"If you are taking yoga classes but not practicing at home, you may be missing the best—and potentially most therapeutic—part of yoga. Your personal practice is where the deepest work happens, when you go inward and go at your own pace."—from Yoga As Medicine This quotation from my book got posted on Facebook the other day and generated quite a bit of interest. But not everyone, particularly those who only take classes, agrees with the statement. A woman came up to me at a yoga conference earlier this year to say she’d heard me make a similar comment at a workshop I taught in Los Angeles a few years ago, and it made her really angry. It’s easy to understand that reaction when your experience in class has been so positive, and even healing. But now scientific research seems to back up the notion that a regular home practice really is the key to health and well-being, perhaps particularly so as we get older. A study recently published in the journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine by researchers at the University of Maryland and the National Institutes of Health found that, among more than 1000 practitioners of Iyengar yoga, the frequency of home practice predicted positive health more than how long you’ve been practicing or how many classes you attend per week. According to the article “Frequency of yoga practice predicts health: results of a national survey of yoga practitioners,”: “Frequency of home practice favorably predicted (p < .001): mindfulness, subjective well-being, BMI, fruit and vegetable consumption, vegetarian status, sleep, and fatigue.” In other words, those who practiced at home the most reported better health and well-being, greater awareness of themselves and others, improved sleep, less fatigue, and healthier body weight. They were even more likely to eat their vegetables! The study bore out something else I’ve been teaching for years: when you combine the various tools in the yoga toolbox including asana, breathing practices, meditation and even study of yoga philosophy you tend to get even better results. As the authors put it, “an intense practice involving all aspects of yoga practice may be more beneficial to health than a less intense practice that includes only one or two aspects of yoga practice, such as just practicing the physical poses or breath work.” There also appeared to be additional benefits for combining different types of asana practices, such as standing poses, vigorous practices like Sun Salutations, restorative poses including Savasana, and inversions like Shoulderstand. Different practices appeared to be particularly beneficial for specific conditions. Vigorous asana and inversions seemed to help the most with insomnia and body weight, whereas, according to the authors, “because breath work and meditation appear to influence mindfulness and well-being, they may be particularly useful in treating conditions such as depression and anxiety.” One finding that may be of particular interest to readers of this blog has to do with fatigue. Overall, older practitioners had less fatigue than younger practitioners, but both groups improved when they did yoga. But it appears to take less practice for older practitioners to experience improvements in energy. As for the woman who was mad at me for saying that a home practice was more important than going to classes, she went on to say that, almost despite herself, she did try doing her yoga at home. Now she does it regularly and believes it’s the most important part of her practice. She thanked me profusely, though of course most of all she can thank herself! Subscribe to Yoga for Healthy Aging by Email ° Follow Yoga for Healthy Aging on Facebook ° Join this site with Google Friend Connect
As part of my continuing series of special sequences, I’d like to offer a sequence for building stronger bones. To start, please see one of my previous post on osteoporosis Healthy Bones for Men and Women Alike. When practicing the poses I have chosen for the sequence today, remember some of the suggestions I made in that previous post:
“The research data that shows that we can stimulate new bone growth along lines of stress by holding poses for between 8-72 seconds is, for me, the pivotal nuance to add to the yoga practice you are already doing. Because of this, I have been working recently with holding postures for 30-60 seconds, depending on the physical demands of a given pose (for example, holding Downward-Facing Dog for 60 seconds, while holding Hand to Foot pose (Hasta Padangustasana), a much more demanding pose on many levels, for 30 seconds.”
So, you will want to experiment with holding your poses in that 30-60 second range. The other key concept to keep in mind relates to the following:
“Remember that engaging opposing muscle groups while doing the pose increases the stimulation of the underlying bone cells that make new bone (this is essentially an isometric contraction around a joint). So, in Downward-Facing Dog I consciously engage the muscles around all the joints I can think of.”
