I was stoked. More and more, yoga is being “prescribed” as a remedy for low back pain, and for good reason. Many studies are proving that yoga is a legit tool to combat low back woes.

This stuff isn’t just for old women, anymore. “Weightlifters back” is a term used by doctors to describe the pain caused from lifting weights. How many times you have seen somebody at the gym rubbing their back, or wiggling around in strange ways to relieve what looks like back pain? Is this person you?

Now imagine being able to help this back pain in less than 10 minutes with a simple yoga routine. Bonus? Afterward, you’ll feel more mobile all over. Double bonus? You’re also going to feel pretty chill.

Ancient Dudes Knew What to Do

Unlike your neon socks, yoga is not just some passing fad. Yoga has been used as a tool for back health for over 5000 years. Perfect spinal alignment has always been one of yoga’s primary goals. Ever since ancient Indian dudes were wearing loincloths in caves, they have used yoga postures as a way to keep their spines healthy, strong, and mobile.

When yoga made its way to the US, people began flocking to classes to experience the funny-named postures for themselves. Its popularity began to grow as people experienced noticeable benefits when they twisted themselves into pretzel-like shapes.

Now, you can’t escape yoga. It’s everywhere, even in the strength and bodybuilding worlds, and as a compliment to weightlifting and other athletic endeavors.

Western Science Plays Catch-Up to Yoga

It hasn’t been until recently that science has taken interest. More and more studies are being done each year on the efficacy of yoga in relation to a number of different issues. One of these is low back pain, and there is an increasing body of evidence supporting yoga as a treatment.

A meta-analysis found that yoga elicited moderate to significant decreases in functional disability and pain in those suffering from chronic low back pain. Better still, the analysis showed that the pain relieving effects are felt shortly after starting a yoga routine. In other words, it won’t take long until you have some relief!

But this isn’t a one-shot cure. The analysis also showed that you have to keep practicing yoga to keep feeling the benefits. Like anything else worthwhile in life, you have to be disciplined and just do the damn routine on a consistent basis. 

10 Minutes to a Happy Low Back

Regardless if you just had an “oh shit” moment on your deadlifts this morning, or if you’ve been cursing your low back pain for years, I have a sequence that will help.

Don’t worry, the yoga I’m about to teach you doesn’t require you to be able to throw your leg behind your head. Alignment yoga is all about healing your body through strength, length, and mobility. Too much flexibility is just as much of a liability as too little. Alignment yoga brings all of these in to balance to optimize your body.

But you can’t just do it once and expect results! Like anything else worthwhile, you need to stay consistent. Do this 3-5 times per week for optimal results.

You can repeat the entire sequence if needed, or double up on certain stretches. Stay longer in the poses that feel good. Opt out of the ones that don’t. Granted, you might not feel phenomenal in all the poses, but it’s up to you to gauge the difference between necessary and unnecessary discomfort.

Go get your yoga on. Your low back will thank you. 

Sequence

1. Childs pose
2. Cat/cow
3. Kneeling rib stretch
4. Downdog
5. Rag doll
6. Whale tail
7. Lying mid back twist
8. Lying inner thigh stretch

The post A 10 Minute Yoga Flow for Low Back Bliss appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Yoga can be a beautiful experience that can significantly enrich the life of the participant within the first asana they perform. The peace of mind and serenity that yoga can bring allows the user to attain a greater sense of control over their life, as well as aid in building resiliency.

These benefits come largely from the mindfulness aspect of yoga. Mindfulness is merely a state of mind where you’re aware of the present moment. Past worries and future concerns have no merit in such a state of mind.

Mindfulness and yoga go hand-in-hand. If you are already practicing yoga, then you are already practicing mindfulness. From focusing on the inhalation and exhalation of each breath, to being aware of the way gravity affects your body during your yoga postures, yoga is the epitome of mindfulness in motion.

Mindfulness Techniques for Your Yoga Practice

Today I’d like to provide you with some practical examples of how you can intentionally utilize mindfulness to enhance your yoga experience to give you a calmer, more peaceful mind.

Focus on the Breath

Breathing plays a significant role in yoga. It’s often used as an anchor to keep the yogi in the present moment, and is a staple among yoga studios for good reasons. When you tap your mind into the physical sensations of the inhale and exhale and truly focus on the process, anxiety ceases to manifest. Worry and strife have no place on the yoga mat. All that matters is that you enter a state of being-mind (not emotion-mind), and mindfulness can help you to attain this.

Body Awareness

Be aware of how your body feels, without feeling the need to change it. Observe how your muscles stretch during your poses and transitions between poses. Notice which muscles lengthen and shorten, and which muscles isometrically contract. If tightness or stress manifest, all you want to do is be aware of them, while being nonjudgmental about the information your body gives you. Likewise, if you feel comfort and relief in your muscles (which is inevitable), then simply be aware of these sensations. This awareness will help pull you into the present, and away from any acrimonious thoughts or fears as you perform your yoga postures.

Feel Gravity

Become aware of the pressure on the bottom of your feet as your weight rests upon them during your asanas. Notice if the weight is more on the ball of your feet, or if it’s more on the heel. Is there more pressure on the left side of the foot or on the right side? Follow the same process if you’re lying prone or supine, on your knees, or sitting. You may be surprised how being aware of the way gravity affects your body can enhance your yoga experience.

Get Lost in the Music

Playing music as you go through your yoga poses can not only enhance the overall experience, but can also be a catalyst to bring you to the here and now. There’s no rule of what type of music you should listen to. Simply ensure that it’s something that will allow you to drift into a state of awareness and openness. Don’t try to hear the music around you, but let the music come to your awareness naturally.

