Are You New to Yoga? Here's What to Expect



Yoga is known for its calming and stress-reducing benefits. However, if you're new to yoga and have never taken a class before, not knowing what to expect can have you feeling a bit nervous. Relax! We're here to guide you every step of the way so you get the most out of every class.
For our beginners, we suggest taking our Gentle Yoga class. This class is designed to give you the time and support to understand the proper alignment of yoga postures and breathing techniques. It's also perfect for people with joint or back pain.
While most people are familiar with the basic principles of yoga, many aren't sure how they should prepare and what a typical class entails. To give you some peace of mind before your first class, here are some tips on what you can expect as well as some common yoga misconceptions.
What to wear
Wear loose-fitting, comfortable clothes. You'll be bending and stretching a lot, so wearing clothes that are constricting should be avoided as they will hinder your movements. Remember, this isn't a yoga fashion show; you don't need to buy designer yoga outfits.
What to bring
Bring a yoga mat, a towel and water. If you tend to get cold, bring a blanket to use during the relaxation sequence. Leave your music and ear buds behind, however, as you will need to listen to your instructor throughout the entire class.
Sequence of the class
Most yoga instructors begin class with a warm up of some kind. This can include simple poses, as well as meditation and reflection. Next, he or she will lead the class in a series of poses.
If you're concerned about not being able to perform some of the poses, don't worry. Most poses have varying degrees of difficulty and can be easily modified for beginners. Often, the instructor will be available to show examples of modified poses and to help you get into proper position.
The class usually ends with a period of relaxation to unwind and release any lingering tension.
Misconceptions about yoga:
Myth: To practice yoga you have to be: flexible, thin, physically fit and young.
Reality: There are no rules, no expectations, and no judgments in yoga. Everyone can benefit from practicing yoga - regardless of their level of fitness, age and flexibility. With practice, yoga poses (asanas) actually help you to become more flexible and physically stronger. Poses work by safely stretching your muscles and increasing the range of motion in joints. Yoga stretches not only your muscles but all of the soft tissues of your body. That includes ligaments, tendons, and the fascia sheath that surrounds your muscles. No matter your level of yoga, you most likely will see benefits in a very short period of time. In one study, participants had up to 35% improvement in flexibility after only eight weeks of yoga.
Myth: I won't be able to keep up with the others in class.
Reality: Yoga is non-competitive. You may think many people are "better than you" at yoga, but don't let these negative thoughts deter you. It's important not to compare yourself to the person next to you. Some people are naturally more flexible. So be forgiving with your body and know that flexibility comes with repetition.
Tonya Cremin, Physician of Osteopathic Medicine and founder of Fairfield County Integrative Family Medicine and Healing Therapies, provides a whole-life approach to preventive healthcare and care of chronic and acute conditions. Dr. Cremin treats patients with osteopathic manipulation (OMT or OMM), to help with pain or other medical conditions. Additionally, her specialized training allows her to confidently advise patients regarding use of a wide variety of complementary and alternative modalities, including, but not limited to, nutrition advice, use of herbs and supplements, acupuncture, yoga, and hypnosis.

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What Are the Benefits of Yoga for Women?


What Are the Benefits of Yoga for Women?

If you are using it as a way to lose weight, you are definitely on the right track. But for women, there is definitely more to yoga than its being a way to reach one's fitness goals. It has mind-pacifying and other health benefits, so it's definitely something that you should consider trying if you haven't already done so.
Yoga: The Basics
Yoga is something that you should never practice by yourself. Enrol in classes with trained individuals who can do yoga poses even in their sleep. You'll never know when you might overstrain or overstretch your neck, shoulders, spine, legs and knees while attempting to do a yoga pose, so it does help to be under the supervision of a trained instructor.
In the US, yoga classes typically focus on physical poses which are also called asanas. Combined with breathing and meditation techniques, these asanas are done to provide utmost relaxation to an individual. But there are plenty of other yoga poses which can be done to achieve different levels of health and mind benefits.
Aside from traditional yoga, there are other types of yoga which one can practice including power and ashtanga yoga. These are more vigorous than the other styles of yoga, and the goal is to help improve muscle tone. When you perform the plank, upward or downward dog pose, your upper body strength will be developed. If you would like to develop your abdominal muscles, the chair and the upward dog poses are ideal.
Counting Down the Benefits of Yoga for Women
Now that you already have a basic idea about the basics of yoga, let us take a look at its other benefits:
- Yoga helps improve your posture as your core muscles get strengthened.
- Women become more aware of their bodies as they practice yoga.
- Practicing yoga helps improve the quality of one's sleep because the poses focus on deep breathing techniques.
- It also provides additional health benefits like improved heart rate and lowered blood pressure.
- There are some types of yoga which help alleviate symptoms of painful chronic conditions like back pain, arthritis and even carpal tunnel syndrome.
- Yoga may seem like a not-so-tedious type of activity but it can actually help improve your fitness as the poses get your heart pumping.
- Yoga helps develop stronger bones and boost muscle strength.
With all these benefits and more, there's really no reason why women should not consider practicing yoga.

