How Hot Yoga is leading and changing the Yoga Industry
19 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
Today, Hot Yoga has changed the lives of hundreds of people across the world. Intentional Yoga Studios throughout the world offer a Hot Yoga practice called “Bikyasa” that is grounded in the scientific and medical benefits of the Bikram and Ashtanga-Vinyasa Yoga.
The word Yoga today is easily associated with lifestyle and health, two major concerns of the American Health Association today. With an increase of obesity in younger adults, rising numbers of diabetes, heart failure, and other stress related health concerns; Yoga classes are becoming increasingly more popular, as a cost alternative, prevention, and even symptom reversal.
In 1998, Dr. Dean Ornish, through experimenting with 194 patients of coronary heart disease, found that “80% of the patients were able to avoid bypass or angioplasty by adhering to lifestyle changes, including yoga.”
Intentional Yoga continues to change one’s outlook of Yoga with its heated flow, in-depth instruction, and popular culture beat. Baseball stars, Hollywood celebrities, and pop culture artists attest to the amazing benefits they experience after just a few classes.
Hot Yoga continues to lead the Yoga industry by encouraging physicians and scientists to research its benefits, funding experiments and educating the general public. Benefits such as weight loss, muscle tone, joint flexibility, range of motion, increased energy and enhanced vitality are only a few of the common benefits that practitioners rave about.
The most recent published paper on the benefits of Hot Yoga were published in the Chinese Medicine Journal on June 2010, demonstrating the benefits of Hot Yoga as a countermeasure of bone loss in women. Cardiac surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, also argues that Yoga “massages the lymph system,” activating the flow of lymph throughout the body, speeding up its infection-fighting and waste-filtering process, and promoting “the draining of the lymph.” According to Oz, specific asanas “stretch muscles that from animal studies are known to stimulate the lymph system.”
Today’s Yoga industry is vast and varied and offers a class that suits any individual, though Intentional Yoga classes offer a consistent experience through their Bikyasa program which is a set sequence with specific instruction, which make the class accessible to beginners and challenging for advanced practitioners. The postures are connected together to provide not only a complete workout, but also a scientific approach to revitalizing the entire system.
This revitalization process occurs primarily through the heat. In a heated environment capillaries dilate more effectively, enhancing oxygenation of tissues, muscles, glands and organs. Metabolism speeds up the breakdown of glucose and fatty acids, and just as when your body raises its temperature to fight infection, raised temperature in the room assists in improving T-cell function and the proper functioning of your immune system.
Outside of the physical benefits, Intentional Yoga builds a community that supports and nourishes it’s students. What sets Bikyasa Style apart is it’s ability to bridge between the sciences of the East, and the freedom of the West.
Have you done your yoga today?
How Primary Foods can change your Life
17 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
I attended the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, where I learned an incredible philosophy about food — everything we consider as a source of nutrition is really just a secondary source of nourishment.
The foods you eat are secondary to all the other things that feed you—your exercise routine, relationships, career, and spirituality. Those are the things we call Primary foods.
All that we consider today as nutrition is really just a secondary source of energy.
Think back to a time when you were passionately in love. Everything was exciting. Colors were vibrant. Intimacy was magical. Your lover’s touch and feelings of exhilaration sustained you. You were floating on air, gazing into each other’s eyes. You forgot about food and were high on life.
Remember when, as a child, you were playing outside, having fun? Suddenly, your mother announced dinner was ready, but you were not hungry at all. The passion of play took all of your attention.
Sometimes we are fed not by food but by the energy in our lives.
These moments and feelings demonstrate that everything is food. We take in thousands of experiences in life that can fulfill us physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
We hunger for play, touch, romance, intimacy, love, achievement, success, art, music, self-expression, leadership, excitement, adventure and spirituality.
All of these elements are essential forms of nourishment. The extent to which we are able to incorporate them determines how enjoyable and worthwhile our lives feel.
