Archive for the ‘teaching yoga’ Category

An Interview with Candace Morano

Yoga has been known to improve flexibility, strengthen muscles, and enhance balance. However, if practiced incorrectly yoga can do more damage to the body than good. Misaligned poses can lead to injuries ranging from aching joints to pulled muscles. “Yoga injuries are often a result of not knowing or realizing your body’s limitations,” says yoga instructor and educational kinesiologist Candace Morano. “This goes for beginners and advanced students, as some beginners underestimate how strenuous yoga can be and some who are more advanced overestimate their strength and flexibility,” says Candace.

Below, Candace highlights the Do’s and Don’ts of the top five yoga techniques commonly misaligned. Images are available upon request to illustrate each pose. Please let me know if you’re interested in learning more or coordinating an upcoming segment.

 #1 Seated Pose with Pranayama:

DON’T: Sit in a slumped position. It decreases the ability to breathe into a straight, long spine. “Not breathing fully into the torso and body can also lead to anxiety and low energy,” says Candace.

 DO: Sit in a comfortable cross legged position on the floor or on a blanket. Loop a yoga belt or one of your own comfortably around your lower ribs. The belt will serve as a boundary for feeling the connection between your diaphragm and breath.

As you begin to breath feel your lower belly expand. Then feel your breath extend higher above the belt, into the mid-chest as you extend your breath further into your top chest. Follow this pattern as you begin to descend downward and start to exhale. Using the belt will help you understand how to breathe into the lower and upper torso and how to preserve the space that is created within, even as you exhale with full attention.

 #2 Standing Forward Bend:

DON’T: Hyper-extend knees.

DO: Slightly bend knees and move your hips directly over ankles. This will encourage top of shin forward and engage your front thighs and avoid hyperextension. “Yoga practice has a building block effect,” says Candace. “Remember to take what you learn in every pose and apply it to the next.”

The Standing Forward Bend is the practice of grounding into the support right under our feet. Standing tall in mountain pose, inhale, lift your arms upward and extend your spine forward towards your toes. Inhale from the heels to the balls of the feet, keeping the toes relaxed, and follow muscular attention upwards. Feel your kneecaps lift towards thighs and thighs engage strongly towards pelvis. This will help to bring the knees into alignment over the ankles. On the exhalation, stay with the essence of strength in front of legs as you practice releasing any tension in the back of the legs, back to the source under your feet; the earth. Practice this cycle of attention and breathe 3 times. Feel the upward magnetism of energy into the pelvic floor as you lift and extend back down through tailbone on the descent towards the earth.

#3 Warrior III Pose:

DON’T: Extend in one direction rather than feeling polar attraction of opposites.

DO: From mountain pose, inhale lifting your left leg off the floor reaching your arms straight out in front of you and as best you can, bringing both hips points level to encourage them to be even and square. As you bring your torso forward, extend through your left leg imagining a see-saw playfully finding balance between the front and back body, using your arms and legs as anchors. Your head and chest stay lifted. Make sure to practice the other side and notice any differences and imbalances on one side versus the other.

#4 Upward Facing Dog:

DON’T: Tense and compress neck and shoulders, hyper extend elbows, or put any strain on the wrists. “Tense shoulders cause problems in the wrists,” says Candace.

DO: Micro bend elbows or as much as needed until you can keep your shoulder blades engaged on back as you lift your chest high. Lie on your belly with your chin or forehead on the floor. Your palms are shoulder distance apart and next to your chest. Breathe into your hands, pressing evenly through the palms as if you were energetically pulling them back to your feet. Grounding hip points, legs and tops of feet down into earth, lift pubis, belly, chest and head toward the sky feeling the length you are creating from your waist to your armpits. Feel a soft bend in elbows as shoulder blades soften onto your back. This muscular action encourages your chest to expand while feeling vulnerability in the heart. Exhale and slowly lower back to the support of the earth allowing any stress, extra effort or tension to release.

#5 Triangle Pose:

DON’T: Hyper-extend the front knee or lean weight into bottom arm and front leg, shortening bottom side of front waist, allowing torso to lean in towards the center instead of lifting upward and away from the earth.

DO: Stand tall with your feet wide apart. Turn your right toes forward and your left toes 45 degrees towards the front, arms extending in a T position. The instep of your back foot aligns with the heel of your front foot. Inhale, grounding into both feet and exhale tilting your hips towards your back leg and lifting your navel and chest as you extend your spine long and out over your front leg. Inhale, lifting from the earth up through your body. Exhale with your right hand to your right ankle, a yoga block or the floor on the outside of the right foot if you have found flexibility without compromising the extension of both sides of the waist and spine. Inhale into the ball of the right toe mound, as you reach down into the support of the earth to rise up to extend upward to the expansion of the sky.

Practice taking your left arm forward towards the center on the inhale and then exhaling and extending the left arm back to the sky. This will give your body an exploration of its own intelligence via the breath and repetition of movement.

