Every now and then, especially if you’ve been doing yoga for a long time, you might leave a class thinking, “Does he know what he’s doing? Is my yoga teacher qualified to be here?” If you were at a gym or a studio, probably. But all the right paperwork doesn’t make a good teacher. There’s […]
Category: Yoga
What Is Body Awareness, Anyway?
I talk a lot about body awareness, about how sports, fitness, and yoga all help to develop it. But what is it, really? And how do you know if you’re good at it? Body Awareness At a basic level, it’s knowing where your body is in space. This is proprioception, which Merriam-Webster defines as, “the reception […]
Understanding Your Chakras
Chakras (pronounced with a hard ch, as in cheese) can be a bit mysterious. Chances are, you’ve heard them mentioned in your yoga classes with little explanation of what they are or why they’re important. Chakras are energy centers in the body. There are actually thousands of them, but the seven primary ones are the ones […]
Taking Care of the Self
We’re a busy people, and a lot of us take a lot of pride in that busy-ness. I know I certainly have at times, and I still struggle at the times I consider myself to be “not busy enough.” It’s a badge of honor to be busy. It means we’re making use of our time, […]
Is Yoga Dangerous?
Every now and then, someone writes some kind of article inflating the dangers of yoga. Can yoga make you too flexible? Aren’t more and more people getting hurt in yoga? Is yoga dangerous? Let’s break this down. Is yoga dangerous? Not inherently, no. It’s generally less dangerous than high-impact exercise or crossing the street. (I […]
Tips for Sticking to a Yoga Practice
I get it: good habits can be tough to form, and when it involves physical activity it can be even harder. I don’t always feel like getting on the mat, either, but now that I’ve developed the habit, I do it anyway. (Read more about motivation vs. discipline.) So what helps when it comes to […]
Can You Do Yoga for Weight Loss?
I came across this article the other day showing a yoga for weight loss sequence. The sequence, which is basically the second half of a variation on the classical sun salutation, is challenging. If you do a lot of them, you will increase your heart rate and maybe even get sweaty. And that’s not the […]
Yoga Vocabulary 4: Yoga Pose Names
It might seem like you’ll never manage to learn the names of all the yoga pose names — and that might be true, because there are thousands upon thousands of poses and variations. But you will learn a lot of them (even in Sanskrit!) as you continue your practice. Here’s where it gets confusing: some poses […]
Classical Sun Salutations
Sun salutations (surya namaskarasana) are a classic yoga sequence. You might have noticed that they vary a lot, depending on who is teaching. None of it is right or wrong. It’s all yoga, it’s all good! In Akhanda yoga, we start with the classical sun salutations. Sometimes, when you’re trying to follow along with a class […]
Downward Dog is Not What You Think It Is
Even people who know nothing about yoga have usually heard of downward dog (Sanskrit: adhomukhasvanasana). It’s a classic pose. It appears in almost every yoga class. But the pose you’re thinking of is not downward dog at all. It’s close, and maybe that’s where the confusion came in. Maybe it’s because the real adhomukhasvanasana isn’t […]