Bad news for those of you who assumed yoga was curing all that ails you: A new study found no evidence that yoga’s mental effects benefit the body. The good news is that yoga does help to relieve lower back pain, the Wall Street Journal reports. However, stretching was found to be equally as effective as yoga at easing the pain—indicating that yoga’s mental component plays no role. Read more…
To say Tao Porchon-Lynch is an extraordinary yoga teacher isn’t a stretch, considering she has fans all over the world. But what makes her truly amazing is the fact that she can support her whole body on her hands — even though she’s 93.Now she has another accolade to add to her list: Guinness World Records has just declared her the world’s oldest yoga teacher.
Porchon-Lynch started practicing yoga when she was eight after seeing some boys doing the exercises on the beach of her hometown of Pondicherry, a French colony in India on the Bay of Bengal. Read more …
For those of you who don’t know the name John Friend, he is the founder of Anusara yoga — a form of Hatha yoga that focuses on the universal principles of alignment, life-affirming philosophies and heart-oriented expression — who found himself at the center of a highly publicized sex scandal last year. There were rumors of him practicing “sex therapy” on his students, including off the charts inappropriate stuff like massaging a woman’s urethra to heal her migraines and exchanging naked photos with a married student he was allegedly helping overcome early life trauma. The most outrageous rumors were those of a secret Wiccan sex coven within the Anusara community called the Blazing Solar Flames. Keep reading »
One surprising way to boost your sex life will have you putting down that “101 Best Sex Tips” guide and whipping out the yoga pants! In a recent article in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, researchers revealed that women who were once unsatisfied with their sex lives but began to practice yoga and “Eastern techniques of mindfulness” reported higher levels of sexual desire, arousal and better orgasms. Now, don’t assume better sex comes simply from learning a couple cool new moves or becoming extra flexible, even though those are definitely pluses. Actually, practitioners believe the most important aspect of yoga that increases sexual appetite and responsiveness is “mindfulness.” Keep reading »
So, this morning I posted a lengthy essay about my history with exercise and my determined desire to commit to going to yoga three times a week. And then this appears on my Tumblr dashboard. At first, I was like, “Hello, I do not NEED any more excuses not to go to yoga!” But then I looked a little closer at this handy infographic and realized that it actually debunks those very excuses. So the next time I am considering skipping class because I had a burrito for lunch and am particularly gassy, I will remind myself that yoga is a place to embrace my body, including the sounds and smells it emits! View full size image here. [via Felt & Wire]
There are a lot of things in this world that I am interested in learning how to do. Play my ukulele! Become fluent in Italian! Floral arrangement! Learning to appreciate the music of Phish! I’m generally adventurous. But there has been one thing I just have never been able to get down with.
I absolutely hate to exercise. Keep reading »
Most people greet the start of the New Year with a vow to get in shape … Every. Year. And every year the gym is crowded with “resolutionaries” who show up, sweat all over everything for a few weeks, and then are never seen again.
The best way to avoid that is to figure out what usually stands in your way. What is the obstacle getting in the way of your success? And then — here’s the hard part — figure out a plan to work around it. One (or more) of these tips ought to help you get started.
You haven’t stopped reading, have you? You can do this! Here’s to a healthier you in 2012. Read more…
Attention, womenfolk, something new for you to fear: your body eating your breast implant! While stretching during a Pilates class, 59-year-old woman’s implant slipped through an incision from a recent heart valve surgery and lodged itself near her lung. Her doctors had cleared her for exercise after the heart surgery when the boob job strayed. So how did her breast implant get swallowed whole? One doctor interviewed by CBS News surmised that the stretching and breathing exercises in Pilates may have worked “like a vacuum” and “sucked in the implant.” Yummy! We’re glad to hear this lady’s doctors were able to snatch that wayward boobie and put it back in its place. [CBS News] Keep reading »
Colder weather makes me want to eat ramen and ramp up my yoga practice. My old mat is getting a little, well, nasty. This Gaiam prosperity yoga mat should bring renewed focus and enthusiasm to my practice, not to mention something lovely to focus my drishti on while I flow through my asanas. Namaste.
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