Posts Tagged ‘beginner yoga’
Monday, April 30th, 2012
After only a single day’s passing Janet Stone’s iPhone app, Yoga with Janet Stone, debuted at #2 in the iTunes store. The app can be found in the Health & Beauty category, as well as currently in the New & Noteworthy category due to its overnight success. Having partnered with company lolofit, the app guides you through Janet’s “vigorous-yet-sumptuous approach to Vinyasa” in a “dynamic form of yoga flows from one posture to the next in rhythm with your breath.”
As an advocate of the Eggs, Janet has incorporated our ergonomic yoga blocks into several of her sequences in the app. Through Radiant Mom Yoga Janet has adopted the Eggs as an integral prop in her practice and teaching.
With over 100 flows arranged into 6 practices that change daily or 4 that progress in difficulty, yogis will find many options from beginner to advanced levels. The app includes over 5 hours of Janet’s audio instruction along with over 3 and a half hours of video tutorials. If you choose to design your own sequence, users may do so with the included Practice Builder.
Of the many perks of the app one that is most notable is the option to track your practice, as well as share with your friends. With several hours of yoga music, meditation sessions, and the Eggs by your side, you’re in for quite the complete at-home yoga practice. If you can’t keep up with Janet on the road, then this is the perfect alternative!
Tags: advanced yoga, beginner yoga, ergonomic yoga block, intermediate yoga, iphone, itunes, Janet Stone, janet stone yoga app, meditation, three minute egg, yoga egg, yoga music, yoga with janet stone
Posted in Announcements | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 8th, 2012
I returned from my Ayurvedic weekend with an odd combination of dread and resolve. The threat to move me back to the beginners’ class was looming from Friday’s session, and the beating I took from the teacher at the spa had left its scars. But I was determined to stay in headstand for the full 5 minutes.
The class started at 7:00 am with handstands at the wall. Seriously? Handstands? What happened to a gentle cat/cow or some breathing exercises? We then moved into downward dog and some forward folding for at least a few minutes before the teacher announced it was time for Sirsasana – headstand. Having failed to tuck in my shirt for Handstands and never fully regaining my composure after that, I approached headstand with a combination of caution, care, and resolve to do it right. I would press into my forearms, extend through my heels, separate my hips from my ribcage, and lengthen my shoulders to avoid placing too much pressure on my head – all while maintaining one point of focus and smooth easy breathing. I began feeling fatigued after about 90 seconds into the pose. My neck was starting to hurt and my arms were shaking, but I looked across from me at an upside down man who seemed to float effortlessly on the other side of the room, and I decided that if he could do it, so could I. (more…)
Tags: asana practice, beginner yoga, camel pose, endurance, handstand, Headstand, India, intermediate yoga, Iyengar yoga, Jason Scholder, Patience, Pune, sirsasana, ustransana
Posted in A Yogi Abroad | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 8th, 2012
I have now been in India for one week, and today was both the best and worst day I’ve had in terms of yoga. It was the best day because we had yet another amazing teacher and for me it was our first time in the same room. All of the teachers here are excellent, and this woman has certain qualities that make her shine. She is beautiful, confident, her smile is disarming, and she loves to yell and hit. In this last way she is not so unique. If you come to India to do yoga; tuck in your shirt, suck in your stomach and keep your knees and elbows straight. Or, be prepared to suffer the consequences. Today, I suffered quite a bit. (more…)
Tags: asana practice, beginner yoga, Headstand, India, intermediate yoga, Iyengar yoga, Pune, RIMYI, Salamba Sirsasana, travels
Posted in A Yogi Abroad | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
Following her participation in the 2012 Yoga Journal Conference: San Francisco, Egg Signateur Annie Carpenter continues her Winter Tour with a workshop at InYoga Center on Sunday, January 22, in Village Valley, CA.
The workshop, entited “Yoga for Beginners: (Re) Learning the Essentials,” is for those who are new to yoga as well as those who would like to review yoga’s (more…)
Tags: Annie Carpenter, beginner yoga, ergonomic yoga blocks, in yoga center, signature eggs, three minute egg, workshop, yoga blocks, yoga eggs, yoga props
Posted in Workshops | No Comments »
Friday, December 9th, 2011
With the holidays upon us and, thus, resolutions right around the corner, we could not be more excited to have teamed up with Diets in Review.com to participate in a supreme yoga giveaway. The website contains a spectrum of in-depth information and education from health professionals about healthy living, encouraging constructive weight loss that results from healthy lifestyle changes.
We had the fortune of gaining a personal training perspective in a review by Kelly. Her experience with the Eggs gave her insight into how best to add them to not only a yoga practice, but also a fitness routine. Like most people, she found that her favorite use for the Eggs is for stretching and supporting the back in reclined poses. She found that “placing two Eggs behind your shoulder blades allows you to arch over top [of] the Eggs and get a great supported stretch, perfect for tight chests and easing lower back pain.” Her insight brings to light issues that most can identify with, that “working on the computer for a living, coupled with an old back injury, has left me with the posture of a question mark, and the Three Minute Egg has been the first thing I have found that perfectly arches with my back to counteract the Quasimoto hump.”