Smell the Aroma 

Lighting candles or incense during your yoga session is another effective way to enter into the present moment. Try being aware of the way the candle smells as you inhale and exhale. Don’t judge the scent, but simply be aware of it and the effect it has on your mood. This technique can enhance your focus on breathing. Combining techniques (senses) is a great tool for approaching mindfulness much more quickly than by doing them one at a time.

Yoga Is for the Mind and Body

Don’t harbor any unrealistic expectations for yourself when it comes to practicing these techniques. Being mindful isn’t easy, and it takes a lot of practice to truly master. Be that as it may, you will find that practicing mindfulness during your yoga session will help you feel more relaxed, and grant you a greater peace of mind when you have finished.

This is not to say that all of your worries and doubts will dissipate once you practice these skills. The mind gets used to all of the “mental chatter,” so it is expected that even when you practice these techniques, you’ll still slip back into your habitual thoughts. This isn’t a bad thing, and you shouldn’t try to resist these thoughts. Simply allow them to enter in and out of your mind, as if they were clouds passing in the sky. Once you find yourself lost in thought, simply return to your mindfulness techniques as you go through your yoga postures.

Repetition of these techniques will allow you to break the habit of constantly dwelling on worries and fears, and help you form a new habit of calmness and acceptance. This will allow you to have a much more effective yoga experience, and also enhance your life and overall well-being.

The best method for self-efficacy is application. Implement these techniques in your next yoga session, and you’ll begin to see just how powerful your senses truly are as you begin to enter into the present moment.

The post Use Mindfulness to Enhance Your Yoga Experience appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

All of them have experienced success through very different perspectives and means, but it has been the similarities that shock me. They all see fitness as having a deeper purpose. They all express a need to bring greater empathy to each person and more community to the fitness industry. If there is any theme I can expect to see resurface time and again, it’s a call to be more kind.

Kindness seems the rarest and most precious resource, these days. You can’t post a workout video without it being inundated with mean-spirited denigration and a list of faults. While the whole world is dying from sedentarism, perhaps we need to take another approach to attract those deskbound masses. People need what we have in the fitness industry.

Regardless of what approach you think is best, isn’t the most important thing that we introduce people to a respect for their own bodies? Rather than seeing each other as competition, shouldn’t we support and help each other grow, so that we can literally save lives? I’m certain we can all learn from each and every fitness tribe. I’d like to take a moment to send my gratitude to each, and express a sincere hope that we can all work together more in the future.

High-Five a Yogi

As a coach, I’m encouraged to notice how different disciplines are melded and utilized in multiple communities. I love going to yoga with my wife, and seeing how many of the mobility flows I use with my athletes were developed there first. The same fundamental movement patterns we find and hold within a yoga session are the ones I try to teach my kids in the weight room.

If my young athletes would come to these yoga sessions, most of my early introductory program would be taken care of. They’d already know how to hip hinge, they’d already have great balance and proprioception, they’d already understand progression and regression, and they’d already have strength in planks and lunges.

Thank you, yoga, for doing such a great job of combining multiple practices of human movements into an appropriate and scalable system. Also, thank you for integrating the mind and the body intentionally, and being most people’s first introduction to the tremendous benefits of mindfulness training.

Hug a Bodybuilder

Bodybuilding is on the other end of the fitness spectrum, and can be an easy target for ridicule amongst the fitness community. The stereotypes of the bodybuilding crowd include associations with performance-enhancing drugs, bros posing in mirrors at globo gyms, and unnaturally ballooned competitors who look ready to pop and require help to take off their shirt.

But for most bodybuilders, these extremes are not the reality. Bodybuilding is a respectable, fun training path. We all owe deep gratitude to the bodybuilding world, because for most of us, this was our start in fitness. We wanted more out of our bodies, wanted to look better, and so we read all the bodybuilding magazines, argued on the supplement forums, and suffered through onslaughts of bi-tri supersets. We fell in love with the gym through bodybuilding, and it gave us our first experience with the joy of achieving confidence in our physique.

When you think of it, bodybuilding can be an ideal first step into the weight room. It’s most people’s first attempt at lifting without supervision or guidance, and it’s a fairly safe way to do it. Machine leg curls and bicep pyramid sets are far more forgiving and far less technical than a heavy clean and jerk. It’s bodybuilding that teaches most young men about basic muscle anatomy. It gives the context upon which countless future fitness pursuits can be built.

So thank you, bodybuilding, for being an accessible, consistent force for the beauty of training. And thanks especially for being an ideally safe introduction for us males at our dumbest ages.

Fist Bump a CrossFitter

CrossFit is another tribe that sometimes gets a little flack. Everybody’s heard the joke:

While that is funny, it is also a neat compliment. CrossFit, more than any other fitness tribe, has brought back a sense of community we should all be trying to foster. People can’t help but tell you about this experience that has been so transformational for their lives. It offers the competition and community they crave. There is no greater indication of the success of the CrossFit community model than the imitation of it in some very un-CrossFit-like places, like kettlebell gyms and private fitness studios. Today, it seems that everybody is trying to emulate the close-knit tribe ethos that CrossFit brought back to the fore.

Furthermore, they’ve revitalized and brought so many other forms of training into the popular consciousness. Everyone from the Olympic weightlifting community, to kettlebells, rowing, and distance training has seen a resurgence of interest, based largely on the exposure CrossFit brings to their methods. The creativity of programming in CrossFit has spurred fun variation and motivation in the HIIT training and group training worlds.