In standing poses, I am not only taking advantage of the weight bearing part of the pose, the feet and legs, but using this isometric muscle contraction around the shoulder joints, for example, and in the contraction of the muscles of the back spine to assist in keeping the posture actively upright. So, if you want to add more poses to the sequence, you can include any of your favorite standing poses and apply these two principles for bone strengthening. Cautions: The Bone Strength Sequence was designed for those with no evidence of osteoporosis or osteopenia. If you have either of those conditions, be mindful to avoid the forward folding action of Cat/Cow pose (the Cat position), although the hands and knees position will lessen the potentially negative force on your thoracic vertebrae quite a bit. Otherwise, the sequence should be safe.
Warm-Up
Cat/Cow: This pose warms up your spine and its joints, as you are also bearing weight on your wrists, the second most commonly fractured area in people with OP. Start on your hands knees, with a blanket or other padding under your knees. On your inhale arch into a gentle backbend, and then on your exhale round your spine towards the ceiling. Repeat for about six rounds.
Hunting Dog: This pose a great one for building strength in the wrists and spine. See Hunting Dog Pose for basic instructions. Be mindful to keep your chest lifting towards your shoulder blades, especially on the side where your hand is on the ground. And strongly reach your lifted arm and shoulder blade forward, as you reach the lifted leg backward. After you come out, be sure to shake out the wrist of your supporting arm.
Downward Facing Dog: Because you are bearing weight on hands and feet and really working around the hip joints, the third most commonly fractured joint in the body, this is a great pose for building bone strength. From hands and knees position, come up into Downward-Facing Dog pose. See Downward-Facing Dog Pose Variations for variations that might work best for you.
Downward Dog Variation
High Plank Pose: This is another great pose for your wrists as well as your arm bones, and also for your spine as it engages the muscles attached to your spine. Start in Downward-Facing Dog pose, and then shift your shoulders forward until your shoulder joints are directly over your wrist joints. Keep your ribcage lifting up towards your shoulder blades and your elbows strong and straight. The rest of your body should be in a Mountain pose-like shape, so you need to keep your core and legs engaged, while maintaining a natural curve in your lower back. To come out of the pose, swing back to Downward-Facing Dog, then to hands and knees. Afterward, give your wrists a good shake out and brief rest.
Active Poses
Extended Side Angle Pose: This is a great pose for your legs and hip joints, your bottom wrist joint, and your spine. You could substitute Triangle or Warrior 2 pose here, if you prefer those standing poses. From Mountain pose, step your feet wide apart, turn your right foot and leg out 90 degrees and kick out your back heel an inch or so. Bring your arms up parallel with the floor and bend your front knee. Then side-bend your hips and torso over your front leg and put your right hand on a block on its highest height, placed snug up against the outside of your front shin. Swing your top arm up and overhead, completing the side angle from your back leg through your torso and into your top arm. Push down firmly into the block with your bottom hand and feel your right shoulder blade firm into your chest and slightly down toward your waist. Reach your top arm and shoulder blade strongly forward towards your fingers. Be sure to actively engage the muscles around your mid-spine to strengthen your mid spine area. Come out of the pose on an inhalation, relax your arms at your sides, and repeat on the other side.
Warrior 1: This a good pose to strengthen the spine, as it contracts the back muscles that pull on the vertebrae of the entire spine. See Warrior 1 Pose for instructions. You will use this pose to transition into your next pose.
Warrior 3: This pose adds in a balance challenge to weight bearing on the standing leg and isometric work on the lifted hip and along the spine. See Warrior 3 Pose for instructions and easier variations. Since the pose can be quite challenging, start with shorter holds and gradually work up to 30 seconds or more.
Forearm Dog Pose to Forearm Plank Pose: See Downward-Facing Dog Pose Variations for instructions on Downward-Facing Dog pose with Headstand Arms for instructions. From that pose, move into Forearm Plank by swinging your shoulders directly over your elbows and bringing your body parallel with the floor. When you come out of the pose, release down onto your belly in a prone position.
