Tips For Teaching Kids Yoga Classes

Yoga practice has gained popularity in the West over the past two decades as people have recognized the powerful health and general well-being benefits. More recently, utilizing the practice with children has become common. Whether in P.E. class or as an after-school activity, teaching kids yoga classes offers a plethora of advantages. Creative practice stimulates the senses while strengthening and stretching the body, an element that is crucial during development.

Yoga is beneficial to kids in many ways. Because children encounter emotional, social, and physical challenges or conflicts, the breathing techniques, behavioral guidelines, and physical postures utilized in yoga can be incredibly valuable for them. It is a practice that children can do anywhere, anytime without the constraints of a specific venue and equipment. Practicing yoga enhances physical flexibility, refines balance and coordination, cultivates focus and concentration, and boosts self-esteem and confidence, especially for kids who are not overly athletic or otherwise active. Although it is beneficial for children of all ages, it has been found to be particularly helpful for kids with special needs, such as autism or ADHD. Additionally, the breathing, concentration, poses, and the way kids learn to act or react to situations throughout their practice can lead to inquisitiveness and an understanding of sense of self.

For instructors, it is important to remember that children are different from adults. While the latter may expect a long and disciplined sequence, kids have different needs and thus require the skills to be presented in diverse ways. There are a variety of factors to consider when designing a class for tots. They may not want to be there and are just being forced by their parents. After a long day of school, they are tired, hungry, and have exhausted their limited attention span. Because of these aspects, it is essential to use creative techniques that get each child proactively involved in the class. This can be done by incorporating play, meaningful sequences, stories, and music, to name a few. Having fun through play is an enjoyable and effective method of meditation and is indispensable. Instructors should constantly be revamping their lessons with new material and should come to class with a definitive game-plan and goals.

Every good teacher also needs a few fool-proof games to liven up the class. These can be completed as a warm-up activity or during a break from quiet meditation and poses. Even a short, few minute game will have rejuvenating effects on the children's attention and attitude. Simple twists on old games such as Duck, Duck, Goose and freeze tag, in which yoga "animal" poses can replace the traditional rules, and the addition of animal sounds to poses such as cat and cow are easy ways to spice up any class and allow children to be expressive.

Most children, especially younger ones, will have no interest in a boring history or Sanskrit lesson, so teachers must find a way to make these elements age-appropriate and relatable to the young students' lives. While yoga is a great tool for teaching children self-discipline, it should not replace creative expression and play. The experience should always be nourishing to the body and the mind, with students leaving the class happy, energized, and excited to come back again.

Faye Martins, is a Yoga teacher and a graduate of the Yoga teacher training program at: Aura Wellness Center in, Attleboro, MA. To receive Free Yoga videos, Podcasts, e-Books, reports, and articles about Yoga, please visit: http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/

Helpful Tips For Designing A Yoga Lesson Plan

Teaching yoga is a great way to earn some extra money while staying in shape and helping others. There are a number of things to consider when designing a yoga lesson plan. The instructor should have a well organized class that flows naturally and fills the lesson time. A well structured lesson will keep students happy and ensure continuing attendance.

The first big decision is what type of yoga class it will be. There are many styles of yoga to choose from or several styles can be blended. The class may also be geared towards a particular type of student such as for prenatal yoga or gentle yoga for seniors. It is also important to think about how the style will fit with the instructor's personality. A slow-paced gentle yoga class should be taught in a calm manner, while a more energetic instructor is needed for a high intensity power yoga class.

The style of yoga will help with choosing the types of poses and movements. Books and websites can provide a lot of ideas for how to explain poses and outline some common combinations of poses, such as the sun salutation series. It is common to start a class with breathing exercises. These exercises can be done in a seated, lying, or standing position. This helps students get into the right frame of mind to begin their practice. The number of poses and their difficulty level should be determined by the type of students. A class geared towards beginners will have a slower pace and each pose or sequence will need to be explained in detail. A class for more advanced students will be able to move through poses more quickly and with less explanation. For all levels of students, it can help to have a series of poses that build towards a more challenging pose. This will help students become more accomplished in their practice and helps to guide the planning of classes. The instructor can choose one pose to be the goal of the class and then plan the rest of the lesson to help prepare the students physically and mentally for that pose. It is also helpful to offer modifications that can either make the pose easier or more challenging. Adding these options throughout the class will keep students from feeling discouraged if they find the class too challenging or bored if they are more advanced. The last portion of the class should always be reserved for meditation, which can be guided by the instructor or silent time for relaxation.