Like bodybuilding, CrossFit often serves as a bridge to future exploration. Many only make their way to their eventual love of gymnastics or Olympic lifting after CrossFit spurs them to try those things in the first place. Whatever you might think of teaching very technical movements to the general population in a group training format, CrossFit’s emphasis on scaling and individualizing workouts allows them to cast a wider net, and allows people to approach things they previously thought impossible.

We’re All on the Same Side

These are the sort of conversations that all of us in the fitness industry need to have, if we wish to attract more of those immobile masses. And that goes for gym owners, coaches, trainers, athletes, and gym bros alike.

I only mentioned a few of the many proud, positive forces within the fitness world. Kettlebells and gymnastics have transformed the way I look at training. Distance runners, please know I have immense respect for the toughness, primal origins, and simplicity of your craft. I could really go on about everyone, but that would detract from the point.

What we need is a movement towards a united tribe of fitness. We don’t have to be in love with each other’s means. I can think that my methods are best for athleticism, or that some approaches are healthier or more in line with my philosophy. But if we want to shift the culture toward a healthier future, we must work together and learn from one another, while keeping a passion and pride for our own brand.

We should all strive for a symbiotic relationship, where we continue to help improve, refine, and add to each other. Where we can dip into each discipline to create greater understanding and knowledge of our sphere, as well as a richer understanding of the whole. The reality is we are all different, and will all like different training methods and sports, but we should all be working to make the fitness community more attractive to everyone—to make health more accessible and likely for all.

Ideally, we’d all be like Bruce Lee: undogmatic about the discipline as we integrate the best of each approach into one seamless training passion. We can stop the debates over whether mobility flows are just yoga, or what the actual name for that exercise is, or who did it first. Let’s celebrate and learn from each other, and leave the ego out. If we do, we just might change the world for the better.

The post Join the United Tribe of Fitness appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

If you have lower back pain don’t think it has anything to do with your activity levels, either. The affiliction hits both sedentary and athletic people.

The good news is that relief is as common as affliction. Some time ago, in a twelve-month study conducted in the U.K., researchers discovered that yoga was a cheap and effective way to deal with lower back pain. If that doesn’t convince you then, consider that the people in the study who did the yoga also took fewer days off work for sickness than their non-yoga counterparts in the study.

But, what you really want to know is what poses are best for you? We are going to get into that shortly, but we have a few provisos. It’s lower back pain, it is uncomfortable, and you probably need to ease yourself into self-care. Your pain may be because you are doing too much or, not enough. In both cases, you probably have good reason to take things slow.

However, like all remedial movement, remember that you need to keep doing these poses beyond the quick fix stage, and make sure that self-care is a part of your daily routine. And, if you really don’t feel better, you probably need to see someone.

If you are experiencing significant weight loss, fever and chills, feel weakness in your legs, and a number of other symptoms then, there may be some other, more serious, issue that you need to address. Get expert medical advice if that is the case or you are unsure.

However, most back pain goes away with self-care and rest. So, for those cases, let’s dig into the magnificent 7.

Supine Hamstring Stretch

Two-Knee Twist

Sphinx

Thread The Needle

Pigeon

Legs Up the Wall

Downward and Upward Dog

Finally, you might want to go through this full 5 minute tutorial from our Yogi, Alison Bristow, on the 5 main poses and modifications for true sufferers.

The post The Magnificent 7 Yoga Poses for Lower Back Relief appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Downward Dog, and its cousin the Three-Legged Dog, is one of the most popular yoga poses for a reason. Not only does it decompress and neutralize your spine, but consistent practice will correct most of the movement faults associated with kettlebell swinging and snatching, deadlifting, and overhead pressing.

You can utilize this posture before your training session as part of a mobility based warm-up, during your session between sets as a quick spinal decompression, and after your training session for something a little more engaging than “stretching.”

Downward Dog

The basic form of the pose looks simple enough on the outside, but the real benefits here are in the detailed adjustments that you can make on your own. First, begin on hands and knees:

Next, start to lift your hips while actively pressing down through the inside edges of your palms:

Keep your knees bent for now. For most people just starting out with this pose, you won’t straighten your knees any further. This is your initial position before making more detailed adjustments:

If you try to straighten your knees too far before you are ready, you’ll end up with an excessively rounded lumbar, which drops your sit bones, draws you into a posterior pelvic tilt, and ruins much of the benefit of the pose:

However, if you have been practicing for awhile or just naturally can lengthen your calves, hamstrings, and spinal erectors all together, then you might try to press your heels all the way to the ground:

And now the fun begins!

First, roll your shoulders away from your ears and let your neck relax.

Take a deep breath in. As you exhale, attempt to scrape your hands forward away from your body while at the same time pressing your hands through the ground so that they do not move anywhere. As you do this, lift your hips up and back in the opposite direction. Your chest will shift slightly in the direction of your thighs.

From here you can start to experiment with pressing your heels down, but not at the expense of your hip elevation.

Once you can get your heels grounded, you can internally rotate your femurs by sliding your inner thighs to the back of the room while pressing through the outer edges of your feet. This adds an amazing stretch in all those little tiny muscles deep inside your butt cheeks.

Three-Legged Dog

From the Downward Dog position, simply shift one foot to your midline and lift the other leg:

All the upper body cues stay the same. The challenge here is keeping your hips level.

