Yoga

I have been teaching yoga for 17 years, and one of the most frequent complaints I hear from students and yogaphobes alike is that they don’t have enough time for practice, so they avoid it altogether.

Avoiding a regular practice of stretching will never get you the healing benefits that come with the work. Even if you only do one pose a day, you will make a huge difference in your body, brain and well-being.

A few weeks ago, I taught my Core Immersion Training at the Century City Equinox in Los Angeles, Calif. Each day, we valet parked our cars before entering the club. Those who live outside of Los Angeles may have to re-read the prior sentence: Yes, we VALET PARKED our cars to go to the gym, as do thousands of other Angelenos all around the city, where valet parking is an unfortunate fact of life in a city where the car is king, and vast distances separate us from getting here to there.

My student Mary came to me nearly in tears one day after class. She’d been working for years to get into a headstand, yet continually watched newer students lift up with ease before her. She asked, “What am I doing wrong?”

Since Mary had come into my yoga classes only the week before, I asked her if she was using her bandhas to help her attain headstand. “What’s a bandha?” she asked, looking puzzled.

The total body conditioning class I teach is always packed — like 70 people. Each participant literally gets about a 3 x 3 foot area to move in, and we use a step platform, hand weights and a resistance band. I had a gal after class today come up to me and say, “We are packed in this room like sardines, but we still get such a great workout.” She’s correct. I often remind the class that we are burning like 600 calories yet barely moving out of our little space — that’s amazing.

Dressed top to bottom courtesy of Zobha, I point out trigger points on my assistant Florence's back.

Last weekend I presented three Yoga Tune Up® workshops at the Inner IDEA Conference near Palm Springs, Calif. This yearly gathering brings together the leading innovators of the mind-body fitness world to convene at the serene La Quinta Resort in Palm Desert. As always, the event saw a great turnout. My Yoga Tune Up® workshops were packed, and Gaiam and its SPRI team generously provided a variety of props for my sessions.

Nothing can stop a perfectly good yoga practice (or day, for that matter) in its tracks like a hurting back. And sometimes, the poses you might think would help your aching body could actually be making it worse.

A few weeks ago during my Core Integration Immersion, my students did a partner exercise where they had to consciously release their hip flexors and inner thighs while a partner supported their legs. One woman, Anna (not her real name), was unable to “let go.” Her inner thighs grabbed each time they were supposed to release. She was quite confounded by the bizarre tension that seemed to have a mind of its own in her inner thighs and hips.

While I was finishing high school, my mother worked as the manager of a woman’s clothing store in the mall. My mom is intense, and whatever she does, she does with gusto. Unfortunately for her, she would ring in orders on the cash register with the ferocity of a mad concert pianist. This left her with repetitive stress injuries in her wrists, which led to the dreaded diagnosis of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and ensuing surgery. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome implies that the median nerve that runs through the forearms into the wrist and hands has been compressed and is no longer functioning well.

Inspired by Kate Hanley’s blog post on finding her “Dream Yoga Mat,” yesterday we decided to give six lucky Facebook fans and Twitter followers the chance to win a dream yoga mat of their own. We simply asked them to answer the question, “What is your favorite yoga pose, and why?” We expected great answers, and our friends surprised us with so much more.

Yes, yoga is known for its healing powers and ability to transform your body and mind into a lean — yet much less mean — you.