Yoga still seems to hang in a delicate balance of identity. Is it exercise? Is it some form of spiritual practice? Is it an old method of simply stretching and flexing? Is it breathing exercises and lung expansion? Is it a way to challenge the body with positioning and balance?
Well, wonder no longer. It can be all of these things and much, much more!
For the purpose of this article, let us simply say that from a spiritual standpoint yoga will help exponentially with concentration, relaxation, breath control, and the improvement of becoming intentional throughout your daily living. Whatever your core beliefs may be and wherever your faith may lead you, think of using yoga as an instrument for improvement in keeping your own personal commitment and holding yourself on task with regard to your personal spiritual life.
Hatha yoga, which is the larger umbrella of method which we practice at Hot Yoga Bowling Green, means yoga of balance… yin and yang, hard and soft, water and the rock, dark and light, fierce physical power, but most interestingly, “Holding through a difficult position or going through a difficult situation while breathing normally.”
Yoga can spring you forward. It can improve everything in the physical body. When yoga is compared to running, for one example, it uses nearly 100% of the muscles of the body when practiced correctly as opposed to about 10% of the muscles during running. Add to that statistic the fact that yoga employs as much as 100% of the range of motion of those muscles and you have a life-changing combination for your strength and health. Yoga affects everything inside and out.
Spring forward this season and see how your favorite outdoor and daily indoor activities become the best they’ve ever been! Break it down…
Walking & Running
Practice a good yoga flow such as ashtanga or blended vinyasa, power flow, or true Hot Yoga classes. Group energy helps with motivation and teacher-led sequences (not random poses!) keep the body supple and strong, and the mind working. Warrior series, alignment emphases, pranayama (deep breathing) practice, and nicely grounded stances will take your walking and running to a new level with improved lung function and injury-resistant muscles and joints.
Cycling
Establish a routine as we mentioned above with walking and running, but add another level of more intense deep pranayama (long, slow breathing) practice as well. True pranayama yoga techniques are essential to becoming intentional in moving with the breath, keeping a smooth rhythm during cycling, and positioning your body while handling various terrain.
Rock Climbing & Hiking
This is the time that whole-body implementation from a variety of power yoga sequences will become apparent in its importance. As in rock climbing, hiking, outdoor exploring and spelunking, yoga (most completely Hot Yoga) employs every muscle and muscle group in your body, as well as the fusion of the muscles as a well-oiled machine to perform at their utmost efficiency.
Swimming & Diving
As many of my yoga students have heard me say over the years, swimming is much like “yoga in the water.” It’s a beautifully challenging but fun way to stay in shape throughout your life. It has almost no impact or negative stress on your joints, keeps your entire body supple, and lengthens as it strengthens. It’s a tremendous complement to yoga, as well as vice versa. Diving is an added element of tremendous skill and thrill, which takes your swimming to another level entirely. Use regular yoga practice to hone your inherent skills in breathing, balance, flexibility, concentration, and intentional movement.
Team Sports (as well as Dance, Martial Arts, & Weight Training)
There are specific reasons why athletes from all walks of life are continuing to “discover” yoga. It creates the union of mind, breath, and body… the very essence of great performances throughout the ages and throughout all athletics. Picture being more flexible and injury free, faster, more supple, quicker thinking, more balanced, and with greater endurance and superior lung function! Discover yoga and make it a regular part of your life. See why so many athletes, especially at the professional levels, have turned to yoga (once again, more specifically Hot Yoga) to improve and elongate their health and their careers. Even the oldest forms of movement as in dance and martial arts will benefit greatly by adding probably the VERY oldest – yoga – to the equation.
So… what’s in your fitness pocket? Does it include yoga? Why not? Why not now? Why not always? It’s much more than you think.
And now, here it is… your March 2019 “Pause for a Pose” – The “Crocodile-Dragon Fusion” (Chaturanga Dandasana advancement)
Begin in plank (lifted dandasana, four-limbed staff) with straight elbows. Inhale, and then upon the exhale, bend the elbows straight back along the ribs, float forward on the toes into chaturanga dandasana (crocodile) while bending right knee to touch the outside of the right elbow. Return to start and repeat other side. Advance: Fuse the dragon with this movement by resting the inner thigh (adductor) area on the corresponding tricep and holding position for three to five breaths. Repeat other side for balance of the body. Breathe always! Now, enjoy practicing this great yoga strength-builder all month. We’ll see you tomorrow at Hot Yoga…
-by Tony Bishop, E-RYT
About the Author: Tony Bishop, E-RYT/RYT/CYT, is director and chief instructor with Hot Yoga Bowling Green, Kentucky. He is certified and trained in a myriad of health and fitness disciplines including Hatha Yoga, Yoga Personal Training, Yoga Coaching, Yoga Teacher Training, Sil lum Kung Fu, Tai Chi exercise, spinning/indoor cycling, PowerHouse Pilates instruction, core conditioning, self-defense programs and boot camp variations. He has more than 5,000 hours of yoga teaching experience, he is registered through Yoga Alliance and is an avid researcher and proponent of progressive yoga movement and development of more effective, deeper and meaningful training methodology. Contact: 730 Fairview Avenue, C-2, Bowling Green, 270-793-0011, hotyogabg@yahoo.com, www.hotyogabg.com.