Inhale and kick your elevated heel up and back. Exhale, and lower your elevated hip to be level with the hip of the grounded leg. Make this same adjustment with every single breath while in the pose. Many people will at first experience the sensation from this adjustment as pain, but with practice it will feel exhilarating and downright amazing!

I tried to exaggerate these adjustments in the video so they would be visible, but they are still very subtle; however, it makes all the difference in getting as much benefit as possible from this pose.

Quick Integration

Some general guidelines to using these poses:

• Before Workout: 5 seconds on each pose. 5 times through.
• During Workout: As needed, 10 seconds between sets
• After Workout: Try holding each one for at least 30 seconds, build up to 60 seconds.

But don’t forget: nothing beats a full 60 to 90 minute yoga session, so try one today!

The post Yoga for Strength Athletes: Mobilize Your IT Band and Posterior Chain appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Perhaps the thing I love most about martial arts is that it gives clear answers to the question, “what next?” That question drives the practice in a way that helps me grow toward the goal of having more control in my body, both physiologically and psychologically.

From Reaction to Negotiation

There’s an interesting carryover of the ideas of social anthropologist William Ury, who studies success in verbal negotiation. Both yoga and martial arts can be thought of as negotiations in slightly different forms. Yoga is a negotiation intrapersonally, with only myself and my own body. Martial arts are a negotiation both intra- and interpersonally with another human.

Ury says, “humans are reaction machines.” To overcome that habit, we need to learn to pause; to disconnect the automatic link between emotion and action. That pause, especially in a threatening environment, requires a sense of calm. In turn, feeling calm and able to make conscious choices requires a sense of safety.

The Environment Factor

Yoga trains control by creating a safer internal environment. A focus of yoga is on flexibility; expanding range of motion. The risk of injury increases as a movement comes closer to flexibility end ranges. The body naturally wants to revert to its comfortable range of motion, because that’s where it feels safe. By expanding ranges of motion, yoga expands the internal environment that the body feels safe within. That, consequently, expands the range of movement where the body can feel calm and in control.

While yoga trains control in structured situations, martial arts add an important element: the ability to maintain calm and safety in an uncontrolled situation, being threatened by another human. Negotiation with another human forces confrontation with the variability of other people’s behavior. I can’t control the other person’s behavior, I can only control my own. In the context of martial arts, this can be emotionally frustrating, which tells me it may be an element I’ve been lacking in my practice as a yogi.

Consider the Source of Your Feedback

A key ingredient for deliberate growth is effective feedback. Yoga trains internal control, but as a personal practice, an individual is ultimately the only judge of progress. That’s a risky source of feedback.

Martial arts provide an environment to test progress interpersonally, with clear indicators of success. If the goal is to find calm, safety, and control, martial arts offer the key challenges and feedback necessary for growth.

Real life is unstructured, which is where martial arts come in:

Train for Uncertainty: It’s Guaranteed

The post How Martial Arts and Yoga Challenge Control appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Practice three days per week with two yoga classes and one meditation practice.

Click Here for a free PDF of this program!

8 Weeks of Yoga for the Road: Week 1

Day 1

Clearing the Mind Before Travel

Alternate Nostril Breathing – Nadi Shodhana

Use this technique to relax your mind and body. Place the index and middle fingers of one hand in toward the palm, and the thumb of the same hand to press against one nostril. Inhale through the other nostril, block with your ring finger and hold your breath. Next release your thumb and exhale smoothly through the opposite nostril.

Yoga

• Seated Twist to Right
• Seated Forward Bend
• Seated Twist to Left
• Seated Forward Bend
• 10x Cat/Cow
• Child’s Pose

Day 2

Clearing the Mind After Travel

Skull Shining Breath Practice – Kapalabhati Pranayama

Skull Shining Breath is a alternating short and explosive breath of exhales and short inhales.

First, quickly contract your lower belly, pushing a burst of air out of your lungs. Try to pace yourself slowly at first, and then aim to repeat 10 times, increasing as you get more comfortable with the breath.

Next, work up to 25-30 cycles, eventually leading to a practice of 100 or more.

Yoga

• 10x Cat/Cow
• Downward dog hold
• 3x ½ Sun Salutations
• Tree Pose – right side
• Standing Forward Bend
• Tree Pose – left side
• Standing Forward Bend Shoulder Release
• 3x ½ Sun Salutations
• Standing Neck Release

8 Weeks of Yoga for the Road: Week 2

Day 1

Travel Yoga – 5 Minutes of Chair Yoga to Open Hips and Spine

• Pigeon in Chair – right Side
• Straight Leg Stretch
• Pigeon in Chair – left Side
• Straight Leg Stretch
• Wide Legged Stretch
• Forward Folding Wide Legged Stretch
• Seated Twist
• 5 Spinal Rolls

Day 2

Travel Yoga – Short Standing Sequence

• Standing Shoulder Opening
• Forward Bend with Shoulder Opener
• Standing Elevated Stretch (arms overhead fingers interlaced)
• Side Bending to each side x5
• ½ Sun Salutes x5
• Downward Dog
• Lunge Right Leg
• Downward Dog
• Lunge – left leg
• Yoga Squat
• ½ Sun Salutes x3
• Downward Dog to Upward Dog x5
• Downward Dog
• Lizard Pose Right Leg
• Downward Dog to Upward Dog x3
• Lizard Pose – left leg
• Yoga Squat
• Wide Legged Forward Bend with Twist
• Mountain Pose
• Standing Shoulder Opening
• Forward Bend with Shoulder Opener
• Standing Elevated Stretch (arms overhead fingers interlaced)

