How important is a good guru for practicing yoga?

Mamta Arora: In the traditional yoga practice, a guru is regarded as God and it is said that the words of God can actually be heard through a guru. A guru is a guide and mentor with the power to spark the true understanding of yoga within the disciple. The teachings and writings of renowned gurus such as Swami Sivananda have touched the lives of several students and helped them use the power of yoga to face adversity. A guru is a Jivanmukta or a liberated soul. The powers of a Jivanmukta are always prevalent even though he may not be physically present.

A guru gives a clear guidance to a student based on her years of tapasya and sadhana, which helps the student to follow the path of yoga with no obstacles. The grace and blessings of the guru keep guiding the aspirant throughout his journey like a light in the darkness. There is no path without a guru. An aspirant or Sadhak is like a blind person without a guru.

Students who follow in their guru parampara or tradition absorb their teachings and spread the light to other students in their path based on the teachings of their guru. Therefore, when choosing a teacher today, one must take into account not only the years of practice put in by the teacher but also which guru he/she follows and how closely they follow their teachings. It is highly recommended to seek out a personal guru rather than following an online course or DVD as it is impossible to truly experience yoga without the presence, knowledge and guidance of a teacher.

Could you tell us a little about the various different schools of yoga?

Mamta Aurora: Yoga has several schools including Hatha, Ashtanga, Kundalini and more. They all have their own names based on the guru and the teachings, although Yoga in its purest form is only Yoga and nothing else.  Yoga was defined by Sage Patanjali, as a discipline free from ideological divisions.  In the yoga sutra, he outlined “sthir sukham asanam” or steady comfortable posture as the sole and all-encompassing definition of yoga which will lead us to the light. Some yoga ashrams like the Bihar school of yoga and Sivananda ashrams worldwide follow Patanjali’s teachings by having a gurukul system wherein a student practises yoga and is completely detached from the family for months together. 

Teachers like BKS Iyengar, (fondly known as Guruji) have strived to simplify yoga through the use of props. Guruji has still devoted his entire life to yoga and given hope to many. Thus, his own practice is known as Iyengar Yoga. At the Sivananda center, a student experiences a synthesis of bhakti yoga (satsangs), jnana yoga (Vedanta and bagvad gita) and karma yoga(selfless service). While it is important to study the different schools of yoga in terms of lineage and history, the main purpose of creating name-based distinctions is so that the student can understand yoga as the guru means it to be understood, thereby helping them gain a deeper understanding than the lay person. Thus, while the different ‘schools’ of yoga are outlined and known, the goal remains the same: journeying into the self and moving inwards, from the materialistic to the spiritual.

How can it help us deal with the stressful situations we encounter every day?

Mamta Arora: It is a little known fact that most of our stress in life originates from our own living habits – our ethics, food, clothes and thoughts. The basic principles of yoga help people streamline their habits by strengthening the mind and body.

On the physical level, asanas and postures generate oxygen in the blood and strengthen the spine and brain centres. Combined with breathing and meditation, yoga relaxes the entire nervous system and releases stress in the mind and body. Regular practice also increases willpower, thereby increasing a person’s capacity to accomplish more things and avoid stressful situations.

The teachings of yoga from the Patanjali yogasutras to the Vedanta philosophy helps students deal with difficult situations. The awareness about kleshas (afflictions of the mind), Sakshi Bhava (witness-like attitude) and pratipaksha bhavna (to counter negative thoughts with positive) are among the many aspects that go deeper to give a student a broader outlook to life, thus helping him or her rise above materialism and make life more worthwhile.

What about people with specific health problems? Can they practice yoga?

Mamta Aurora: Yes. Yoga gives hope to the sick, strength to the weak, and light to the ignorant. As mentioned earlier, yogic cures are available and proven for several diseases, both physical and mental. Yogic treatments have benefited patients of autism, asthma, slip disc and even cancer as they make the body more receptive to cure and healing. The student must not hesitate to make the teacher completely aware of the nature of their problem so that the teacher can customize the structure of the lesson. The teacher will also assist the student in finding alternatives to certain postures and tailor the lesson to his/her needs. Yoga certainly helps one cope with a disease even if it doesn’t completely cure it.