Locust: See Locust Pose for instructions. Even though those instructions are for dynamic Locust, practicing this pose dynamically will give you a good way to ease into full, static Locust pose, in which you lift both legs, your chest and your head and hold the pose for 10 seconds to start. Gradually add more time until you can do a 30 second hold. Rest for a few breaths before moving on.
Simple Seated Twist: It is theorized that twisting helps nourish the spine—movement of the spine helps maintain the health of the discs—and also strengthens the bones themselves as your back muscles pull on the bony insertions of the spine. If you already have osteoporosis, you may need to be a bit more cautious, so I recommend that you twist to a bit less than your potential maximum. Start by sitting in a comfortable crossed-legs position, on a prop such as a folded blanket if needed. Sit tall and on an exhalation, rotate your chest and upper belly to the right, placing your left hand on your right knee and your right hand on the floor behind you. Stay for 30-60 seconds before releasing and changing the cross of your legs and twisting to other side.
Bridge Pose: This pose will engage your back body muscles, so it's a good one for strengthening your spinal vertebrae as well as your legs. Starting on your back, bend your knees to come into Constructive Rest pose, with your feet about four inches from your hips. Warm up by lifting your hips up as you inhale and lowering them down when you exhale, up to six times. Then inhale and stay in the pose for 30-60 seconds, breathing gently in and out the entire time. Press down evenly into your feet, and lift both from your hips and the lower tip of your breastbone. Optionally, you can turn your upper arm bones under the pose, being mindful not to put strain on your neck. On an exhalation, release your arms and come out of the pose.
Before moving on to Relaxation pose (Savasana), take a moment to do bring your knees to your chest or rock your knees and hips side to side to release your back muscles.
Cool-Down Savasana: If time permits, take a generous 10-minute rest before heading into your day. Bring attention to your bones and imagine them heavy, dense and strong.
Subscribe to Yoga for Healthy Aging by Email ° Follow Yoga for Healthy Aging on Facebook ° Join this site with Google Friend Connect
When someone is in need of attention for a mental health disorder, the qualified manhattan psychiatrist will have an extensive, required education. The difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist is the second has a medical degree and the first has a doctorate. Years of education go into earning either of these distinctions.
The patient who requires prescription medication to manage his or her condition turns to the psychiatrist for a diagnosis. Although this medical professional can offer counseling as well, most often a combination of care from both is effective. Psychiatric diagnosis ordinarily begins with a physical exam followed by whatever tests are deemed necessary.
There are cases in which a mental disorder results from a physical condition. There are many possibilities such as a brain tumor or disease and excessive use of recreational drugs or alcohol. A stroke may also cause mental impairment of some severity.
The extensive educational requirements for becoming a psychiatrist begin with earning a four-year medical degree. Next is practice during the four years of a psychiatric residency. Time must be spent in internal or pediatric practice, and two months in neurology, referred to as an internship.
From the date of high school graduation, it takes at least twelve years to qualify to practice psychiatry. If the candidate wants to prepare for a subspecialty, that will add a two year long fellowship to the process. Then an exam is taken for medical licensing. If desired, the individual can apply for board certification, which is optional.
State licensure is mandatory. A federal narcotics license is also required to enable him or her to prescribe what are described as controlled medicines. Finally, he or she must register with an agency called the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Psychotic behavior indicates a mental disorder although it is not a disorder in itself. This symptom may have a physical basis such as a brain tumor. It can also be attributed to an addiction to drugs or alcohol. Death of a loved one or an equally severe event can sometimes cause a psychotic episode. That psychosis does not mean a person is mentally ill.
Schizophrenia is a psychotic illness in which the person hears voices, sometimes telling him or her to cause harm to another person. Although these auditory hallucinations are the most common, they can also be visual or involve any of the senses. The individual will speak in unusual patterns that make no sense. Claiming to be a famous person is another sign of psychosis.
