Posts Tagged ‘Yoga’

October21

Staying in shape, feeling healthy, what’s it all about?

By: RirianProject

I was looking through some health magazines the other day, reading the articles, and started thinking about my own heath. First, if you are going to read those magazines don’t bother looking at the pictures because I don’t know anyone my age who looks like the pictures, I’m never going to look like those pictures, so what’s the point? My twenty one year old nephew looks like the pictures in the magazines but he eats McDonalds seven days a week, and in none of those article could I find anyone saying McDonalds seven days a week leads to better health. So, I thought about what it means to be healthy and fit, and how to stay healthy and fit. My first thought was smokers, forget it, you will never be healthy and fit until you quit. So Quit! Quit cold turkey, take a pill, where a patch, get hypnotized, go to the desert for a month and isolate yourself but quit. I know its a nasty addiction and near impossible to quit, but quit. I know, I know, you’ll put on ten pounds, so be a little fatter cause sooner or later cigarettes will kill you and its better to be fatter than dead. Ok, now that we have smokers out of the way lets talk about you and me. I don’t know about everyone but most people I know don’t want to run a marathon, they don’t want to spend two and half hours a day in the gym, lifting weights and running the treadmill. And even if they did they don’t have the time. And if you are like me then you like to eat, and not little rabbit portions, but you enjoy a good meal. In fact I enjoy good meal far more than I like working out, I look forward to going to good restaurants, I never look forward to going to the gym. And I like sitting on my couch watching sports, and when I do I like to munch on things, Nacho’s, wings, popcorn, in fact one of my favorite things is watching football on a Sunday and munching out.

And despite that I like eating far more than working out, and it is an effort to get me to leave my couch when a good game is on, I am very healthy. And I just don’t say so, I get all A’s from my Doctor. When I was younger I loved playing sports, but I just can’t do that all the time anymore. As an adult you just can’t find the time or even energy to do what you did when you were younger, but you need to find something you enjoy doing, or at least can tolerate and try to do it for at least an hour five or six times a week. For me, I play basketball in a league once a week, and we practice once a week on weekends, I also have found while I don’t love spinning ( bicycle class indoors) I don’t hate it, so I try to spin three or four times a week at my health club. My wife tries to walk/run on the treadmill at least five times a week for an hour, usually before the kids wake up. I have friends who get up and run a few miles everyday, totally not for me, but they love it. I have other friends who do Yoga or Pilate’s, the simple truth is there is some form of exercise out there that everyone can participate in to maintain good health. Am I in great shape? No! Do I have a six pack of abs? No! But I am healthy and I feel good and I have the energy, and I know that exercising the 5 to 7 hours a week is the main reason.

Eating, ugh, my main weakness. I love to eat, and I love crap. I would rather eat a hamburger, milkshake and fries than do anything else. And I love Pizza and candy, and Italian food, and Coca Cola and the aforementioned Buffalo Wings. And I am never giving any of them up, I’m just not going to eat them that often. Temptation is the root of all evil, so whenever I can I just stay away from the places that serve them. And that’s the best advice I can give, if you love to eat like me, don’t give it up just stay away. Because the truth is for most people diets don’t work, even when they do they eventually end and people go back to the bad eating habits they had before. The simple answer is develop better eating habits, try to eat salads, and chicken, and fish. Drink as much water as possible, try to stay away as much as possible from bread and butter, eat fruit and vegetables. I’m not saying anything that anyone does not know, we don’t need all the magazines and the pictures to show and tell us what to do, most intelligent people already know, its just hard. What I am saying is I am probably going to eat Pizza and wings on Sunday when watching football, but that means the rest of the week I’m being careful. I’m going to have my burger, shake and fries but probably only about once a month. I’m going to come home at night and eat the healthy meals my wife cooks and not complain because I want to stay healthy. If I go to a restaurant I am going to have my roll and butter, but only one not the whole basket, and nine out of ten times I am going to order chicken and fish. This is the life I have carved out for myself, I get to eat the foods I love just not as often as I would like, I don’t diet but they don’t work for me anyhow, they just make me hungrier. I get in my workout five to seven times a week and while I don’t love it I have made it part of my routine. My picture isn’t going in any magazines anytime soon for my body, but I am not overweight and I feel great. And at the end of the day, that’s what it is all about, feeling good and getting a clean bill of health. So workout, go easy on the crappy foods, stay healthy, but do the things you enjoy just in moderation.

Posted in: Featured, Health & Fitness5 comments

January23

Part Three: Meditation and Yoga

By: RirianProject

This is the third part to our Beginners Yoga Series. Be sure to check back often for new instalments to this series.

In the first two parts of this series, we talked about how a beginner could begin Yoga, and also about the different styles of Yoga. In this instalment, we’re going to discuss one of the five principles of yoga: meditation.

The other four principles are proper exercise (also called asanas), proper breathing (pranayama), proper relaxation (savasana), and proper diet. Meditation, or dhyana, is the act of concentrating on an object, mantra or your own thoughts. Meditation relaxes your body and mind, and also sharpens your thinking.

There are three principles to keep in mind when learning the art of meditation. The first is that in order to concentrate, we need to focus on one object. That object could be your breathing or a word that you repeat or even a sensation within your body.

The second principle is that when your mind starts to wander you need to be able to quiet your mind and bring it back to your focus object. This is not as easy as it sounds, so give yourself a break if it doesn’t come quickly or easily. One way that you may want to deal with your noisy mind is to acknowledge the fact that you are having other thoughts and try to let them pass.

