Yoga asanas inspired by animals

Many of the yoga poses we have come to know in class were named after animals both for the resemblance itself, and for the quality of the animal itself.   Ancient yogis observed animals in nature; their abilities and beauty.   To emulate these animal qualities through asana was considered a high sign of spiritual enlightenment. Here are some yoga poses and the animal they are named after:

Downward facing dog

Upward facing dog  

Balancing Bear

Butterfly

Cat stretch

Cobra

Scorpion

Inspiration of the day

This true not only concerning your health and fitness goals, but every aspect in life!

Just do it

It's never easy to take the first step towards a healthier lifestyle and body, especially if you have many bad habits. They say however it takes 30 days to break a habit. 30 days is only one month, not long at all considering many habits we have stay with us for years and decades even. The physical craving we have will happen in those 30 days after breaking the habit, after that, it's psychological.

Baby steps: Break it down into baby steps, to help ease the path to the new you. If your bad habit is not eating breakfast, start with a small bowl of cereal or a cereal bar in the morning. If you want to make daily exercise part of your routine, clear a time slot in your schedule so that not having time can't be your excuse any longer.

Write it down: Don’t leave commitments in your brain. Write them on paper. This does two things. First, it creates clarity by defining in specific terms what your change means. Second, it keeps you committed since it is easy to dismiss a thought, but harder to dismiss a promise printed in front of you.

Get a support: Start a new fitness routine with a friend who has a similar goal or join a group that supports each other. If you can't motivate yourself, set a goal, like running that marathon next year, or dropping a dress size by Christmas. Pick a change you want to work on and post it right here in the comments. You’ll get the benefits of writing it down and making a public commitment. The best time to start is right now.

For more tips on how to break a habit, read this Pick Brain post by Scott Young, although there are many articles and book written on the subject. My advise is to get out that thick black marker and write your goal on a large board. Put it somewhere you will see it everyday, or even write it down at different times of the day to remind your brain what your goal is. Just do it!

Today I'm at For Life Studio for Bootcamp circuit training from 6:30 - 7:30 and  Aspida Team for Yoga at 8:30-9:10. Join me...

Namaste!

Motivation for the weekend

Yoga for strength

The general opinion seems to be that yoga is mainly for flexibility training, and never considered for strength training. The truth is that during yoga practice you are putting your body in positions and orientations that you ultimately have to support with your muscles, constantly working with your own body weight. Like Pilates, yoga is an excellent toning tool, and beginners can make significant strength gains. For women in particular though, the older you get, the more you will have to include a weight training sessions in your schedule. Because of dipping hormone and activity levels, a woman typically starts losing about half a pound of muscle a year during her perimenopausal years. That loss can jump to a pound a year once she hits menopause. You can read more at this link on this topic.

However yoga is a more well-rounded approach to fitness and strength training. 

A regular yoga practice can reduce your risk of injury and condition your body to perform better at things you have to do every day: walk, sit, twist, bend, etc. A form of functional fitness, yoga moves your body in the ways it was designed to move to help ensure that it keeps functioning properly.   

Yoga tones muscles all over your body, in balance with each other. Weight training exercises typically isolate and flex one muscle or muscle group at a time.

Yoga relies on eccentric contraction, where the muscle stretches as it contracts, giving the muscles that sleek, elongated look while increasing flexibility in the muscles and joints. Weight training relies on the opposite physical principle of concentric muscle contraction, which means the muscle gets smaller as it contracts.  

Yoga increases muscle endurance because you typically hold any given pose for a period of time and repeat it several times during a yoga workout.

You can read more about the benefits of Yoga replacing strength training here. 

Namaste

Body By Alpha

As this is my first post, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Anastasia Gerali and I am based in Nicosia, Cyprus. Originally from South Africa, I was a ballet dancer for 16 years and a qualified ballet teacher. At 18 I completed my Group Trainers Course at Reebok University, and became qualified to teach Power Yoga, Step, Aqua aerobics, Body Pump and Spinning. After a 5 year spell in London, upon moving to Cyprus I was given the opportunity by the wonderful Toulla Poullas of For Life Studio to teach power yoga and also attended the Stott Pilates course, after which I started teaching as well. Body By Alpha is a new fitness and lifestyle group. Here I will share various benefits, tips and articles about yoga, pilates, fitness and health in general. Fitness and health is not just an interest but a lifestyle. A lifestyle that will prolong your life, youth and improve the quality of your life. Remember your body is a machine that needs it's parts oiled, cleaned and the best quality gas, if you do not use it at all it will rust, if you use it incorrectly, it will break. An some parts are expensive or irreplaceable.
For those of you who are based in Nicosia and would like to come and train with me, please be in touch and I can inform you about my schedule.

Namaste