Supernatural Botanicals

Believe it or not, this simple yoga pose has major benefits for your body.  Something that’s easy to do, yet good for you?…..that’s something we can all be on board with. 

To do a leg drain, also known in yoga as viparita karani (inverted action), simply find a wall, lay on your back and rest your legs straight up against the wall.  You can use a folded blanket or towel under your lower back to take strain off of your lower back area.  Stay in the position as long as is comfortable to you. 

Lymph and other fluids flow away from the legs and into the lower belly.  It provides a gentle stretch to the calves, back and neck.  According to the Yoga Journal, the pose also gives blood circulation a gentle boost toward the upper body and head, which creates re-balancing after standing for a long time.

This move is ultra-relaxing to the central nervous system and completely clears your mind, calms the body, and improves your flexibility.  It’s a perfect move to get your day started, or after a long day or work. 

Professional yogis don’t use yoga mats just to keep their feet on a soft surface during yoga postures, they use yoga mats because they are incredibly beneficial to help you stretch further.  Yoga mats, sometimes called sticky mats, are thick rubber-like surfaces, about 4 feet wide, designed to be under foot while you are doing yoga or Pilates workouts. 

When you place your hands and feet on a yoga mat, they almost stick (and sink) into the soft mat, keeping your hands and feet securely firm, with no worry of slipping out of your posture.  They are also fabulous for doing stretches, enabling you to stretch deep into your stretches with your feet and/or hands essentially glued to the mat.  It truly makes a difference in your workouts. 

Also great to stimulate the spine.  How to:  Lay on your back, hold your bent legs to your chest, wrapping your arms around your bent legs, and rock in a boat pose from head to feet.  The thickness of the yoga mat keeps it comfortable for your spine.  It will feel like a back massage!

Kiss the carpet goodbye, and try using a yoga mat during your next yoga/Pilates/stretching session.  It increases your flexibility by 25% to even 50%.  (Those aren’t scientific percentages…it’s just what I can feel in my own workouts.) 

If you only have five minutes for exercise today, try this five minute yoga stretch with Tara Stiles.  She’s beyond flexible….and ultra-inspiring!  A great stretch will not only elongate your muscles to give you a long, lean look, but it also relaxes your mind and recharges your batteries. 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR4wvCYNlvk

Yoga Journal has announced today that they will be having their 7th annual Yoga conference in San Francisco January 28-February 1, 2010.  It will be five days, with more than 40 teachers, and 100 different classes offered.  Classes are for beginners to advanced yogis.  For more information and details, check their website here. 

So you’ve mastered Downward Facing Dog pose in yoga, let’s keep going!  This is Dolphin pose.  This is a super-deep stretch that opens up your shoulders and digs deeper into stretching those hamstrings and glutes.

Benefits of Dolphin pose are:

Benefits

• Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression
• Stretches the shoulders, hamstrings, calves, and arches
• Strengthens the arms and legs
• Helps relieve the symptoms of menopause
• Relieves menstrual discomfort when done with head supported
• Helps prevent osteoporosis
• Improves digestion
• Relieves headache, insomnia, back pain, and fatigue
• Therapeutic for high blood pressure, asthma, flat feet, sciatica

So the next time your head is pounding from a stress headache, forgo the Tylenol and center yourself with some postures to relieve tightness from the neck and shoulders.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.  Come onto the floor on your hands and knees. Set your knees directly below your hips and your forearms on the floor with your shoulders directly above your wrists. Firmly press your palms together and your forearms into the floor.

2.  Curl your toes under, then exhale and lift your knees away from the floor. At first keep the knees slightly bent and the heels lifted away from the floor. Lengthen your tailbone away from the back of your pelvis and press it lightly toward the pubis. Against this resistance, lift the sitting bones toward the ceiling, and from your inner ankles draw the inner legs up into the groins.

3.  Continue to press the forearms actively into the floor. Firm your shoulder blades against your back, then widen them away from the spine and draw them toward the tailbone. Hold your head between the upper arms; don’t let it hang or press heavily against the floor.

4.  You can straighten your knees if you like, but if your upper back rounds it’s best to keep them bent. Continue to lengthen your tailbone away from the pelvis and lift the top of your sternum away from the floor.

5.  Stay between 30 seconds to one minute. Then release your knees to the floor with an exhale.

Looking for more great yoga stretches?  Head over to Yoga Journal and find 117 more moves just like this.

Don’t you just love new gadgets?  Especially workout gadgets!  From heart rate monitors to Ipods, I love them all.  As an eco-lover, this little tool brings gadgetry to a new level.  It’s eco-friendly!  They are Yoga Paws.  Simply slide the yoga paws over your hands and feet, and they provide cushioning and support for your yoga or Pilates workout.  Also super beneficial for deep stretching moves, so you don’t lose your grip with the floor.  Great gift for a fitness-fiend.  They cost about $35.00 and can be purchased here. 

   ….also made for men. 