How Bikram Yoga Compares with Leading Weight-Loss Products

Bikram Yoga is a style of yoga which is practiced in a 105° room. Some refer to this style of yoga as “Hot Yoga”. Bikram was created by a company in California with Bikram Choudhury. Not only is the room heated but the humidity is set at a level of 40%. Classes are said to include twenty six positions or postures and two specific breathing exercises. A vigorous yoga session performed at this temperature is said to promote extreme sweating and that it is able to rid the person’s body of toxins. The body becomes very warm which is said to increase one’s flexibility. Let’s see if Bikram Yoga produces and noticeable weight loss benefits.

Read on: http://www.dietspotlight.com/bikram-yoga-review/

Kriya Yoga

Kriya Yoga is a science that uses the flow of breaths to oxygenate the body and make it fit for meditation. Signifying action, kriya yoga is a meditation technique of energy control, also called Pranayama. This ancient technique was revived in India in 1861.It was passed on by the great yogi Mahavatar Babaji to his disciple Lahiri Mahasaya, in the Himalayas.

Swami Yogananda became the leader of modern kriya yoga that is a concentrated approach to self-discovery and spiritual enlightenment. It is a time-tested method to realize the innate spiritual nature, develop rational thinking, achieve emotional balance, promote physical health and live a life of purpose.

Influences on the mind-body-soul

The all pervading power of the life-force or prana flowing through the body and the influence of kriya yoga in balancing this energy is lucidly explained in The Bhagawad Gita by Lord Krishna. He says, "offering inhaling breath into the outgoing breath, and offering the outgoing breath into the inhaling breath, the yogi neutralizes both the breaths. When he does so, the yogi releases the life force from the heart and brings it under his control."

Sage Patanjali drawing on the goodness of this form of yoga says, "Kriya yoga consists of body discipline, mental control and meditation. Liberation can be accomplished by that pranayama which is attained by disjoining the course of inspiration and expiration".

The practice of Kriya yoga ensures growth on a physical, mental and spiritual level, bringing about a transformation. The brain cells are energized and rejuvenated, enhancing memory power. Control over the emotions is a crucial outcome of kriya yoga, achieved by the regulation of the neurons in the nerves. A sincere practice of kriya yoga clears the pathway leading to the divine power within.

References:

www.kriyayoga.org.nz 

www.thehomefoundation.com

www.en.wikipedia.org

www.kriyayoga.org.uk

www.ananda.org

www.yoganiketan.net

Submitted by: Mrs. Uma

Edited by: Mrs. Savitha

Article Source: http://www.medindia.net/yoga-lifestyle/Kriya-Yoga.htm

What does your favourite yoga pose say about you?

Here's what Cyndi Lee, Natural Solutions magazine has to say.


Whether you prefer twists, backbends, or inversions, here’s how your favorite yoga poses can give you valuable insight into your personality.


If you like:


Forward Bends: You prefer to keep your own counsel like a smart ostrich. At those times when life gets overstimulating–too many choices and too much responsibility–forward bends seduce you with the sweet serenity of folding inward and retreating from the world.


Twists: You like to know who and what’s going on around and behind you. You don’t see things in black or white but are stimulated by multi-dimensional situations and are not afraid of tension. Twists are a natural draw for those who find nourishment and joy from connecting to people and places while staying firmly grounded.


Back Bends: You find it refreshing to reverse the typical schlump of desk, car or depression. It feels good to rest your soft, open front on your confident, flexible spine and take in a big breath. Turning yourself inside out is quite extra-ordinary! For shy types this is scary and a true victory. For extroverts, it’s a natural as a sensuous morning stretch.


Balancing on One Leg: You are more curious about precision than perfection. For you, nothing is more fun than figuring out how to sway like a tree and still stay upright. You don’t even mind falling over because you always get back up and try again, understanding that is truly the heart of practice anyway.


Inversions: You’ve learned to include fears in the mix of a total experience. Perhaps you’ve started to blur the distinction between upside down and right side up, allowing for a vibrant sense of nowness wherever or however you are. Creative types who see things from all sides are drawn to inversions and so are those of us who just like to shake things up!


Click here to read more.

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