A tool that is used to evaluate psychosis and its severity is the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale. It provides information on 18 different aspects of the psychotic episode. In the case of a physical cause, blood tests and brain scans may be used to evaluate the state of mind.
Controlling the odd symptoms and deciding between hospitalization and outpatient care is most urgent. If any suicidal ideation is present, the patient likely needs inpatient care. Psychotropic drugs may help control symptoms.
The extensive education and experience of the manhattan psychiatrist prepares him or her to quickly assess an emergency such as suicidal intent. A decision must be made on hospitalization versus outpatient treatment. In many cases, a combination of medication along with counseling, also referred to as talk therapy, is successful in resolving issues whether they are an emergency or one that can be resolved on an outpatient basis.
About the Author:
Get in touch with a reputable Manhattan psychiatrist by touring our web pages at www.davidabramsonpsych.com today. To know more about our philosophy and access helpful links, take a look at http://www.davidabramsonpsych.com right now.
Because people who are involved in athletic competitions and other types of events continually are pushing their bodies to do better, it is not surprising they frequently sustain injuries and issues with pain. While there are numerous of medications to help in dealing with these situations, many times an athlete may prefer a more natural type of treatment such as can be obtained from a Chiropractic Practice Inman Park.
When athletes are competing are preparing for an event, they generally will need to push themselves much harder than they normally do. While this can be helpful in their competitions, often it can result in painful conditions in the body. While a medical doctor can provide pain medications or other types of drugs to help dealing with the pain being experienced, many athletes may find this is only a temporary fix to their problems.
To really correct these type of painful conditions, the injured area must be manipulated so the soreness and tightness can be removed form the muscles and the tissues. An experienced chiropractor in Atlanta, GA, will generally understand the problem and will know how to treat the problem area.
Reducing the tightness in an area is beneficial because it allows the patient's range of motion to be increased. This is essential as it will allow the patient to continue moving the area so it becomes stronger and can heal itself. In addition, it will allow them to get back to training in a much faster timeframe.
Chiropractors also will work with the patient to make sure their spine and other musculoskeletal structures are in proper alignment. This will often enable the body to work at healing itself. The body has great healing properties, but it must be in proper alignment to accomplish these processes.
A chiropractor uses many techniques to help a person who is dealing with pain and tightness. However, the most important treatment they offer is by manual manipulation of the muscles and tissues. This is primarily accomplished by the use of their hands. While these treatments are generally calm and smooth, there are times when a join may be out of proper place and the chiropractor may need to use force to shift it back into alignment.
While a chiropractor can be of significant benefit to their patients, often their treatments must be carried out over a period of time. This is because they work in a gradual manner to help the patient achieve long-lasting results. For athletes or anyone who does not wish to take pain medications, this type of natural care can be a great choice both for any issues they are currently dealing with and in helping to prevent further problems.
By seeing a chiropractor for help with an injury or other painful condition, often an athlete may be able to avoid needing medications or surgery to repair the problem. This is a great advantage as some medications can limit a person's ability to compete in certain types of competitions. Having surgery will generally cause the athlete to be sidelined for a period of time while they heal. However, if chiropractic treatments can be used instead, the athlete will generally be able to get back to their normal training regimen much sooner.
About the Author:
You can visit www.anyspine.com for more helpful information about Injured Athletes May Find Treatments At A Chiropractic Practice Inman Park Are Their Best Choice.
