For yoga and weight loss, what are the best simple poses( asanas) and exercises to do?
Are you sick of seeing that muffin top peering out of your tank top? Do you feel powerless to change your eating habits? I had never seen a yoga system specifically targeted towards weight loss so I was curious to see how Charry Morris’ Yoga Weight Loss System would work. The e-book is 58 pages long and peppered with pics and illustrations showing you how to do the yoga poses for weight loss and even an illustrated sequence guide is in the back.
One of my favorite things about this guide is the omission of sanskrit terms. I always thought it was intimidating to use the Sanskrit and not the English terms to describe poses. I have gone to more yoga classes than Lindsay Lohan has gone to rehab and I probably can only understand about 10 sanskrit terms, besides having heard them hundreds (some maybe thousands) of times.
Watch this video testimonial
I think the free report that Charry offers is incredibly pointed. Her suggestions are in simple but powerful language aided with illustrations and photos to help you understand yoga poses and how yoga works on different systems of the body to help you with weight loss (such as the musko-skeletal, endocrine, digestive, nervous etc). Even if you don’t buy her training manual, if you are committed to changing your health and body and want to learn more about how to take control over your level of vitality and wellness, then get the free manual. Have a buddy to practice with and check in on your new habits and practice to help make you more likely to stick to it. Give yourself a reward for every goal you get to (make the reward a facial and not fried chicken).
Yoga poses for weight loss
I think the questions at the end of each module are great for dealing with people’s emotional attachment to food. I think these questions would be even more powerful if you had a group or buddy who you could check in with and be accountable to.
One of Charry’s movement sequences
I like the simple diet modification suggestions. Her style of eating is very much in line with my philosophy. Eat foods in their natural state. Substitute water for soda and juice (which will end up saving you a lot of money as well) If you read the ingredients and don’t understand what Sodium Diloryll Dichromate is then it probably is a fancy word for pure toxic crap – so avoid ingredients that sound like your 9th grade lab project.
Yoga is ultimately a state of attuned inner awareness. By heightening our awareness of how we feel when we eat or avoid certain foods, we have more mastery over our diet. You can’t control what you have no awareness over. She doesn’t try to make you eat a raw, vegan or vegetarian diet, she just emphasizes cleaner ways of eating our meat, dairy and eggs.
She give suggestions for lots of viable substitutes for dairy. One thing that I wish was stressed more here was to avoid more refined
yoga poses for weight loss
sugar, although she does mention the evil HFCS (High fructose corn syrup). If you are going to eat soy milk and yogurt if it is loaded with sugar then you aren’t doing your body many favors. Eating something with Stevia or some other kind of natural sweetener (evaporated cane juice and corn sugar are just marketing terms for highly processed toxic white sugar or HFCS) so stay away from them. Also equally toxic are thing like Equal and NutraSweet…these things have been proven to cause cancer in mice. You’re not doing your bod any favors with these either.
If you are confused about all this you might want to read the book “Sugar Blues”. If you don’t think that refined sugar has any strong negative effects on you then go three days without any refined sugar. You’ll have to read ALOT of labels at the grocery store…sugar likes to make it’s way into all kind of non-dessert food like ketchup and potato chips . You’ll probably feel a huge shift in your level of calm and awareness. Or you can do the opposite if you are not good at impulse control. For two days, eat nothing but Fruit Loops, Dunkin Doughnuts, Ben N Jerry’s Wavy Gravy, Starbucks Double Frappacinos with extra whipped cream, Diet Coke for every meal and snack and notice how crappy you feel (and probably look).
I think the exercise about examining your food habits is quite illuminating. Every day around 3 pm I have to have something sweet….these days I usually just microwave a small bowl of dark chocolate chips. It’s not a health tonic though.
The simple step by step instructions with pictures are so helpful. I like how she shows what your hands and feet should look like in certain poses…makes a huge difference in how the pose feels and the benefits you get from it.
What I really appreciate about this yoga training manual that is not often found in others is the modifications and suggestions for people that have certain injuries. When you are in table pose you should not hinge your neck back if you have neck issues.
Charry doesn’t assume everyone can physically do all the postures so the variations are very welcoming for beginners or for the stiff and inflexible. For the balancing poses, I think it is very helpful to have the close up of the feet and toes. It’s great to see a more challenging balancing pose and also an easier modification. You’re not auditioning for Cirque Du Soleil, you just want to get in balance health-wise.
