Yoga conjures up images of peaceful meditation, relaxing stretches and trips to the emergency room. Wait, emergency room? Just as with any other activity people can suffer injuries from yoga. Yoga injuries are most commonly mild muscle strains, but torn tendons and severe back injuries have been known to occur. Teachers need to think about yoga student safety when preparing for classes and during classes.

Too much too soon

Students who attempt moves they aren't ready for are more likely to suffer injury. Simply advertising a class as "intermediate" or "advanced" rarely provides enough detail for students to be able to select classes of the appropriate skill level. Requiring students to complete a beginner class under each program or teacher is the safest approach because it allows the teacher to be sure of the student's skill level before advancing. Teachers also need to remind themselves to teach the students in the room, not to try to teach to a set curriculum. All students advance at different rates. Students who aren't advancing as fast as other students shouldn't be encouraged to try to keep up but should instead be encouraged to work at their own level.

A common cause of injury is competitiveness. Students in group class may try to out-do each other or show off for the teacher or another student and go too far. The teacher should try to promote a non-competitive environment by emphasizing the non-violent, self-honest meditative nature of yoga. Students should be instructed to listen to their bodies and to not push beyond their limits- if it hurts don't do it cannot be emphasized enough. Teachers can remind students that striving for excessive flexibility is neither necessary nor healthy. Excessively flexible joints are unstable joints and unstable joints are injuries waiting to happen.

Teacher education

Some yoga poses will aggravate prior injuries. Teachers should ask students about bad backs, rotator cuff tears, tendonitis, and arthritic joints. Poses may need to be modified or skipped by some people. When it comes to prior injuries, however, the basic mantra if it hurts don't do it isn't enough to ensure yoga student safety. People with uncontrolled high blood pressure should avoid all inverted poses- strokes have been triggered by the sudden elevation of pressure in the head caused by inverted poses. If the teacher is unsure about how a particular injury might respond to yoga poses, referral of the student to a physical therapist or to a different teacher or even a different style of yoga might be best. Some organizations that certify yoga instructors have begun educational programs about the impact of yoga on various injuries. Teachers may want to look into such programs if they haven't already.

Using incorrect technique can of course stress the body and cause injury. The teacher can easily intervene here by emphasizing the correct technique and helping students to learn it. Students should be reminded of the correct technique for moving into and out of poses- collapsing suddenly out of poses, or aggressively springing into a pose, are common causes of injury. Of course it helps if the teacher knows the correct techniques. Even if a teacher has been practicing and teaching yoga for some time it is a good idea to attend a certification program.

An area of particular concern on the topic of injuries and teacher education is the use of hands-on adjustments. If the teacher is moving the student's body the teacher isn't privy to warning signs of imminent injury such as discomfort. Teachers should only offer hands-on adjustments after studying and practicing adjustments under the direct guidance of a mentor teacher.

Most of all, teachers should remember to teach. The students are going to go home and practice the poses there. If the teacher has successfully taught correct techniques and the student has learned how to be mindful and listen to the body yoga injuries both in and out of class won't happen.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8604213

Do you know the damage that sitting is doing to you? It's been said that "sitting is the new smoking," but you're about to discover how to reverse the dangers, open your hip flexors and feel the relief from tight hips caused by prolonged sitting.

In the office, stress levels are high and it's not unusual to hear the whispered words of "this jobs going to be the death of me."

While I wouldn't go as far to say that the dangers are even remotely close to that of smoking, there are lurking side-effects from sitting too long.

That's why chair yoga has its benefits.

It's ideal for those in office work, drivers, and those new to retirement struggling for things to do.

Let's face it, most of the community activities that used to free to use have or are being hit by budget cuts left, right and center.

That's the society we live in though.

What's one to do?

a) Accept it and deal with the consequences

Or

b) Sit up, take notice, and more importantly, take charge of the situation.

I opt for B and I'll about to tell you why

Because chair yoga poses are so simple to do, and they're great for the mind and body.

Relaxing the mind is crucial.

If that's left to run rampant, you're in for a life filled with stress, anxiety, and potentially depression if you let it drag you down.

The breathing techniques used in any type of yoga, (chair, mat, or standing), calms your mind.

That makes stress a matter of choice.

Either you choose to let stress drag you down, or you choose to manage it and practice healthy stress management, because we all know it can't be avoided.

These chair yoga practices let you do that, and that's the instant benefit.

The longer-term benefit for those who do sit for an extended time is that you get to flex your major joints.

The major joints these couple of exercises focus on is your hip flexors.

That's the joints giving you the stiffness when you rise up from the chair.

Any guesses on how you can open your hip flexors to relieve that stiffness?

Would you believe it...

