Octomom Nadya Suleman's sleek physique may be due in part to her intense yoga workouts.
The ponytailed, leggings-clad mother of 14 has been spotted in the park near her home practicing yoga moves in front of the cameras, according to the London Daily Mail. Suleman reportedly lifted weights, did sit-ups, and worked on her lotus position.
And even if she hasn't perfected the downward facing dog yet, yoga's good for both her muscles and her head, experts say.
"Yoga offers wonderful resistance and toning practice," says Dr. Anne Kulze, nutrition and wellness expert and author of "Dr. Ann's 10-Step Diet." "It may not pump up the heart rate the way aerobic exercise does, but it's fantastic for toning. People also love it for stress, which we know can impact body weight."
In fact, the time-pressed Suleman may have found the perfect way to tone her body and keep her sanity at the same time.
Yoga is known for its stress-busting potential, says Anne M. Fletcher, author of "Thin for Life" and "Weight Loss Confidential."
"Yoga can help with depression and it increases your energy and relaxes you," she says. "There's something more important about exercise than just burning calories and getting into shape. Yoga offers that psychological dimension, too."
Suleman's svelte shape has been evident for months - even last May she had shrunk to a shadow of what she looked like at the octuplets' birth in January, reports the Daily Mail. But she may be craving not just a leaner body, but some inner peace, too.
She'll find that if she keeps working on her yoga poses, says Christine Avanti, fitness expert and author of "Skinny Chicks Don't Eat Salad."
"Yoga isn't the top fat burning exercise but it gets toxins out of your body and enhances your metabolism," says Avanti, who is certified to teach yoga. "It helps the muscles to be long and lean, rather than short and bulky. It's a muscle toner."
And if the busy 33-year-old mom doesn't have time to tone her muscles through yoga, she can simply try another technique that's built into her day anyway: lifting eight plump babies in and out of their strollers.
Experts say that staying with an exercise regimen should be easy for Octomom as long as she's genuinely enjoying it.
"Any exercise routine that motivates the user to stick with it is good," Fletcher says. "If you find something that you like, you'll stick with it and that's what's important."
Yoga is a complete workout that benefits not only the body, but also the mind and the emotions. It is a real calming workout that's really perfect for the busy mom like Nadya.
Source
Showing posts with label Yoga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yoga. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Yoga
A lot of people have this notion that flexibility and strength are prerequisites of yoga. The truth is, anybody can start doing yoga. Strength and flexibility can be developed at any age. Physical built and age doesn’t matter as well.
Yoga is breath, body and mind, or body, soul and spirit. First, let me explain to you what yoga is in simple layman’s terms.
Physical/Body
The physical part of yoga pertains to the asanas or the different poses. Through these poses, we develop strength, balance and flexibility. Poses are classified into seven groups: Standing poses, Sitting Poses, Forward Bendings, Twisting Poses, Back Bendings, Hand Balancings and Inverted Postures. By doing these poses, we also develop a more heightened sense of body awareness resulting in better movement, space awareness and control. The physical part of yoga also deals with balancing the different areas of the body, balancing the right and left hemispheres, front and back part of the body and the upper and lower parts.
Breath/Soul
Breathing is an integral part of yoga. It is a way of releasing pent-up energy or stress that we’ve put into our bodies. Breathing in yoga is deep and diaphragmatic. This type of breathing together with the different yoga poses, achieves internal organ massage as the diaphragm expands and contracts. It is somewhat like a cleansing routine or you could also liken it to taking an internal organ shower, rendering the organs tuned-up to their true functions.
Mind/Spirit
Yoga poses are done statically. That means, the poses are done in stillness. In stillness there is focus. In focus, there is silence. Yoga quiets the mind. It brings the mind into a calm, clear and focused state. Depending on the focus of the individual practitioner, sometimes it brings the mind into a really good meditative state. Being focused doesn’t mean that the yoga practitioner has to stress to concentrate. It is not required at all. To achieve focus in yoga, all one has to do is to let go of thoughts, worries and concerns, and just focus on his or her breathing and the asanas or poses. It’s just being at the moment.
Yoga is the integration of the body, mind and spirit. It is being aware of the self as a total being. It is uniting the body with the mind and the mind with the spirit. We do not live by the physical aspect alone. The body has to follow the mind, the mind has to obey the soul and the soul must surrender to the spirit.
If you’re a beginner in yoga or just starting to contemplate on doing yoga, please don’t get intimidated by the different poses that you see on print or on television. As a yoga teacher, I always tell my students to do only as much as they can for the moment and I always remind them that strength and flexibility or the perfect pose can be achieved in time. The different poses can even be modified to suit each individual and it will have the same effect on them as the ones who are doing the more advanced pose. Yoga is not a competition, it is inner work.
Another note on breathing, people tend to hold their breath when they are faced with difficult or stressful tasks (sometimes even as simple as playing computer games). Yoga can help individuals become more aware of their breathing and the type of breathing that they do whether it is deep, heavy, labored, shallow or relaxed.
Total wellness and healing can be achieved through yoga. Try it and see for yourself.
Yoga is breath, body and mind, or body, soul and spirit. First, let me explain to you what yoga is in simple layman’s terms.
Physical/Body
The physical part of yoga pertains to the asanas or the different poses. Through these poses, we develop strength, balance and flexibility. Poses are classified into seven groups: Standing poses, Sitting Poses, Forward Bendings, Twisting Poses, Back Bendings, Hand Balancings and Inverted Postures. By doing these poses, we also develop a more heightened sense of body awareness resulting in better movement, space awareness and control. The physical part of yoga also deals with balancing the different areas of the body, balancing the right and left hemispheres, front and back part of the body and the upper and lower parts.
Breath/Soul
Breathing is an integral part of yoga. It is a way of releasing pent-up energy or stress that we’ve put into our bodies. Breathing in yoga is deep and diaphragmatic. This type of breathing together with the different yoga poses, achieves internal organ massage as the diaphragm expands and contracts. It is somewhat like a cleansing routine or you could also liken it to taking an internal organ shower, rendering the organs tuned-up to their true functions.
Mind/Spirit
Yoga poses are done statically. That means, the poses are done in stillness. In stillness there is focus. In focus, there is silence. Yoga quiets the mind. It brings the mind into a calm, clear and focused state. Depending on the focus of the individual practitioner, sometimes it brings the mind into a really good meditative state. Being focused doesn’t mean that the yoga practitioner has to stress to concentrate. It is not required at all. To achieve focus in yoga, all one has to do is to let go of thoughts, worries and concerns, and just focus on his or her breathing and the asanas or poses. It’s just being at the moment.
Yoga is the integration of the body, mind and spirit. It is being aware of the self as a total being. It is uniting the body with the mind and the mind with the spirit. We do not live by the physical aspect alone. The body has to follow the mind, the mind has to obey the soul and the soul must surrender to the spirit.
If you’re a beginner in yoga or just starting to contemplate on doing yoga, please don’t get intimidated by the different poses that you see on print or on television. As a yoga teacher, I always tell my students to do only as much as they can for the moment and I always remind them that strength and flexibility or the perfect pose can be achieved in time. The different poses can even be modified to suit each individual and it will have the same effect on them as the ones who are doing the more advanced pose. Yoga is not a competition, it is inner work.
Another note on breathing, people tend to hold their breath when they are faced with difficult or stressful tasks (sometimes even as simple as playing computer games). Yoga can help individuals become more aware of their breathing and the type of breathing that they do whether it is deep, heavy, labored, shallow or relaxed.
Total wellness and healing can be achieved through yoga. Try it and see for yourself.
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