LOS ANGELES, March 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Drawing from over 20 years of combined fashion industry experience, acclaimed contemporary fashion designer, Michele Bohbot brings her yoga expertise to the forefront, in partnership with husband, Marc Bohbot to launch Electric Yoga by Michele Bohbot. The activewear collection is a line of specially engineered fitness apparel that blends optimal fit, function, and fashion. Electric Yoga by Michele Bohbot encourages women to harness their inner electricity and take charge of their own personal power.

Michele and Marc Bohbot are no strangers to style, having launched successful fashion brands including XOXO and Bisou Bisou by Michele Bohbot, exclusively sold at JCPenney. Continuing to build upon their previous fashion success, the Bohbot's, are tapping into something with deeper meaning: the yoga and wellness communities. As a master yogi, Michele saw the perfect opportunity to outfit, and empower the women of this new generation. The combination of Marc's business acumen and Michele's fashion-forward genius, are the foundation of a match made in heaven. Translating their journey through yoga and commitment to the community into a new brand is a passion project for the team above all else

"As a wife, mother of seven, yogi, fashion designer, and artist, I want Electric Yoga by Michele Bohbot to empower women to pursue balance between fitness and a spiritual life," says Michele Bohbot. "The fun and fresh collection is based around the lightning bolt logo, which is a symbol of love and power," adds Michele.

"I believe in Michele's passion and I know that presenting the principles of yoga to this generation is key," says Marc Bohbot. "Our creative and experienced team is developing a niche in the active wear market that will be a powerhouse among the best in the world."

Not only is the Electric Yoga by Michele Bohbot line incredibly stylish, it is crafted with optimal functionality. Electric Yoga's seamless and structured silhouettes are enhanced through ELOY fabric for comfort, support and the ability to keep wearers dry during and after a workout. The bright, bold colors are inspired by Chakra hues and overall well-being. Bright yellow and hot pink increases energy levels and release happy endorphins while turquoise and electric blue help relax muscles and relieve tension.

The eye-catching collection is complete for any fitness-buff; including seamless tanks, midi bras, leggings, shorts, and jackets, as well as yoga mats and totes which feature the brand's entire signature lightning bolt insignia.

Electric Yoga by Michele Bohbot is available at select Equinox boutiques, and other high-end specialty fitness retailers, as well as yoga studios, hotels and spas nationwide. The collection retails for $24-$198.

For further information please visit http://www.electric-yoga.com.

Link:
Fashion Industry Veterans Michele and Marc Bohbot Launch Fashion Forward Activewear Collection, Electric Yoga

Samantha Inman was going through a very difficult time in her life. She struggled with anxiety, depression and minor post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

For Inman, yoga was the answer and hopefully the answer for others.

Inman is co-vice president of CSU Yoga Club, founded in fall 2010 by CSU students Claire Heywood and Elena Reisterer.

When I started my practice I found a strength within myself again, Inman, a sophomore human development and family studies major, said. And I learned how to create peace with the war going on in my head.

As a yoga teacher, Inman said she has seen the impact of yoga on her students lives, including a girl suffering from chronic depression realizing that life isnt worth wasting and a cancer patient finding gratitude.

Heywood, president of the club and yoga instructor at the CSU Rec Center, said she and Reisterer realized there was a community of yoga-minded students on campus that lacked a forum to connect with each other.

It pretty much started just as a community of people who wanted to talk about yoga and do yoga together, Heywood, a junior English major, said.

But as time went on, we noticed some leaders in the worldwide yoga community who were gearing the already benevolent, good-hearted community of yogis towards social change, she said.

Heywood said because of this, CSU Yoga Club decided to take on activism and philanthropy work by donating proceeds from donation classes to Musana Childrens Home in Uganda.

The clubs goals include supporting local yoga studios and the CSU Rec Center, spreading awareness about the benefits of yoga and doing what they can to create change in the world.

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CSU students find healing, activism through yoga

What? An ashram? Wasn't it odd?

I confess ashrams conjured '60s images of The Beatles, sitars and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in my mind. But when my yoga teacher recommended I try a weekend retreat at Sivananda Ashram Yoga Camp, I invited my friend Lynne Lavery to accompany me.