To discuss your goals and intentions for health and life fill out a health history form here.
How Yoga Heals, Destroy, and Excites the Internet
12 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
With the recent NY Times and Salon Blog article about yoga wrecking or not wrecking the body being circulated, I felt the responsibility of offering another point of view.
Both articles simply seek the fast attention of the reader.
Why not?
Even Bikram Choudhury is quoted for saying ‘come to my torture chamber room every day for 60 days, and I give you a new body.’ An article back in the 90’s even quoted him saying that his Yoga can cure anything.
And for thousands of practitioners it has.
In Bikram Yoga no one touches you with physical adjustments, so if you are injured it is because you are not listening to your body or to the teacher, who is telling you exactly and specifically how to get in and out of the Yoga pose.
While I have great respect for Bikram practice and the research behind it, I have been an Ashtanga Practitioner for the last 10 years.
Ashtanga Yoga, much like Bikram Yoga, has a set sequence of yoga poses that have been demonstrated to enhance the physical Body while focusing the Mind. That is the primary difference between Yoga and other forms of Exercise.
How has its success been demonstrated? By the thousands of practitioners who have benefited.
The poses that the NYTimes article suggested injure the body the most are not even part of the Bikram practice, as it is intended for beginners.
In Ashtanga, you are not given those poses until your body is ready.
Making great soup takes years, yet learning to make great soup trains the mind to be a great Kung Fu Master. There are great lessons to be learned in the modern Art world, as seen in both Kung Fu Panda 1 & 2.
Great chefs are not made in 2 months of teacher training. And the secret recipe is only appreciated after years of practice, not theory.
Joshua Rosenthal of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition has coined the term Primary Foods. Unlike food that is consumed through the mouth, which we consider as Secondary Food and is very Bio-Individual (again Joshua Rosenthal’s term – the food that is good for one person, could be poison to someone else), Primary Foods are the same for us all: Exercise, Career, Relationship, and Spirituality.
In short, exercise is more important to your health than going on a diet; having a career, a job that you enjoy is more critical than becoming a vegetarian, as is being in a relationship where you feel loved and sexually wanted, along with a sense of purpose and connection to something greater than yourself (call it God, Love, Energy, the term is inconsequential).
Exercise is a Primary Food, and Yoga is only one of many dishes on that menu.
We know why we love it so much. It rings with a promise of everlasting Youth.
Yes, if you exercise your life will improve, whether it is through Yoga or horse riding. Take Bill Dorris who lived to the age of 94, riding and roping until the day he died.
All exercise can be overdone, and what the NYTimes article pointed out is the consequences of extreme acts (like sitting for hours in an unnatural position). Just because it says Yoga does not mean that you will like it or benefit more from it.
If Yoga is your desire, then you should taste a few different classes. Some people, like the writer of the Salon article, prefer to vary their experience every day. Some find a more regulated practice better suited to their needs. Some enjoy hands on, yet some would rather never be touched.
The overwhelming variety of Yoga styles in America today is a testament to Joshua Rosenthal’s term Bio-Individuality – what is good for one, can be poison to another.
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Gabriel Azoulay has been practicing since 1993 and is an E-RYT, a graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and member of the American Association for Drugless Practitioners. Having lived in India and Thailand with Masters of Yoga and Thai Massage, Gabriel weaves wellness, Yoga, and counseling to support his students and clients. His recent eBook is a collaboration with a Yoga student who hurt her knee, and through working with Gabriel’s ideas had helped correct the problem.
WHAT MAKES A ‘TYPE B’ AN INDIVIDUAL?
18 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
What makes Me Me and You You?
This is the question that is at the heart of the genetic puzzle. It is also central to our exploration of blood types. The key is genetic heritage – the story line of your life. Even though you are living in the 21st century, you share a common bond with your ancestors. The genetic information that resulted in their particular characteristics has been passed on to you.
