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Yoga warms up Patriot Place - Attleboro Sun Chronicle

BY AMY CAINE FOR THE SUN CHRONICLE

Those competing Saturday in the 2010 New England Regional Yoga Asana Championship held at Showcase Live in Foxboro include Sarah Hoover of New Haven, Conn. (Staff photos by Martin Gavin)
Regional championship held at Showcase Live FOXBORO -- Mats, spandex, and portable heaters covered Patriot Place's Showcase Live Saturday morning as 35 competitors accompanied by a large crowd of yoga enthusiasts from across New England, gathered for the 2010 New England Regional Yoga Asana Championship.

"We were looking for a more public place and professional environment. In previous competitions, we were in a smaller space with a lot of people. Showcase Live is an awesome venue, so we're happy to be here," Bikram Yoga instructor and previous NERYAC competitor Louise Giordani said.

Contestants traveled from all six New England states to compete, Giordani said.

The NERYAC is a nonprofit organization that gives participants of all ages an opportunity to perform and promote the practice of yoga. The money raised to run the competition helps the winners travel to Las Vegas to qualify for the International Yoga Asana Championship. The USA Yoga Federation is working on qualifying yoga as an Olympic sport.

"The New England regional competition has been going on for eight or nine years now. The ultimate goal is to carry yoga into the school systems. We want to get children involved, specifically through physical education programs," event director and competitor Norman O'Neil said. Natalie Jones of New Hampshire."The contest is open to all types of yoga; hopefully more studio owners will take part, so we can educate more communities."

The entrants had three minutes each to perform a series of poses known as "hatha yoga asanas." There were five mandatory asanas and two additional postures that could show off the individual's strength and flexibility.

The group of judges uses a gymnastics scoring system: 1 to 10 points to evaluate participants in junior, men's and women's divisions. Before the competition, a "young youth" division comprised of 6-, 7- and 8-year-olds presented an exhibition.

"I love yoga because it's fun and something different. I want to learn to do the Scorpion pose," bubbly 6-year-old Athena Merck, of Sharon, said.

Stepping backstage, the competitors bundled up in sweatshirts and slippers.

"Win or lose, doing these competitions is a great growing process. I did the NERYAC in 2005, 2006, and 2007. This year, I have practiced 10-11 times a week. I also had coaching sessions, which helped because they record us executing the routine and help with timing," Morgan Martinez, 41, of Waltham, said.

"I have done it once in Colorado; I am representing my studio today. I have no intention or desire to win; I'm just doing it for myself. I find these men and women so inspiring and supportive. I hope we can get yoga into schools and more communities because it really does change people's lives," Ayn Toppin, of Northampton, said.

The animated audience featured families, friends, vendors, followers and previous contestants.

"I competed two times, and what I loved most was that it didn't feel like a competition. You do your best and everyone is supportive. Coming to the Showcase Live is a nice change, as it has been in the same place for several years and this could give yoga a chance to become more main stream. If everyone did yoga, the world would be a better place," Jennifer Stevens, of Quincy, said.

For more information about participating in the 2011-2012 New England Regional Yoga Asana Championship, visit: www.neryac.com. To learn more about bringing yoga to the Olympics, visit: www.usayoga.org.

The Argos tackle yoga - healthzone.ca

October 15, 2010 Nicole Baute

LIVING REPORTER

Seven Toronto Argonauts are exhaling mindfully in a studio at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

The CFL football players are stretched out like frogs mid-swim: hands on their yoga mats, knees pressed to the floor, legs spread out behind them. This stretch is good for the groin, says instructor Jana Webb, who teaches “joga.” That would be yoga for jocks.

Webb reminds her hulking yogis to use their “Ujjayi Pranayama” breath. “This is a breath you can use immediately on the field to find instant focus,” she says.

It’s 4 p.m. and the Argos have been in practice all day, since 9 a.m. for some and 7 a.m. for others.

But Cory Boyd is smiling while he stretches. The star running back started yoga a year ago after hearing that yoga and Pilates were good for balance, breathing and overall health. “I decided to try it out one day,” he says later. “It was sore, it hurt, but at the end of it my body felt very well.”