A final consideration in planning is the mood of the class. The choice of music is very important in establishing the right ambiance. The music should be planned so it fits with the class as a whole, as well as the individual parts. Calming and unobtrusive music should be chosen for breathing exercises and meditation. If portions of the class involve high intensity movements, more upbeat music can help motivate students. Lighting can also be used to set a mood. Candles can add to the calming atmosphere and the lights are often turned out during periods of meditation. Careful lesson planning for yoga will help to guarantee a smooth class that both the student and the instructor can enjoy.

Faye Martins, is a Yoga teacher and a graduate of the Yoga teacher training program at: Aura Wellness Center in, Attleboro, MA. To receive Free Yoga videos, Podcasts, e-Books, reports, and articles about Yoga, please visit: http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/

Yoga For Biking Offers Many Benefits

Yoga has become a popular exercise for many people because it provides so many benefits. The eastern discipline offers an effective full-body workout that increases strength, flexibility and respiration. Many weekend athletes have incorporated the practice into their routines for improving physical condition and mental focus. Many cyclists are recognizing the value of yoga for biking, with its ability to stretch critical muscle groups and improve overall performance.

The Benefits of Yoga For Athletes

Since its entry into western culture in the 1950s, athletes have discovered the many benefits that yoga practice can provide for their physical condition and performance:

· Balance - Balance is incorporated into almost all yoga positions. This balance improvement can be of help when biking, helping you achieve greater stability to avoid hazards and prevent falls.

· Flexibility - Yoga is one of the best exercises available for improving overall flexibility. For biking enthusiasts, it provides the quick reflexes needed for safety and increased ability to maneuver around unexpected hazards on the road.

· Core Conditioning - Yoga is also beneficial for core strengthening, a critical muscle group for high-performance biking. Almost all yoga positions involve a core workout to improve abdominal muscle strength that helps to support the back for long distance workouts.

· Muscle Strengthening - Biking requires strong thighs, calves and glutes, but back, shoulders and arms are also important for making it through those long workouts. Yoga allows you to work on these areas, as well as improve full-body strength.

· Improved Breathing - Yoga practice helps to improve breathing and focus, which can help cyclists tackle difficult surfaces and elevations. In addition, better respiration aids in endurance and improves decision-making.

· Faster Recovery From Injury - Gentle yoga exercises can help to provide faster recovery for injured muscles. The stretching action improves circulation to the injured area. Breathing exercises that accompany the yoga positions increase oxygen to injured muscles to promote faster healing.

· Endurance - Doing yoga makes athletes more mindful of their bodies and its movement, allowing better control over muscle groups for better performance.

Best Yoga Positions For Biking

Yoga for biking can provide immediate improvement in performance and endurance. As with any exercise, you should start slowly and gradually build on your ability to hold positions.

· Pyramid or Intense Side Stretch - This exercise stretches tight hamstrings and iliotibial bands that run along the outer thigh. Stand with feet slightly apart and place left foot about three feet behind you. Grasp arms behind you at elbow level and bend forward. Breathe in, lifting head upward. Slowly bend forward over the straight right leg as you exhale. Hold for 30 seconds and straighten. Then, repeat on the other side.

· Dolphin Pose - This pose opens up hamstrings, chest and shoulders. Begin by getting on hands and knees on the floor, keeping knees under hips and hands under shoulders. Exhale and lift tailbone toward the ceiling, until legs are extended with knees slightly bent. Lower arms to elbows and hold for one to two minutes, while breathing deeply.

· Cat/Cow Spinal Stretch - This position opens up the spinal column, releasing pressure from long rides. Get on hands and knees on the mat. Inhale and tip the head and pelvis upward. Exhale and curve the spine to the ceiling like a stretching cat. Alternate the two movements for a full minute, monitoring your inhalations and exhalations carefully.

