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Dec
07

Hula Hoop vs. Yoga… The Beginning of a Backlash?!

hulahoopIn time for Christmas, I turn to the the OM-nipresent, the OM-nicient, the OM-nipotent and the ever OM-nificent… to guide me through the minefield that is holiday shopping. And, in case there’s some confusion to whom I might be referring, let me be clear… I’m talking about Google, of course… the arbiter of all things… all things.

Where I, in my Mommy-OM-ness would trend towards the yogic in my gift-giving preferences, it seems that Google is telling me otherwise.  According to an article in Canada’s National Post, when it comes to most searched items this year, “yoga” is lucky to squeak into the top ten as Google Zeitgeist, the empire’s trend-tracker tells us that “hula hoop exercise” emerged at number two… second only to P90X exercise program (been there, done that… not for wimps… and sure, feel free to call me a wimp!)

Despite some growth, such as Lululemon, the Vancouver-based clothing giant, with its annual revenue increase by roughly 30% from 2008 to 2009, these recessionary times are sending us looking for less expensive means to our physical fitness and fat-burning ends.  And, if you can resist the attempts to cash in on this trend, with companies offering all flavours of hula induced spending from hoops encrusted with fat burning marbles to full service hula fitness kits, you still only pay about $5 bucks for this not-so-modern marvel.  And, hey, anyone can do it!

You’ll also do your part to support what might appear as something of a yoga backlash:

Is yoga now on a downward trend? Or has the uber-trendy exercise suffered some sort of backlash due to expensive studio classes or, as Antonia Richmond says in a 2006 article in the San Francisco Chronicle, a growing sense of insecurity from the non-yoga inclined masses:

“These are the yoga people. And they’re better than you…They don’t have the haggard appearance or sensitivity to bright sunlight that I do as I stumble down the street in search of coffee. They appear to … glow.”

Yoga-hater and creator of New York clothing company “It’s a Sickness”, Barnaby Harris went so far as to create an entire f— yoga clothing line.

Harris elegantly summed up the history of the ubiquitous trend, saying:

“Yoga has survived for thousands of years and will survive for thousands more. It’s just that it has gone unopposed for too damn long.”

Category: health, news, Trends, yoga  Leave a Comment
May
21

Work Your ‘Guns’: Yoga… Model Style

Combined with some form of cardio, yoga is without a doubt and effective choice if you are interested in an alternative to conventional strength training.  I, for one, have never been very good at sticking with a routine of dumbbells and free weights.

If you are looking for a great routine to target the ‘guns’, toning and developing strength in one sha-bang, check out the video below.  Sure, I know that the lovely Miyuki Fox is a model.  Yes, I’m aware that for whatever reason she has about 7 percent body fat, tops.  And OK, so in all likelihood the girl is eight feet tall.  So… I guess I have to admit, those facts alone set her apart from the rest of us in her ability to show off miles of bicep-ial sinew with little to no effort… but please, keep an open mind.  Take a gander… even better, give it a go.

I’m willing to bet, that model or no model, you’ll feel it… and maybe, with a little consistency, you too might be boasting model worthy ‘guns’… OK, perhaps not model worthy, but perhaps a little less chicken wing worthy.  How ’bout that?!

Category: health, strength  Leave a Comment
Apr
02

Bridge Pose, or…. Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

It was a lovely practice today.  Short but lovely.  Only half an hour as girl-child was left on the computer… please don’t judge.  Ahem.

Anyways, this posture is near heaven for me.  It’s a posture in which I can remain for days… or at least, many, many moments.  I love looking down my abdomen, torso straight and strong not to mention the power in my thighs.  Oh, my thighs.  I just love the delicious tension in this pose… feeling the work in my core… and my dear bottom!

It’s a beautiful, strong posture and is known to offer many benefits, not the least of which is rejuvenating tired legs (the thighs, remember?!), as well as stretching the chest, neck, and spine and stimulating abdominal organs.  Additionally it’s said to improve digestion and aid in the discomfort of menstruation.

I’ll bow to a higher authority to provide the technicalities, but for the love of Oprah, this is one of my favourites!

Category: Postures, Practice  Leave a Comment
Mar
30

A Meditation in Walking

meditation in walking
Contrary to popular belief, meditation doesn’t have to happen alone in a room, in full lotus, body silent and still.

No, in fact sometimes the most satisfying meditations happen on your feet, outdoors and covering ground.  Certainly, by now, we are all aware of the benefits of walking.  It has been the foundation to many a weight loss program as it’s inexpensive, outside of a good pair of shoes, it can be done anywhere and anyone can do it.  But can we truly achieve a meditative state by doing it?

Many of us already enjoy walking for some meditative benefits already.  Communing with nature, enjoying fresh air and clearing one’s head, all wonderful aspects to a low-intensity, heart pumping activity that can be done right outside your door.

Up until about two years ago, I walked as I run, not to the beat of my heart or to the sounds of the surrounding outdoors, but to the ear-splitting tunes filling my head.  I will likely always need music to help move and motivate me through a run, but it only took one walk without my earbuds to convert me to the centring, perspective gathering benefits of a brisk walk in peace and quiet rather than a brisk walk, thoughts and mind overwhelmed by the intense beat of drums and base.

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Category: Meditation, Spirit  Leave a Comment
Mar
23

Snot Begone!! Some Yogic Solutions.

too congestedI don’t want to characterize myself as a fair-weather yogini… or, to be more precise, a fair-sinus yogini… but in the spirit of full disclosure, I do believe I am.

The first signs of a cold are one thing.  I work through it, snuffling and snorting a little, until I get back my breath.  Several minutes into Sun Salutations I can count on the excess runny boogers fluid draining away… somewhere.

