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Yoga
Yoga Mobility and Stability for Pain
While instructors are not expected to act as physical therapists, it’s worthwhile to learn how to program yoga mobility for pain management.
Benefits of Yoga for the Immune System
Can you use yoga for the immune system? Research shows it may have beneficial effects on inflammatory markers and cortisol levels.
Benefits of Yoga for Older Adults
Yoga for older adults in their 60s and 70s may have a significant positive effect on fitness after 9–12 weeks of practice.
Restorative Yoga May Reduce Chronic Pain
Older women with chronic pain who participated in twice-weekly flow and restorative yoga classes experienced reduced pain.
Research-Based Yoga for Seniors
If you’d like to elevate your fitness services, adding yoga for seniors will set you apart and help your older clients even more.
Growth in Mind-Body Therapies During the Pandemic
Mindfulness meditation and yoga classes have seen explosive growth since the onset of the pandemic, according to a report from USC.
Child’s Play and Namasté
Lilly was like many clients, struggling with anxiety and overwhelm. And for her, it seemed that yoga could be effective as a stress reliever.
The Benefits of Yoga Nidra: The Yoga of Sleep
Take a closer look at yoga nidra, which leads participants into a state of deep relaxation and can reduce anxiety, isomnia and other health risks.
Prenatal Yoga Practice May Ease Delivery
Here’s more insight into how yoga helps pregnant exercise enthusiasts. Yoga may also play a role in shortening the first and second stages of labor.
Yoga and a Good Night’s Sleep
Yoga effectively reduces chronic lower-back pain and associated sleep disturbances, lowering the need for sleep medications.
Yoga Boosts Brain Fitness
Practicing yoga benefits both brain structure and function by increasing grey matter in brain regions responsible for memory recall and emotion regulation, among other changes, according to research findings published in Brain Plasticity (2019; doi:10.3233/BPL-190084). Researchers at the University of Illinois and Wayne State University reviewed 11 studies that examined the effects of yoga on brain structures, function and cerebral blood flow.
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.
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.
Core Yoga Slow-Flow Sequence
Mindful movement practices like yoga and Pilates allow you to incorporate flexibility, core work and body awareness into your current client programming. Core yoga is a practice that blends the precision, control and core-strengthening benefits of Pilates with the mindful and meditative benefits of yoga.
Try this core yoga slow-flow sequence and share it with your clients!
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?).
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.
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