Need proof Yoga has infiltrated every corner of American culture? Just follow the threads dropped by the headlines – and the stats. According to a study released by Yoga Journal in December 2012, the number of Americans practicing yoga jumped 29 percent, to 20.4 million — or 8.7 percent of American adults — since the previous study in 2008, when 15.8 million practiced.
In response primarily to the business traveler’s desire to lead healthier lifestyles, a number of hotels are supplying mats, straps, blocks, and videos in guests rooms (sometimes with a minor surcharge, which meets with little resistance) and some offer yoga classes. An app – Mindbody – that also targets the business traveler, is available on Apple and Android to find (and book) local yoga classes. MyYogaOnline.com allows travelers to subscribe to yoga videos on demand.
Among the many benefits ancient art and science of yoga, a physical, mental and spiritual practice, is the ability to relax while remaining attentive– perfect for prisoners. Yep, at least 20 prisons through the U.S. now offer yoga through the Yoga Prison Project.
Some like it hot. Some, like […]
BY Yoga International ON June 26, 2013
For Jane Hansen, the proverbial final straw in her burnout experience came from a well-intentioned student. “I had someone actually say to me, ‘You seem better,’” she says, “and I thought, Wow, it’s not just in my head.” In this case, “it” was the feeling that she no longer had the ability or energy to hold space for her students or to provide the experience she wanted them to have.
Hansen, who had recently moved from Berkeley, California, to Manhattan, Kansas, had other symptoms as well. “I definitely had fatigue,” she says. “I had hair loss, I had a lot of tension in my jaw.” When she got a college teaching position on top of her university counseling job, she knew she had to let her yoga class go.
She says it’s not a permanent break, and next time she’ll make sure she has the time and space in her life to eat and sleep and rest. “I expect to go back and teach again, and when I do, I’ll have more balance in my life.”
“I was […]
The Telluride Yoga Festival started in 2008 after local yoga instructor Aubrey Hackman decided that the box canyon was the ideal venue for a weekend filled with yoga workshops, classes and fantastic guest instructors.
Her hunch paid off; six years later, the Yoga Festival has established sturdy roots thanks to a growing following of yogis who love what it’s all about: the practice.
“I think that it’s all about the yoga, and that’s why people like it,” Hackman said. “Getting to be in a really incredible town and having that experience just creates a really magical product.”
The Yoga Festival is back this weekend with four days filled to the brim with everything from hip-opening classes to acro-yoga, yoga slackers, meditations, kundalini and an ayurvedic program. Instructors include yoga luminaries like Tias Little, Beryl Bender Birch and Duncan Wong, and the festival features a schedule of free community classes and a special pass for yogis on a budget.
Hackman said organizers expect the festival to sell out this year for the first time. She attributed that to the stellar roster of instructors and the growing momentum behind the festival.
“This is one of our strongest […]
I look around the room and watch the other trainees sink into their own worlds; the only space I’m disturbing is my own.
In Sanskrit, the word yoga means union—between the body and the mind and between the self and all other beings. The practice of yoga illuminates this union and aids the individual in reaching a kind of spiritual enlightenment called Sampranjanita […]
More men are getting involved in practicing yoga. (Jupiter Images)
Question: I’m a male in my late 50s and I have developed arthritis. My doc says that yoga might help alleviate some of the pain and help with my movement. I’ve never done yoga before and I’m going to be honest, I’m not sure it’s for me. My wife loves it, but she says her class is almost always all women. Are there men-only yoga classes? And what would your advice be for someone who isn’t real keen on this?
– Robert M., Denver
Yoga instructor Mike Matsumura answers: Robert, you aren’t alone in your thinking! But yoga is for men and for women, and in fact, more and more men are getting involved in the practice, because they, too, are experiencing the many rewards from it. Most classes do have men in class, too.
In a yoga class, you will find that people (men and women) are there for a variety of reasons, including for the same reasons that you are thinking about getting started.
Some people practice yoga as a way to gain physical recovery and to release physical and […]
What’s the first rule of Friday Night Yoga Club?
Um … that we do not talk about Friday Night Yoga Club?
Wrong. “You break it, you buy it!” says Mike Matsumura, and it’s hard not to laugh, but laughing means not being able to keep up as the long-haired, ever-moving yogi throws out questions and jokes as rapid-fire as he announces poses — Urdhva Mukha Svanasana and now Adho Mukha Svanasana to Utkatasana and then again but this time Virabhadrasana, more commonly known as upward and downward dog pose and chair pose and then Warrior Two — to warm up.
“Thank god for Warrior Two, huh?” he says. “Let’s just stay here for a minute and catch our breath. Remember, you break it…”
The second rule of Friday Night Yoga Club is “breathe.” And it’s not hard to hear the 40 people very much present at this wintertime weekly yoga gathering breathing. By now, some of us are panting, and most have broken into a sweat.
“If you aren’t breathing, well, I think we know that’s a problem,” Matsumura says.
What isn’t a problem is enjoying Matsumura’s easygoing style, which comes with a soundtrack courtesy […]
Throw yoga into your exercise mix. This ancient discipline has been known to lower blood pressure, improve flexibility, balance, range of motion, sleep and boost your immune system, increase endurance, ease pain, calm the mind and normalize body functions. “Yoga is a practice, it is never about perfection,” says yoga instructor Mike Matsumura. “People who practice yoga will never judge you. We’re all in the same place.” Pranava Yoga Center, Colorado Springs, pranavayogacenter.com.
