Yoga, Pilates Attracting More Men

Men realizing benefits to strength, flexibility

If you were to take a snapshot of people working out in a gym on any given evening, it wouldn't be a surprise to find the weight room dominated by men and the studio classes full of women.

"The first classes were created in the 1980s and they were targeted at women," said Roberto Morales, Fitness director at Club Mansfield in Montreal. "They incorporated a lot of dance, so it wasn't something that attracted most men."

That's largely because of differences in men's and women's fitness goals, he added.

"Most of the time men want to lose a bit of weight but gain muscle mass, and that usually can't be achieved in a group class setting," Morales said. "But a growing understanding of how classes work and new, more intense types of exercises are bringing men in."

Cross Fit, for example, is a class that incorporates Olympic weightlifting, gymnastics and cardio to boost athletic performance.

"That's a hugely popular class among men, it gives them what they want from a workout," Morales said. "Spinning classes also have a lot of men in attendance for that reason." (MORE)

Source: Windsor Star

Practising Yoga At Home Doesn't Require Much

All you need is a quiet room, soft colours, and a commitment to calm concentration



Yoga, the ancient practice of breathing, movement and meditation, is thriving in Montreal. In fact, there are so many types of yoga now on offer that you can choose a practice entirely based on your sensibilities, such as bikram if you like it hot, ashtanga if you like it more physical, kundalini if you're interested in breathing alignment, or kripalu, which adds meditation.

As more people, young and old, take up yoga for good health, suppleness and sometimes for enlightenment, they often discover that they want more than a yoga class a few times a week.

They look for a favourite spot at home where they can complete the daily yoga ritual, a place they dedicate to their practice. Some use a separate room, while others simply carve out a quiet space in a corner of the living room. Whatever they choose, the key is to create an atmosphere that is so calming that even the family dog, with a deep sigh, is able to relax. What makes the space? Start with soft colours, music, candles and statuary. All of these are in abundance in the yoga spaces that follow. Whether you're a relative novice like Marie-Eve Methot, who has been doing yoga for just a few years, or a veteran practitioner like yoga teacher Kelly McGrath, a tranquil space sets the stage for the calm concentration needed when doing yoga. (MORE)

Source: Times-Transcript

As Stress Mounts, Students Turn To Yoga

As students manage course work, extracurricular activities and jobs, some turn to yoga for stress relief. On any given day of the week, fellow classmates can be seen carrying their yoga mats throughout the city toward the popular Yoga to the People on St. Marks Place or heading to free options on campus.

Each week, Carolina Daza transforms the common room in Hayden residence hall into a serene oasis. The Food Studies graduate student is the instructor for the free yoga class that meets there, and her sessions have attracted many residents, from newcomers to experienced veterans. The class is relatively small, the atmosphere relaxed and inviting, and as the lights dim and tranquil music plays in the background, Daza teaches her students various constructive Hatha poses and techniques.

Steinhardt freshman Claire Edlemann is a yoga novice, but finds the class inviting.

"I live in Hayden, and so it's definitely very convenient to go here rather than go out. I feel like it would be more intimate here too," Edlemann said. (MORE)

Source: NYU Washington Square News

Laughter Yoga: Cure for the Apocalypse

We are a long wink of an eye from the kickoff of the Apocalypse, and so far, I must say, "It's not so bad." Sure, the headlines are unnerving. Civil is not resting well. Circulation problems are stifling every system. Elections rancor. But on the whole, there is much less fire and lava than I thought there'd be.

I intend to laugh my way through the Apocalypse. Reading a recent article in The New Yorker about Laughter Yoga, I was marveled by the brilliant logic of it. This low impact, chakra-smart exercise may be a true DIY miracle breakthrough. The process seems too good to be true. It's nirvana for lazy people who like to have a good time and laugh a lot -- just like me.


On a paint-chipped wall in the sour cafeteria of my dour workplace, there is a mural by a street artist that reads, "Laughter Oxygenates Your Soul." I am already on the same page.

I want to become an advocate for Laughter Yoga. It can change the world. The physical action of laughing affects one's Life on many levels: body, heart and soul. Laughter is a stress-reliever. (MORE)

Source: Huffington Post

A Retreat to Truly Rejuvenate your Body and Soul

The best way to remain mentally fit and to stay happy is possibly by subjecting yourself to various activities like massages, meditation and yoga. Among the numerous people providing such healthy recreational activities is Kris McIntyre, who is a renowned instructor in yoga.

Talking about the need to laugh among people, she informs that laughter happens to be one of the healthiest activities. She says, partaking in Yoga without any fun will be a little too dull. McIntyre happens to be a Ryoho yoga therapist, writer and also the host of Yoga TV.