We ashram first-timers enjoyed the tranquillity we experienced there amid like-minded yoga practitioners, teachers, and teachers-intraining.

Moreover, we fit seamlessly into the ashram's daily routine.

But an ashram? In Val Morin?

It seems unlikely to find an ashram in a Quebec village tucked into the forested Laurentian Mountains. In 1957, an Indian guru named Swami Vishnudevananda thought North America was ready for yoga, so he visited Montreal, discovered Val Morin, and founded this yoga camp in February 1962. Today there are more than 60 similar centres worldwide.

You said "daily routine?"

There is a daily routine at the camp. The schedule is posted on the website and both Lynne and I benefited from every activity.

What goes on?

A bell gently awakened everyone at 5:30 a.m. and from 6 to 7:30 a.m. we gathered at the temple for Satsang (chanting and meditation). I'd never experienced this and found the melodious sounds soothing - although I admit it was challenging to sit cross-legged that long.

Read the rest here:
Yoga amid the Laurentian hills

The Science of Yoga: The Risks and The Rewards

In their quest for fitness and spiritual bliss, yoga devotees twist themselves into various poses like Downward Facing Dog, Warrior II and Crow. But what do the millions of modern practitioners of this ancient practice really know about what yoga can and cant do to heal the mind and body?

In "The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards," award-winning New York Times science writer and longtime yogi William J. Broad delves into decades of research and history on the meditative practice, exploring the benefits and dismantling the myths. Broad interviewed a variety of experts including scientists, healers and yogis, and visited ashrams and medical centers throughout the United States, Canada and India, where yoga originated as part of an obscure, erotically focused cult. The path to yogic nirvana isnt without pitfalls.

According to Broad, yoga has been touted as a way to lose weight, but it actually lowers metabolism, prompting daily practitioners to burn fewer calories. Yoga has also produced massive injuries, including brain damage and lung rupturing. On the upside, Broad found that new studies show yoga releases natural substances in the brain that act as powerful antidepressants, and that certain poses can prompt arousal through the release of sex hormones.

Broad winds his way into the AirTalk studio to talk with Larry about yogas truths and myths. Hows your yoga practice? Are those sun salutations working for or against you? Namaste everyone.

The Science of Yoga

William J. Broad, Author of "The Science of Yoga: The Risks and The Rewards" (Simon & Schuster); science writer at The New York Times, who with colleagues has twice won the Pulitzer Prize, as well as an Emmy and a DuPont

Broad will talk about and sign copies of "The Science of Yoga, on March 30th at 7pm at Vromans Bookstore in Pasadena.

Read this article:
A scientific look at the risks and rewards of yoga

Yoga: the secret of the slender and serene or just a lot of hippies moaning and bending into funny positions? Katie Gormley, of women's sports magazine Sportsister, tried her hand, and various other body parts, at the newest yoga trend, Glow Yoga...

There are many versions of this discipline and Ive tried quite a few, so am fairly well versed when it comes to yogic lingo and manoeuvres, which is probably why Sportsister HQ suggested I visit the new glow yoga class to see just what its all about.

There are so many different types of yoga, its hard to keep track from the hardcore Ashtanga and Bikram, to the more mellow Hatha, as well as all sorts of spin-offs and interpretations in between. The benefits of mindfulness, flexibility, strength and wellbeing are typical of all yoga studios so what makes glow yoga stand out?

The key differentiating factor is the environment. Infra red panels create a warm and nurturing environment. The studios website lists the benefits of this light to include reducing muscle stiffness and increasing weight loss. The infrared lighting is also documented to help relieve SAD, giving you all the benefits of a sunny day, which on a rainy and grey Sunday in March is very appealing.

If I was going to put forward a really concise description Id just say this is vinyasa yoga, in a dark, warm room.

In terms of movement the class is much like any other of this genre and postures are taken from a combination of hatha yoga and pilates. The sequence of movements is designed to encourage you to focus on the present state and breath as you flow from one to the other. The sequence is designed to encourage harmony in the body and mind as well as strength, tone and flexibility.