If you do buy this manual, I would recommend going to a few traditional hatha yoga or vinyasa class so you can really learn the poses with expert supervision and the teacher can help you get into proper alignment so you get the maximum benefits from the pose.
After you feel comfortable with the basic poses, then you can use this guide to help you develop and refine your own personal practice. I was too poor to pay for classes a few years back (and the time it takes to get to classes was a drag) so for many years I just did my own practice at home, sometimes with a tape or a book or sometimes with no written or visual aids.
Before you start saying you don’t have time, money, space or privacy to practice just reflect on your excuses. Are you committed to your excuses or are you committed to changing your life? What will your life, body and health be like if you continue on the health path you are now on? Take on this program for one week and see what a difference you feel. If you regularly practice yoga already, what changes in your life did you notice when you started to make this a part of your life?
Sadie Nardini is a popular yoga instructor, youtube queen and co-owner of The Fierce Club, a yoga studio in Soho. Nardini is an expert in yoga fitness and balanced living and is a columnist at GaiamLife and has written for YogaJournal and The Huffington Post. She teaches at all the big events like Yoga Journal and Omega.
Sadie Nardini will kick your flabby butt with inspiration with her Core Strength Vinyasa Yoga Series. Her style is more of a philosophy on yoga than an actual branch of yoga. I actually have taken classes in NYC with Sadie. Her classes were always completed packed with mats just a few inches apart. She even had students that wanted to take her class even if that meant they had to do the practice in the hallway. I also took her teacher training. So I know this practice well and know her gutsy style as well also. She demos the poses with confidences and integrates meditation into each practice.
This DVD includes six full workout sessions that last for an hour or more each, as well as twelve smaller, quicker sessions, each under fifteen minutes. It’s better to do 15 minutes of yoga every day then just one 90 minute session once a week.
Core Strength Vinyasa Yoga: Total Body Transformation
A highlight to this DVD is the ‘Learning How to Fly’ workout which focuses on building yourself to the readiness to do headstand, as well as other gravity-defying postures. I don’t recommend headstand though since that pose can lead to neck pain if you do it improperly without professional supervision.
The focus on weight loss is integral to each workout. In her Core Strength Vinyasa Yoga Series, Sadie does not treat body fitness as an obsession, but simply as a result of a balanced way of living. I love how she infuses living your life more authentically and how your practice is a metaphor for how you live your life.
Total Body Yoga Sculpt: Calorie Burn + Deeper Core Strength
Not another power yoga DVD that is just filled with a bunch of standard sun sulutations….. this 90-minute practice with a matrix menu with unusual poses and flowing sequences keeps you engaged while you activate deep core muscles for more sweaty weight loss. This yoga weight loss DVD is filmed in Sedona (no voice-overs)
I’ll start this review by saying that I am a huge fan of Sadie Nardini’s dvds. However, this is probably my least favorite for a few reasons. First, this dvd seems considerably less “athletic” than the others. If you are not a traditional yogi and you prefer athletic power yoga you might prefer some of her other dvds This video is considerably slower paced than Sadie’s others, and much more “chatty”. I will say that there are still some powerful, excellent strength-building sequences in here, but I found myself really missing the faster flow of her other DVDs.
I’ve done many of her classes before so I had an idea of what to expect. The matrix menu is great because on busy days it allows me to choose what I want to focus on (it’s divided into core, standing, floor, etc). This is so useful because I can build the practice I want on any given day.
This DVD is set up with a “matrix” menu, i.e. there are 8 individual segments that you can play from start to finish or pick and choose based on time and mood. The segments are:
However, I am giving the video 4 stars because it does contain very helpful, very detailed instructions, and awesome cueing. I can see how people looking for a more spiritual yoga video would love this one, but if you want a faster paced workout then stick with her other dvds.
Sadie narrates the whole workout while still doing the routine – no voice-overs. Her alignment tips are spot-on and her background in truly understanding anatomy shows through. She’s also very good at knowing when you’re likely to slip out of proper alignment and will remind you to straighten this or support that at just the right moment. More than just a yoga workout, this DVD truly encompasses the inner workings of yoga as well, helping you to focus and let go of things you no longer need to hold onto in your mind and heart.
