Using every muscle in their bodies, 20 people struck poses such as the downward dog and the dragonfly in the 2013 Utah Regional USA Yoga Asana Championship. The Wildcat Theater was packed with 200 spectators as the WSU African Drumming Club welcomed the yogis and yoginis, male and female yoga professionals.

The competition featured poses from Asana yoga style. Yogis and yoginis from Utah and Wyoming competed head to head on Saturday morning and into the afternoon.

There are five compulsory postures and two optional postures, said Marlon McGann, the head judge. And in the five compulsory, they are five from the basic class, and the two optional are advance postures (that the yogi chooses).

Each yogi had to perform five poses, the standing head-to-knee pose, standing bow pulling pose, bow pose, rabbit pose and stretching pose.

You have to have normal breathing. It cant be labor breath, said McGann about judging the contestants. The person should be calm and serene. It just seems effortless. People should be in awe and want to perform it themselves.

Jacob Schanzer judged not only the Utah regional championship, but will also go to New York to judge the nationals at Hudson Theater.

We are looking for strength, flexibility, calmness, grace and balance, Schanzer said.

Each posture was scored on a scale of 1-10.

Most people are not trying to win something, McGann said. They are just trying to work on themselves.

This will be first year the regional championship is held at Weber State, said Michael Larson, director of the Bikram Yoga Ogden Studio. It is the eighth year it will be held in Utah. Every other championship was held in Salt Lake City.

The rest is here:
Yoga competitors find zen at Weber State

NEW YORK - Pairing indoor cycling's intense, calorie-busting cardio workout with yoga, the mind-body practice of stretching into inner peace, may seem like a mismatch but fitness experts say it works.

Whether it is called Yoga Ride, Spin to Ride or Cycle Yoga, the two very different activities complement each other to improve fitness and flexibility.

Cycle Yoga classes at The Spinning Yogi studio in Lakewood, Colorado, follow the typical format: first spin, then stretch, according to owner and instructor Patsy Juarez.

"Cycling is so cardio-vascular intense," said Juarez. "We do that for a half hour then change gears, stretching out the things we tightened up."

One 60-minute class, she added, incorporates cardio, flexibility and strengthening elements.

"The first (part) gets your heart rate going so you can jump into yoga quicker," she said. "It feels like a full body workout in an hour's time."

And the transition to yoga is quick and involves moving to a different room and easing into an easy yoga pose.

At Crunch, the national chain of fitness centers, New York City-based instructor Taj Harris said slowing down music in the yoga room smoothes the transition for its Yoga Ride classes.

"Because spinning is so one direction, muscles get overused and tight," Harris explained, adding that yoga poses ease the muscles and improve strength.

And the combination class is suitable for cyclers who may be unfamiliar with yoga.

Originally posted here:
Fitness class combines spinning and yoga

As I was quickly reminded during our first morning, this doesn't mean that Simon's yoga is not physically demanding, but that its challenges sneak up on you from behind. It is a kind of stealth yoga, deceptive in its ease, but powerful in its impact. Particularly alluring is the way he draws from other disciplines such as qi gong and t'ai qi.

Thus the flow of yoga postures is ornamented by beautiful hand flourishes or arm twists, or an occasional left-field posture such as my particular favourite the so-called 'karate kid'. The class ranged from complete beginner to teacher-level, but everyone felt catered for.

Breakfast was on a beautiful vine-draped terrace and was delicious. Apart from the usual offerings there was a 'Turkish breakfast' superb moist feta, richly ripe tomatoes and olives, beautiful bread, local honey, figs from the trees around the yurts, and a delicious mixture of tahini and mulberry molasses.

After a few hours by the pool (around which Fifty Shades of Grey was being read in three different languages) it was somewhat indecently time for lunch. This consisted of a wonderful daily vegetarian buffet, with so many different variations of vegetable, deftly prepared with a wide range of herbs and spices, that I never missed meat once.

After more poolside sunbathing, it was then back to the yoga shala a pavilion with open sides wreathed in more vines through which the sun shone softly for our yin practice.

Each afternoon Simon focused on a particular aspect of our body, adapting and intensifying well-known yoga postures to increase their efficacy.

The most memorable session was halfway through the week when we focused on hip-openers. Simon warned us that some of us might feel cross, because it is in our hips that we often store this emotion. Sure enough, after three hours of carefully yet doggedly working on opening up our hips a number of us, myself included, felt mysteriously bad-tempered. One woman was still disgruntled at breakfast the following day.

It is this kind of bodily discovery that makes a week with Simon Low so fascinating. You learn about the way your body works how it twists and tightens and becomes unbalanced in the course of our daily lives. And you learn how you can work with your body to untwist, unravel, liberate and get your positive energy flowing like never before.