Now, Boyd uses yoga breathing to stay balanced and calm when he’s “ripping and running” on the field.

“You might get bent up into some very unfamiliar positions,” the 25-year-old says. “Yoga helps you to stay in that position and also learn how to breathe without panicking. It sends certain triggers to your nerves, which help you stay relaxed in the middle of anything, any stressful situations.”

Webb, 34, began practicing yoga in Toronto after a car accident in 2000 left her with a shoulder injury. She had tried physiotherapy and acupuncture, but only yoga’s gentle stretches rehabilitated her shoulder.

She studied Ishta yoga in Japan in 2004 but her area of expertise — yoga for professional athletes — developed organically after she moved back to her hometown of Calgary in 2005. She was working at Innovative Fitness, a one-on-one fitness facility, where she taught yoga to high-powered executives, new moms, people with injuries and many athletes.

Although she missed a chance to work with the Canadian bobsled team in the years leading up to the Vancouver Olympics — she was pregnant at the time — Webb recorded some videos with Innovative Fitness in Vancouver, some designed specifically for golfers, triathletes and runners.

Before long Webb was working with high-performance athletes at Calgary’s National Sports Development centre, including the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders. This summer, she also worked with three NHL goalies.

“I think I’ve got what I’ve done down to a science,” says Webb, who moved back to Toronto four weeks ago. She says her programs take the biomechanics of specific sports into consideration. With football players, she says, the entire midsection of the body is tight — hamstrings, hip flexors, groin muscles — and needs to be loosened up. “Their muscles are working,” Webb says. “Now we have to almost un-work them.”

Toronto Argonauts’ middle linebacker Jay Pottinger can attest to that. “Toward the end of the season, you get really tight hips,” he says. “You get tight everything.”

Limber muscles aside, Webb says what separates exceptional professional athletes from the rest is not necessarily skill but rather the ability to control the mind and connect it to the body.

Charismatic Boyd is more than willing to help debunk any yoga-related stereotypes that might exist. “When people think yoga, they think, ‘Oh, that’s a girl’s thing,’” he says. “I’m letting them know, it’s not.”

For joga with Jana contact jana@jogawithjana.com

Three ‘joga’ moves to try at home

1. The side plank pose builds core strength, which reduces strain on the lower back. It also improves joint stability and mobility.

2. The wide leg pose is a restorative posture that releases connective tissue around the bones and the joints, improving range of motion and injury prevention.

3. The modified lunge pose increases flexibility in the hip flexors, the quadriceps and the psoas, muscles that are in constant contraction for athletes

 

Yoga, life coach to present weekend workshop - Standard Speaker

A nationally recognized yoga and life coach will visit the Hazleton area later this month.

Debbie Williamson, who has spent 20 years training and teaching, will hold one of her weekend workshops Oct. 29 to 31 at Mystic Yoga in Valmont Industrial Park.

Williamson is owner and founder of Midwest Power Yoga, LLC, and holds teacher training and workshops serving 4,500 active members.

Williamson is a regular Yoga Journal conference presenter and resource, as well as an invited presenter in spa, fitness and business management industries.

She has developed multimedia products and multiple retailed training manuals.

She has personally trained students, business professionals, politicians, professional athletes and various celebrities, and regularly trains and coaches successful business owners and entrepreneurs.

Anyone may attend the training at Mystic Yoga, but to complete certification, participants will need to have completed a 200-hour yoga teacher training course.

For more information, contact Michele Fisher at Mystic Yoga, 570-582-9641 or michele@mysticyoga studio.com.

 

Yoga Guru Ramdev meets Buddhist monks in Dharamshala - Sify

Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev met Buddhist Monks in Dharamshala and told them the importance of Yoga.

Addressing a gathering, he said health is the most precious gift of God and one should maintain it and Yoga is one of the best ways to maintain it.

Dharamshala he pointed out, was filled with spirituality and its energy should reach the entire world.

