Yoga and Low Impact Exercise Helps Older Women with Incontinence
Incontinence is one of the most common health issues for women as they age. Yoga and low impact exercise for at least 12 weeks significantly reduced incontinence episodes, according to…
Mental Health in Children: Yoga to the Rescue
Poor mental health is detrimental to the development and well-being of children. Can yoga for children help improve symptoms?
Immunity: A Trend Worth Supporting
While it may not be getting the same COVID-19 notoriety as the word “pivot,” “immunity” has a spine—and it’s much more than just a keyword.
10 Ways to Help Families Change
Families need you! A growing body of research makes it clear: Families provide a powerful force in supporting—or opposing—better health behaviors. Indeed, the authors of a state-of-the-art review in a…
Fitness Class as Experience
Is your fitness class just a class, or is it an experience? People are ready to move and are seeking experiences that engage them on an emotional level.
Self-Care Tips for Summer
The past couple years have been a long haul for you and your clients, and now is a great time to review some self-care tips. Enjoy the summer with these…
Chair Yoga Improves Quality of Life for Adults With Dementia
Dementia, the fifth-leading cause of death for Americans over 65, affected 5 million American adults in 2014, with numbers growing annually. Psychotropic drugs are often prescribed as therapy, but side effects include dizziness and a higher risk of falls. In the United States, polypharmacy is also an issue for this age group, with more than 44% of men and over 57% of women currently taking five or more medications. Ironically, a side effect of polypharmacy is cognitive impairment.
Cultural Appropriation in Yoga
Yoga teachers will already be well aware that the yamas are one of the eight limbs of yoga. According to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, the word yamas can be translated as “abstinences”; in other words, these are things yogis should avoid doing (Satchidananda 2012).
Improve Common Posture Deviations With Yoga
Yoga can be strategically used in concert with exercise physiology tenets to identify common postural issues that cause movement limitations for clients. Learn how taking a biomechanical approach to yoga offers an understanding of the interrelationships among joint structure, muscles and movement and how yoga postures can release tension, restore mobility, enhance stability and rebalance the body.
Retention: 5 Tips for Group Fitness
If you’ve been teaching group fitness classes for any length of time, you’ve likely experienced the dreaded student walkout. It’s the end of class—and time to stretch—and a portion of the class members start putting away equipment and heading for the door. Participants in certain classes are guiltier than others (cycling instructors, are you nodding in agreement?).
2019 IDEA® World Convention: Igniting Passion With Purpose!
Purpose, passion and people! The fitness industry is all about forging relationships that lift others up. Fitness professionals have energy to spare, and they are dedicated to mentoring new generations of pros, networking with peers, and motivating clients and participants every day.
Growth in Yoga and Meditation Practice
Americans continue to turn to yoga and meditation as leading ways to improve health, according to data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). In 2017, yoga was the most commonly used complementary health approach, practiced by 14.3% of American adults (35.2 million). This represents an increase of almost 13 million practitioners since 2012. Meditation was the second most popular complementary health practice, used by 14.2% of adults. In growth, however, meditation outpaced yoga, with participation more than tripling from 2012 (4.1%).
Improve Your Yoga Teaching Skills
What makes a yoga teacher skilled, effective and relatable? In reality, you could answer this in several ways, but there are some key principles that make up the foundation of a teaching practice. Let’s call them The ABCs of Teaching Yoga.
Surprisingly, the ABCs are not always taught in professional training programs, and many teachers find themselves stumbling through their classes when just starting out. The good news is you don’t have to! I’ve outlined everything you need to know here.
Starting a Home Yoga Practice
Do you love taking yoga classes? Learning from a skilled teacher is essential for any yoga student, but classes can be full and are sometimes fast-paced. A self-initiated, self-led home practice is an opportunity to enhance your body awareness and sensitivity, shedding light on misalignments or tight areas that might go unnoticed in the studio. Moments of awareness are important because they inform future yoga practice and enhance your knowledge of your body and yourself.
Breathing New Life Into a Yoga Journey
When I landed at IDEA over 17 years ago, I had tried yoga just a handful of times.
Roll back to 1997. We had moved from Los Angeles to San Diego, and I was working part-time, waiting for my newly minted PhD husband to get hired somewhere (please, anywhere!) as a college professor. Working just 20 hours per week, I had plenty of time to explore San Diego. I bought a gym membership at the University of California, San Diego, and spent a lot of time there, self-guided, trying all the classes and training myself based on what little I knew about movement and the body.
Yoga for Optimal Performance
Yoga, as both a philosophy and a physical practice, is one valuable tool to consider integrating into your training programs to help clients
The ABCs of Teaching Yoga
What makes a yoga teacher skilled, effective and relatable? In reality, you could answer this in several ways, but there are some key principles that make up the foundation of a teaching practice. Let’s call them The ABCs of Teaching Yoga.
Surprisingly, the ABCs are not always taught in professional training programs, and many teachers find themselves stumbling through their classes when just starting out. The good news is you don’t have to! I’ve outlined everything you need to know here.
Mindful Movement May Reduce Stress and Anxiety
Encouraging clients to increase body awareness and pay attention to their surroundings when being physically active may reduce stress.
Hot Yoga May Provide Heat Stress Conditioning for Athletes
If you’re looking for a good cross-training technique for your more athletic clients, suggest they practice hot yoga, which may boost aerobic performance while minimizing exercise stress.
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, researchers recruited 10 elite female field hockey players for observation. All athletes participated in 60-minute hot-yoga classes (30 degrees Celsius/86 degrees Fahrenheit) over 6 consecutive days, during which they did not engage in any other exercise. Following the intervention, the athletes played in a national-team camp.
Mindful Exercise in the Pool
The sensory-rich pool environment is an ideal setting for mindful exercise and a welcome respite from digital stress.