I do a fair bit of yoga but still managed to be rather unflowing at various stages of the class. Its always the breathing that stumps me more than the moves. However, nobody seemed to be laughing in my face, which is always a bonus. In fact, everyone was just quietly engrossed in their own practice; a good sign of a serious yoga studio.

I attended the bliss yoga class, the focus of which is relaxation and harmony between body and mind. None of these states come naturally to me. I struggle with keeping still and can only really relax in a savasana (aka. lying down still or corpse) if Ive really worked the posture beforehand.

However in terms of zen environments this is about as calming as you can get. Looking around the class its clear that the effect of the diptique candles, the teachers calm and melodious voice, and the infra-red glow has created a relaxed state of calm sedation.

After the class my fellow classmates shared their feelings of total calm and a completely balancing experience setting them up for the week ahead (this class was on a Sunday afternoon).

Read the original:
An introduction to Glow Yoga

At his best, when a crowd of hundreds of students extended their limbs before him or drew deep breaths with their eyes closed, John Friend could captivate minds and shape bodies. Students spoke of melting beneath his touch. In a gentle voice, he urged them to reach for something beyond the physical, something that extended past the poses they perfected on their yoga mats and embedded into their everyday lives.

Its all yoga, he would say.

He became a superstar, a jet-setting international celebrity of boundless ambition who had invented Anusara, a yoga style that combines rigorous physical poses with a philosophical framework, strict ethical standards and an emphasis on building a worldwide yoga community. He touched down in European and Asian capitals or headlined American yoga festivals trailed by an entourage and a traveling retail outlet. When class ended, the parties often began, happenings where his adoring fans drank beer and cocktails and listened to Friend read poetry as costumed performers roamed the room.

Kind of a lovefest. Kind of a party, April Ritchey, a California-based Anusara instructor, called it. People really got addicted to being a part of this.

Friend achieved kind of a new thing: yoga rock-stardom, said Joe Miller, the owner of Willow Street Yoga in Takoma Park and Silver Spring, until recently the worlds largest Anusara-affiliated studio.

Friends empire an international network that claims more than 1,500 teachers, including 25 in the Washington metro area, and 600,000 students is in crisis now, teetering under the strain of a sex scandal that has split its most loyal practitioners and prompted an astounding venting of emotions, from rage and recriminations to compassion and sadness. In conference calls, e-mails and hushed conversations, Friend has admitted to sexual relations with students and employees and married women. He has confessed to cheating on one girlfriend and smoking marijuana, according to senior Anusara instructors who have participated in conference calls with him. And he has acknowledged leading an otherwise all-female Wiccan coven whose members sometimes took off all their clothes for gatherings, according to senior Anusara instructors who detailed his admissions in a written summary provided to The Washington Post. The covens name was the Blazing Solar Flames, and Friend had Anusaras graphics team design a logo for it, according to three former employees.

There had been rumors about a wild side to Friends lifestyle for years, but few comprehended the magnitude until Feb. 3 when an anonymous Web site jfexposed.com appeared containing graphic, close-up sexual images and racy chat transcripts attributed to Friend and a student. The Web site, which was up for just a day and a half, gained a wide audience when it was featured on the popular site yogadork.com. It included allegations of financial misdeeds the freezing of promised pension funds that Friend later said were the result of a clerical error that was corrected after an employee complained to government regulators.

Read the original here:
Scandal contorts future of John Friend, Anusara yoga

Dude, wheres my yoga?

Its in Somerville, Mass., where a yoga class for men called broga is helping guys feel macho doing the downward dog.

It seems inevitable, doesnt it? Nowadays there are more kinds of yoga than there are butts in a yoga class. And we as a culture cant get enough of dude-tastic portmanteau wordplay mancation, bromance, a whole new brocabulary, in fact.

We chose the name broga because its funny, catchy and familiar. It lets men know this is for them, Adam ONeill, the president and co-founder of broga, told MSN.

The thinking behind it: A lot of guys might want to try yoga but would be uncomfortable in classes taught and attended by women. Broga sessions are open to all, but they are geared for guys, Mr. ONeill said.

