Aloha Yoga and Fitness

Do you lift weights? 💪🏼

Never underestimate the importance of strength training. It’s a key component of health and fitness — for longevity and weight management. Being strong is sexy and smart.

Weight training should be done 2-3 weekly for body sculpting and strengthening benefits. There’s this ridiculous myth that if women lift heavy weight (heavier than 5 lbs) they will bulk up. THAT’S HYSTERICAL! Simply said, to be strong, you must lift weights to progressively build your muscular strength and endurance.

Make sure that you are fortifying each of your Four Pillars of Fitness: Cardiovascular, Strength, Balance and Flexibility.

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Fall in love with taking care of yourself — body, mind and soul!

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ARM BALANCING is the key action of poses like plank and side plank. These poses have many variations, but all build strength in your arms, shoulders and core. Plank posing on my kettlebells keeps my wrists neutral, increases my balance and core engagement. Here’s a challenge for you > stop, drop and plank pose. Try to hold your plank pose for one minute.

WARRIOR 3 (or Virabhadrasana III pose) is a standing and balancing yoga pose. It challenges your body with both back bend and forward bending elements. It builds power in your legs yet evokes a sense of lightness and play. This pose makes me feel like I’m soaring. You can extend your arms forward, or keep them close as you straighten them alongside your body — streamlining your position. Perhaps you stretch your arms out like airplane wings, or press your palms together gently holding them in front of your chest. My arms are extended forward and hands clasped with my eyes focused on the horizon. Keep your arms, head, heart and raised leg level. Your standing leg is grounding and the other is lifting with control. You’re lengthening, strengthening and stabilizing your whole body.

In Sanskrit, Virabhadrasana (pronounced veer-ah-bah-DRAHS-anna) means Virabhadra = the name of a fierce warrior, an incarnation of Shiva, described as having a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, and a thousand feet; wielding a thousand clubs; and wearing a tiger’s skin.

I’ve been hearing this comment quite a bit lately, “I feel stiff”. So, let’s move our bodies and stretch! Swipe left to see a short and sweet yoga sequence that stretches your whole body. Tap the link in my bio to see my schedule and sign up for an online livestream yoga or fitness class. Fall in love with taking care of yourself — body, mind and soul.

S T R E T C H I N G : keeps our muscles flexible, strong, and healthy. We need flexibility to maintain range of motion in our joints. Without it, the muscles shorten and become tight, then when you call on them for activity, they are weak and unable to extend all the way. We have Four Pillars of Fitness (Aerobic, Balance, Flexibility and Strength). It’s important to train to fortify all four pillars. Right now I’m stretching. Have you stretched today? There’s a lot of ways to touch your toes •••

B R E A T H E : Take a few moments to observe how you’re breathing. Notice how your body is feeling; your posture. Is your breathing shallow, rapid, irregular? If so, it’s time to regulate by practicing breath control. The flow that the steady in and out action of breathing creates stimulates a transformation in the body and mind. By simply being aware of our breath it tends to slow down. We become more breath full rather than breathless. Breath awareness is an important practice on and off of the yoga mat.

“Often the mind gets going a million miles an hour, the breath gets shallow and irregular. This not only affects your nervous system, but your entire physiology. The breath is like the conductor of the orchestra of your body. What kind of symphony do you prefer to listen to? One composed of shallow, untalented musicians, or musicians with a deep and full understanding of the music? If your breathing is shallow and agitated, it alerts the body that there is immediate danger or a harsh environment. Deep, full, slow breaths communicate to the body that all is well, peaceful and harmonious. The breath carries nourishing oxygen to the cells of the body, bathing and purifying your very smallest components. (Steve Ross, author of “Happy Yoga”)

“Psychologists have found that breathing practice is effective in fighting anxiety, depression, and stress. Physiological evidence has indicated that even a single breathing practice significantly reduces blood pressure.” (thebreatheffect.com) A simple breathing exercise for calming both the nervous system and your overworked mind is a timed breath where the exhale is longer than the inhale. When your exhale is even a few counts longer than your inhale, the vagus nerve (running from the neck down through the diaphragm) sends a signal to your brain to turn up your parasympathetic nervous system (to relax and calm) and turn down your sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight). To put your body in a parasympathetic state, gently breathe in for 2 counts, and breathe out for 4 counts, with a one count pause at the top of the inhale and a one count pause at the bottom of the exhale. (mindbodygreen.com)

L I Z A R D P O S E : a hip opening yoga pose. Depending on your flexibility it may feel challenging. Lizard stretches your derrière, hamstrings, inner and outer thighs, hip flexors and quadriceps. It also strengthens these same muscles and engages your core.

In Sanskrit, called Utthan Pristhasana — “utthan” means to stretch out, “pristha”means the pages of a book and “asana” meaning pose. So, visualize an open book. When we practice this pose we’re opening our hips, chest and shoulders.

If you sit for long periods of time, the hip flexors which are often referred to as "iliopsoas" can become shortened; placing stress on your spine.
Hip opening, and lengthening the iliopsoas, can help to counteract this process providing better balance in your hips and pelvis.

Are your hips feeling stiff? Try Lizard pose. There are so many variations to try (swipe left to see more variations from ). I’m practicing variation number one (lounging lizard) with knee down. This particular variation of Lizard is more passive and provides a pause for release. When the knee is up your lizard pose may feel more active and intense. Benefits of practicing Lizard : Strengthens and opens hips. Improves our balance and flexibility. Alleviates low back and sciatic pain. Relieves stress.