There are two health retreats that have been designed by McIntyre, the first one basically revolves around providing people with high-end facilities and services, in comparison, the other one provides boot camps, which help in improving endurance levels as well. She informs that the two separate plans have been developed to improve accessibility for people regarding their physical ability and financial terms. (MORE)

Source: Top News

Jon Bon Jovi Proud of Yoga, 30 Inch Waist and No Plastic Surgery

Jon Bon Jovi and yoga create harmony for the Bon Jovi frontman who says hitting down dog is his secret to staying fit (ahem, his 30-inch waist) and not having to turn to plastic surgery. In addition to finding his inner yoga love, Bon Jovi also balances yin with yang by using the hard-hitting game of football as a way to release stress and - believe it or not - make the world a better place.

JON BON JOVI AND YOGA: "I'M A 21ST CENTURY MAN"

Cutting through the tough, heavy-metal exterior, the 48-year-old "Blaze of Glory" rocker admits turning to yoga in his later years to keep in shape. Slashing typical gym workouts from his regimen after years of pounding the weights, Jon Bon Jovi finds yoga to be his new workout go-to.

"I was doing Workout 101 for years: treadmill, elliptical, weights," Jon Bon Jovi, a New Jersey native, said of his transition from heavy gyms to the yoga studio. "Now I'm going to do yoga. I went for my first time, and I enjoyed it. I'm a 21st-century man." (MORE)

Source: Examiner

Yoga Gets a Transformation

With everything stepping towards modernization now-a-days, yoga too has got a makeover. A highly recommended medication to beat the stress and tension, it is the sum total of all the activities of speech, mind and body.

Hot Yoga, as now called is the transformed version of the earlier-practiced classical yoga. Followed in the rooms with temperature ranging from 106 to 109 degrees Fahrenheit, it involves exercises, which increases the endurance and lowers down the tension.

Observing the growing likeness towards the new version of yoga, one of the largest gyms, GoodLife Fitness has opened nine new hot yoga studios in its pre-existing gyms. In addition, many independent studios have cropped up as well.

Those who took classes from these accounted for more flexibility, descended stress and the need for lesser sleep.

The transformation was commended by some of its followers so much so that they are thinking of becoming a trainer for this field.

However, there are other trends marked, which includes fusion Yoga, which is the combination of hot yoga and classical yoga and anti-gravity yoga. (MORE)

Source: Top News

Yoga Blossoms in Canton Prison

Yoga is hardly the first thing that comes to mind as an activity for male prisoners. But two inmates who teach yoga classes at a state prison near Canton believe it is ideal for prison life.

“Yoga is my sunrise,” says Marshawn Feltus. “I want yoga every day.” Quite a few others at the Illinois River Correctional Center agree with him. More than 150 prisoners attend yoga classes at the medium security prison every week. It is the first prison in Illinois to include yoga in recreation activities, but it joins hundreds of prisons across the country that have incorporated it as an aid to rehabilitating prisoners.

Cory Foster, a senior policy advisor with the Illinois Department of Corrections, says yoga provides prisoners with skills and mindsets that can ease their transition into the community and reduce the number of repeat offenders. In April the Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet introduced a volunteer-run rehabilitation program that incorporates yoga techniques. (MORE)

Source: Illinois Times

Yoga Has Avatars in America

Yoga seems to have been "reincarnated" in America and some other parts of the world.


Various organizations are promoting "Christian Yoga", claiming to provide a Christian approach to yoga. There are DVDs like "Christoga: Yoga Filled Body - Christ Filled Soul" (60 minutes of Yoga with bible scriptures recited by Janine. Yoga with Christ as the meditation focus!). There is a "Christian Yoga Magazine". There are books like "Yoga for Christians: A Christ-Centered Approach to Physical and Spiritual Health through Yoga"," Holy Yoga: Exercise for the Christian Body and Soul", etc.

Welcoming the widespread interest in yoga, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, yoga was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. One could still practice one''s respective faith and do yoga. Yoga would rather help one in achieving one''s spiritual goals in whatever religion one believed in.

"Yoga DVD" search on January nine at amazon yielded 4,828 results.

Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago (Illinois) is teaching "Catholic Yoga" whose announcement says: "explore the multiple spiritual and physical benefits of yoga practice while explicitly integrating prayers and spiritual themes of our Catholic faith". (MORE)

Source: Times of India

Hey There Men: Give Yoga a Try to Bboost Your Golf Game

Knowing ahead of time I was going to write about the benefits of yoga for golfers, I decided to interview my oldest son -- a staunch yoga advocate who was at the time visiting us from New Orleans.
Erroneously, I began by asking, "why do you believe yoga is so beneficial specifically for men?" It took only seconds for him to produce a concise, three-part answer -- which I can`t print. That aside, yoga is one of the fastest growing areas of fitness designed for golfers, as it is by far the best method of improving flexibility, strength and range of motion for greater distance. Dr. Robert Schwartz supports that theory by stating, "As a four-handicap senior golfer, I have made remarkable strides in my game as a result of the increased strength and flexibility I`ve gained from yoga." Further, Jim Deiters, a Class A PGA professional, stated, "Yoga is a critical part of our instruction program ... I refer all my clients to classes."

Notwithstanding, the majority of yoga participants tend to be women, which is why I specifically asked my son why he espouses yoga for men.

Once I reined him in a bit from his initial response, I obtained a long list of reasons he enjoys yoga and feels it is beneficial. Yoga: (MORE)

Source: Broomfieldenterprises.com

Western Influence Turns Yoga On Its Head In Mumbai

I love yoga, along with some 15 million other Americans. So when friends invited me to Mumbai for a week, I couldn't wait to explore the true essence of this ancient spiritual practice.
"Forget spiritual — women here are all rushing to yoga to lose weight," I was told by Mumbai psychologist Julia Noakes. "They see young professional Indian women with slender waists and tight butts and give them 'the Bombay Look.' " Translation: A gaze of envy.

Yoga offers many benefits, from mind control to pain relief, but I'd never heard that weight loss was one of them. A huge banner outside of Gold's Gym touted its "Fat Burning Yoga Package." The gym is a California import with franchises all over Southeast Asia. I suspected an American commercialization of India's greatest contribution to self-care.

A young Indian man named Ram Raz roared up on his motorbike and led students to a basement studio he'd rented for the hour. After two quick oms, he started shouting, "Run, on your toes, faster, faster!" He counted us through 20 sun salutations in the space of a minute. Breathless, we were then put through jumping jacks, kicks, jumps, every sort of contortion.

"This is not yoga, it's calisthenics," I told Raz after class. "Yes, yes," he agreed. "It's power yoga. You come three times a week, you lose weight, lose inches, shape body, change life." (MORE)

Source: USA Today

World's Youngest Yoga Teacher, Six, Hailed As a Miracle at Indian Ashram

At just six, Shruti Pandey is the youngest yoga trainer in the world.
The bendy youngster has been teaching adults at an ashram, in northern India, for the last two years.
Her trainer, Hari Chetan, 67, set up the ashram 35 years ago and as soon as little Shruti became one of his students, as a tiny four-year old, he spotted her talents.
Now she starts her classes at 5.30am every morning, at Brahmanand Saraswati Dham, in the Jhunsi town, dressed in white leggings and a red t-shirt surrounded by 30 eager pupils ranging from businessmen, teachers, housewives to pensioners.
Shruti said: 'It feels good when people follow my instructions, I feel like a real teacher.
'I got interested in yoga after seeing my brother do it. I tried picking it up myself but it was too hard. So I asked my parents to send me to yoga classes.' (MORE)

Source: The Daily Mail

Nothing Beats Yoga in Managing Mood

There's nothing to beat yoga for managing mood and anxiety disorders.

These findings by Boston University School of Medicine researchers show a link between yoga, decreased anxiety and increased GABA (brain gamma-aminobutyric) levels.


Low GABA levels are associated with depression and other widespread anxiety disorders, the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine reported.

The researchers followed two randomised groups of healthy individuals over a 12-week period, according to a Boston University statement.

One group practised yoga three times a week for an hour while the remaining subjects walked for the same period of time.

Using magnetic resonance spectroscopic (MRS) imaging, the participants' brains were scanned before the study began. (MORE)

Source: Zee News

Yoga: Nothing to Lose But Aches, Blues and Unwanted Weight

Mounting evidence supports yoga’s mind-body healing powers

If you’re not one of the millions of North Americans who have discovered that the corpse pose actually restores life and the sun salutation makes you cheery on a dark and stormy day, roll out a mat and give yoga a try.

Mounting evidence supports yoga’s mind-body healing powers. For instance, if you’ve been in a perpetual slump, this new finding should cheer you up: After taking a yoga class, you’ll have more GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) in your brain. Just think of it as more of nature’s own anti-anxiety agent: a chemical that improves mood and decreases anxiety.