                       What Are the Benefits of Yoga for Women?




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Start Indulging in Yoga for Multiple Benefits of Yoga Asana


Choosing to start up with yoga is a thought in itself. Do not be scared! Here is the thing you'll need to keep in mind and begin to enjoy the benefits of yoga.

Yoga for Beginners:

It is really easy to be distracted by what Yoga may offer you. But if you are someone who wants the best way to keep yourself healthy and free of infirmity, then you must go and start doing Yoga. One thing you need to take care of is that do yoga only when your stomach is empty in the morning. It will have more of good effect if you do it in a proper way and are dedicated towards it. You can also take help of a yoga instructor so that you become good in having the desired postures. Let's go through some of the poses which can be done without giving much pain to your body.
• Tadasana - This yoga asana is also called mountain pose. You can perform this asana by:
1. Standing upright with your feet joining.
2. Then open out your toes.
3. Raise your Knees
4. Extend your arms and shoulders in down position
5. And last breath in and breathe out calmly for at least 30 seconds.
• Uttanasana - This yoga asana is also called forward bend pose. You can perform this asana by: 

> Standing straight and breathing out.
> Now bend yourself forward.
> Make your feet parallel to your hips.
> Widen up your shoulder.
> And now inhale.
> Do this process for 60 seconds.
• Trikonasana - This yoga asana is also called triangle pose. You can perform this asana by:
> Widen up your legs up to 3 feet. Make a right angle with your right foot.
> Try to close the gap slowly with left foot.
> Now inhale slowly and lift your upper body
> Bend sideways and breathe out.
> Breathe for 30 seconds and then repeat the process using the other side.

• Savasana - This yoga asana is also called corpse pose. You can perform this asana by:
> Taking arms from hips for a min of 2 feet. It should face the upward direction.
> Flatten your legs together. And roll out your feet on the sides.
> Then relax completely. Stop thinking about anything. It often acts as a stress buster.
> Now breathe for 10 minutes.
It removes body pains by relaxing the muscles of the body. It helps in improving stamina and your strength. It helps you relax your body making it easier for the body to take rest. It acts as a stress buster and makes angry people calm. Beginners should definitely start doing some asana and get a better personality. It will definitely change your view point about life.


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Yoga Headbands: A Key Ingredient in De-Stressing Our Society