If you would like additional information on Candace, please contact visit www.explorevidyayoga.com

Meet Candace Morano

Candace Morano is a certified yoga teacher & educational kinesiologist based in New York. For the past seven years, she has brought together the teachings of yoga, kinesiology, psychotherapy, and aromatherapy to transform the lives of the adult, children, and disabled clients with whom she works. Combining her degree as a social worker with yoga and educational kinesiologist, Candace began to work privately with children with Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome and Autism. For three years, she taught the yoga program at the Cooke Center for Learning, working with a body of students with a wide range of special needs. Candace also works with adults. She has taught programs to the parents and teachers of the Learning Spring School and the Rebecca School both based in NYC, incorporating yoga, educational kinesiology, and stress reduction techniques. Candace’s practice incorporates the use of medicinal oils for injuries and aromatherapy in the private classes she runs throughout New York City.

By Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500

Not so long ago, Yoga teachers, in the West, taught small groups of dedicated students in basements, garages, lofts, backyards, barns, or any other place that was convenient. As seasons changed, the location of the Yoga class would have to change too.

For example: If you live in a northern climate, practicing Yoga in a barn might not be suitable as winter approaches. The same would be true if you live in an area where temperatures exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit, during the summer months. Students, who can accept extreme temperatures and inconveniences, are the exception, but not the rule.

As Yoga classes grew in the West, classes moved into Yoga studios, large ashrams, fitness centers, spas, and large public areas. Suddenly, Yoga became something that teachers could devote their whole day to. As a result, some part-time Yoga teachers became full-time teachers.

It was not uncommon to see Yoga teachers gathering in local book stores, libraries, and ashrams. The reason for these daytime gatherings was networking, mentoring, learning, and sharing information. Along came the Internet, with instant access to resources for teachers, such as videos, forums, Blogs, and podcasts.

Suddenly, there was a need for business consulting, Yoga coaches, and online mentors of teachers. Where would a Yoga instructor start to search for a trainer of teachers? The place he or she graduated from might be a logical choice, if that trainer would share business and marketing knowledge.

If that option was not open, there were still a number of alternatives available, but let’s leap frog into the present. If you are looking for a Yoga teacher consultant or coach, you may want to make certain you are getting reliable knowledge. Consider the following criteria before hiring a consultant or coach that specializes in working with Yoga teachers.

Is the coach in question a Yoga teacher?

The person you hire may be a great consultant for local restaurants, but Yoga students are not exactly the same as a restaurant owner’s customers. Dedicated students are not motivated by the same methods as customers.

Has the coach in question ever owned a successful Yoga studio or ashram?

If he or she previously owned a large and successful chain of gas stations, would that information be relevant? Almost every adult has purchased gasoline, at least once, because he/she had to – unless they lived right next to their place of employment, didn’t transport their children, have their food and clothing delivered, or own a $100,000 electric car. On the other hand, some studies indicate the majority of American adults never participated in one Yoga class.

If you live in Colorado or California, you may find it hard to believe, but a large percentage of American adults are still sitting on the couch. How do you get them off the couch and make them realize the rewards of good health? In truth, it is a lot easier to sell them discount gasoline; especially right now.

Does the coach in question have any experience with teaching Yoga or running a studio in a tough economy?

Economic trends tend to change. Lately, it seems as if we see economic changes every 10 -15 years. If your coach has been successfully teaching Yoga since the early 90’s, you are getting reliable information.

© Copyright 2010 – Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

Written By Frances M Smith and Nicola Baum

I have practiced yoga for over twenty years in four different countries. I have had some great teachers and some not so great teachers. I have had to travel to other areas to attend the classes that I could not get in my own area. This always took time that I did not have which took me away from my family and work.

I do believe that attending classes is the best way to become competent at yoga. Mainly because a good teacher will help you physically to get the poses (asanas) right and will align and shift your body into the pose. This hands on approach by the yoga teacher helps to move you forward quickly and smoothly. It is the practice of yoga between classes that moves you even faster. And if you are anything like me, it is the practice at home I find difficult to keep up without a guide.

I still own about a dozen videos for practicing yoga, yet the video machine died years ago. I also have quite a few DVD’s filled with classes that take time to get through and the constant need to stop the DVD player or fast forward to the next exercise takes away from my enjoyment of the exercise.

I have tried to exercise with books but find them frustrating as well. I have tried yoga cards which can be organised into a program suited to myself. These seem to be a great idea but the illustrations can get confusing and when I have next gone to a class realize that I have spent time learning a pose wrongly.

I needed something I could travel with and use quickly and easily. So I started putting together a routine on my computer that was easy to get through and suitable to take anywhere I was going. After a while I shared it with my business partner and we decided it was such a great way to get the exercise we needed that we created an ebook for others who also want to keep up their exercise without having to move furniture or go through DVD’s that are too long and boring.

Classes are essential to becoming competent at yoga as is a really good teacher. If you find yourself at a class where the teacher is not giving you what you feel is needed. Stop going there and find another class and teacher that does. A good teacher is hands on, literally, and will physically help you get into the aligned position the asana requires to get the most from the exercise. Do not pay to join a class until you have had a few trial runs with the teacher first.

Between lessons keep up your yoga by yourself, it is not just for your physical body it is also for your emotional self. Yoga helps your mind to calm and thoughts to flow more readily which helps in every way in your busy life.

Nicola Baume and Fran Smith at Daretobe Publications, share many other great tips on your health and fitness in their new eBook “Yoga For a Busy Life” – an easy to follow introduction to basic yoga poses at http://www.daretobepublications.com/wellness/yoga-for-a-busy-life