Can Yoga Help You Lose Weight?
An interviewer in search of material for a January fitness story recently asked me, “Can yoga help you lose weight?” I ought to expect that question, but I never do, so I blabbered: some forms burn calories, other forms not so much. . . . even one hour of yoga measurably lowers blood levels of […]
What’s locked in your ribcage?
On the day my yoga life officially began, sometime in June, 1987, I took a private class from Wende Davis. She taught me spinal stretch, with my hands resting on her upright piano. Then she tapped her fingers along my spine and asked me to notice the different qualities of the flesh. My lumbar spine […]
Tricky Triangle Pose: protect your SI joints
Did you know that of the three simplest shapes, circle, square and triangle, only the triangle completely reverses its symbolic meaning when it’s turned upside-down? Rotate a circle 90 degrees and it still means wholeness, unity, inclusion, and infinity. A square turned on its head looks exactly the same and still means grounding, stability, balance […]
Why Yoga Builds Your Inner Strength
Feeling strong with biceps the size of sparrow’s kneecaps Ever walk out of a chest-opening yoga class feeling like you could take on the world – in the most friendly way possible, of course? You might think that feeling is just an obvious physical result of what you’ve been doing. If you expand your chest, you […]
Bones for Life: there is something you can do about osteoporosis
Early in 2006, I was diagnosed with osteoporosis. Not osteopenia, which is a weakening of the bones, but full-fledged osteoporosis. At first I felt betrayed. I had been practicing yoga for almost 20 years. Yoga is supposed to be protective, to build bones through weight bearing. Downward dog, headstands, shoulder stands, handstands – I had […]