Category: Yoga

‘I wanted a deeper purpose to my life’ Sitting crossed-legged on a yoga mat, Susan Mason drew her palms together at her chest and folded her torso over a Bible on the floor. Unfolding her body she said, “Relaxation is a form of prayer.” As yoga teacher at Jackson’s First Baptist Church, Mason integrates Christian spirituality into a physical art with Hindu roots. And though some Christians shun yoga because of its Eastern origins, Mason embraces the practice that helped heal her body and spirit after debilitating cancer treatments. The practice of breathing, holding postures and meditation is an ancient

A leading health expert has branded the popular Bikram yoga “cult-like” and has warned it carries serious health risks. “I think there is a significant danger of exercising in such heat,” said Dr Anita Green, the director of the peak health body Sports Medicine Australia. Bikram is the latest, and trendiest, yoga to hit Sydney and involves 90-minute classes being conducted in a room heated to 37 degrees. Bikram teachers claim benefits include increased blood circulation, better cardiovascular conditioning, detoxification through sweating, improved muscle and tissue elasticity and reduced risk of injury. But those who believe that are wasting their

Go with the flow: Yoga’s gone mainstream as more people seek fitness for both body and soul Kesa Emi Nomiyama used to lift weights and walk on a treadmill, but now she takes yoga. Three times a week, she studies the 5,000-year-old Indian discipline, which she says helps her keep focused and in shape. “I fell in love and I dropped my gym membership,” said the 29-year-old nurse and University of Oregon student. “After the first class I went to, I was sore for a week. I was using muscles I didn’t know I had.” Nomiyama practices “hot yoga” at

Since coming to Duke, senior Franklin Winokur has regularly participated in what he describes as one of the most demanding workouts he has ever undertaken. Senior Deirdre Hess, on the other hand, has found an exercise routine that allows her to concentrate on de-stressing. These two students are describing the same activity: yoga. Members of the Duke community can easily reap the physical and emotional benefits of an ancient form of exercise by participating in a variety of yoga classes: traditional hatha yoga, yoga and pilates and yogaflow, just to name a few. Lisa Jindra, Duke’s program coordinator for group

A yoga teacher today insisted she was not joking about plans to set up ‘laughter clubs’ throughout Northern Ireland. Mary Mitchell, a qualified laughologist, said it was important that people laughed more in order to combat the stresses of everyday life. According to medical experts, laughter has huge health benefits. Dr William Fry of Stanford University has claimed one minute of laughter is equal to 10 minutes on a rowing machine. Alternative Yoga C’mon Baby, Do the Yoga Motion Mrs Mitchell was the first Laughter Yoga teacher in Ireland and has since trained a host of new recruits. She will

‘Fusion’ Makes the Lotus Position Passe It sounds like a yoga class. “And, forward fold. Lift the arms to the sky. Take three breaths. . . . Lift, bend and extend. Now downward dog.” Except a disco beat is playing. It looks like a yoga class. Thirty students move in slow motion as they kneel on foam mats in a dimly lit ballroom. Except they are each squeezing a grapefruit-size blue rubber ball between their thighs. What we have here is not yoga but YogaButt. And it’s just one of many yoga classes-with-a-twist at the recent DCAC 2004 International Fitness

Copy these moves and I’ll sue, says top yogi. Bikram Choudhury likes to get people hot and bothered and he likes to get them in a twist. The yoga guru, who lists Madonna, Raquel Welch and Serena Williams among his celebrity followers, is also hugely protective of his famous and controversial style. Anyone thinking of adding, altering or in any way changing his 26 copyrighted and trademarked postures – each to be performed twice in a heated room – has received a “cease and desist” letter from his lawyers. The letter is curt and pointed: if a yoga teacher has