As the world's greatest golfers competed last week at the Masters, Larry Novik just wanted to improve his game. He took up golf three years ago, at the relatively late age of 37, and became frustrated with his inability to play at a consistent level.

Novik, who lives in Saratoga Springs, isn't trying to become Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy. He said he usually can get his score under 100, but not much lower. (Most pros can shoot in the 60s on much longer and more difficult courses.) "I was struggling as I was learning," Novik said. "Every once in a while you'd hit a flush, crisp shot and say, `I want to be able to do that again.' Mostly what my teacher was saying was my posture was slipping, for whatever reason.

"I got to talking to people about it, and they said, `You've got to get more flexible. You've got to get more core strength. You didn't grow up playing golf. Now that you're getting serious about it at this age, you've got to exercise.'?" His quest took him down a path not traveled by many golfers. Novik turned to Pilates, a body-conditioning system that helps build flexibility and posture by working core muscles.

Unlike many types of exercise that use only the big muscle groups, Pilates works the entire body. The foundation, which Pilates instructors call the "powerhouse," includes the abdomen, lower and upper back, hips, buttocks and inner thighs.

Novik is in week eight of a 10-week program at Reform, a Romana's Pilates studio that stays authentic to the Joseph Pilates method.

"We're trying to give him the flexibility and strength so he can play golf better," said Cindy Potoker, one of Novik's instructors at Reform.

"He was very tight in the upper back through his hip area, so we've been trying to strengthen that and loosen it up." Meghan Del Prete, the studio owner, said she has never played golf, but she was able to detect what Novik needed to do to reach his goals.

"I had him show me some video, and he showed me his swing," she said. "He showed me an ideal swing and how the shoulders separate from the back. He said, `If you look at my swing, you can see they don't separate as much as they should.' " Novik goes through three one-hour sessions weekly with an individual instructor. He will do numerous exercises on each piece of apparatus.

Much like a football coach, the instructor has a plan of an exercise routine for the student but may alter that in the middle of a session.

Del Prete said, "We have to really think on our feet: `The body needs this,' or `That didn't really get what I was trying to have them get out of that exercise. What is another way I can get the same result?'

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Pilates helps give golfers flexibility, strength

Three new classes will be offered at OJC during summer semester in the new Fitness Center facility. Body Bar and Step Class will be offered on Monday and Wednesday from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Aerobics will be offered on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 12-12:50 p.m. and Zumba will be offered every Tuesday and Thursday from 6-7 p.m. and on Saturdays from 9-10 a.m.

Summer semester at OJC begins on Monday, June 4.

PED 112010 - Body Bar and Step Class is strength, toning and cardio fitness workout accompanied by music. The course utilizes a Body Bar which is a one-piece weighted fitness bar encased in high quality easy grip rubber for a secure and comfortable grip. Students enrolled in the class will work on improving muscular strength, enhancing muscle tone, improving cardio endurance and increasing flexibility.

The course will be taught by Lisa Bamber, a NETA certified instructor and is being offered on Monday and Wednesday from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Fitness Center Aerobics Room 102. The first day of class will be June 4.

PED 217010 Aerobics is a cardio and toning class that will utilize an interval workout designed to burn calories along with kicking and punching combos, strength training and cardio burst training.

The course will be taught by Janet Carrillo and is being offered on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 12-12:50 p.m.in the Fitness Center Aerobic Room 102.

PED 233010 Zumba is a dance/exercise class that incorporates salsa, meringue, cumbia, belly dancing, flamenco, tango, samba and hip hop for a total cardio workout. The course will begin on June 5 and will be held every Tuesday and Thursday from 6-7 p.m. and on Saturdays from 9-10 a.m. in OJCs new Fitness Center. Leah Reed, long-time Zumba instructor, will teach the course and lead each session.

Summer semester at OJC begins on Monday, June 4. To register for these and other summer semester courses, stop by the OJC Student Services Center on south San Juan Ave. in La Junta or go online to http://www.ojc.edu/studentservices.aspx to register online.

For more information, contact OJC Student Services at 384-6831 or Kurt Long, OJC Fitness Center Director at 384-6916.

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New classes offered this summer in OJC Fitness Center

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19-04-2012 00:08 punched from the back of a wooden stool softens impact and gradually get used fists stayut coarser and hardier. by dialing experience in the strikes. but we must start with a short workout, that fists are not broken up the blood and used to the stress. month of training and can be applied to the more powerful blows ...

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excercise of strikes - Video

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19-04-2012 02:27 TRS Excercise On Parakala By Elections To Put Check To BJP (TV5)

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TRS Excercise On Parakala By Elections To Put Check To BJP (TV5) - Video

Apart from the more common dynamic yoga options for better balance, theres Yin Yoga, a calming and relaxing practice that targets deep connective tissues.

The term was coined by Sarah Powers, who will be visiting the country next year.