What's more, in contrast to other yoga retreats I have been on, at no point does your body become weary or ache; Simon's restorative practice is exactly that.

Of course at some point your brain wants a rest from yoga, even if your body doesn't, and a few days in at Huzur Vadisi there is a boat trip from the nearest coastal town of Gcek. At first glimpse this seemed a pretty humble place, but once out on the water I realised it was anything but. We were sailing in a traditional wooden craft but many of the other boats were vast state-of-the-art superyachts.

Original post:
Yoga in Turkey: At one with a wonderful world

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELT1LTgyMxc

Karin Power Yoga Promo
Power Yoga Flow with Karin Heller Karin #39;s Power Yoga Flow classes are ideal for beginners and intermediate level practitioners interested in flowing yoga and healing movements as Karin pays particular attention on moving with the breath and adjusting her students to the right alignment. The strength of Karin #39;s Power Yoga classes are in its diversity starting with long warm-up sequences followed by intensive power yoga postures flowing into one another like a moving meditation with the correct breathing technique instructed throughout the 60 minutes class. Expect a lot of flowing movement, not just static stretching. Compared to Balazs #39; FitYoga (www.junglespirit.org classes these are physically less demanding and more flowing and feminine. Karin also offers you private and semi-private classes, PRENATAL post-natal group classes. Call/SMS Karin on 99991844 http://www.junglespirit.org Prices: http://www.junglespirit.org Webshop: http://www.junglespirit.org Schedule: http://www.junglespirit.org Location: http://www.junglespirit.org

By: zumbayogamalta

See original here:
Karin Power Yoga Promo - Video

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=923JHVFWxvs

Learn yoga - the cat cow yoga pose.
http://www.asanasforwomen.com, This is a learn yoga poses video. Visit us today for comprehensive yoga resources, and learn more about yoga, If you like please share.More great yoga videos added each week.

By: Superbyoga26

More:
Learn yoga - the cat cow yoga pose. - Video

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJGHaurmBes

kids yoga lesson visiting the beach
A children #39;s yoga lesson themed around a visit to the beach. Spout like a dolphin, turn your yoga mat into a surfboard and more. Enjoy

By: yisforyoga

More here:
kids yoga lesson visiting the beach - Video

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKha0q4V2Qk

Burn your fat very fast. Fat Burning Exercise - Weight Loss YOGA Workouts
Diet and Nutrition mybodyhealth.net

By: TheHighMind

View original post here:
Burn your fat very fast. Fat Burning Exercise - Weight Loss YOGA Workouts - Video

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okCc5PGm3L8

Improve Both Body and Mind with Yoga
The benefits of practicing yoga are endless. The Rhode Show is WPRI 12 #39;s daily lifestyle show for having fun, eating well, and living life.

By: therhodeshow

The rest is here:
Improve Both Body and Mind with Yoga - Video

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZmnlb0eyPQ

Savasana - Introduction to Vinyasa Flow Class, Self Awakening Yoga Studio, Salem NH
A guided meditatio provided by teacher at end of class.

By: SAYS2009

Read more here:
Savasana - Introduction to Vinyasa Flow Class, Self Awakening Yoga Studio, Salem NH - Video

The phrase competitive yoga seems to twist the uninitiated into the mental equivalent of what the eagle pose does to the arms and legs.

To the more than 45 people who participated in the Oregon and Washington Regional USA Yoga Asana Championship Sunday at the WOW Hall, there is no contradiction.

I do it every year because I believe in the goal of the organization, said Eugenes Jess Eldridge, who placed first in the Oregon womens division and will move on to nationals in March in New York. She is also a head teacher at Eugene Bikrams Yoga College of India and spearheaded hosting the event.

Yoga is a really internal practice, but this is outward, she said Sunday. This is about building community, encouraging other people to do yoga and increasing public awareness.

Competitive yogas governing body, USA Yoga, was founded by Rahashree Choudry, whose husband started Bikram yoga. The organization is lobbying to have the sport added to the Olympics and has been crowning national yoga champions since 2003.

One of the judges Sunday was first-ever champion Lesli Lounsbury, 36, a California instructor who competed before there were separate divisions for men and women.

Its kind of like a beauty competition, she said, referring to the importance of such qualities as poise and grace. Also, like with the Miss America pageant, once you become a national champion you are no longer eligible to compete.

According to the judges guidelines posted online at usayoga.org , during each posture they are watching for stillness, ease of breathing and whether a contestant enters and exits each posture in the same way, among other criteria.

Lounsbury said contestants are supposed to try to make it look easy, serene and graceful, but not overdo it on the smiling.

You want to make it look like youre not straining, she said. Its not so much a competition against other people as it is against yourself.

Read more from the original source:
Eugene woman places first in regional yoga championship