8 Weeks of Yoga for the Road: Week 3

Day 1

Travel Sequence – Yoga on the Go

• Standing Side Bend (each side)
• Standing Forward Bend
• 5x ½ Sun Salutes
• Triangle Pose (each side)
• Wide Legged Forward Bend with shoulder release
• Triangle Pose (each side)
• Wide Legged Forward Bend (with twist to each side)
• Standing Side Bend (each side)
• Standing Forward Bend Grabbing Elbows – 1 to 2 minutes

Day 2

Travel Sequence Yoga – Long Flow

• Happy Baby Pose
• Reclined Spinal Twist
• Wide Legged Stretch
• Half Happy Baby – right
• Reclined Pigeon – right side
• Wide Legged Stretch
• Half Happy Baby – left
• Reclined Pigeon – left side
• 5x Cat/Cow
• Vinyasa
• Warrior 1, 2, 3 – right side
• Vinyasa
• Warrior 1, 2, 3 – left side
• Vinyasa
• Triangle-Half Moon-Standing Split – right side
• Vinyasa
• Triangle-Half Moon-Standing Split – left side
• Child’s Pose
• 3-5x Bow Pose
• Frog Pose – 2 to 3 Minutes (inversion optional)
• Cobbler’s Pose
• Seated Forward Bend Legs Extended
• Head to Knee Pose – right side
• Head to Knee Pose – left Side

8 Weeks of Yoga for the Road: Week 4

Day 1

• Post-Travel Grounding Practice Short Flow
• 2 minutes in each pose
• Pigeon Pose – right side
• Cow’s Face Pose – right side
• Pigeon Pose – left side
• Cow’s Face Pose – left side
• Wide Legged Forward Bend
• Cobbler’s Pose

Day 2

Post-Travel Grounding Practice – Long Flow

• 10x Seated Spinal Rolls
• Seated Twist (each side)
• Seated Side Body Bend (each side)
• 10x Seated Spinal Circles (each side)
• 2 minutes in each pose
• Pigeon Pose – right side
• Cow’s Face Pose – right side
• Pigeon Pose – left side
• Cow’s Face Pose – left side
• Wide Legged Forward Bend
• Cobbler’s Pose
• Hero’s Pose
• Seated Wide Legged Forward Bend
• Legs Up the Wall (10-15 minutes)

8 Weeks of Yoga for the Road: Week 5

Day 1

Pre-Travel Yoga Sequence for Digestion -Preparing for Long Car Ride

• Seated Twist – right and left
• Seated Forward Bend
• Seated Quick Spinal Twists/Rotations with arms at shoulder height
• 3x Downward Dog to Lunge – right and left (5 breaths)
• Pigeon Pose – right side with twist
• 3x Downward Dog to Lunge – right and left (5 breaths)
• Pigeon Pose – left side with twist
• Yogi Squat
• Head to Knee Pose – right side
• Head to Knee Pose – left side
• Plow Pose

Day 2

Post-Travel Yoga Sequence for Digestion and Circulation – After a Long Car Ride

• Standing Mountain Pose
• Standing Shoulder Opener
• Standing Wide Legged Forward Bend with Relaxed Arms
• 10x Spinal Rolls
• Yogi Squat with Twist – right and left
• Standing Side Bend – right
• 10x Spinal Rotations
• Standing Side Bend – left
• Standing Neck Release
• 10x Shoulder Circles
• 10x Hip Circles
• 10x Knee Circles
• 10x Squat to Spinal Roll Up
• Yogi Squat with twist to right and left – 5 breaths each side (option to bind)

8 Weeks of Yoga for the Road: Week 6

Day 1

Post Travel Practice – Forward Folds, Hip Openers and Twists

• Start in a supine position
• 10x Windshield Wiper Knees (each side)
• Happy Baby
• ½ Happy Baby – right side
• Happy Baby
• ½ Happy Baby – left side
• Happy Baby into Wide Legged Stretch – hold for 1 minute
• Knees to Chest
• Twist to right – hold 1 minute
• Knees to Chest
• Twist to left – hold 1 minute
• Downward Dog
• Standing Forward Bend – long hold, 1-2 minutes
• Seated Forward Bend with legs extended
• Seated Wide Legged Forward Bend with Twist (each side)

Day 2

Post Travel Practice – Back Bends, Side Bends, and Shoulder Opening

• Seated Twist – right
• Seated Side Bend – right
• Seated Forward Bend
• Seated Twist – left
• Seated Side Bend – left
• Seated Forward Bend
• Seated Shoulder Opener (using strap if needed)
• Shoulder Dislocates
• Cow Face Shoulder Stretch – right and left
• Eagle Arm Stretch -right and left
• Child’s Pose – 2 minutes
• 3x Camel Pose
• Hero’s Pose
• 5x Seated Spinal Rolls

8 Weeks of Yoga for the Road: Week 7

Day 1

Pre-Travel Energizing Yoga Sequence – Preparing for Long Flight

• 5x A Series Sun Salutes
• 3x B Series Sun Salutes
• 3x C Series Sun Salutes
• Standing Forward Fold (grabbing toes)
• Yogi Squat
• Standing Forward Bend (with shoulder release)
• Yogi Squat (or optional arm balance)
• Vinyasa
• 3x Dancing Warrior Series (each side)
• Vinyasa
• Bird of Paradise – right
• Vinyasa
• Bird of Paradise – left
• Vinyasa
• Yogi Squat with Twist and Bind (each side)
• Child’s Pose
• Deep Heart Opening Pose
• 5x Wheel Pose
• Spinal Twist (each side)
• Plow Pose