People who are B blood type have a different set of characteristics than people who are Type O or Type A – they are susceptible to different diseases, they should eat different foods and exercise in a completely different manner. Some believe that personality is influenced by blood type! Dr. D’Adamo, author of the best selling books Eat Right for Your Type andLive Right for Your Type, among others, gives us a blueprint for living in his books. Read on to learn more about the Type B individual.
The Blood Type B Individualized Lifestyle
The mechanics of blood type’s influence have to do with the way the genes influence each other, seemingly unrelated, genes located immediately adjacent or nearby. This mechanism explains why your blood type can have an impact on such a diverse number of bodily systems – from digestive enzymes to neurochemicals. Many nutrition experts are baffled when they first hear about the link between blood type and digestion. That’s because they are only considering the physical significance of blood type as a surface antigen. Actually, it’s not your blood type antigen that is influencing the level of acid in your stomach, but rather the gene for your blood type influencing other seemingly unrelated genes located immediately adjacent (or very close) to the ABO blood type gene that can exert an effect on your stomach acid levels. This phenomenon, called gene linkage, isn’t well understood yet, but it is well known: Many genes influence the actions of other seemingly unrelated genes. As we explore Blood Type B, we will learn more about this intriguing relationship.
WHAT MAKES A ‘TYPE A’ AN INDIVIDUAL?
18 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
What makes Me Me and You You?
This is the question that is at the heart of the genetic puzzle. It is also central to our exploration of blood types. The key is genetic heritage – the story line of your life. Even though you are living in the 21st century, you share a common bond with your ancestors. The genetic information that resulted in their particular characteristics has been passed on to you.
People who are A blood type have a different set of characteristics than people who are Type O – they are susceptible to different diseases, they should eat different foods and exercise in a completely different manner. Some believe that personality is influenced by blood type! Dr. D’Adamo, author of the best selling books Eat Right for Your Type andLive Right for Your Type, among others, gives us a blueprint for living in his books. Read on to learn more about the Type A individual.
Type A History
The Type A emerges into the 21st century with many more complex challenges than their ancestors could have imagined. The key factor in the development of Type A can be traced to the struggle for survival long ago, when there was a rapidly dwindling supply of hunting game stock. Having exhausted the great game herds of Africa, humans pushed farther out from their ancestral home into Europe and Asia. The cultivation of grains and livestock changed everything. For the first time, people were able to forego the hand to mouth lifestyle of the hunter/gatherer and establish stable communities. Over time the adaptations that produced Blood Type A were based on the need to fully utilize nutrients from carbohydrate sources. These biological adaptations can still be observed today in Type A’s digestive structure. Low levels of hydrochloric acid in the stomach and high intestinal disaccharide digestive enzyme levels permit the more efficient digestion of carbohydrates. According to Dr. D’Adamo, these are also the very factors, along with low levels of intestinal alkaline phosphatase, that make it difficult for Type As to digest and metabolize animal protein and fat.
What Makes Type A Unique
Many neurochemical factors in the Type A genetic disposition favor a structured, rhythmic, harmonious life, surrounded by a positive, supportive community. The harried pace and increased sense of isolation experienced by so many in today’s society often make these needs difficult to achieve. Type A best exemplifies the powerful interconnections between mind and body. This was vital to the shift away from hunting and procurement to building and growing. However, Type A’s more internalized relationship to stress, which served your ancestors well, can be a challenge for the modern Type A. The Blood Type Diet’s proactive mix of lifestyle strategies, hormonal equalizers, gentle exercise and specialized dietary guidelines will maximize your overall health; decrease your natural risk factors for cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The result: high performance, mental clarity, greater vitality and increased longevity.
