Dina AbransonEverything you wanted to know but didn't dare to ask about yoga, healthy exercising and even practical tips for postures that you can practice at home
Today, when we want to start a routine of anaerobic physical exercise, we can choose from a wide variety of activities, such as bodybuilding, TRX, Pilates, and yoga. We hear everyone working on strengthening their bodies and also on muscle length.
Although yoga, unlike other activities, emphasizes body and breath awareness, it doesn’t mean that we won’t sweat or work hard. It’s just an opening, or opportunity for inner work through our body.
To be precise, the yoga we hear about today is called “asana yoga”, in which various body poses – yoga poses – are practiced. Asana yoga is only one small part of yoga philosophy, which was written more than 4,000 years ago. The Yoga Sutras, a compilation of sutras on the theory and practice of yoga, teach daily practice of concentration, breathing exercises, poses, and meditation. This is meant to free the yogan from old patterns of behavior, worldviews and attachments that prevent him from self-fulfillment as a free and happy man in the world.
Ever since then, the variety of poses grew from a small number of sitting positions to hundreds of standing postures, balancing on one foot, balancing on both hands, the head, sitting positions, lying and more. The number of schools of yoga is also rapidly growing; you can try Ashtanga, which is a structured series of poses and is considered relatively intensive and meditative; iyengar yoga emphasizes detail, precision and alignment, and makes use of props; vinyasa yoga emphasized flow, transition between poses and breathing; and there are many more.
A fundamental point to understand is that it doesn’t matter which school of yoga you choose; what is important is that you feel connected, in harmony with your body, and comfortable. The purpose of yoga is to free your body from stress, unlike other physical activities that create overload, may cause you to feel too stiff and sore, and may even be harmful.
So how do you exercise without hurting yourself?
I teach three lines of thought that can create a significant change in the day-to-day life through bodily exercise:
- Lack of violence. The exercises are meant to be performed while concentrating on the body and breath. When we are aware of how our body feels, we avoid exposing it to violence. It’s important to be attentive – I believe that the body always knows what’s right for it, what pain causes expansion and extension and what pain causes contraction and short breath, which are harmful to us. With attentiveness and patience, we can reach maximal results.
- The process, not the end result. In the quick and immediate world in which we live, most of us take on the world view that sees the end result as the main goal. This affects the exercise, and may cause the yogan to prefer reaching his knee with his head at the expense of a rounded back, instead of a long and straight back and at the distance between the head and the knee. The teacher’s role, in my opinion, is to remind the student that there is no goal; the only goal is to feel a sense of wholeness within myself, that “everything is okay, exactly where I am”.
- Confronting myself / selfless exercise. This, in my opinion, is a difficult lesson to learn without experiencing it yourself or, to be precise, feeling it in your muscles. At the beginning, most of us come with the goal, with the ambition, with the will to push ourselves over the limit. It’s important to remember that we aren’t competing against anyone, we aren’t in a contest with anyone who may be exercising beside us, we only confront ourselves. Exercising while putting aside our wishes and our strives for success is, maybe, the most difficult for the Western yogan.
Many yogans start practicing because of their doctor’s advice, to balance their body, to strengthen it, to lengthen their muscles. Maybe they came upon a yoga lesson by chance. Only after a period of time, they discover the inner effect and extensive world represented by the word “yoga”.
It’s important that we let our body fall into the yoga posture and don’t externally “force” ourselves into it.
Guidelines for practicing two important basic poses:
Downward-facing dog is a pose that will often be used during yoga lessons, and not by chance. This pose has great benefits, and even after many years of practice, there is always place for improvement. The triangular shape gives access to the lower and upper body. It strengthens the arms and shoulder girdle, and lengthens the backer hip muscles and calves.
How is it done?
Start by sitting (child’s pose) with your buttocks close to your heels and your hands stretched forward on the mattress. Start moving your knees apart while maintaining a straight back. Make sure that your hands are shoulder-width apart and your feet hip-width apart. Use your hands to push your weight toward your feet, and keep your shoulders away from your ears. Finally, straighten your knees, with your heels touching the floor.
*Extra challenge: raise one hand, one foot, or both, while maintaining the posture.
Five breaths, three repetitions.
Upward-facing dog is an excellent posture for strengthening and improving spine motility. In addition, it lengthens the front hips and strengthens the shoulder girdle and wrist.
How is it done?
With the tops of your feet on the floor, straight knees and relaxed buttocks. Lengthen your stomach with your hands under your shoulders pressing into the floor, and keep your elbows straight. It’s important to pull your shoulder blades back so that your chest can come forward. Keep your shoulders away from your ears, and only then it’s okay to let the bones behind your neck stiffen a bit and point your face upward. This pose will help you increase your lung capacity and take deep full breaths.
Three breaths, three repetitions.
Tvay Mashal began as a runner, and today she teaches dynamic yoga that incorporates vinyasa and Ashtanga vinyasa practices. “Yoga is a time to disconnect from the daily expectations and noise, and find connection between body and mind through breathing.”
To see Tvay Mashal’s Facebook page and find yoga lessons near you, click here.
