Subscribe to Show
Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=7567645&id=752685485#!/pages/Get-Exercised/210681422563)
Twitter (http://twitter.com/getexercised) Linked In (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dina-prioste/9/529/791)
Note:
The exercises recommended on this site are for a general audience. If you have injuries, are pregnant or have any conditions some of the exercises may not be suitable for you or may need to be adjusted. Please consult a physician before starting any new exercise program.
|
Articles
|
Reaching a Yoga Plateau |
|
|
Written by Dina Prioste
|
|
My latest article published in the Lifestretch Yoga newsletter: Why has my yoga practice seemed to have reached a plateau?  A common question that I often ask myself! Your answer will require a little self-study, or Svadhyaya, which is one of the Niyamas (self-conducts) outlined in the Yoga Sutras. Here are some questions you can ask;
- Am I taking the same yoga classes and with the same frequency all the time?
- Am I doing the same poses and style of practice all the time?
- Have I incorporated other yogic practices into mine like pranayama, mantra and meditation?
- Do I practice on my own? (This is a big one.)
- Are there changes in my diet I could make so my practice will feel better?
- Are there career/lifestyle changes I've been thinking about but have been putting off?
- Have I let go or cut back on other activities to make more room for my yoga practice?
Perhaps by reading the questions you've already found the answer to your yoga plateau and I'm not going to sugarcoat it here: if your yoga practice has reached a plateau, you have reached a plateau. Looking back, I remember major breakthroughs in the asanas that occurred after I made major changes in my life, off the mat. It used to frustrate me to no end that it seemed everyone could bind in revolved poses except for me. The nerve! However, one day it suddenly happened that my fingers could touch in the binds, shortly after I left my full time office job to become a full time yoga instructor. You could argue that I was practicing a lot more being a full time instructor, but I never did revolved binds while teaching. I believe it was emotionally cutting loose my safety net of that 9 to 5 job that my heart wasn't into that opened my body up. I have other examples like that but you get the idea.
Now it may be that you don't want anything else out of your practice and it's serving your needs just fine right now, and that's okay. However, just know that your practice will be very limited if you still, for example, run 30 miles a week, only have time to practice twice a week and never sit in meditation. Your practice is for you and it's great whatever it is, just don't expect it to be the same as someone who wants more out of it.
Yoga brings us back to our true selves again and again and we're faced with observing the changes or lack of changes the practice brings, on and off the mat. Like anything else it will ebb and flow, so I say just go for the ride. When you feel it's time for something to change you'll know because your yoga practice will tell you. |
|
|
Yoga with Injuries |
|
|
Written by Dina Prioste
|
|
An article I wrote as originally published in Lifestretch Yoga's newsletter: I'm recovering from an injury, will practicing yoga help it heal?  This is brought up all the time, mainly in reference to pulled or strained muscles, and is near and dear to my heart because I was once sidelined for three months with a groin pull due to fiendishly running, weight lifting and practicing yoga on top of working a full time job that I didn't enjoy. Since then I've become extremely cautious and a majority of the time I believe the answer is NO, practicing yoga will not help it to heal but only make the injury worse. I've even kicked people out of my classes (or highly recommended they kindly leave) if they have pulled muscles. Of course injuries and practitioners vary and I'd ask the following - Have you been to a doctor and did he/she okay you practicing yoga? Where is the injury? How long ago did the injury occur and when was the last time you did any exercise? How did the injury occur? (over training, a trip/fall, an accident)
I'd use the answers to assess whether it's okay for him/her to begin practicing but like I stated above, before the injury is 100% healed the answer will a majority of the time be no. If it's a muscle group that can be worked around in a yoga class, like a shoulder injury and avoiding down dog and vinyasa flow, then it may be okay. In my case I had a groin pull and there's no avoiding using that area in yoga (or even walking) and I was forced to take the time off for it to completely heal.
Also in regards to pulled muscles, stretching only makes it more "pulled" when the muscle fibers really need to work their way back together. According to long time yoga and anatomy expert Tias Little, flexing the muscle that is pulled can encourage healing. Therefore, since yoga is a combination of flexing and stretching (if you're flexing something, you're stretching something else) it will be hard to avoid stretching your injured muscle group and will cause more harm than good. Which brings up another important part of practicing yoga, ahimsa, or non-violence. Ahimsa is one of the yamas, or social conducts, outlined in the Yoga Sutras and goes beyond the obvious not hurting others, abstaining from meat, etc. Most importantly it means do no harm to your self; physically, emotionally, spiritually. If your body sustains an injury it's important to ask yourself how and why this happened and what will help it truly heal.
To this day I believe my groin pull was a gift from the universe, source, God, or whatever because in that three months off I re-evaluated what I was doing with my life and made the decision to finally take yoga teacher training, which I had been putting off since my very first yoga practice waiting to become "better" at yoga, in the hopes that I can help prevent others from harming their bodies in the same way.