The backdrop of Sedona makes for one heck of a beautiful and inspiring session. There is also no cool down segment and I really missed that. If you want to end your practice with Savasana (corpse pose) you’ll either need to do the Inversion segment (includes headstand and wheel) or you’ll need to add it on your own. I wouldn’t recommend this for pure beginners, however if you have some yoga experience there will be something for you in this.
Total Belly Transformation: Whole Body Tone + Deeper Core Strength
Yay! A core workout that’s creative, flowing and tones your whole body along with your center in 30- 45 minutes. . Her very detailed instructions and visualizations come into both my left and right brain through her use of physiological detail and metaphorical imagery (belly bonfire anyone?) . After just 3 meetings on my mat with this DVD, I am learning how to send different kinds of instruction to my core, using deeper muscles than have become my habit.
This series of abdominal/core flows are deep and tough. Because this DVD is easily done as either one continuous series of flows or 3 individual sections, it is very easy to insert into the middle of a longer practice when you want to focus more on core work.
If you have Shiva Rea’s Core series DVDs and wondered if this was worth having too, it is, absolutely worth having ( I have a few Shiva Rea DVDs…. her tummy toning one and her yoga trance dance one) It’s mucho different from Shiva’s work and would make a fine addition to a serious, yoga loving, core focused person’s collection that wants a gutsy workout.
If you have been practicing Bikram yoga for awhile and wanted a dvd you can do at home when you can’t make it to the hot studio. (or maybe paying $20 a Bikram class just isn’t in your budget right now) First thing I noticed is that the entire DVD is actually 45 minutes long as opposed to the 30 it says. There is a 15 minute warm up, a 15 minute standing series and a 15 minute floor series (you can pick and choose or do them all).
I wouldn’t call myself a beginner Yogi but some of these poses were too advanced for me to come close to completing on the first attempt. That being said: I am, again, more than ok with that. I will follow along as best I can and now I have an additional goal of learning to complete all the poses. It’s a nice change of pace from Bikram and if you follow her instructions about the way to hold your stomach and your lower spine, you can really feel your “belly bonfire” ( she does have a way with words).
My only other suggestion would be to watch this dvd through one time and watch how each pose is done if you are unfamiliar with this type of yoga. I think it would be much easier to follow along the first time you try if you have seen each pose done first.
This video is very different from her other Sedona video, as well – no repeats here. In fact, between the two Sedona videos, this one is definitely my favorite. I found this to be a very unusual yoga workout with several moves I have not seen elsewhere – it is almost like pilates in the sense that it is very targeted towards the core. My only complaint is that I feel as if the floor segment in particular could move a bit faster with less talking.
Overall I would say that this is a very solid intermediate level video with one or two advanced moves (crow and side crow), which make it different from other power yoga DVDs with a bunch of sun salutations. This is not a great fit for someone brand new to yoga…. you’ll probably feel overwhelmed unless you are very athletic.
I set out to create a representations of the top spiritual sites for yoga, spirituality, meditation, holistic health and wellness. Over these subjects overlap and so many of the yoga sites I reviewed had all kinds of great content about health and wellness. Many of the sites were promoting teachers, products or places that I had a personal connection or experience with. I included many yoga teachers, studios or retreat centers that I had been to.
Top Spiritual Websites
Some of them of them were aspirational. I have never been to Rancho La Puerta in Mexico right near San Diego but since I used to work at SpaFinder and my parents have been there a few times, I feel pretty well acquainted with what they have to offer and the value they provide. When I used to work at SpaFinder, almost every single day I would come across a destination spa somewhere in the world that I just absolutely “had to go to”. I looked at so many pics and videos of the most luxurious properties and was just drooling all the time over these incredible sanctuaries of luxury and beauty.
Of course, I had to include places like Kripalu in Western MA in the Berkshires since that is where me and my hunky, Hellenic hubby saw our friendship blossom into romance and we met at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY in the Hudson Valley just outside of New York City almost 4 years ago. Even if these places didn’t play such a pivotal role in my own personal life history, I think they would have been included anyway since they both offer so many outstanding spiritual and personal growth seminars and workshops in idyllic locations.
Spiritual Sites for Mind-Body-Spirit, Yoga and Holistic Health
This top 100 spiritual sites listto be a great gateway into the holistic world of wellness and well-being, with lots of juicy yoga-centric links since I’m a yoga teacher. We, Yogis need special clothes, training, props, mats, music and equipment so I included some of my favorite sites to buy all things yogic-ally.