Faye Martins, is a Yoga teacher and a graduate of the Yoga teacher training program at: Aura Wellness Center in, Attleboro, MA. To receive Free Yoga videos, Podcasts, e-Books, reports, and articles about Yoga, please visit: http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/

How Yoga For Sciatica Can Help You Get Relief

To understand how yoga for sciatica can help you, it is important to understand what sciatica is in the first place. Sciatica is a painful condition resulting from compression, irritation, or inflammation of the sciatic nerve. This nerve runs from the lower spine down the back of each leg. Sciatica can be caused by an injury arising from a slipped disk, pregnancy, pelvic fracture, or tight muscles in your lower back, legs and hips. Often the discomfort is felt on one side of the body, depending on whether the right or the left nerve has been affected.

Pain from sciatica is characteristic. It usually radiates from the lower back down the leg or foot in a pattern that is characteristic of the way the nerve runs in your body.

Yoga Exercises and Sciatica Treatment

Yoga is a form of mind and body exercise that seeks to provide balance to your body. Some of these exercises can be used to reduce the pain associated with sciatica and even heal the condition completely. However, yoga exercises for sciatica are better suited as a rehabilitation option rather than an actual stand-alone treatment.

Yoga Poses for Sciatica

Not all yoga exercises work to cure a problem with the sciatic nerve. Only a few poses are suitable for this purpose. Some of the top poses for healing and restoration include:

- Half moon. If your sciatica symptoms are caused by prolonged sitting or standing, this pose will bring you relief. It involves stretching of the outer leg to target the affected area.

- Seated spinal twist. This creates some movement in your lower spine, which relaxes the affected muscles, especially the piriformis muscle.

- Lizard pose. This pose opens up your hip region. It also offers a nice, relaxing stretch to your hip flexor muscle.

- Locust. This is a relaxing pose that unwinds tight muscles as well as strengthens them.

- Pigeon. This pose targets areas of sciatica discomfort in your lower back, thighs, and hips. This pose has a variation called Figure Four, which targets the piriformis muscle, which is one of the top causes of sciatica.

- Reclining big toe pose. You perform this pose with a bent knee. This pose focuses on stretching your lower back and the hamstring of your raised leg.

- Half wheel. This pose engages the hamstring and the glutes. These are some of the muscles commonly affected by sciatica.

These are just some of the yoga poses you can use to heal your sciatica pain. However, you have to do them the right way to get the relief you need.

Point to Remember

Yoga for sciatica can be successful in relieving the discomfort of sciatica and healing it completely. However, you need to remember that all these poses have to be comfortable for you to get the results you expect. You can modify the poses when necessary.

How often should you perform the poses to get the results you need? Well, practicing the poses a few minutes a day for a couple of days can ease the pain and in some cases, eliminate the condition.

If the sciatica persists, you might be performing the poses the wrong way. You need to consult with a professional yoga instructor to find out how to perform these poses to your advantage.

Faye Martins, is a Yoga teacher and a graduate of the Yoga teacher training program at: Aura Wellness Center in, Attleboro, MA. To receive Free Yoga videos, Podcasts, e-Books, reports, and articles about Yoga, please visit: http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/

How To Use Yoga Therapy For Osteoporosis Relief

As individuals who suffer from osteoporosis know, the condition can be a very difficult one to grapple with. However, there are a plethora of healthy solutions that osteoporosis sufferers can integrate into their daily lives in order to look and feel better. While many such solutions can help, it's a good idea to use yoga therapy for osteoporosis relief. To learn more about how this form of therapy can alleviate the symptoms of osteoporosis, read the brief outline found below.

How Yoga Can Alleviate Osteoporosis

The reason that yoga is so effective in alleviating osteoporosis is because it involves performing movements that rely on the participant's body weight. Specifically, performing the yoga movements adds additional stress to the participant's muscles and bones. This activity improves bone density while also encouraging bone growth. As the body's bones strengthen, the participant also experiences greater mobility and flexibility.

Which Yoga Poses Are Most Effective?

While any form of yoga can be effective therapy for osteoporosis, there are several poses that are particularly helpful. For example, the extended triangle pose places substantive stress on the participant's lower body. This activity results in an increase in strength while simultaneously stretching the body. Additionally, the bridge pose is helpful for the spine because it stretches and strengthens this region of the body. Finally, the twisted triangle pose is effective in building the strength of joints and bones while also reducing the participant's susceptibility to fractures.