"After coming here I have witnessed religion in its living form. I have seen the environment submerged with spirituality. And I want this energy to reach the entire world," said Ramdev.

Many Buddhist monks, nuns and other Tibetans gathered here in the main Buddhist Temple, Tsuglagkhang to get a glimpse of the yoga Guru.

The Tibetan Prime Minister-in-exile Samdhong Rinpoche also attended the session and said that everybody was extremely happy to meet Ramdev.

"The experience was fantastic. He poured in a lot of knowledge within a short span of time. He narrated the importance of Yoga, which was great. Yoga has a lot of strength and capability," said Rinpoche.

The Yoga Guru is on a four-day visit to Himachal Pradesh where he will hold public meetings in Chamba, Kangra, Mandi and Una districts of the state. (ANI)

New yoga combines exercise with Christianity - 9NEWS.com

DENVER - Yoga is gaining a cultural acceptance all over the world, but some argue that yoga and Christianity don't mix because of the origins of the exercise.

One pastor goes as far as saying, "it's a form of demonism."

Denver resident, Niki Sparks is a devout Christian. She also practices and teaches yoga.

"I have been practicing yoga for five years and I now teach Holy Yoga," Sparks said.

She is part of a growing group nationwide that has combined the exercise with Christianity.

"Holy yoga is a combination of worship and exercise. We play Christian music and we read scripture. It's all yoga and all Jesus, 100% of each," Sparks said.

But there are many who believe the two cannot be combined.

Mark Driscoll is a pastor at a Baptist Church in Seattle.

He says yoga is Paganism.

"Yoga is opening to demonism. Should Christians stay away from yoga because of its demonic roots? Totally," Driscoll said.

The controversy lies in the origin of yoga.

The ancient Indian spiritual practice was created about 5,000 years ago.

It incorporates meditation and a Hindu practice of connecting spiritually to the universe.

"In a lot of traditional yoga classes they will talk about connecting yourself with the universe- but as a Christian I believe God created the universe and so anytime I'm connecting myself, I'm connecting myself to my creator- not the universe per say- God created the universe," Sparks said.

Sparks says yoga is really what you make of it and says she doesn't feel like she is doing anything wrong by using it to grow closer to her faith.

Yoga is gaining popularity. Today, the practice boasts 20 million followers all over the world, triple the number of followers from just 15 years ago.

(KUSA-TV © 2010 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)

Ask the Religion Experts - Ottawa Citizen

Kevin Smith is on the board of directors for the Centre for Inquiry, Canada's premier venue for humanists, skeptics and freethinkers.

I stand on one leg, arms extended in the yoga tree pose. I am not sensing universal life energy entering my crown -- concerned more that my creaky limbs might topple over. As the class pushes up to a shoulder stand, the alignment of my chakras are of less importance then positioning well away from the derriere of the person in front.

This ancient philosophy, steeped in Eastern mysticism, has gone mainstream.

Yoga for the Lululemon generation -- whose only temple they worship is their own body. Yoga is seen solely as an exercise program, and science has proven what the yogis have been saying for thousands of years.

For much of what ails us, do enough hatha, ashtanga or vinyasa and you will see the light, so to speak. Its benefits include increased flexibility, weight loss, improved circulation and a reduction of blood pressure.

Yoga is a great stress buster, which is the culprit for about 90 per cent of our illness.

Some are combining this with meditation -- prayer without god. Both activate the same parts of the brain but meditation doesn't demand supernatural belief. It promotes good moods and positive feelings, and studies show it can relieve depression.

People aren't searching for Enlightenment so much as attempting to add a bit of serenity into their hectic lives.

Practising yoga and meditation during several of my what's-life-all-about periods, has allowed me to be open to the deep mysteries of life, without the need to create gods to explain them.

Church attendance is dropping as quickly as yoga classes are filling up. All of its medical benefits result in a calmer, kinder, more peaceful person.

Yoga provides us with everything that religion is supposed to, without any antiquated, authoritative tenets. I'll take a downward dog over dogma any day.

Namaste.

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