* optional inversion – handstand

Day 2

Post-Travel Yoga Sequence – After a Long Flight

• Reclined Cobbler’s Pose
• Wide Legged Forward Bend
• Downward Dog
• Lunge Right Leg
• Downward Dog
• Lunge Left Leg
• Downward Dog
• Pigeon Pose Right Leg
• Pigeon Pose Left Leg
• Standing Wide Leg Forward Bend with Shoulder Release
• Wide Legged Forward Bend with Twist (each side)
• Cobbler’s Pose

8 Weeks of Yoga for the Road: Week 8

Day 1

Jet Lag – Short Sequence

• Start in a supine position
• Right Knee to Chest
• Right Leg Extended Stretch
• Happy Baby
• Left Knee to Chest
• Left Leg Extended Stretch
• Happy Baby
• 5x Knees to Chest Twist (each side)
• Legs up the Wall – 10 to 15 minutes

Day 2

Jet Lag – Long Sequence

• 10x Cat/Cow
• Downward Dog – 10 breaths
• Wide Legged Downward Dog with a Twist (each side)
• 5x Upward Dog to Downward Dog
• Tree Pose – right side
• 3x Sun Salutations
• Tree Pose – left side
• 3x Sun Salutations
• Crescent Lunge – right side
• Lizard Pose – right side
• Vinyasa
• Crescent Lunge – left side
• Lizard Pose – left side
• Vinyasa
• Seated Twist
• Head to Knee Pose – right side
• Seated Twist
• Head to Knee Pose – left side
• Forward Bend
• Cobbler’s Pose

Stiff and sore after days in airports?

Don’t Let Chronic Pain Ruin Your Vacation

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While that’s understandable, it’s also an excuse. And you know what they say about excuses.

Having been around the yoga block a few times (pardon the pun), I’ve come to understand that flexibility is as much about the mind as it is about muscle. So now, when someone tells me they are not flexible enough to do yoga, I say with a twinkle in my eye, “You’re right.” This is usually surprising enough to get their motor turning, and the conversation that follows depends on the kind of person they are. My response is akin to Henry Ford’s famous quote, “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right.” I gently nudge them to recognize that it’s the belief that matters.

It’s important for teachers, trainers, therapists, and generous hearts from all walks of life to spot chronic excuse makers, so we don’t waste our efforts on someone who has no intention of changing. Before I understood this, I poured so much precious energy into animated dissertations on toe-touching, shoulder mobility, hip rotation and the like, trying to convince the unconvincible that they were indeed flexible enough to do yoga.

Even when I took someone through an exercise that showed them how they were indeed flexible, my efforts failed. Why? Because their mind was made up!

As it turns out, some people have learned to use excuses as a way to get attention and energy from unsuspecting, generous souls. Unfortunately, this energy is wasted, like putting gas in a car that has no engine, because the person has no real desire to change. This leaves the giver depleted and the receiver right where they were, blissfully basking in their bed of excuses.

Having made that distinction, what follows is for those of you with a willingness to change. Not your body, though that will come soon enough, but first we have to work on your mind. With few exceptions, your body can only be as willing as your mind. If you’re still reading, you must have learned somewhere along the way, as I did, that willingness is the harbinger of possibility, so here we go.

Yoga 101

Let’s start with a little overview on yoga. Along with yoga’s rise to popularity in the west, a morass of marketing, designed to sell expensive clothing and studio memberships, depicts yoga practices geared to make you sweat, give you a workout, and the body you’ve always wanted, all to the backdrop of loud music.

Yoga is a big word, and I would be doing you and me a disservice to say I knew what “it” is. For the sake of constructive conversation, I can share some helpful jumping off points that I’ve found useful.

Yoga can be thought of as a noun and a verb. As a noun, it describes the unity and essence of everything, as a verb it describes the practices that help us connect with the awareness of the essence and unity of all.

One of the main texts on yoga, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, describes yoga as “…the practice of quieting the mind.” This same text lays out an eightfold system to assist the practitioner in achieving that. One of these practices is asana, or yoga posture. While current perception has it that yoga is yoga postures, yoga posture is only an eighth of the whole yoga pie.

Since the flexibility argument is nearly always referring to yoga poses (or asana – words which I’ll use interchangeably), let’s center our focus here for a bit.

Using the Sutras as our guide, we learn that asana is about finding energetic balance between two different forces—the forces of steadiness and ease, or strength and flexibility. Knowing this is crucial! And not knowing it is often detrimental, and leads to strain, injury, and self-condemnation.

This simple principle relieves us of the pressure of trying to make the pose look a certain way, and makes yoga poses accessible to everyone. One of my master teachers always reminds us that we are looking for the best version of the pose for our body at that particular moment in time; as opposed to trying to make our body mold itself to the way we think the pose is supposed to look based on a concept.

Physics and the New Science of Stretching

Basic physics tells us that an atom is 99.99999% empty space. When people say they are not flexible, this points to a feeling of constriction or lack of space wherever their tight zone is. But if our bodies are made of atoms and atoms are mainly space, then what causes tightness or lack of space? Is it matter or mind?

This is where new research in bio-mechanics sheds light. Whereas we once envisioned our muscles like taffy that we could stretch through effort, with the goal being to make short muscles longer; we now understand that stretching is not so much about the physicality of our muscles but about the nervous system that controls them.