You don’t have a be an experienced Yogi to to feel the effects of this move, called Downward Facing Dog.  It’s the go-to pose in between Yoga postures.  I probably do DFD at least 10 times a day througout the day.  The key is to get your hips up, up, up as far as you can.  Then stretch your hamstrings and calves right into the floor.  Elongate your back, your neck (don’t hyper extend here), your shoulders, arms, even your fingers.  Keep your heels on the floor…the natural tendency is to go up on the balls of your feet, and resist the urge and keep those heels pressed to the floor.  If you are interested in learning Yoga, start here.  Learn this move.  This is a move that you’ll constantly come back to throughout your Yoga session, so learn how to do it properly.  Make a home with it.  Even if you aren’t that interested in Yoga, learn it anyway.  It feels so great, keeps you limber, and stretches everything!

This step by step is courtesy of my friends over at www.YogaJournal.com. 

Step by Step

1.  Come onto the floor on your hands and knees. Set your knees directly below your hips and your hands slightly forward of your shoulders. Spread your palms, index fingers parallel or slightly turned out, and turn your toes under.

2.  Exhale and lift your knees away from the floor. At first keep the knees slightly bent and the heels lifted away from the floor. Lengthen your tailbone away from the back of your pelvis and press it lightly toward the pubis. Against this resistance, lift the sitting bones toward the ceiling, and from your inner ankles draw the inner legs up into the groins.

3.  Then with an exhalation, push your top thighs back and stretch your heels onto or down toward the floor. Straighten your knees but be sure not to lock them. Firm the outer thighs and roll the upper thighs inward slightly. Narrow the front of the pelvis.

4.  Firm the outer arms and press the bases of the index fingers actively into the floor. From these two points lift along your inner arms from the wrists to the tops of the shoulders. Firm your shoulder blades against your back, then widen them and draw them toward the tailbone. Keep the head between the upper arms; don’t let it hang.

5.  Adho Mukha Svanasana is one of the poses in the traditional Sun Salutation sequence. It’s also an excellent yoga asana all on its own. Stay in this pose anywhere from 1 to 3 minutes. Then bend your knees to the floor with an exhalation and rest in Child’s Pose.

   Resistance bands…get to know them.  Admittedly, they were a tough sell for me at first as well.  I mean, how much of a workout can these elastic straps give you?  Turns out…they can give you an excellent workout.  The great thing about them is that you really concentrate on your moves, really focus on each muscle, and you can control the resistance for a great workout.    They are also excellent for deep stretching.  These resistance bands come in different widths, the thicker being the most resistance and the thin bands being great for stretching and beginners.  I keep several at my desk and several in our lab for on-the-spot stretching and strengthening. 

The up side:  Not only are they inexpensive, they are on sale today at Amazon.   Check them out  here

Wondering if Pilates works? You better believe it! Pilates came as a complete surprise to me. I thought I was far too advanced for Pilates with my usual grind being strictly cardio and strength training. Quite frankly, I thought Pilates was too easy for me. It didn’t look like it hurt, for lack of a better word, enough to make a difference. It didn’t look intense enough. That’s what I thought before I tried it.

It takes one Pilates workout to “get it.” The next day, when I felt like I was ran over by a Mack truck…. I got it. I was feeling muscles in my back and core that I had forgotten about. My legs felt like strings of limp spaghetti when I walked down the stairs. I lifted my arms to fix my hair and noticed all these shoulder and arm muscles that I hadn’t noticed before. My ribs literally ached when I was laughing from reading Michael K.’s blog, Dlisted.

My entire body had felt thoroughly stretched. You know the feeling you get when you’ve been at your desk all day and then stand up to stretch? It feels so good. That’s exactly how Pilates feels for your whole body. I didn’t believe it until I tried it. And as far as it not being challenging enough, I was shocked at how much Pilates did challenge my body, and every body part, i.e., neck, shoulders, arms, forearms, wrists, hands, fingers, the entire core, hip flexors, hamstrings, quadriceps, calves, ankles, feet, and toes. You’ll feel every one of those body parts the day after Pilates. It feels fantastic!

Oh, the pain will subside. Your muscles will get used to the stretching and the results will be better posture. You’ll have a leaner body. You’ll sit up straighter. You’ll sleep better at night. And, adding Pilates to your strength and cardio fitness routines only enhances your overall performance. I’ve learned, the holy trinity of fitness is strength, cardio, and stretching (Pilates or yoga.)

So, if you think Pilates isn’t intense enough for your routine….well, it takes just one time to get the big picture. Grab a Pilates DVD from the library for a trial run. Every single friend I’ve told to just try it once, has gotten “it” the same way I did. Then, you too, will crave that “just ran over by a Mack truck” feeling. You’ll experience, first-hand, elements of the Pain/Pleasure Principal. It’s an odd feeling to crave, to be sure, but you will. So try it just once. You can thank me later!  

 Try The Firm’s Pilates programs, they’re fantastic!