The Hip Opener

Here's how you do it

    Sit at the edge of your seat
    Hands at either side of your chair
    Put both legs out straight in front of you, slightly bent at the knee
    Bring one leg over the other (if you can't manage that, just cross your legs at your ankles)
    Slowly bring your foot that's on the floor to be under your knee
    Slowly bend yourself forward from the hips
    Hold that stretch for ten deep breaths

How about a forward bend

    Sit right back on your seat
    Bend forward between your legs, and let your hands touch the floor
    Again - hold for 10 breaths

If you can't manage that, then at least do it halfway to get some movement in the hips.

Think of the half-forward bend as the "brace" position demonstrated on flight safety demonstrations. If you can't manage that, chances are, you shouldn't be flying.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8611566

Start poking around for hard science on Bikram or “hot” yoga, and you’ll find something curious: There’s not much of it. “Considering how popular this is, it’s pretty shocking that our study is one of the very first published research efforts on the subject,” says Dr. Brian L. Tracy, an exercise scientist at Colorado State University.

Tracy and his team have conducted two experiments on the physical effects of Bikram yoga, which involves completing a strict series of poses over a period of 90 minutes in a room heated to 104 or 105 degrees. The first experiment included healthy (but sedentary) young adults with no yoga experience. After eight weeks and 24 Bikram sessions, Tracy says the study participants showed some modest increases in strength and muscle control, as well as a big improvement in balance. They also achieved a slight drop in body weight.

“To be honest, we were pretty surprised by the small size of the weight change, because when you’re in the Bikram studio you feel like you’re working really hard,” Tracy says. “And remember, these were people who didn’t regularly exercise before the study. We were expecting a bigger drop.”

For his follow-up experiment, Tracy hooked up experienced yogis to equipment designed to measure their heart rates, body temperatures, and energy expenditures during a typical Bikram session. That new data helped explain some of those disappointing body-weight findings: While heart rate and core temp climbed significantly (but not dangerously) during the 90-minute session, the participants’ metabolic rates—or the amount of calories their bodies burned—were roughly equivalent to those of people walking briskly.

“I think the immediate reaction is disappointment if you’re a Bikram fan,” Tracy says, adding that, if you’ve spent time reading about the activity online, you might assume you’d be shedding up to 1,000 calories per session. “But that’s not the case,” he says. His research shows men burn an average of 460 calories, while women work off about 330. “I think the heat and the difficulty of the postures combine to alter your perception of the intensity of the exercise,” he explains. On the other hand, one part of your body is getting a major workout, Tracy says. “Heart rates are quite high for the amount of work you’re doing. Quite high.”

Is that something you should worry about, though? “Potentially,” says Dr. Kim Allan Williams, president-elect of the American College of Cardiology. When you’re hot, your heart pumps large volumes of blood to the vessels in your skin where, through a process called convection, sweat is produced. “And it’s actually not the sweat, but the sweat’s evaporation that helps cool you off,” he explains. “Sweat does not evaporate efficiently in those conditions,” he adds.

What does this have to do with hot yoga? The humidity in Bikram yoga studios is supposed to be kept at 40 percent. But in reality, Tracy says it’s tough to know how often that goal is achieved or maintained. As the humidity climbs and your heart keeps working to cool you off, you’re sweating out minerals like potassium and sodium, along with H20, Williams says. “It’s the same for athletes working out in the middle of summer,” he adds. “You have to be mindful of the heat and humidity.”

To protect yourself, both Tracy and Williams say hot yoga practicers need to pay close attention to their bodies. Feelings of light-headedness, nausea, confusion, or muscle cramping—either during or after a yoga practice—are all signs that you need to take a break. That’s especially true for inexperienced yogis, whose bodies aren’t acclimated to the rigors of hot yoga, Tracy explains.

Williams also stresses the importance of hydration and nutrient replacement. “You can’t sweat out a bunch of minerals and then replace them with water alone,” he says. Dangerously low levels of potassium, sodium, and other electrolytes contribute to those scary health risks mentioned above.

Left unanswered are questions about the long-term effects of hot yoga practice, or how people with heart defects or other health conditions might react to the strenuous conditions, Tracy says.

Sweaty bodies aside, most hot yoga fans also praise the activity’s mental and psychological benefits. And a growing pile of research on yoga suggests the practice—and not just the hot varieties—may help lower stress while improving pain management and emotion regulation in ways similar to meditation.

“This isn’t something we’ve studied directly, but I do think there’s an element of mindfulness in Bikram yoga instruction,” says Emily Lindsay, who researches stress and mindfulness meditation at Carnegie Mellon University. Focusing your attention on your breathing and body posture can anchor you in the present moment and foster mindfulness, Lindsay explains. Yoga practice can also provide moments of peace without interruption from your cell phone, email, or life’s other routine distractions. It’s not farfetched to think that these components could offer yoga practitioners some psychological benefits, Lindsay says.

“Millions of people do it, and there aren’t just one or two anecdotal stories about how Bikram changes people’s lives,” Tracy says. “So there has to be something to it.”

source:http://time.com/2967716/you-asked-is-hot-yoga-good-for-you-and-for-weight-loss/?xid=rodale