If you have been involved with the yoga community for a while you will recognize some of the sites on here and likely find a myriad of awesome resources. I encourage suggestions for other top spiritual websites that can be included in next year’s list. Some of the sites are just loaded with all kinds of free tips, articles, downloads and videos. Like yogadownload.com where you can get your down-dog on at home (or out and about on your mobile phone). I had to include Yogajournal.com but recommended the little know community section which is like YogaJournal’s own little Facebook where you can post pics, videos, blogs and comment on other members content.
While we all value directness and constructive criticism, please be professional and refrain from disparaging comments… no trashing anyone on this list or that will disqualify you from being considered for next year.
Ideally, you would nominate another company but I do accept self-nominations. I reached out to the webmasters
of most of the sites and if something is in quotes, then it is in their words and not mine. So this is my list of the top Spirit Mind Body Websites. I also include resources for yoga DVDs, books, clothing, retreats.
Best Yoga Videos – Jill Miller Yoga Tune-Up Reviews
Jill Miller Yoga Tune-Up Videos have made such a big difference for me lately. I think I found I found her while reading the latest issue of Yoga Journal magazine. Since I have been having bad knee pain for awhile and it seems like it was getting worse and worse. I teach about 5 -10 yoga classes a week. Most of them are gentle classes and I also teach a lot of couples yoga and partner yoga classes in Manayunk. I don’t teach a lot of vigorous yoga these days even though I was trained in that. I didn’t even do that many standing poses since I tend to teach a lot of poses where you are seated, laying down or even in a chair.
I did not get a lot of strong anatomy training in my yoga teacher training even though I kept asking for it all the time. I wanted to make sure first and foremost that I did no harm to my students and really didn’t know how to work with students that had a lot of injuries, pain, prior surgeries etc. I have been teaching more and more classes these last few years and my knees seemed to get progressively more painful. I saw a myriad of health practitioners from traditional allopathic doctors that gave me some quad strengthening exercises ( helped a bit) to the omre alternative healers who would invoke angels to heal me, wave crystals on me.. whatever it took. I didn’t care what method it was…. just wanted to feel better.
I would often wake up in the morning with my knees on fire… actually it was worse than that… my knee pain was so intense in the morning that the pain actually woke me up. Not a pleasant way to wake up. I don’t know why but it was always the worst in the morning.. ( can anyone explain that) I would often ice my knees… or they just throbbed so bad that my hottie, hunky hellenic hubbie would fetch me some ice so I could cool my knees down first thing in the morning.
I found her videos a few months ago and they have been a a gift from some higher power… I literally would pray to god to help me with the throbbing.
Best Yoga Videos – Jill Miller Yoga Tune-Up Reviews
I started to do the exercises in her videos every day….it took a while to do all the movements she recommended. Most of them involved massaging certain parts from your hip all the way to the bottom of your toes. These muscles can get dry and tight and when the muscles that affect how your knee tracks are dry, tight and out of whack, then that can affect how your knees track. So I went ahead and bought her special yoga therapy balls. At first I was just using tennis balls but wanted to really do the massaging and exercises properly so I broke down and just ordered her special Jill Miller Yoga Tune Up therapy balls. They’re kind of fun to play with, just don’t let your dog near them… they make for a nice chew toy.
Over the last few months I have also been studying how to do some of the classic standing poses so I can stop injuring myself. So slowly, I have been learning to keep my knees smiling and now there is less repair I have to do on them.
The poses, sequences and routines of Jill Miller Yoga Tune Up Program are designed to strengthen your weak muscles, stretch your tight and dry muscles and heal from head-to- pinkie toe. She has a focus on finding your body’s blind spots – areas that have become weakened due to overuse, underuse or misuse, and are now prone to stiffness, inflexiblity, pain and injury – these specialized routines will help balance out your entire physical being.
What kind of modalities have helped you find relief from tightness, chronic pain and stiffness?
Yoga was originally a system that was just designed to help you achieve self-actualization that was developed in India thousands of years ago. It was really just a seated meditation practice and the poses were designed later to help people feel more comfortable to be in the seated meditation poses longer. It was originally just men that taught and did yoga.
