Yoga online

Being confronted with asthma in my close surroundings, I decided to have a closer look at it with regards to yoga.

Does yoga help when you suffer from asthma ?

After reading up about it on the net and of course drawing on my own knowledge about yoga I’ve come to the conclusion that yoga can definitely alleviate symptoms and sometimes prevent them. With a regular yoga practice and breathing exercises, after some time, it might be possible to diminish your intake of medication and who knows down the line stop taking them altogether. Always in accordance with your general practitioner of course.

To explain how yoga helps when you suffer from asthma, we first have to take a closer look at what asthma is exactly.

Asthma is a disease that causes the airways of the lungs to tighten.

An asthma attack is when your lungs aren’t getting enough air to breathe. Your might be having an asthma attack when you have:

* Trouble breathing
* Wheezing
* Coughing
* Chest pain
* Chest tightness

The reason or thing that causes your asthma attack is called a trigger. These triggers can be different for everybody.

Triggers can be everywhere. Different triggers can be mold, dust mites, cats and dogs, secondhand smoke.

Other asthma triggers may be air pollution (such as ozone, small particles, and pollen), allergies to foods, respiratory infections and also exercise can trigger off an asthma attack.

Stress and, or strong emotions can trigger an attack or episode.

From what I understand you can safely say that when you suffer from asthma you breathe too much too quick, you draw too much oxygen into the body, more than you need, and as a result of that you breathe out too much carbon dioxide. most likely than your carbon dioxide levels are getting too low.

If CO2 levels get too low, the hemoglobin that carries oxygen through the blood becomes too “sticky” and doesn’t release sufficient oxygen to the cells. So what this means is that when you take in too much oxygen, paradoxically enough you deprive your body of oxygen which has a debilitating effect on your overall health and can cause asthma and other (airway) diseases in the long run.

So somewhere down the line you started to breathe too much and that becomes a habit in itself. The body gets used to drawing so much oxygen in, a habit forms and the body will need to keep breathing too much to maintain the levels.

To counteract this, we need to breathe less. We need to change our breathing pattern, relax the body and balance the body so that we don’t need to take in that amount of oxygen anymore. Thats where yoga can come in.

A daily routine of yoga exercises, and specifically some exercises that work on relaxing the nervous system, opening your chest, and balancing you in general will be beneficial.

I will soon come up with a sequence in the yoga video section for that.

For specific breathing exercises that will help you breath less, heighten the Co2 levels in your body and through that to improve the delivery of oxygen to the body cells, I recommend to read up about the Buteyko breathing method. You can find information about it on the net, also you can, most likely, find books about it in you local library.

Hope this helps,

Esther

Virasana / Hero pose

Benefits:

• stretches ankles, knees, and legs
• stimulates digestion
• calming
• energizes the legs when they are tired

Click on Hero pose to get instructions on how to do this pose properly.

Hero pose / Virasana

step by step

• You can fold a blanket to pad your ankles, knees or legs if needed.
• you can either sit on your heels, for some people that is no option. You might need padding under your ankles if the ankles are stiff, or place a pillow between the knees if the knees are stiff.
• Another way is to keep the knees together, bring the feet a little to the sides and sit between the feet. You could place a folded blanket underneath the buttocks, to raise the hips a little.
• Just sit and breathe, you can use this pose to meditate in or to do breathing exercises.
• In the pose keep the side body long, firm your shoulderblades into your back and keep your neck long.
• Build up the duration that you stay in this pose.

This one is only for advanced yoga students! In this video I will show you how to do a head stand, moving into the head stand from the wide legged forward bend

Patanjali is the author of the Yoga Sutras, the most revered to and sacred text written sometime in the third century before Christ, Patanjali describes the yoga philosophy in a series of 196 aphorisms.

Patanjali clearly describes 8 steps that you can follow so you can live in harmony.

All the limbs are connected and will help you to experience the ultimate truth.

The 8 limbs consists of the following:

• Yamas and Niyamas : These are 10 ethical precepts that allow us to be at peace with ourselves, family and community.
• Asanas : These are yoga postures, they help us to keep our body strong, flexible and relaxed.
• Pranayama : breathing practices, they help us to move prana, life force.
• Pratyahara : Drawing of ones attention to silence rather than towards things.
• Dharana : Focussing attention and cultivating inner perceptual awareness.
• Dhyana : Sustaining awareness under all conditions.
• Samadi : return of the mind into original silence.

Soon I’ll describe the Yamas and Niyamas.

Hi everyone, If you fancy doing handstand, what you may used to do naturally as a child, without fear, this is a great pose. It gives you great energy, really strengthens the upper body, and warms you up beautifully for any work afterwards. If there is some apprehension or fear and you do go for it, it’ll give you a good buzz, remember its good to sometimes challenge yourself a bit, go beyond your comfort zone.

enjoy:) esther

Salabhasana / Locust pose variation

Benefits:

• Strengthens the back muscles.
• Stretches the front of the body.
• Improves stamina.
• Opens the chest.
• Stimulates abdominal organs

Click on Locust pose to find out how to do this pose step by step.

Locust pose - Salambhasana

Step by step:

• Lie on your stomach, arms by your side, palms facing your legs, your chin is on the floor, the part you can see when you look in the mirror.
• Fix your lower back on the floor by gently pressing your pubic bone into the floor, and by keeping your tailbone moving towards the pubic bone.
• Than exhale, pull your navel in towards the spine, inhale lift your head, chest and arms off the floor, firming your shoulderblades into your back, and so opening your heart. You can imagine someone someone holding your hands and pulling you back, to come up higher.
• In the first stage you can keep your legs on the floor. You could repeat this pose 3 times and the third time in the final pose, also raising your legs. You reach back through the balls of the feet, as much as reaching forward through the heart. Hold for about 40 seconds and build up from there.
• To come out on the exhalation release the body down.

Hi…, I’ve made this video to help you get stronger legs. I’ve personally noticed that when my legs got stronger my back relaxed more. Also this sequence helps to stretch and open the front of the body. You can repeat this sequence as many times as you wish, I would recommend to repeat it up to 6 times to build up some stamina. Also you can change pace, for example start with 6 breaths in every pose and when you know the sequence well, you can take one breath in every pose, it keeps it interesting.

Have fun and drop me a line if you have a question or comment on how you’re doing!

Esther

Prasarita Padottanasana / Wide legged forward bend D

Benefits:

• Stretches the back and inside of the legs.
• Opens the hips.
• Stretches the spine.
• Grounds you and calms the mind.
• Can relieve mild backache.

Click on Wide legged forward bend D to find out how to do this pose step by step.