Getting Started

Once people who suffer from osteoporosis become aware that yoga therapy can function as a viable solution for the condition's symptoms, the next step is to get started. There are several ways to get going, and some of them include:

1. Participate In Local Gym Sessions.

Oftentimes, this is the most effective strategy for individuals who are new to the world of yoga. This is the case for several reasons, including the fact that yoga sessions which take place in public gyms are led and supervised by trained instructors. Typically, these yoga instructors have extensive education and experience in the field. This means that they will generally be able to provide the specific instruction and correction that will yield maximum results, thereby facilitating optimal health.

2. Hire A Yoga Instructor.

This is another excellent strategy that can be employed in order to attain relief from the symptoms of osteoporosis. In many cases, people find the private instruction attained through one-on-one sessions with a yoga instructor to be more effective because they obtain more personal attention.

3. Yoga DVDs.

Yoga DVDs are an excellent option for individuals who want relief from osteoporosis yet do not want to perform the exercises in front of other people. Yoga DVDs can typically be purchased from supermarkets or the internet. You can also rent them from various places. Individuals who wish to practice yoga through the use of DVDs should be sure to select a difficulty level that is comparable with their own abilities. For example, individuals who have little to no experience with yoga should most likely select beginner level DVDs rather than intermediate or advanced.

Conclusion

Although osteoporosis can be a very challenging condition to live with, individuals who are determined to overcome its symptoms can do so through yoga therapy. By beginning yoga classes or practicing from the privacy of one's home, individuals who struggle with the condition will likely witness a decrease in the experience of their symptoms. Once this happens, they will be able to lead the productive, positive lives they deserve to have.

Practicing Yoga For Skeletal Health

Yoga has been used as a practice for furthering the health of mind, body and spirit for more than 5,000 years. Although yoga originated in the east, its appearance and place in western culture has increased in recent years. It has become a regular part of health and exercise routines for busy moms, earth-loving hippies and professional athletes alike. The benefits of regular yoga practice are many, but yoga for skeletal health is one of the most important and often overlooked reasons for practicing yoga.

When we think of getting into shape and being physically healthy, we usually think about toning and shaping our muscles, keeping off extra weight and maintaining the shape of our outward physiques, which yoga can certainly help us do. We don't always think about our bones, our spine and our skeletal system. Yet, our skeletal system is what holds the rest of it together. When things go wrong in our spine and joints, it's like falling apart from the inside out.

Let's explore some of the ways yoga practice can help the body stay structurally aligned so everything else can keep doing its beautiful job.

Yoga Helps Maintain Bone Density

The bones in the body contain living tissues that need to be built and replenished in order to be healthy. Regular yoga practice has been shown to increase the density and mass of the bones, giving the bones a better chance of staying strong and guarding against osteoporosis. Focus on tree pose, bridge pose or any triangle poses to help build bone strength.

Yoga Improves the Flow of Fluids in the Joints

In order for joints to work properly, they need to produce a fluid called synovial fluid. Regular practice of yoga poses promote the flow and production of this fluid in the body creating joint mobility and healthy cartilage for an active, healthy lifestyle. No one likes being slowed down by achy joints. Try sun salutations to stimulate the production and flow of needed fluids for the joints.

Yoga Strengthens the Supporting Muscles around the Joints

Yoga poses that target balance and stability cause the smaller stabilizer muscles around the joints to kick in and strengthen themselves. Strong stabilizer muscles around the joints protects them from misuse and injury during activity and movement in everyday life. Focus on chair pose, tree pose, eagle pose and star pose for building the supporting muscles around the joints.

Yoga Improves Posture

Regular practice of yoga poses is one of the best ways to align and lengthen the spine. It also strengthens the core and brings awareness to the way we are holding our bodies. Many people who practice yoga regularly report having increased awareness of their posture in other daily activities. Try bridge pose, boat pose, mountain pose and forward bends for good posture.

As always, remember yoga is not a race or a competition. Practice yoga safely, and never sacrifice good form for a pose. Listen to your body, and modify poses when needed. Choose the practice that fits best with your body, and reap the benefits of being aligned in mind, body and spirit.