yoga, what's it all about?

[I-mon]

kwanb thanks for describing exactly what yoga should not be like. This relates to what Darth had to say about yoga being 'open source' and not having issues of lineage etc. If you're not careful, the majority of yoga classes out there will get you into either the situation described by kwanb, or else it will swing the other way towards gentle and relatively ineffective stretching with talk of chakras, imagining colours and saying namaste a lot.

genuine yoga is (and has seemingly always been) much more rare. yoga is supposed to be a systematic process for gradually removing hindrances to a focused mind. anything labeled as yoga which does not clearly do this at each and every step of the way is questionable at best.

[kshurika]

I've gotta be honest with you. I've been so busy (we yoga teachers are supposed to be perennially laid-back and communing with the universe) that I haven't kept up with this discussion. But, it looks interesting and I'm going to get into it. It looks as if it's an intelligent discussion of yoga, something you rarely see on the yoga websites.


Hey I-mon: Have you ever considered getting into Iyengar yoga? I think you'd like it. If you need any pointers, just give me a shout.


(Okay, okay. I remember this time.)

[D_Glenn]

Madonna does yoga. Do you need any other reason to do it?




.

[kshurika]

Believe it or not, that's really not very hard to do, especially with your other leg bent and your sacrum flying up off the ground. Besides, she can only do it with her left leg (as she did in that cinematic masterpiece, The Next Best Thing.

[Chris Fleming]

Ew.

Those ladies ought to eat a cheese burger sometime.

[wayne hansen]

what i see as an internal martial artist is the locked out joints and heel off the ground.
i had a 76 year old teacher who had been training since he was 7.
he could do 20 one legged squats on each leg,smiling all the time,staying upright and touching the ground with his backside.
his name was he tow tan.
he practiced wu ,yang and springy leg.
i cant do the same due to a different body structure and too many years of rugby.
i was a yoga teacher when i took up martial arts and never felt the need to look back.
then again i was lucky with the teachers i found.

[Jingang]

Ah......Yoga!!

[kshurika]

It's too bad that they used women for those vids who have never done yoga in their lives and aren't even in very good shape. They should have chosen from among the dozens of my students in Laguna Beach.


Do you wonder why I love my job?

[Chris Fleming]

That's more like it.

[BillyK]

Points well taken - I am happy to have a well informed discussion and I apologize for making assumptions about your the amount you train without knowing you well.

With regards to the point about punching is that its not a good example. No one trains breathing in when punching so that it becomes a habit. I am arguing uddhiyana bandha becomes a habit. In a stressful situation you may suck in your stomach with a deep intake of breath, losing your root, without thinking.

Just like an amateur stand up comedian who is well known for his sexist jokes may let one slip during an important job interview with a pretty woman. Probably couldn't control it.

ok, a better example would probably be tensing your abs when someone hits you in the stomach: few people accidentally tense their abs when they don't need it.

doing uddhiyana bandha has a reason, and this reason has nothing to do with exerting strength outwards, so i doubt many people would do it accidentally in a fight.

one of the problems i see often is the persoanlity type you talked about: the idea that you have to go full power and exert yourself, or you won't progress.
that's totally wrong though. keep in mind that old taoist saying "my way is simple and natural."

the reason for this is that the body is like a machine. you can fine tune it, but you shouldn't go at it with a sledgehammer. gaining certain skills and abilities takes time, and going at it full throttle will just destroy your "machine".
medically speaking, a light stimulus will strengthen, a strong stimulus will damage. you ideally want to build up energy, not deplete it.

here's an example: suppose you want calloused feet. you'd naturally run on coarse ground. this is a light stimulus.
the "hard tough way" would be taking a cheese grater to your feet 2 times a week.

meh, i'm rambling, but you get the idea.

[Wuyizidi]

[neijia_boxer]

sexy girls yoga

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/1001378/

epic boobs yoga
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/80962789/

[Darth Rock&Roll]

ah hahahaha, fucking awesome!

truly, that dude will not regret that in another year.

[GrahamB]

Reminds me of this video. Get the tissues out tough guys, it's a weepie...

[Waterway]

Thanks! My new hero!