yoga
Yoga and meditation are essential in living a health and wellness lifestyle. Longevity highlights yoga poses, celebrities, trends, and fads.
What is Hatha Yoga?
While exercise fads sweep the country yearly, encouraging intelligent people to do the strangest things, there is one exercise system that has maintained an enthusiastic following for over 6,000 years: hatha yoga. This system employs techniques western physiotherapists are still just exploring: the stimulation of internal organs, nerves, and muscles through a number of unique postures combined with deep rhythmic breathing. The exercises evolved from the yogic belief that no man is healthy unless his heart, lungs, liver, nerves, eyes, glands, hearing and so forth are functioning correctly. A man with well developed muscles is not necessarily healthy — he can easily succumb to a kidney or nerve ailment. Consequently, the ancient yoga postures were devised to stimulate individual organ and nerve groups. A healthy mind relies on a healthy body.
Izzy ErlichPublished 8 years ago in LongevityThe Most Gorgeous California Yoga Retreats
Breathe. Stretch. Unwind. Whether you're hoping to become a certified yoga instructor at an intensive two-week program or just relax on a weekend getaway, a yoga retreat is probably the perfect thing - and sunny California is the perfect place. You can camp out in tents and sleeping bags or revel in a luxurious room complete with an organic mattress and breakfast in your room. And when you're not in warrior pose, you can fuel yourself with healthy, fresh (usually vegetarian) meals that will help you feel amazing. At many locations, daily hour-long massages are also included - ohhhhhh yeah. If that's not enough to put you into a complete state of bliss, you can wander over to the hot tub or hot springs and soak away your remaining woes. What are you waiting for? Grab your mat and book your retreat right away - most are filled up a year in advance.
Sarah QuinnPublished 8 years ago in LongevityFunny Things That Only Happen to Yogis
Yoga is so much more than just a workout - it’s a lifestyle. It changes you as a person—it contributes to your self-development and it improves your overall health. Through yoga you can meet your future friends, soulmates (and I don’t mean just your yoga mat) and even start a new career you never knew existed. Once you’re in it, you’re a yogi for life. And the results are phenomenal.
Mackenzie LuPublished 8 years ago in LongevityStephanie Miller's Hatha Raja Yoga
The Dalai Lama once said, "We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves." With help of their local yogis, people are chasing inner peace all over the world. Stephanie Miller is one of those yogis. Stephanie Miller is the director of BambooMoves Yoga, and a practiced holistic healer. BambooMoves was founded in 2007, and consists of yoga studios in Forest Hills, NY, Englewood NJ, Palisades Park NJ, and Baltimore, MD. Honoring a more ancient teaching of yoga, BambooMoves focuses not only on fitness and health but largely on spirituality and mental wellness. Often described as the "heart and soul of BambooMoves", Stephanie guides her students in this journey. Stephanie Miller was the first graduate of the BambooMoves teacher training and became the director after the departure of founder Andrew Tanner, and has experience in Taoist energy training, martial arts, dance, and a variety of yoga forms. She received her 500-hour certification with Sri Dharma Mittra in New York City and studied in India at the Shri K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute with Saraswati. She uses a fluid teaching style to combines power and grace, and is dedicated to cultivating a deep sense of peace within each of her students. Stephanie works to ground her students in the present moment and guide them with gentle yet focused Hatha Raja movements to find a more flexible place in their bodies and minds.
Frank WhitePublished 8 years ago in LongevityUninhibited Animal Yoga Poses
Thousands of years ago yoga practitioners would observe they way animals stretched – uninhibited, free of social convention.The more flexible the body, the more flexible mind, according to ancient yoga teachings. Animal poses protect your body from muscle pain and tightness. Try to absorb the essence of each pose, imagining the stretch for its namesake and remaining present and uninhibited.
Izzy ErlichPublished 8 years ago in LongevityBest Yoga Snapchats to Follow
Today with our technology almost consuming our every moment it can be challenging finding time to be more mindful or healthy. Some of us try to join a gym or a yoga studio to release some of the tension built up due to our busy lives, but it can be disheartening, at times, when you are unmotivated. Recently there has been a surge of fitness gurus flooding social media willing to share their experiences and teach you their secrets to lead a successful, healthy, and mindful life. Since Snapchat's creation in 2012, Snapchat has introduced a space for anyone to share their stories and provide a glimpse into their personal lives. Many fitness and yoga experts hopped on the Snapchat train to help expand upon their messages of motivation, healthy eating, and encouragement. And with the increased interest Eastern philosophy and meditation but still living in the modern age, people are turning to Snapchat to gain further insight into these lifestyles. People who are intensely interested in yoga, maybe inexperienced, but are looking for tips of to start practicing or looking for encouragement or just simply looking for some how tos can look to these yoga Snapchats for inspiration and guidance. These tech savvy Yogis help others block out our world that is filled with constant noise and distraction while helping others lead more mindful lives. So if you think your yoga game isn't on point, take a peek into some of the lives of the most motivating yoga Snapchats social media has to offer and you will sure to be inspired!