In today's world stress is the number one culprit behind the psychological and medical challenges that our society is facing. There may not be one single solution when it comes to de-stressing our societies but a great place to start is yoga.
A 2012 Yoga In America study by Yoga Journal cites that nearly 10% of Americans are now practicing yoga with a further 44% calling themselves "aspiring yogis". With the huge upsurge in people de-stressing and finding balance through a yoga lifestyle, the question becomes: how do you outfit this new generation of healthy living yogis? The answer lies with the quickly evolving category of Organic Yoga Clothing. One of the tenets of yoga is to be close to nature so the proliferation of organically grown yoga clothing is a natural fit. In fact, one could easily argue that organic yoga clothing make for the best yoga clothes on the market today.
Choosing the right yoga apparel is not just about the clothes. Depending on the style of yoga you practice, a mix of props and accessories are often required. One such yoga accessory that finds audiences in almost every discipline is the yoga headband. Though yoga headbands have their practical purposes of keeping hair and sweat out of your face - a particularly important fact when selecting hot yoga headbands - they also have spiritual significance. The kundalini yoga tradition recommends the use of white head coverings made of natural fibers to protect the yogi when interacting with powerful kundalini energies.
Kundalini headbands and hot Yoga headbands from organic materials often have the added benefit of being beautiful fashion pieces, thus transferring off the mat and into everyday life seamlessly. As Organic Yoga Headbands, in contrast to the often synthetic sports headbands of the market, must be comfortable and functional by nature - thus not causing the irritation or plastic-feeling of synthetics - they have seamlessly transitioned into the greater world of fashion. Today organically grown yoga headbands have joined with organic yoga clothes in becoming wardrobe staples of fashionistas everywhere from New York to Milan to Tokyo to Vancouver.
Organic yoga headbands typically refer to headbands made from organic cotton; however, other natural materials also fit in the category. Tencel, a silk-like fiber derived from sustainably grown eucalyptus trees and one of the cleanest man-processed fibers in the world, is also commonly included as an organic yoga headband. Beyond headbands, other organic hair accessories are also coming in to vogue. Organic cotton hair ties are small and immensely useful accessories for both yoga and everyday living. These "hairties for yoga and everyday living", as they've been affectionately referred to, have been met with great acclaim as they offer a much-needed alternative to the synthetic hairties that currently dominate the market.
Organic yoga clothing, organic yoga headbands and organic hairties for yoga have one major fact in common: none of them cause the negative short and long-term effects associated with synthetic yoga apparel. sports headbands and other apparel made from synthetics may promise supernatural properties of strength and wicking but these promises come at a heavy environmental and human cost. The World Health Organization has estimated that 20,000 people die annually from pesticides alone - not to mention the other plant and animal life sacrificed to extract the petrochemicals needed for synthetics.
If you're ready to de-stress your life and find a balance you haven't known since childhood, yoga is indeed a wonderful option. With the proliferation of organic yoga clothing, yoga headbands and other accessories now on the market, you can venture down the road of your new yoga lifestyle more fashionable and comfortable than ever before.


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Balancing Body And Mind Is Easy With The Help of Hatha Yoga


Hatha yoga has been a very popular option for the people who wish to improve their spiritual health, body and mind since 15th century. This helps in striking a balance between these three components. The word yoga literally means the union or working together of mental, physical and spiritual health. It is very important for you to know about yoga asanas which are simple to follow and are beneficial for your health. The word "Hatha" denotes balance. It provides relaxation and rejuvenating to your senses. It relieves you from all types of stresses, worries, anxieties and tensions in life.
The yoga consists of stretching exercises, pranayama and meditation. With the help of this yoga, you will become more comfortable with yoga as it teaches you the most basic of yoga asanas. Anyone can practice this wonderful yoga like retired personals, house wives, public officials, students, businesspersons or and athletes. It makes you fit, active and healthy. It provides mental stability.

Benefits of hath yoga

Benefits of yoga have been very well known to the people for centuries. Practising hatha yoga has several therapeutic, preventive, mental and physical benefits. It heals the body and makes you feel peaceful, calm and relaxed. It improves blood circulation and provides oxygen to various internal organs.
Following are some of the major benefits of Hatha yoga:
• Flexibility: One of the greatest benefits of this yoga is that it provides agility and flexibility to your body. If you practice this yoga on a daily basis, you will observe an improvement in muscle joint mobility.
• Posture: With the help of this yoga, you can expect an improvement in your posture. Through this wonderful yoga exercise, your spine will become strong. Besides, this increases your stamina.
• If you are suffering through back or neck pain, then one of the best possible solutions for you is this yoga which you do using your hands. Stretching and breathing exercises will help you in overcoming from chronic stress and bad knees.
• Breathing exercises in this amazingly fantastic yoga provides you an inner strength to fight with different types of physical pains like shoulder pain, back pain, headache or neck pain.
• One of the most striking benefits of this yoga is that it helps you to heal several types of diseases like arthritis, fatigue, chronic, asthma, arteriosclerosis, AIDS, diabetes and obesity. If you are over -weight, then this yoga helps you to lose all extra fat from your body.
• It will boost up your metabolic rate and accelerates the digestion of food in the body. The chances of falling prey to health problems like diabetes, heart diseases and high blood pressure decrease to a great extent with the help of this yoga. The yoga also improves overall immunity of the system.
• This yoga is very good for the health of pregnant women. It saves them from several problems like backache, depression and overweight. It is observed that the women who try out hatha yoga can handle labor pains in an easier and better way.