However, once I am suffering with full-fledged head congestion, I give up the yogic ghost.  I just have no patience for struggling for breath through a narrow passage  in my snot, the diameter of the head of a pin… and only one nostril. Nothing cramps my Ujaii style like a nose full of sticky goo.

I recall asking a new yoga instructor years ago, having spent an entire class fighting with my stuffed head, what her best recommendation was for getting the most out of a practice when congested.  After first a long hesitation, and then stammering, her suggestion was ‘well, maybe, holding Downward Dog?’

Erk!  Yes.  Nothing like draining all of the fluid clogging my head…. back into my head!  And so, in the years since, I have managed through congestion, or more often, bagged it altogether once the thickness in my head and the gasping and choking for breath just became too bothersome.  Ahhhhh… holding Child’s Pose… now, that I can see.

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Category: Articles, health  One Comment
Feb
26

Weightloss and Fitness… The Yogic Connection

yoga for fitness and weightloss

We often hear about the benefits of yoga as it pertains to spiritual and mental health, but is there a tangible connection to one’s fitness and, more specifically, can I lose a few pounds doing it?

I already enjoy the stress busting aspects of a regular… OK, semi-regular… practice, but how much of what I’m doing actually targets my trouble spots- those zones of frustration such as my tummy and thighs… OK, and bum and perhaps, and the fleshy wings accumulating under my newly minted 40 year old arms?

Well, those of us who would like to look to a less intense, non-impact method of achieving a level of fitness, can take heart.  Studies show that yoga lowers levels of stress hormones and increases insulin sensitivity–a sign your body reads to burn food as fuel rather than store it as fat.  Yay!

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Category: Blog  Leave a Comment
Feb
18

Practice. Schmactice.

Perhaps if I had a dog that required yoga-ing, I’d take my commitment to a regular practice more seriously.  But, alas, my lovely beast of a dog would rather be walked than yoga-ed.

And as a result of this tender, gentle, affectionate, needy beast’s need for exercise, it is given priority in my day.  Just about every day.  As it should.  On those days that I am unable to fulfill my commitment to her, we both feel it.  Guilty.  Irritable. Just plain not right.

The benefits to walking are abundant.  As are the benefits to yoga.  Unfortunately, however, I don’t have a pair of big, brown doe eyes staring at me, following me, urging me to be sure I get in a practice everyday.  Perhaps there’s a business idea in there somewhere…. What I have is the wondrous feeling, laying in savasana, my body limp and damp, and sinking into the floor, longer, lighter and more invigorated than before.  Not eager eyeballs, just the joy of well-being.

So, as I talk myself down from the “Doh…I haven’t practiced in a week already…” ledge, it is this feeling I have to keep in mind when I am putting it off and putting it off, a seemingly perpetually unchecked activity in my dayplanner, with morning disappearing into lunch, lunch fading into afternoon and afternoon evolving quickly into the mayhem that is the late day activities, supper and bed-time rituals.

It’s the feeling of light and opening… and it’s as essential to me as our walks are to my lovely beast of a dog.

Although, to my credit, my daily meditation has taken hold as something of an early morning habit.  Wonderful.  Not unlike most, mine is a mind full of thoughts and images in freaking TechniColor and SurroundSound, even at five in the morning, I still enjoy aspiring to the stillness.

Just me, a freshly lit fire in the fireplace… and my lovely beast of a dog.

Category: Good Intentions  Leave a Comment
Aug
16

Summer’s Gettin’ Away…. And Fit Couture for Review!

This summer is rolling by way too fast! We’re on the road now after just too much busy-ness to get into here. But our vacation has begun….

And here on vacation, let me tell you what I brought for my running/yoga wear. Two things….

These:

And this:

Both items from Fit Couture.

I am over the moon for the Saratoga Shorts. They have been run in, yoga’d in, swam in our lake in, gardened in…. they do it all. Their shape and size remain intact. And I really like the cut of the wasteband. Love. Them. In fact, I am about to order another pair.

I also love their Miami II Top. I use it for running and yoga. I am blessed with fried eggs for boobs so the support for me is more than adequate. I am planning on ordering the cropped version along with the new pair of shorts as I prefer the flexibility of more of a bra type top.

There is nothing like a hot outfit for motivation…. Thanks Fit Couture!!

Category: Features, Products  Leave a Comment
Aug
04

Cool Summer… Lazy- I Mean, Crazy- Summer

I can’t believe summer is already half over! And what have I done? What has become of training? What has become of yoga practice?

Ack!

Well…. let’s see. There’s been camping. There’s been managing kids and whatever school we are squeezing into our days. There’s been lots of company. And recently, there’s been work- yup, paid work. I’ve been shooting a lot! And of course… there’s the beach. We go to the beach. That’s it in a nutshell. And currently, we are entertaining more company… Oh, and potato chips. Yes, lots of potato chips!
However, despite a crazy, busy work week ahead (causing me to bail on half-marathon as I booked a wedding that same afternoon and thought it best not to run almost 13 miles beforehand lest I puke on poor, unsuspecting bride) and a hectic visit to hubby’s hometown in Northern Virginia, I am going to implement change.

Documented here. Yes, here. Change. OK. Not great, fundamental change. But after I booked the gig for next weekend, I pretty much gave up training, in any form. Over the past three weeks I have done largely nothing of a physical nature.

So, MommyOm to the rescue. Good eating… yoga practice… walking and/or running… and hey, five pounds, to boot, happens here. Motivate me, Mommy Om… I’m relying on the power of public record….
Heeeeere we go!

Category: Blog, Good Intentions  Leave a Comment