The brain which controls the nervous system is a survival mechanism whose sole aim it is to keep us safe. The brain interprets familiar movements or body positions as safe ones. Anything new sends a threat signal to our muscles causing constriction. The way around this is to go to the edge of your stretch enough that the nervous system starts to warm up to the movement and gradually allows more range of motion.

The approach toward stretching that I’ve observed in the past is one of strain, pulling, and effort to get past the edge. No pain, no gain.

My work involves guiding people away from strain and toward their breath, and ultimately to an awareness of how the area they are stretching is connected to and affecting the rest of the body—especially their spine. Often, it’s a completely different area of the body keeping the target zone from stretching.

For example, in a seated forward fold (paschimottanasana), the tendency is to fixate on the hamstrings, because that’s usually where most people feel the resistance most. What happens next is the individual grabs their shins or feet (barely), rolls back on their sitz bones, and rounds the upper back, completely avoiding the hamstrings and the connection between the backs of the legs and the back of the torso.

A more constructive way to do this stretch is to elevate the buttocks on a blanket or pillow if needed to allow the student to roll forward on their sitz bones and gain length through the lower back. And rather than straining to reach the feet, the student wraps a yoga strap or towel around the bottoms of their feet and holds that.

These adjustments in support already bring a calmness to the nervous system and allow the student to connect with their breathing. I’ve witnessed huge shifts in range of motion in one session from working this way. As students learn to visit their edge and relax into it. rather than try to get beyond it, the range of motion increases rapidly.

Be sure to watch the short video below to see these principles in action!

What about the other two “abilities?”

Let’s End the Mobility Versus Stability Debate

The post The Myth of Flexibility and Yoga appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Manduka Mat Testing Conditions

We examined and tested the Manduka Black Mat Pro (Extra Long) in a commercial gym setting, home gym, and a yoga studio with and without carpet. This mat was used in bodyweight and weighted workouts, hot yoga classes, and intense vinyasa yoga sessions—and we found it to be a superior product. It has exceptional high quality and it is designed to endure years of use. It is stable, and does not shift during yoga practice.

The mat was used on a regular basis for six months, and is still performing strong with no signs of wear down, tears, or loss of grip. The mat remains very stable on hardwood floors and stone alike. It has a specific top and bottom surface with built-in technology to prevent breeding bacteria. The mat is 100% latex free and is made of PVC. It is free of toxins (specifically phthalate free) with sustainable engineering, and an emissions-free manufacturing processes.

We recommend that you purchase the extra long size to maximize your mat space. Trust us you’ll be glad you did. More room for arm balances, headstands, splits, and workouts of your choice.

Additional Things to Note

The mat needs to be prepped before first use. Prepping your mat is a simple process that will ensure a non-smelly, non-slip practice.

Simply follow these steps:

1. Let the mat air out in an open space (outside in fresh air is best).
2. Scrub the surface of the mat with coarse sea salt, rinse well, and then let the mat air dry in the sun.

Yoga practice is for everyone:

5 Yoga Exercises for a Healthy Low Back

The post Manduka Pro: Still the Best Mat for Yoga appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Although yoga is a strengthening and balancing technique, it will not correct or fix existing postural issues that result from excessive sitting or lack of movement. Yoga is an ancient practice that was created during a time when humans did not spend their days sitting. For the modern day body to reap the great benefits of a yoga practice, one must do something to counteract the effects of sitting and lack of movement. As well as yoga, these exercises will support anyone who has a mobility practice that is similar.

The exercises featured in this video are designed to promote balance and proper function of the eight load-bearing joints of the body: the shoulders, hips, knees and ankles. These exercises will put the body into a better position in order to get the most benefit from a yoga practice.

The exercises are: 

• In-line gluteal contractions
• Three-position toe raises
• Standing arm circles

For best results, incorporate these exercises both before and after your yoga practice.

Exercise Instructions

In-Line Gluteal Contractions

This exercise works the stabilizing gluteal muscles around the hip, all while challenging your balance.

1. Stand with your feet in-line with each other so that the toes of the foot behind are three inches away from the foot in front.
2. It is very important that your feet remain pointed straight ahead through out the exercise.
3. In this position, squeeze and release your buttocks muscles, keeping your thighs and stomach muscles relaxed.
4. Repeat three sets of 20 on each side.
5. Remember to keep your feet straight and keep your balance.
6. Keep your upper body relaxed throughout the exercise.

If you have trouble keeping your balance at first, stand next to a table and periodically hold onto it for support.

Three-Position Toe Raises

1. Stand with your body aligned straight up and down, with your hips directly over your heels.
2. For the first set, point your toes straight ahead.
3. Roll up onto the balls of your feet, keeping the weight evenly distributed over all five toes.
4. Lower you heels back to the ground in a smooth motion.
5. Repeat three sets of 10 reps.
6. For the second set, point your toes outward at about a 45 degree angle.
7. Repeat the above directions for another three sets of 10 reps.
8. For the third set, point your toes inward so your big toes are touching.
9. Repeat the above instructions for the final three sets of 10 reps.
10. It is essential to maintain your body alignment, with your hips directly over your heels
11. Do not let yourself lean forward.

Standing Arm Circles

This exercise balances the shoulders and promotes function of the thoracic and lumbar regions of the spine.