The third principle is to ignore irrelevant thoughts and sensations. Even though this sounds like a contradiction to the previous paragraph, it really is not. What I mean is that when you are meditating, you will be able to hear everything going on around you but you must try not to let it distract you.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Practice in a clean (uncluttered) and quiet place.
• Wear comfortable clothing and sit in a comfortable position and place.
• Perform some simple stretches to warm up your body.
• Try to empty your mind of all thoughts and try to prevent any other thoughts from entering into your mind.

If you find this exercise difficult, you can use a prop, such as a candle or other object, which you can focus and concentrate on. Again, don’t beat yourself up if you cannot master meditation right away – it is something that is going to take a lot of practice, but I promise you, once you have mastered it, the feeling that comes from meditating is something that cannot even be described by words.

Posted in: Featured, Health & Fitness, Self Improvement4 comments

January6

Exercise at your desk

By: RirianProject

I’m not going to pretend that this is the best route to go when you’re looking for a way to lose pounds or inches, but there definitely seems to be a need to find out how to get in as much exercise as possible in today’s busy lifestyle.

Let’s face it; our bodies were just not made to sit around at a desk for most of the day. We were built to move! It doesn’t matter how much attention you pay to the ergonomics of your office space – without movement you are bound to suffer from back pain, stiffness, and headaches.

It is generally recommended that you try to get in at least 30 minutes of activity 5 days per week. It will help you to feel better, look better, be more productive and help to melt away those winter pounds. If you do nothing else, be sure to get up from your desk every ½ hour and take a short walk or stretch your body.

Try these exercises the next time you’re sitting at your desk:

1. While sitting in your chair, lift your leg off the seat and hold it out in front of you for 5 seconds. Lower your foot to the floor (but don’t rest it) and hold it for five seconds. Switch to the other leg. Do 5-15 repetitions on each leg.
2. Try a mini burst of cardio by pumping your arms over your head for 30 seconds, then switch to tapping your feet on the floor for 30 seconds.
3. Place your hands on the armrest of your chair and lift yourself out of the chair. Hold for 10 seconds. Repeat 5-10 times.
4. Hold on to the edge of your desk and roll your chair back until you are looking at the floor. Use your arms to pull yourself back. Repeat 15 times.
5. While sitting straight in your chair raise your arms high above your head and hold for 5 seconds. Stretch your left hand high, then your right. Repeat.
6. Add a bit of Yoga to your day by turning your head to the right and your torso to the left. Hold for 5 seconds then change directions.
7. Work your abs and buttocks by clenching the muscles as tight as you can, hold for 5 seconds, then release. Repeat each exercise 15 times for an invisible workout.
8. If your wrists have you in knots try this stretch exercise. Make a fist with your thumbs on top. Place your hand and forearm on your desk. Stretch your wrist to the left, then the right. Then lift your arm from the desk and rotate your wrists in circles (both directions). Finish by placing your fingers on the edge of your desk and pressing gently to stretch the fingers.

Posted in: Health & Fitness1 comments

December18

A Beginner’s Guide to Yoga

By: RirianProject

Yoga can be practiced anywhere by anyone. It’s one of the few fitness programs that do not limit you by your ability, fitness level, age, gender, gear, or location. If you are trying Yoga for the first time in your home, you’ll need a quiet space with enough room for a mat or small blanket. Wearing something that is loose fitting is usually accommodating enough for those who are in the process of learning Yoga. Traditionally, Yoga is practiced while barefoot, but socks and shoes can be worn. Most teachers will also advise you against eating a couple of hours before you begin your Yoga workout.

Even though Yoga is not a high impact exercise, you should still start slowly. Perform poses that are easier for a beginner to master so that your body will have a chance to condition itself prior to moving on to more complex poses. Be sure to stop if at any time you feel any pain or fatigue. Remember, Yoga is meant to be pain free!

Yoga sessions can start with as little as only 15 minutes of exercise and 15 minutes of breathing. There are seven basic types of movements that your body can make during the exercises: Flexion, extension, hyperextension, abduction, circumduction, adduction, and rotation.

A typical session will consist of warm up exercises to help prepare your body and help to open your shoulder muscles, spine, lower back and your hips. Standing poses follow and help to facilitate digestion, and circulation. These poses are very useful for those who want to lose weight. Sitting poses allow you to revitalize yourself with a calm feeling as your breath through the movements. You can also add twists to help alleviate the tension in your spine; supine poses which will help with the tension in your abdomen; inverted or balance poses to help hone your coordination and helps to increase your strength; and finishing poses to help you cool down from your session.

To get you started, let’s walk through the Corpse Pose (or Savasana) which can be practiced before, in between, or during the finishing poses of your workout. While on your back, rotate your legs in and out and then let them lay gently out to the sides. Allow your arms to fall alongside your body, palms facing up and slightly apart from your body. Turn your head from side to side to rotate your spine. Begin to stretch yourself out. Think of someone standing at your head gently pulling your head away from your shoulders. Keep your shoulders down and away from your neck and breathe deeply. Think of someone at your feet pulling your legs down and away from your pelvis. Hold this pose for several minutes and keep your mind quiet while you concentrate on your breathing.

One important thing to remember while performing Yoga is to concentrate on each movement and pose. It is very important that each movement be performed correctly so that you will elicit the most benefit from the routine.

You are well on your way to bringing your mind and body some much deserved inner peace.

Posted in: Featured, Health & Fitness4 comments

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