The Yin Yoga style provides yogis and other practitioners with more flexibility and freedom of movement.

Were talking about the ligaments, the tendons, areas of the body we dont target as much and as effectively when we extend the muscle, said Dona Tumacder-Esteban, a certified Yin Yoga instructor.

Yang targets the muscle tissues so we can strengthen it, Yin targets the connective tissues that targets the flexibility, she added.

In Yin Yoga, practitioners yield to each pose with relaxed muscles, allowing time and gravity to take us to the fullness of the pose.

Take a breath in, exhale and release the muscles, Tumacder-Esteban explained. On your next exhale, fold from the hip creases and round the back In Yin, we hold the pose for three minutes, then slowly roll up.

Come on all fours, step your right foot in between your hands, she added. Sort of drag your foot back and relax, and just drape your body over your right.

Tumacder-Esteban also showed the Dragon, one of the most active of yoga poses, which is said to be helpful to athletes.

The key here is to fully relax the hips, she said. You can get out of the pose slowly and come into childs pose to decompress and slowly roll up.

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Yin Yoga: A calming and relaxing practice

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Using yoga in the fight for freedom

Yoga has become a fad. Ten years ago, it was impossible to find yoga mats, clothes and accessories in stores like Wal-Mart. At best, one could find a yoga workout DVD from the public library and give it their best shot in their living room.

Now, opening a yoga studio is automatically viewed as a smart investment, as long as the classes are ones that the community can afford. The physical benefits of yoga are almost too good to be true, and the mental stillness it brings to any busy person is tempting.

I do yoga, and have consistently taken classes for the past two years. Like most people, I started because I wanted a good workout. When I first did hot vinyasa, or fast-paced yoga in a room of at least 90 degrees, I realized Id found the most physically and mentally challenging activity Id ever done. Always pushing myself, I made myself go back and do yoga until it was no longer the hardest thing I had ever done. What I found was much more than overcoming a physical challenge.

The practice of physical yoga is called Hatha yoga and is just one aspect of the yogic path, which is a life path. The yogis of the east have adopted contortionist movements, as well as an entirely yogic way of viewing the world.

The Self Realization Fellowship, founded by the Yogi and teacher Paramahansa Yogananda, publishes the most comprehensive definitions and types of yoga.

The fellowship outlines the types of yoga: Hatha, which is the yoga we all know, the movement between poses for the purpose of physical purity, preparing us for meditation; Karma Yoga, which is service to others without expectation of something in return; Mantra Yoga, which is using words or phrases and repeating them to center ourselves; Bhakti Yoga, or striving to see the love/god/divinity in everything; Jnana Yoga, or using wisdom and your smarts to distinguish between what is healthy and not; and finally, Raja Yoga, which is the synthesis of all these yogic practices.

Yoga literally means unity. If you also do yoga, perhaps ask yourself what sort of practice it is. What is your intention in doing yoga? A workout? A meditation? Both? A new perspective on the world? Whatever your reasons may be, know that yoga can be a powerful tool for personal transformation and the transformation of the world. Id rather not say that I do yoga, as it makes it a separate activity apart from my day-to-day life.

Instead, Ill say that Ive chosen to live yoga and to adopt not only the physical practice, but the other aspects as well, which ultimately challenges and influences the way I see the world.

By choosing to live yoga, you are choosing unity between your body and mind, your spirit and the exterior world, and yourself and others.

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Weekly Zen: Integrate yoga into your life

Starting its eighth year, Yoga Springs is expanding into Springfield, with a new studio in the Bushnell building downtown. Shown above in the studio is business owner Monica Hasek. Yoga Springs is offering free yoga classes on the hour at its Springfield studio this Saturday, April 14, as a grand opening event. (Photo by Lauren Heaton)

Yoga Springs is now 8 years old and stretching out into a new old space at the heart of downtown Springfield. While the local studio has opened the village to a lot of strengthening, balance and deep breathing, owner Monica Hasek felt ready to offer those same tools to the wider community. And when Springfields newly renovated, historic Bushnell building came calling, she could hardly refuse.

Springfield came to us, and there was no saying no, she said.

The new studio will open its doors for a grand opening this Saturday, April 14, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The studio will offer free classes on the hour, with a schedule available at http://www.yogasprings.com. The building is located at 14 East Main Street, and has its own parking garage, which Bushnell building patrons can use free of charge with a pass from the business.

The invitation to Springfield came organically. Feeling that the studio had sufficiently saturated the local community with yoga pracititioners, Hasek had begun looking for a second studio space in the region. Because Yoga Springs is one of just three dedicated yoga studios in the Miami Valley, it draws patrons from Xenia, Fairborn, Beavercreek and Springfield. Dottie Clark, one of the Springfield yogis, recently leased some of the office space in the Bushnell building for her Ayurvedic medicine practice and thought a yoga studio next door would complement her practice.