by Nina Is anyone else a fan of the brilliant food writer M.F.K. Fisher? I not only love her beautiful writing, but also her ideas. When I first started reading her work, I remember being struck by a simple but profound of advice she had for eating well: “Instead of combining a lot of dull and sometimes actively hostile foods into one routine meal after another, three times a day and every day, year after year, in the earnest hope that you are being a good provider, try this simple plan: Balance the day, not each meal in the day.” (You can read her entire advice on this subject on the Less Is Enough blog.) What Fisher meant was that you did not have to eat every single food group at every single meal (what we used to call a “square meal,” something American nutritionists used to insist on) but rather you could have grains for breakfast, a salad or soup for lunch, and meat or fish with vegetables for dinner. You'd still get all the nutrition you needed—just not all at once! Thirty years later, I still follow her advice. I recommend applying the same advice to your home yoga practice. Rather than trying to make every single yoga practice like a balanced “meal” by including some of everything, you can focus each day on one or two of the major classes of poses. And by the end of the week, you’ll have done a very wide range of poses, balancing your body by moving all your joints within their range of motion and reducing problems associated with repetitive stress. So what are the basic pose “food groups” you could think about trying to cover in a week? Leaving out a few poses that don't fit that well into general categories, they are:
Standing poses
Backbends
Forward bends
Twists
Inverted Poses
Restorative poses
Depending on how many days a week you want to practice (and how long you want your practice to be) you could focus on single class of poses each day, or you could combine two or more in a given day. If there’s something in particular you want to work on (such as balancing or abdominal strengthening), you could add that into your practice on a regular basis. Does this mean that even though your teacher always includes standing poses in every single class, you can skip them yourself at home? Yes. That's exactly what I mean.
A Pose You Can Skip from Yoga: The Poetry of the Body
It does make sense to do a little balancing, however, by adding one or more counter poses to the end of your practice. After doing backbends, it’s helpful to do a twist, leg stretch or another back releasing pose. After doing forward bends or twists, I recommend doing a gentle back bend to restore the natural curve to your spine. And after standing poses, inverted poses or restorative poses can help calm you down and relax your muscles before Savasana. I hope this helps you feel more comfortable about starting a home practice because the main thing is just to jump right in. I’ll do another post soon on how to plan a single practice, but in general there are no hard and fast rules, and there is no reason why your home practice has to look like a class. Subscribe to YOGA FOR HEALTHY AGING by Email ° Follow Yoga for Healthy Aging on Facebook
I’ve designed this quieting sequence—which can be helpful if you are suffering from stress or anxiety, or just need to chill—to prepare you to practice supported seated forward bends. If done with the right amount of support, seated forward bends can be very quieting poses. However, unless you are naturally very flexible in your hamstrings (the backs of your thighs) and your back muscles, you do need to experiment a bit with different types of propping to find the type of support that will allow the poses feel nurturing and calming rather than uncomfortable and aggravating.
Basically there are two different ways to support yourself in a forward bend. The first way—which Baxter mentioned in his post Male Body Image and Yoga as a revelation to him—is to use a bolster or rolled blanket under your straight leg or legs. For example, here is Baxter in Seated Forward Bend (Paschimottanasana):
See Getting Comfortable in Forward Bends for information about this type of support forward bends. In this version, you do round your back a bit. If rounding your back isn’t a good idea for you (due to back problems) or just doesn’t feel good to you, you can try supporting your hands and head on a chair the way I’m doing in this photo (a version that works really well for me):
See Soothing Yourself with Supported Forward Bends for information about this type of supported forward bends. In this version, you keep your spine straight, so you need to be sure the chair seat is high enough to support your head without rounding your spine (it might be necessary to put some folded blankets on top of the chair seat).
This sequence begins with leg stretches to open your hips and lengthen your hamstrings (the backs of your thighs). The Half Dog pose and Standing Forward bend also stretch your legs while at the same time lengthening your spine and opening your shoulders. The standing poses also open your hips, lengthen your hamstrings, lengthen your spine, and open your shoulders. But because these are more active, demanding poses, they can help you release physical stress from your body to prepare you for sitting quietly.
The Cobbler’s pose (Baddha Konasana) is a seated pose that will transition you from the active poses to quieter ones, while at the same time preparing your hips for the first seated forward bend.
After the two seated forward bends, practicing Child’s pose, either with or without support, will continue to quiet you, while at the same time releasing your lower back. If this pose doesn’t work for you, you can skip it.
