The antidote to the Cobra and Bow poses, and counters the effect of sitting all day and incipient osteoporosis.
Kneel then sit back on your feet and your torso forward.
Relaxing on to your thighs.
Stretch your arms forward to form the Prayer Pose, or relax your arms back along your legs in the Child Pose.
Either 9one of these helps to stretch he spine and lengthen the space between the vertebrae, good for preventing back trouble.
Hold for as long as is comfortable, breathing slowly and deeply you could even full asleep in this one!
Certain poses are said to be particularly good for women’s reproductive organs as they open up the pelvic region and increase the blood supply there.
Others help to nourish the brain. It is quite common to be in a yoga class with eighty – year olds standing on their heads.
But if that seems a remote possibility for you shoulder stands or the head down dog pose
Also get blood flowing to the head – and also mitigate the ageing effects or gravity!
The deep breathing integral to yoga and t’ai chi is both and invigorating and improve lung capacity.
Enhancing the ability of the lungs to take in and hold oxygen improves a range of health conditions from asthma and heart complaints to insomnia.
At the Yoga Therapy clinic, which through its yoga Biomedical Trust researches the beneficial effects of yoga on various diseases?
Dr. Robin Monroe has used yoga to help asthmatics, diabetics, MS sufferers and the generally stressed. He has even devised a programme suitable for wheelchair users.
Don’t worry about needing to be ‘mystical’ or having to adopt a new religion to benefit from exotic disciplines.
Most types taught in the West are physical rather than spiritual, concentrating on the poses (the exercises) rather than meditation, although class may end on some concentrated relaxation.
Wonderful as aerobic workout such as swimming can be it is not enough for post menopausal women as there is no weight bearing component and therefore the bones are not strengthened via swimming.
But it does increase your lung capacity and, combining swimming with regular walking, you’ll be enjoying a balanced and productive exercise regime.
But, please, don’t think that you can benefit form swimming if you try to keep your hairdo dry, or by floating along or hanging on the side of the pool doing more chatting then lapping.
The former will hurt your back (by curving your spine as you try to swim with your neck up) and the latter means you aren’t working hard enough Treat every exercise effort as just that – effort – to get the full benefit.
VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE
With any exercise routine, no matter now committed you are or how much you excel at it, you can feel jaded by it from time to time. Before you do something so repetitively that you cease to find pleasure in it, try varying your schedule with a few different activities so that you never get bored doing the same thing. The other risk of concentrating on one sport, says the relentless runner, is that you’re over stress certain muscles. Limbs and joints and under work others. So mix your work outs with complementary ones to keep you and your body happy and balanced.
Rest days are essential. Don’t build in so few so that you are putting your system at risk of getting run down and over stressed. But also beware of taking too many days off over a month or you will lose the momentum and never build up your fitness. A good guiding principle is to exercise more days weeks then you take off, for example, at least four times.