Type A Diet
“When we discuss ‘diet,’ we are not talking necessarily about a weight loss plan, that’s a side benefit to following this plan. We are actually discussing diet in the more traditional sense, meaning a way to eat,” explains, Dr. D’Adamo. Type As flourish on a vegetarian diet – if you are accustomed to eating meat, you will lose weight and have more energy once you eliminate the toxic foods from your diet. Many people find it difficult to move away from the typical meat and potato fare to soy proteins, grains and vegetables. But it is particularly important for sensitive Type As to eat their foods in as natural a state as possible: pure, fresh and organic. “I can’t emphasize enough how this critical dietary adjustment can be to the sensitive immune system of Type A. With this diet you can supercharge your immune system and potentially short circuit the development of life threatening diseases.”
WHAT MAKES A ‘TYPE O’ AN INDIVIDUAL?
11 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
What makes Me Me and You You?
This is the question that is at the heart of the genetic puzzle. It is also central to our exploration of blood types. The key is genetic heritage – the story line of your life. Even though you are living in the 21st century, you share a common bond with your ancestors. The genetic information that resulted in their particular characteristics has been passed on to you.
People who are O blood type have a different set of characteristics than people who are Type B or Type A – they are susceptible to different diseases, they should eat different foods and exercise in a completely different manner. Some believe that personality is influenced by blood type! Dr. D’Adamo, author of the best selling books Eat Right for Your Type andLive Right for Your Type, among others, gives us a blueprint for living in his books. Read on to learn more about the Type O individual.
The Blood Type O Individualized Lifestyle
Why are some people plagued by poor health while others seem to live healthy, vital lives even late in life? Does blood type influence personality? A single drop of blood contains a biochemical make up as unique as your fingerprint. Your blood type is a key to unlocking the secrets to your biochemical individuality. Foods and supplements contain lectins that interact with your cells depending on your blood type. This explains why some nutrients which are beneficial to one blood type, may be harmful to the cells of another. Dr. Peter D’Adamo, the author of the best selling books Eat Right for Your Type and Live Right for Your Type gives Type O’s some tips on leading a healthy lifestyle.
The Type O Profile
Type O was the first blood type, the type O ancestral prototype was a canny, aggressive predator. Aspects of the Type O profile remain essential in every society even to this day – leadership, extroversion, energy and focus are among their best traits. Type O’s can be powerful and productive, however, when stressed Type O’s response can be one of anger, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. When Type O wiring gets crossed, as a result of a poor diet, lack of exercise, unhealthy behaviors or elevated stress levels, Type O’s are more vulnerable to negative metabolic effects, including insulin resistance, sluggish thyroid activity, and weight gain. When you customize your life to Type O’s strengths you can reap the benefits of your ancestry. Your genetic inheritance offers you the opportunity to be strong, lean, productive, long-lived and optimistic.
What Makes You Unique
As a Blood Type O you may be predisposed to certain illnesses, such as ulcers and thyroid disorders. In the 1950’s it was discovered that Type O’s had about twice the instances of ulcers of all kinds than the other blood types. These findings have been replicated many times since then. Type O’s tend to have low levels of thyroid hormone and often exhibit insufficient levels of iodine, a chemical element whose sole purpose is thyroid hormone regulation. This causes many side effects such as weight gain, fluid retention and fatigue. Dr. D’Adamo does not recommend iodine supplements, rather a diet rich in saltwater fish and kelp to help regulate the thyroid gland. Bladder Wrack is also an excellent nutrient for type O’s. This herb, actually a seaweed, is very effective as an aid to weight control for Type O’s. “The fucose in bladder wrack seems to help normalize the sluggish metabolic rate and produce weight loss in Type O’s,” says Dr. D’Adamo.
Type O’s also have a higher level of stomach acid than the other blood types, which often results in stomach irritation and ulcers. Dr. D’Adamo recommends a licorice preparation called DGL (de glycyrrhizinated licorice) which can reduce discomfort and aid healing. DGL protects the stomach lining in addition to protecting it from stomach acids. Avoid crude licorice preparations as they contain a component of the plant which can cause elevated blood pressure. This component has been removed in DGL. Dr. D’Adamo also recommends Mastic Gum and Bismuth to soothe Type O’s common and even frequent tummy troubles.
