Featured Sequence Core Strength Practice

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by Baxter There is a lot of talk these days about developing core strength for benefits such as better posture, less back pain and better overall body strength. When I started doing yoga in the mid-90s, I never gave this much thought, perhaps because core strength was not all the rage then but also because I found that my well-balanced yoga classes were already cultivating strength in the areas that I consider “core” musculature. So what are those areas? The most obvious ones are the focus of many exercise or Pilates mat classes. I’m referring to the four layers of the front abdominal muscles, from the most superficial and famous six-pack known as the Rectus Abdominis, the next two diagonally oriented layers, the External and internal Obliques, to the deepest corset-like layer, the Transversus Abdominis. And this is where a lot of the focus in other core strengthening sometimes stops. But I also think of the lower back muscles, such as the Erector Spinae and the Quadratus Lumborum (som...

Friday Q A Is Loren Fishmans Osteoporosis Sequence Safe

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Q: You say that people should not do the same poses all the time. What about programs like Dr. Fishman's osteoporosis study, which has participants doing the same sequence of poses every single day?  A: Thanks for this question. Indeed, if a person does the same sequence day in and day out, you could run the risk of a repetitive strain injury. The fact that Dr. Fishman's sequence is only supposed to take 10 minutes a day to do means that the practitioners are not holding the poses terribly long, which would reduce this risk considerably. However, a review of the poses taught (see here) reveals several poses that I feel could be potentially injurious to the wrists, neck and lower back, these being Upward Bow pose and the deep seated forward bends. I would consider other poses if I were to design such a practice, but Dr. Fishman does mention tailoring the sequence to students individual needs. I would suspect that this had to be done quite a bit.  Recall that the number of patie...

Featured Sequence Yoga for Camping and Other Forms of Travel

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by Baxter I recently went on a five-day car camping trip and while I had a lot of fun and got a lot of exercise, I quickly realized that my body really needed some asana! Although we have a pretty sweet setup for car camping, with a large tent that you can stand upright in, a queen-sized air mattress, and even a new cot that lifts the mattress off the ground, my body still had some obvious reactions of my body to camp life and sleeping outdoors. Camp set-up involved more forward bending and squatting than most of us are used to, leaving my lower back and hips sore and fatigued. Then, for the first few nights sleep, I was tossing and turning and waking up at weird times, and then in the morning I was acutely aware of neck stiffness and outer right hip soreness. And there was a lot more walking throughout the day than I do when I’m at home, as we did not use the car once we arrived, so my calves and legs were tight and tired by the end of each day. I found myself hungering for leg stret...
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