How so? For one, talk of chakras is kept to a minimum, with classes favouring familiar language over Sanskrit. And the music played in classes is what you might expect to hear in a garage, including the Black Keys, Radiohead and Bob Dylan.

The class focuses on balance, building strength and an awareness of breath, said Robert Sidoti, brogas co-founder, who teaches the classes. A side benefit becomes increased flexibility.

And since many men who do not have the flexibility required to perform the poses one might find in a traditional yoga class, broga offers exercises that are specific to students lives.

A lot of guys come here after years and years of sports, but their bodies are out of whack. Some have cement shoulders or really tight hips, Mr. Sidoti said, adding that brogas poses and movements are geared toward mens lifestyles, whether theyre sitting in a office chair all day or working as a carpenter.

However ridiculous its name might be, brogas ultimate goal is a laudable one. Broga is about men feeling better in their bodies. And taking an active, preventive role in their own lives, Mr. ONeill said.

Continued here:
Broga: Yoga for guys means more Radiohead, less Enya

Yoga enthusiasts go through their exercises at the entrance of Venice Beach in January.

VENICE - Trainer Elin Larsen, the pied piper of Venice yoga enthusiasts, routinely draws crowds of 300 or more to her free beach sessions.

Seven days a week, three times a day, Larsen leads her followers though 30-minute yoga routines on Venice Beach. When the free classes end, participants patrol the area to make sure it is as clean as when they arrived.

More than 100 of her followers broke their yoga routine Tuesday to join Larsen at Venice City Hall. Their message: Larsen's beach workouts should remain free, even as Sarasota County Parks and Recreation Department wants her to pay a newly imposed hourly fee.

Carolyn Brown, Sarasota County Parks and Recreation Manager, said Larsen will be permitted to use the beach for free through May, but then she will have to pay the same $13.50 hourly fee other medical classes and yoga exercise groups already pay to use the public beach on Siesta Key.

"The fee is about making sure things don't get double-booked and we're equitable to other activities," Brown said. "What if yoga instructors started competing against each other for use of the beach?"

James McNabb of Venice spoke on Larsen's behalf before the Venice City Council. After relating how yoga has helped the health of many of Larsen's followers, McNabb turned more pragmatic.

"There's also a lot of economic benefit to the Venice business community," he said. "These people spend their money in town. People are drawn here because Venice has this amenity."

The end of McNabb's five-minute statement was met with loud applause from the yoga contingent, which was not disruptive despite its size.

Outside City Hall, Larsen said Sarasota County special events coordinator Ann Marie Persico told her the yoga group will have to pay a permit fee to use the beach. Larsen disagreed.

More here:
Yoga enthusiasts back beach instructor as county tries to charge

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

25-03-2012 17:29 Looking for a quick way to unwind? Lower your heart rate and rejuvenate your central nervous system with Kundalini breathing exercises. For the full class on this topic, please visit yogatoday.com

See the article here:
Yoga for Stress Relief - Wind Down with Kundalini - Video

Posted on: 5:08 pm, March 26, 2012, by Stephanie Moore, updated on: 01:05am, March 27, 2012

One Des Moines resident credits the art of yoga as the medicine she needs to keep her up and running.

One reason I feel younger is because I take yoga and it keeps me limber, says Maurine Diehl.

Maurine isnt your typical yoga student.

Im a hundred; Im passed a hundred now, says Diehl.

Along with about a dozen residents at Scottish Rite Park, Maurine takes chair yoga, a class adapted to senior citizens to keep them flexible and moving.

We are surprised here with the results, because all of them have a lot of challenges with their health, and they tell me I walk because I do this, I can move and stand up and do everything because I exercise, says yoga instructor, Ofelia Mohr.

As the classes oldest student, Maurine says yoga gives her something to look forward to and keeps her on her toes.

I come because it makes me feel so good, it keeps me limber and it keeps me feeling well, says Diehl.

The class which meets three times a week has become a staple in many of the students lives, giving them abilities and strength to live without the use of a wheel chair or cane.

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YOUTHFUL LIFE: Yoga Keeps Centenarian Young