If you have painful fibromyalgia, a once-a-week yoga class can help you, too. Researchers have watched its gentle stretching and meditation help relieve fibro’s pain, fatigue and depression and also improve memory, anxiety, balance and stiffness. (MORE)

Source: The Province

Yoga And Healing The Mind

The mind is like mercury and slips like an eel; it's very difficult to control the mind. Yet it is possible to bring the mind, stability and quietness. Cosmic intelligence in each individual develops individual consciousness known as chitta. This chitta has three parts, ahankara or ego, buddhi or intelligence and manas or the mind; they are all ingrained in the consciousness. The absolute consciousness has no shape. The soul has no shape; both are nirankara.

When ahankara is broken into two parts, it becomes aham akara, (aham means I, akara means shape). The chitta is placed in such a way that on one side, is the pride of the individual and on the other side, is the divinity of the individual. The manas or mind and human body has got five bhootas or elements: earth, water, fire, air and ether. (MORE)

Source: Times of India

Study: Yoga Helps With Fibromyalgia Pain

Yoga that includes gentle stretching exercises combined with meditation can lessen the symptoms of fibromyalgia, a U.S. study found.

Twenty-five women diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain syndrome, took part in a 2-hour weekly yoga class for eight weeks.

At the end of the study, the group reported improvements in both physical and psychological aspects of fibromyalgia, including decreased pain, fatigue, tenderness, anxiety and better sleep and mood, HealthDay reported Thursday.

"The women were somewhat apprehensive when we started, but once they got into the rhythm of it they found it to be very helpful," said lead study author James Carson, a clinical psychologist and pain specialist at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. (MORE)

Source: UPI

Yoga Asanas For A Healthy Heart

Scientific studies show that risk factors for heart disease such as hypertension, diabetes, bad cholesterol, triglycerides and stress can be significantly lowered with Yoga. Here are some yoga asanas that are good for the heart.

Yogic way of life offers a solution to elevate the health of body, mind and soul. Yoga is a cure for many diseases - diabetes, obesity and psychiatric illnesses - as much as it offers immense benefits to alleviate heart diseases. Yoga has an important role in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases that includes recurrence of heart attacks, hypertension and coronary heart diseases. Yoga influences the hypothalamus directly, the area of the brain that controls endocrine activity, and helps prevent heart attacks. (MORE)

Source: MyBangalore.com

Yoga: A Useful Tool For Fighting Cancer

In recent years, I have found yoga to be a source of health, inspiration and peace. I began practicing, not to get in better shape, but because my doctor told me meditation might be beneficial to my health. Although I am unable to sit still for longer than a few minutes at a time, the practice of yoga is part physical and part meditative. As a result, it provided me with the perfect combination of healing and stress relief.

I was therefore not surprised to learn that recent studies have found cancer survivors who participated in a regular program of yoga recovered more easily, both physically and emotionally than those who did not.

The American Yoga Association (AYA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing yoga education, explains that yoga practices are based upon exercise, breathing and meditation which help the body heal from physical and emotional stressors. (MORE)

Source: NorthJersey.com

Yoga Relieves Body Ache

People who suffer body ache can get rid of it by doing yoga, a study has found.

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a disorder causing widespread muscular skeletal pain and fatigue that is thought to affect nearly two million adults in Britain, reports express.co.uk .

A team from Oregon Health and Science University studied whether patients taking a " yoga awareness" programme alongside their standard treatment showed more improvement compared to a control group of sufferers.

"Although yoga has been practiced for millennia, only recently have researchers begun to demonstrate yoga's effects on people suffering from persistent pain," said research head James Carson.

The experts conducted an all-woman study because 80 per cent of FM patients are women.

The yoga was tailored to address pain, fatigue, sleep disturbance and emotional distress in FM. Each class included gentle stretching poses, mindfulness meditation and breathing techniques.

Following treatment, women assigned to the yoga programme showed far greater improvements in their symptoms and general mood.

"The findings of this pilot study provide promising preliminary support for the beneficial effects of yoga in patients with FM," said Carson. (MORE)

Source: Times of India

Yoga May Have The Power To Fight Fibromyalgia

Yoga exercises may have the power to combat fibromyalgia - a medical disorder characterized by chronic widespread pain, according to new research conducted at Oregon Health and Science University.

"Previous research suggests that the most successful treatment for fibromyalgia involves a combination of medications, physical exercise and development of coping skills," said James Carson, a clinical health psychologist and an assistant professor of anesthesiology and perioperative medicine in the OHSU School of Medicine.

"Here, we specifically focused on yoga to determine whether it should be considered as a prescribed treatment and the extent to which it can be successful."

In this study, researchers enrolled 53 female study subjects previously diagnosed with fibromyalgia. The women were randomly assigned to two research groups. (MORE)

Source: Sify