1. Stand with your feet pointed straight ahead and hip-width apart.
2. Place your finger tips into the pad of each hand and point your thumbs straight out.
3. This is referred to as golfer’s grip and maintaining this hand position is important for the exercise to be done correctly.
4. Pull your shoulders back by squeezing your shoulder blades together and down, then bring your arms out straight from your sides up to shoulder level.
5. With palms facing down and thumbs pointing straight forward, rotate your hands up and forward in approximate six inch circles and continue for 50 reps.
6. Then reverse direction: palms should now face up, with thumbs pointed straight backward.
7. Rotate your hands up and backward, continue for 50 reps.

Lately, several yogis have come to me asking for support with reducing pain and tension resulting from their yoga practice. This prompted me to create this article for people who practice yoga regularly. I hope this short routine helps you to maintain balance and to gain greater benefit from your practice. If you have any questions or comments feel free to send me an email.

Keep your body ready for anything:

Tune Up for Long-Term Training

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is for informational purposes only. The purpose of this article is to promote broad reader understanding and knowledge of various health topics. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen, and never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read in this article.

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The results of these exercises are immediate and sustainable if practiced daily as you go about your regular activities. The exercises I’ve given can be done in as little as five minutes, but to get the most out of it, allow 10-20 minutes whenever possible. The final pose, legs up the wall (a.k.a. viparita karani or reverse action pose) can be sustained for up to 15 minutes.

Here are a few points to remember:

1. Your feet tell you what your thighs are doing. If the toes are turning out so are the thighbones. This compresses the lower back.
2. Look to see that the outer edges of your feet are parallel.
3. Make sure your weight is even on both the inner and outer edges of your feet. In other words you’re not leaning more to one side or the other.
4. Practice these actions throughout the day whenever you think of it and they will become the new habit.

Your chair is killing your back:

Corrective Posture Exercises for Chronic Sitters

The post 5 Yoga Exercises for a Healthy Low Back appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I can hear the yogaphiles beating at their keyboards already, denouncing me for having no idea what I’m talking about. Beat away. In the meantime, I’m going to explain why yoga can have no benefit for a performance athlete.

Yoga should give an individual more ownership of their body, not a lesson in how to cheat their way into positions they can’t sustain. Those who handle yoga poses well have the requisite tissue flexibility, joint mobility, stability, and motor control to do so and so reap the full benefits. For athletes without the flexibility it fundamentally requires, the benefits of a yoga prescription can be limited.

The Problem with Yoga for Most Athletes

How have I reached this conclusion? If you haven’t read my bio, you won’t know that I have provided performance physical therapy services to the best martial arts and gymnastics athletes in China, and have also conducted yoga classes for elite handball and volleyball athletes. I understand fully how to use yoga to address an individual’s movement, nervous system, and breathing requirements. In practice, I have noticed that the most favourable changes in yoga practice only occur in athletes who already possess a decent range of motion.

Most athletic disciplines are built on fierce competition, not movement perfection.

For example, my athletes in gymnastics and martial arts seemed to take to yoga very well, as their sport requires a certain focus on movement. Conversely, the field-based performance athletes brought their training-induced restrictions to the same movements, often achieving positions by giving up stability somewhere else because they lacked the appropriate mobility. Let’s look at this movement compensation in a bit more detail.

Challenging Versus Difficult

Here’s the thing. Great yoga practice only occurs when a task and environment facilitates a position or movement where breathing is challenged, but not difficult. A challenging task is a task pitched just beyond our level of skill that causes us to rise and meet it. A difficult task is a task that far outlies our skill set. If we complete a difficult task, it doesn’t enhance our skills – it just forces us to compensate around our deficiencies. Breathing with difficulty may teach the performance athlete a skill in compensating, but yoga is not about being a better compensator.

“Yoga is not a conditioning practice, unless your athletic endeavour is yoga, or at least a yoga-like activity.”

Yoga is about being a better breather and mover, and most athletes are supposed to move more freely and have better stability in some joints more than others. If they run out of free motion somewhere and try to keep moving beyond that limitation, it follows that they have to give up range of motion somewhere else to do so. With this in mind, we need to ask whether allowing athletes to attain yoga positions by getting looser in the wrong areas of their body is appropriate. I can’t see it being right.

But Doesn’t Yoga Correct Movement?

Correction is defined as a change that rectifies an error or inaccuracy. And it’s true, yoga is a great corrector of breathing and movement control with its challenging postures.

The underlying joint and tissue compliance highlights reflexes that allow for errors in movement to be detected – but only in athletes where tissue flexibility and joint mobility is already present. So its corrective benefits for the less mobile athlete are debatable.

Yoga is intended to take mindful ownership of the body – not to force it into unsustainable positions.

Yoga Isn’t a Conditioning Activity

Yoga is not a conditioning practice, unless your athletic endeavour is yoga, or at least a yoga-like activity. In which case, you’ll only become conditioned to do a lot of yoga. When I specify yoga is not a conditioning practice unless your performance is yoga-like in its nature (such as in the case of martial arts and gymnastics), I’m not saying that as a brush off.

A general principle to apply when wondering whether an activity is a correction or a conditioning activity is this: if they specialize in the technique of the activity, they are conditioning. If not, they are just correcting.

An Alternative Prescription

Should more immobile athletes keep attempting yoga? No. In my opinion, these individuals are better off dialing their positions right back and getting their mobility restrictions reset with the help of self-care or professional techniques.

More Like This:

• Mobility Work: You’re Doing It Wrong (and Too Long)
• You’re Not Getting Stronger Because You Don’t Know How to Move
• How and Why to Use All 3 Planes of Motion to Improve Your Mobility
• New on Breaking Muscle

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Why Yoga Isn’t Useful for Most Performance Athletes appeared first on Breaking Muscle.