I'll leave you with these words from Meditations from the Mat by Rolf Gates and Katrina Kenison: "The sensitivity necessary for us to become conscious of all the ways we act against our own bodies will ultimately teach us to avoid pitfalls in our everyday lives as well. As we explore our relationships with our bodies, we see the imprint of all our other relationships. We begin to see the true nature of our beliefs concerning politics, gender, sex, money, power, the whole enchilada. On the mat we venture out into the wilderness of our karma. The practice of ahimsa is crucial on this journey. We must not stand in judgment of ourselves. Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate, but to befriend and understand." |
|
|
Late to Class? |
|
|
Written by Dina Prioste
|
| | What is the big deal about being late for yoga class?  Sometimes being late is unavoidable and may not be a big deal once or twice (I've been late to teach on a few unfortunate occasions). However, in the long run if you're consistently late you aren't practicing yoga to your full potential and missing out on one of the most important lessons - self discipline.
Some years back I taught a Saturday & Sunday morning yoga class at a gym in New York City ongoing for over two years. One of my regular yoginis consistently, I mean every single morning, scampered in the room 3 to 5 minutes late while the rest of us were in seated meditation or doing pranayama. We'd clearly hear and feel her rushed energy of just coming off the treadmill (that's why she was always late by the way, not traffic or an emergency) as she opened the door, went to the closet, threw her mat down to be "ready" by the time we started moving in warm ups.
It became very clear to me that this external only advanced practitioner avoided the beginning because, for whatever reason, she couldn't deal with sitting still. She knew exactly when to walk in to start with sun salutations and chaturangas. I'm telling you, if you refuse to practice or can't practice sitting still and bringing awareness to your breath then you aren't practicing yoga. You're just working out at the gym. The closing at the end of the practice in a seated posture is now meaningless because your practice didn't begin there and come full circle. In my opinion, none of the physical postures or vinyasa flow will benefit you if you can't practice being still and with your breath even just for a few moments.
Unfortunately, I was a younger teacher then and worried too much about pleasing others and keeping my job, so I never said anything to her and regret it because it would have benefited everybody present. But this is what I'd say to her now and to anybody else reading this that doesn't have a legitimate reason for being late to a class (or anything else in life): "By being consistently late you're being disrespectful to the rest of the class while they're trying to find a moment of peace. You're being disrespectful to me as your guide to help all of you find a little bit of peace. You're being disrespectful to the practice of yoga that includes discipline, tapas, as one of the Niyamas (self conducts). You're being disrespectful to yourself for not attempting to go beyond what you know you're already well capable of doing."
The practice of yoga is a constant growth and expansion of who you are and it may just be that making that extra effort to get to class on time, taking a later class or doing a short practice at home instead is the most important lesson you can take from your yoga practice.
But barring unforeseen circumstances when you come to a group class, please be present at the beginning. | | |
|
|
|
Yoga & Weight Loss |
|
|
Written by Dina Prioste
|
|
Will practicing yoga help me lose weight? I got to admit I don’t like this question. One, because I’ve never been overweight and don’t feel qualified to answer and two, because it’s so complicated. However, I can’t turn down a challenge, so here goes… Usually yoga will help you lose weight if you practice consistently over a period of time but it’s not so simple as to always answer yes or no. The good news is that you can be any weight or body type to practice or teach yoga! I know practitioners and instructors that were overweight (some very) and doing yoga in conjunction with dietary and lifestyle changes brought them down to an ideal weight for them. The two primary ways that yoga helps with weight loss and the two ways we most focus on in Western culture is: - By burning calories while practicing postures on the mat. - Increasing muscle mass thus increasing metabolism (though muscle weighs more than fat so don’t be fooled by your scale, judge by inches/clothing size). Some secondary and more holistic, lasting ways that yoga helps with weight loss are: - Breath control and meditation help to calm the nervous system and reduce stress, thus reducing the stress hormone cortisol in the body (which makes the body store fat and induce stress eating). - Helping you sleep better reducing cortisol levels. - Creating more balance and well-being in your life. - Becoming more in touch with your body’s (and your) needs and what daily choices (work, relationships, etc.) would be healthier for you. - Encouraging a diet centered less on meat (if at all) and more on plant proteins, whole grains, vegetables and fruits. - By discovering emotional patterns, called samskaras, that result in overeating or poor dietary choices….and create healthy patterns. - Having fun in class and exploring the ways your body is more powerful than you thought before and you treat it more lovingly as a result. - Maybe inspiring you to become an instructor and take a teacher training to inspire others (you never know!) - Many more, insert your own experience here. As you can see, the primary ways you can get from any type of exercise but the secondary ways are long term, unique to a complete yoga practice, are part of living a balanced & healthy lifestyle and may be why yoga has been popular for about 5,000 years! It works, it’s fun and I’ve seen amazing results in people as yoga changed their lives. In a nutshell, to lose weight doing yoga you must practice first, have some faith and patience and love what it’s doing for you in every way. Then your body will naturally become the perfect weight for you. But best of all you will feel great and no external appearance can compare to the healthy, strong feeling of your most beautiful self. |
|
|
Now in CA and on iPhones! |
|
|
Written by Dina Prioste
|
|
Hey everybody! Just a quick update - after 9 years in NYC I've moved back from where I came...the Bay Area, CA. If you're in the area and interested in classes, private lessons or workshops, email me at
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
And Get Exercised is now available in iPod/iPhone format so you can learn exercise and yoga tips for free on the go! |
|
| | << Start < Prev 1 2 3 Next > End >>
| | Results 1 - 9 of 20 |
|
Articles 