Bushnell property owner Jim Lagos agreed. In 2010 Lagos, who is related to Brown apartment owner Tina Lagos, used a $5 million Jobs Ready Site Grant to complete a $10 million renovation of the 175,000-square-foot building, according to the Springfield News-Sun. Named after two-term Ohio governor Asa Bushnell, who built the structure in 1893, the building was designed by the firm Shipley, Rutan and Coolidge, who designed the Chicago Art Institute and library, and was considered worth not just saving but rebuilding as a LEEDS Platinum certified structure.

As it happens, before coming to yoga, Hasek worked as a commercial designer and had the expertise to design her own studio. Hasek gave six months of professional advice, and got a clean, modern, energy efficient new studio overlooking city fountains on an even trade.

This has been really a gift, Hasek said. We have been asked to be here, and they have made it possible for us.

For now, the new studio will be open Tuesday through Saturday, with a few classes each day. The Yellow Springs location will continue to host the majority of the weeks schedule. The two locations will help the studio utilize all of its 18 teachers, the majority of whom Hasek has trained in the studios teacher training program and certified through the National Yoga Alliance.

At close to 3,000 square feet, the Springfield space is about a third larger than the one in the village, and it can accommodate larger events, such as the teacher training classes or the master teacher workshops, like the one Yoga Springs hosted last weekend for Lynne Minton. The expansion has inspired the studio to plan an advanced 500-hour teacher training program with Minton, who is tentatively scheduled to come for eight five-day residencies over the next two years to teach high level yoga.

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Yoga Springs stretches to Springfield

Yoga has become a popular option for alternative health management.

Research has shown the practice can significantly reduce mental and physical stress, improve mood, and slow the aging process.

But some yogis believe many of the estimated 20 million U.S. students are missing the best part of the discipline: the inner happiness attainable through a healthy mind-body connection. They also worry about injuries that result when beginners tackle poses and exercises without proper guidance. There are so many disciplines of yoga, and with its rich history, the beginner can easily get lost, or worse, injured, said Mary Jo

Ricketson, an experienced yoga practitioner and healthcare specialist

and author of Moving Meditation. A registered nurse, she also holds a Master's degree in education from Northwestern University, and her approach is one that emphasizes the interaction of mind and body. This reciprocal relationship maximizes health benefits, and has exponentially positive consequences beyond the individual.

People have been practicing yoga for thousands of years. In the West, the practice has integrated with our culture leading to variations including extreme yoga. Ricketson warns this sort of exercise can alienate beginners, who may not be ready to jump in the deep end first. Without the proper training and guidance, she adds, beginners risk injuring their neck, lower back, knees and shoulders.

Here are seven things beginners -- and anyone practicing yoga -- should know to maximize their benefits:

1. Cardiovascular (aerobic) training: As with meditation, focused breathing is a cornerstone of mind-body training. Aerobic means with oxygen and aerobic movement increases the flow of oxygen-rich blood throughout the body, including the brain. Cardiovascular training is the single most important aspect of physical training because it keeps the heart open and strong.

2. Core and strength training: This includes the abdomen and buttocks, and the lower back. Many may not know this extends to the base of the skull, where strength, stability and balance originate.

3. Flexibility training (yoga postures): Stretching simply feels good, and it reminds students to not only be more flexible in one's body, but also one's mind. This allows us to move, and live, with greater ease.

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Yoga: Avoid beginner's mistakes while attaining a well of happiness

Celebrity yoga instructor Tara Stiles has been teaching people for years how to heal through the power of yoga. In her new book, Yoga Cures, Stiles gives simple routines that can help alleviate more than 50 common ailments, ranging from hangovers to broken hearts.

"A little bit of meditation and simple movements have a way of getting everything out of your body and your mindIt brings out the organs, and gets your nervous system going and gets the brain activated," Stiles, who also is the founder of Strala Yoga in New York, N.Y., told FoxNews.com.

For something like a hangover, Stiles recommends a basic twist to help lessen the sluggish feelings. A headstand can also help though beginners should only apply a little pressure to the head.

"As you inhale, you make a little more room in your body, and as you exhale, twisting sort of gives pressure to the organs and wrings out toxins and things like that, Stiles said.

Yoga can even ease some of the pain of getting dumped. Studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association have shown that broken heart syndrome, known clinically as stress cardiomyopathy, actually mimics some of the symptoms of a heart attack. Stiles said a simple tree pose can help bring balance to a persons life and move on.

Stiles also includes beauty tips in her book, such as a quick, easy way to fix bags under the eyes.

"You can rub your hands together pretty quickly, she said, Create some heat there, and then close your eyes and press the heels of your hands into your eyeballs. Stay there for a few breaths, and it really brings some energy and circulation and life into the eyes and gives you that refreshed feeling."

For more tips including fixes for cellulite, allergies and ADD check out Stiles book Yoga Cures and her website, tarastiles.com.

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Yoga routines to fix common ailments