When yoga started to become popular in the west it ended up evolving into a hip, popular exercise system that made you feel so tranquil and compassionate and oh, by the way, your abs now look like Taylor Lautner. There are so many different kinds of yoga and it ranges from restorative poses where you can fall asleep in them because they are so passive and you are using a bunch of props like blocks, bolsters and blankets to have your body release tightness and tension to the uber-intense Bikram where you feel like you are being punished for killing people in your past life by being locked in a 104 degree room with a bunch of stinky people while you all contort your bodies into unfathomable shapes.
Depending on what kind of yoga you do, you can lose weight with your yoga loss weight practice. You will probably end up doing a bunch of sun salutations which consist of classic poses designed to heat your core up, make you limber and get your heart pumped up. Some of the poses in English are called, up-dog, down dog, warrior with variations such as Warrior 1, 2, and 3. Also there is chaturanga, which is a like a push-up and then you lower your chaturanga, which is basically a lowered push up and then later you will probably end up doing poses like side angle, lunge and it’s cousin high lunge and triangle. Most vinyasa and even hatha yoga classes consist of a a series of sun salutations where you just do these poses for about 30 minutes and then the last part of your class you might venture into some poses that are new for you. If my knees were not so cranky these days I would probably be going to other teacher’s classes or just doing more of these at home. Unfortunately, knees don’t like lunges and squats and there tend to be a lot of these in most yoga loss weight classes.
If you want to do yoga weight loss system at home, I recommend buying a few power yoga DVDs and also buying Charry Morris’ Yoga for Weight Loss book. She actually has a free guide that explains how yoga helps you lose weight by altering your metabolism and changing your perspective on food ( and your life in general) This is not a quick fix or take a few pills and just magically lose weight. It will require commitment, dedication, accountability and your attention and perserverance for you to really lose weight with yoga.
What weight loss programs have worked or didn’t work well for you?
In Yoga, cat position and cow position are some of the poses I do almost every class for beginners. It is a very easy pose to do and almost everyone can do this pose no matter what is going on with their body. In the video below I show how to do the pose. It simply involves rounding and arching your spine. I also like to include a version where your hips go back to your heels so it feels like an easy vinyasa flow for beginners. It is such a great and gentle way to warm up your spine and bring space and elongation to a stiff spine. It helps to relieve tightness in the low back. I usually offer a modification for those with sensitive knees. I have sensitive knees so I always want to have knee cushioning beneath my knees so I usually say to put some padding in the form of a folded up blanket beneath the knees or if you don’t have blanket you can also fold up your yoga mat a few times and get some cushioning that way.
I usually have students do this yoga cat position and cow flow for a few minutes. You will start to feel your body gently warm up and feel your heart race go up a bit. I usually encourage students to do this with their eyes closed for two reasons. The first reason is that you can have a deeper inner journey and just focus on what is going on deep inside of yourself and think about what your intention for your practice, health and life is. The second reason, which I don’t say out loud is that you have students that are kneeling on their hands and knees and their butt is in the air right in front of another student. I don’t want students to be looking at someone else’s butt during their yoga class and no one wants to feel self-conscious during their yoga cat position and cow flow sequence so if they know that other students have their eyes closed then they can be more focused on themselves and not worrying about what the other students are thinking of how their body looks.
I have been teaching these in my classes at the yoga studio and love seeing the look of relief and delight on my students faces when they are able to manage their own health through these moves. My prenatal students especially love cat and cow position since low back pain is such a common pregnancy discomfort.
What poses, moves or stretches do you like to do for low back pain? Write your answers in the comments or on our Facebook page.
For yoga and weight loss, what are the best simple poses( asanas) and exercises to do?
In Yoga, cat position and cow position are some of the poses I do almost every class for beginners. It is a very easy pose to do and almost everyone can do this pose no matter what is going on with their body. In the video below I show how to do the pose. It simply involves rounding and arching your spine. I also like to include a version where your hips go back to your heels so it feels like an easy vinyasa flow for beginners. It is such a great and gentle way to warm up your spine and bring space and elongation to a stiff spine. It helps to relieve tightness in the low back. I usually offer a modification for those with sensitive knees. I have sensitive knees so I always want to have knee cushioning beneath my knees so I usually say to put some padding in the form of a folded up blanket beneath the knees or if you don’t have blanket you can also fold up your yoga mat a few times and get some cushioning that way.