Be sure not to miss an amazing opportunity to be the winner of their 2011 Yogi Gift Guide Giveaway. This package offers our Namastegg Starter Kit, along with Element: Hatha & Flow Yoga for Beginners DVD, a yoga mat and towel from Manduka Yoga, a MeSheeky Odette skirt, and a one-year subscription to Om magazine. What are you waiting for? Find out how you will win here.
Tags: advanced yoga, back stretch, beginner yoga, Diets in Review.com, ergonomic yoga blocks, fitness, personal training, review, spine stretch, stability, three minute egg, yoga block, yoga egg, yoga prop
Posted in Product Reviews | No Comments »
Monday, November 14th, 2011
“Intellectuals tend to be arrogant. Intelligence, like money, is a good servant but a bad master. When practicing pranayama, the yogi [makes] himself humble and without pride in his intellectual attainments.”—B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Life
Where To
- Under sitting bones — Lotus Booty or Reverse Lotus Booty (V-shape Eggs)
- Under knees, thighs or calves (rounded side up)
- Between shins –(upper leg supported by an Egg resting on lower leg)
Why To
- Many people find it difficult to maintain a straight spine when crossing their legs. Sitting on the Eggs in Lotus Booty raises your pelvis so that your hips are higher than your knees, alleviating a posterior tilt, making extension possible.
- Ultimately we want to find spinal-extension from our tailbone to base of the skull, while simultaneously allowing the thighs to soften and release.
- Unlike a blanket (which can be too soft to offer sufficient support) the Eggs provide the right combination of comfort and resistance to allow you to ground through your sitting-bones while maintaining a straight spine.
- Using Eggs to support the legs allows the inner thighs and hip flexors to release without fear of straining the knee.
Tags: back pain, beginner yoga, ergonomic yoga blocks, hip opener, hip pain, knee pain, Pranayama, seated meditation, yoga blocks, yoga eggs, yoga props
Posted in Andasanas -- Egg Postures | 1 Comment »
Thursday, November 10th, 2011
“Sometimes, legs may ache, and the mind might say, ‘Skip yoga!’ But an intelligent mind has to find out why they are paining and work out how to remove that pain. One finds a means to escape, but to persist and pursue needs a strong mind. Practice is like using a pin to remove a splinter in the hand. In the same way, one has to learn to use the intelligence to practice to remove the so-called pains and reform the practices so that these pricks do not occur at all.”—B.K.S. Iyengar, Yoga Wisdom & Practice
Where To
- Under the sitting-bones
- Under or between the hands
Why To
- For people with discomfort in the knees, or difficulty finding lift in the spine, using an Egg under the hands can both relieve some of the tension in the knees and encourage a sense of lightness from lifting out of the lower back.
- If there is strain in the knees due to flexion, sitting on Eggs creates space behind the knee joint, alleviating discomfort.
- Pressure or discomfort on the tops of the feet can be an issue for many people. This is often due to tightness in the quadriceps or insufficient mobility in the foot. Sitting up on Eggs adds space between the sitting-bones and the floor, thus alleviating some, if not all, of this pressure.
- Placing an Egg between the hands encourages broadening across the collar bones and protects the wrists.
How To
- Come to hands and knees and place 2 Eggs flat or round side up between your calves. If you need more height you can stack the Eggs, Lego Style, under your sitting-bones.
- Keeping your knees hip-distance apart, sit back on the Eggs.
- Bring the ankles as close to the hips as possible, tops of the feet pressing into the floor, to help reduce torque in the knee.
- Press your sitting-bones into the Eggs to encourage the heads of your femurs to descend towards the ground.
- Gently rotate your thighs inward.
- Inhale, and lift up out of your lower back as you lengthen your front body.
- Encourage your lower back ribs to move away from your pelvis as you extend through all four sides of your torso.
- Pressing your hands into the Egg, allow your shoulder blades to be drawn down the back as you broaden across the collarbones.
- Keep the lower front ribs soft.
- Bringing your gaze forward, draw your chin slightly in toward the spine and up, lengthening the cervical spine.
When Not To
- If knee pain persists in spite of the elevated sitting position, consult a physician before continuing kneeling poses.
- If you are suffering from an ankle injury, avoid this pose.
- If you experience mild pain in the top of your foot, place a rolled up hand towel between the top of your foot or front of your ankle and the floor.
Eggsperiments
- If you are sitting on a tall stack of Eggs, and still feel pressure in your knees, try placing an Egg in each hand and grounding into the Eggs on either side of your hips. Lift out of your lower back.
Tags: beginner yoga, ergonomic yoga blocks, hyperextension, intermediate yoga, knee discomfort, lower back lift, meditation, wrist protection, yoga blocks, yoga eggs, yoga props
Posted in Andasanas -- Egg Postures | No Comments »