Yoga on Line
01 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
A climbing yogi has found a unique way to improve his balance, focus, and core strength: doing yoga poses on a slackline.
By Mary Bolster
Twenty years ago, rock climbers in Yosemite and Joshua Tree discovered a way to entertain themselves when they weren’t scaling walls. They strung a piece of 20-foot webbing between trees to create a makeshift tightrope and
practiced walking on it. The better they got at their new game, the more they upped the ante. They made the line longer and eventually raised it higher off the ground—slinging it between canyons 800 feet in the air.
Slacklining, as it was eventually called, never became more than a diversion for climbers and other thrill seekers. Recently, however, a young climber has found a new way to use the slackline, a way he believes might serve a larger and more enduring purpose than just an adrenaline hit: as a yoga prop.
Jason Magness, 30, first discovered slacklining about seven years ago and couldn’t stay on the rope for more than two seconds. “It felt like the most impossible thing ever,” he says. “I tried it for half an hour and thought I’d never be able to do it.” He dismissed it and went back to climbing. When he rediscovered it a year ago, it was after he’d been practicing yoga for three years. And to his surprise, he brought a different perspective to the line. “I was more centered,” he says. After an hour of experimentation, Magness was able to stand up and balance. “It was remarkable.”
Since that experience, Magness has found more similarities between yoga and slacklining—and he may be on to something. He and his friend Sam Salwei are working on a DVD on the subject for T-Phy Productions, and they’re holding workshops around the country.
Magness says certain things improve once you start slacklining: your focus, breathing, balance, control of the bandhas, and your sense of humor. Obviously, the consequences of losing focus on a loose line are more pronounced than when you’re on a mat. “Your mind has to be engaged or else you fall off,” says Magness. “There’s not a stray thought: what to cook for dinner, your to-do list at work—those thoughts and you’re off.” Being in touch with your breath is equally important. “If you’re holding your breath, the line will vibrate more,” says Magness. “If you can settle in and drop your weight into your root and engage your core, the line almost becomes still.”
No matter how deep your breath or strong your focus, you still have to balance, and that requires activating all those tiny oblique muscles in your core. “The first time you stand up,” says Magness, “you don’t know how to control those muscles. Slacklining is really good for finding out where balance comes from.” It’s also good for finding your bandhas, those locks in the abdomen and perineum that contain and stimulate energy. Magness says they’re crucial for arm balances on the line: “The minute you don’t engage Uddiyana Bandha, you can’t do them.”
Of course, the first time you step on a slackline, you won’t be doing arm balances; you’ll just be trying to stay upright. But the work is fun and can give a huge boost to your confidence. “We had a 45-year-old mother of two who we convinced to try it,” Magness says. “By the end she could balance and take a few steps. She was so excited to go back and show her kids.”
Magness tries more difficult poses and experiments with sequencing these days. He’s found that some poses, like Revolved Triangle, are actually easier on the line than on the ground. The hardest one so far is Navasana (Boat Pose). “You do it sideways,” he explains. “Your sitting bones are on the line. It’s so hard on the core. It’s like taking an Ana Forrest abs class condensed in a few seconds.”
A lover of Ashtanga Yoga, Magness says he’s always had a hard time meditating until he discovered slacklining. Now he sits on the line in Lotus Pose and meditates for 20 to 30 minutes regularly.
Slacklining has completely transformed Magness’s practice. And, like any good convert, he’s eager to tell others. “I’d love to teach it and see the word spread,” he says. “When you teach beginners, you rediscover the joy of your first time. They stand up for 10 seconds and you see this huge grin.”
Yoga is Art
21 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
My thank you expression to academia ruchu who brought me to Poland to Amir Gwirtzman for sharing his Art in Poland to the students who came and to my friend Alexander who made it possible.
My Amazing Family Relation in Vienna
20 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
Thank you is not enough to express what I experienced.