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Top 10 Etiquette for the Yoga Student


As a new yoga student, there are a few things you should know to make the best out of your practice when you're just starting out. Each yoga studio will have their own dos and don'ts, however, by following these guidelines you can make the best out of your class and your experience at the studio.

Arrive early

If you're new to the studio, it's best to come early. Arrive half an hour before class begins, since you'll need to complete forms, orient yourself of the studio, and change into your yoga attire. For the regular students, twenty minutes before class gives you plenty of time to change and secure your preferred spot in the studio room.

Take your shoes off

Typically students and instructors walk bare feet in the studio so it's good practice to remove your shoes when you enter. There is a dedicated area usually near the front of the studio where you can place your footwear.

Turn your cell phone off

When you get to the studio, you should put your phone on silent or turn it off. There's nothing worse than hearing a ringing phone during yoga class.

Wear appropriate attire

To achieve the most comfort when practicing, you should select suitable clothing based on the yoga discipline. You should also consider room temperature and length of your class, since some can be as long as ninety minutes. Remember, it's not a fashion show so wear something comfortable.

Listen to your teacher

A yoga instructor is there for a reason. They are there to guide you through the yoga poses. It's distracting when some students are doing their own thing. Listen for instructions and you'll be given the opportunity for variations of the asana.

Be quiet

The practice of yoga is a practice of stillness, focus and mindfulness. Respect other people's practice by being quiet during class.

Don't wear strong scents

A lot of people have a sensitivity to strong scents, especially perfume. Please be mindful of not wearing overpowering smells. this means don't wear perfume or cologne, nor wash your yoga attire and gear in strong detergent. On the contrary, if you're the natural kind of person, please keep your b.o. in check.

Don't go to the washroom during an asana

As much as you can, wait until a period of rest or in between yoga postures to go to the washroom or fill up on water. It's a disruption to the students' practice and flow of the class if you go during an asana.

Leave your stuff in the change room

When there is little room already in the studio, especially during a packed class, it's best to get in the habit of leaving your belongings in the change room.

Allow for savasana

Some students scurry off as soon as class is over. Give yourself a few minutes to do a savasana or corpse posture to seal your practice.

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The Secret to Better Peace of Mind and Better Breathing


Many people attend yoga classes to benefit from both the physiological and the psychological benefits of this type of exercise. It requires a lot of concentration to execute the numerous positions in yoga. Such concentration subtly removes daily stress. This is something that many people look forward to, especially considering the highly demanding lives we live in this day and age.
Even after just one session, it is not uncommon to start feeling considerably better almost immediately. Unlike other forms of exercise, yoga is not essentially about burning calories. The objective is to relieve internal problems through:
- Improved blood circulation
- Better breathing
- Meditation and concentration
- Improved nervous system function
- Breathing in more oxygen and toning muscles
Some exercises also improve the condition of the pancreas, kidneys, and liver, along with other parts of the body as well. Yoga provides several cardiovascular benefits, which include:
• Improved overall cardiovascular system because of exercising your heart muscle in a gentle way
• Reduced hypertension and improved blood circulation
• Decreased stress levels since yoga exercises release endorphins and lower cortisol levels
• Increased calmness and relaxation, which are key for a better cardiovascular system
Thanks to yoga exercises, the incidence of heart problems is greatly reduced. In fact, yoga exercises are ideal for all people, regardless of age or current health problems. Yoga is a great form of exercise for obese and diabetic people as it helps them to avoid heart problems, improve heart rate, improve blood pressure, and aids in better glycemic control.
When one considers all of the above-mentioned protective cardiovascular benefits, it goes without saying that yoga exercises are highly recommended. Besides, the only items you need are a mat and loose-fitting clothing. The mat will help you perform the poses and stretches properly and comfortably. Loose fitting clothes are important because they make you feel more at ease, in addition to allowing for free movement.
The exercises performed in yoga class are not meant to burn calories or to tone muscles, but this does not mean it is not a sufficient workout. Regularly attending yoga classes provides you with several other benefits. You will undoubtedly feel better, both physically and mentally, and your flexibility will improve. Let your instructor show you how to combine and perform the various exercises for your greatest benefit.
The wonderful thing about yoga is that there are several varieties and levels. Once you have mastered a certain level, you can choose a more advanced class to challenge yourself. Hot yoga classes are becoming ever more popular and are an excellent way to "sweat it out".



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