George GottPublished 8 years ago in LongevityIntense Forms of Extreme Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual practice that is designed to better the body and mind. There are many different forms of yoga. The most popular schools of yoga are hatha yoga, jnana yoga, hot yoga, and bhakti yoga. Each form is designed to link the mind and body through various poses. Each form of yoga presents its own health benefits. More rigorous forms, such as hot yoga, raise your heart rate and have cardiac benefits. Slower forms of yoga, such as yin yoga, can greatly increase flexibility.
Mackenzie LuPublished 8 years ago in LongevityIs Hot Yoga Healthy?
Americans spend approximately $2.5 billion on hot yoga classes every year. People from all walks of life, from college students to housewives, all flock to hot yoga studios around the country to practice their downward dog in temperatures ranging from 95-105 degrees Fahrenheit. Recenter your prana while you sweat out toxins and tone your glutes. Companies like Lululemon, Athletica, and Gaiam are cashing in on the yoga craze, bringing in over $1 billion annually. The popularity of yoga isn't going anywhere, and neither are the millions that patrons are willing to spend on it. But how healthy is hot yoga actually? With crazes like CrossFit and Spinning pushing participants to their limit, it's hard to tell if you are helping or hurting your body. Hot yoga can hold many benefits for all levels of ability, including increased flexibility and a strong cardio workout. However, hot yoga could pose some health risks when not practiced properly.
Emily McCayPublished 8 years ago in LongevityUnderstanding Different Types of Yoga
Meditation, breathing, flexibility, strength, and balance—there are as many reasons to practice yoga as there are types of yoga. Aficionados of the global phenomenon practiced for centuries in India, swear by the health benefits, both physical and spiritual. For beginners or those unconvinced by yoga’s superstar status, be assured it’s not only for girls or hippies, and you don’t have to like incense or wear yoga pants. So don’t be afraid to try it if you are interested in finding a new way to clear your mind, want to improve your posture, tone your muscles, or perhaps open your mind to a different form of therapy.
Mackenzie LuPublished 8 years ago in LongevityBest Online Yoga Classes
Aren’t you tired of driving and sitting in bumper to bumper traffic just to get to your local yoga class? The point of yoga may be to reduce stress, but this causes you to get stressed out even before you get there. More like NOmaste! Or maybe you are just trying out yoga for the first time. You might be a little intimidated by going to a class and looking like you have no clue whats going on. Or even worse, you live in the middle of nowhere. People at your local gym will say "yoga what?". All those headaches can truly put a bad taste in your mouth and be exhaustive for many people that are looking to achieve a more mindful and healthy attitude for life. But you can still become that Zen master you want to be and have it your way! How, you ask? Thanks internet!
George GottPublished 8 years ago in LongevityHatha Yoga Poses for Beginners
Since 1893 when Swami Vivekananda first spoke of the teachings of yoga at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, the Western world began to develop and evolve these ancient practices into an exciting modern culture. Nowadays the options are endless, should I go with Vinyasa flow? That sweaty Bikram class? Or the... what’s Ashtanga? We've all been there. When you upload the schedule of your local yoga studio, you are presented with a plethora of practices which can be overwhelming for the beginning yogi. Do not fret, for this article will give you a foundation of basic Hatha yoga poses for beginners that can be done in the comforts of your own home and for free! Breath deep and stretch as you embark on your journey through the limbs of yoga, leaving your body feeling refresh and renewed every day.
Mackenzie LuPublished 8 years ago in LongevityVinyasa Yoga for Weight Loss
Sometimes referred to as dynamic yoga or flowing yoga, Vinyasa yoga is a popular type of yoga in which you move from pose to pose without breaking the flow. While yoga is generally thought of as a relaxing activity, it can be quite exhausting and can burn approximately 450 calories when performed without rest for one hour, therefore making vinyasa yoga for weight loss very effective.
Mackenzie LuPublished 8 years ago in Longevity