Ending with Legs Up the Wall or Easy Inverted pose continues to quiet your nervous system while resting your lower back.
Quieting Sequence
1. Standing Leg Stretches (Padangusthasana), 30 seconds to 1.5 minutes per side. Follow the instructions here.
2. Downward-Facing Dog pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana) with Chair, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Follow the instructions here.
3. Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana) with Chair, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Depending on the length of your torso, you’ll need to stand some distance away from the front of your chair seat. As you come into the pose, focus on bending from your hip joints, not rounding your back. Keeping your back straight (step back if necessary), rest your head on your folded arms, tugging your forehead skin gently toward your nose. If the chair seat is not high enough for you, place folded blankets on the seat to raise it.
4. Warrior 2 pose (Virbradrasana), 30 seconds to 1 minute per side. Follow the instructions here. For this practice, focus on moving slowly in and out of the pose to maintain quietness.
5. Triangle Pose (Trikonasana), 30 seconds to 1 minute per side. As you come into the pose, focus on lifting up and over your hip joint as you keep lengthening your spine. Move slowly in and out of the pose to maintain quietness. Use enough support for your bottom hand to keep the pose comfortable.
6. Extended Side Angle Pose (Parsvakonasana), 30 seconds to 1 minute per side. After you bend your front knee, focus on lifting up and over your hip joint as you keep lengthening your spine to come into the pose. Move slowly in and out of the pose to maintain quietness. Use enough support for your bottom hand to keep the pose comfortable.
7. Downward-Facing Dog pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana), 30 seconds to 1 minute.
8. Cobbler’s Pose (Baddha Konasana), 1.5 minutes. Sit on a support that is high enough so your knees are at the same level with or below your hips (version 1 or 2 in this video). Focus on lengthening your spine up as your relax your hip joints.
9. One-Legged Forward Bend (Janu Sirsasana) with Bolster or Chair, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Start by sitting on a support with two straight legs, then bend your right knee and let your right leg drop out to the side in a half Cobbler's pose. Place your bolster under your left leg or, if you're using the chair, have your left leg under the chair seat. Then, to come into the forward bend, focus on bending from your hip joints, not rounding your back. If you are doing the version with a support under your straight leg, you can allow you back to gently round once you are in the pose. If you are doing the version with a chair, keep your back straight. Rest your head on your folded arms, tugging your forehead skin gently toward your nose. If you are using the chair seat and it is not high enough for you, place folded blankets on the seat to raise it. We don't have photos of this pose, but picture the next pose with one bent leg and one straight leg.
10. Seated Forward Bend (Paschimottanasana) with Bolster or Chair, 3 minutes if possible. Start by sitting on a support. Then, place a bolster or rolled blankets under both legs or, if you are using th chair, lengthen both legs under the chair seat. As you come into the pose, focus on bending from your hip joints, not rounding your back. If you are doing the version with a support under your straight leg, you can allow you back to gently round once you are in the pose. If you are doing the version with a chair, keep your back straight. Rest your head on your folded arms, tugging your forehead skin gently toward your nose. If you are using the chair seat and it is not high enough for you, place folded blankets on the seat to raise it.
11. Child’s Pose (Balasana), with or without support, 1 to 3 minutes. For instructions on the supported version, see here. If you are doing the supported version, make sure to turn your head to the second side halfway through the pose. And if you have trouble deeply flexing your knees or flexing your ankles and feet, as an alternative to regular Childs pose, try flipping onto your back and hugging your legs gently to your chest.
12. Legs Up the Wall pose (Viparita Karani) or Easy Inverted Pose, 5 to 15 minutes. For instructions Legs Up the Wall Pose and Easy Inverted Pose. If it is comfortable for you, support yourself on the bolster or blankets so that your lower back is curved again (letting your tailbone tip down off the support).
Subscribe to Yoga for Healthy Aging by Email ° Follow Yoga for Healthy Aging on Facebook ° Join this site with Google Friend Connect
