Friday Q A Larger Women

Q: Do you know if Baxter is going to talk more about teaching to larger women? I had a class at Piedmont Yoga Studio for larger women and I think one problem that was overlooked was that larger women “seemed” to be more flexible in certain areas where they oftentimes were hanging on their ligaments from bearing the weight. I remember at the beginning these women were so “proud” that they were able to do certain things but we had to work on containment. At the time I was one of the larger students and so I learned this firsthand.

Briefly it happens most in poses that require external rotation in the legs as many larger people are already overly externally rotating. The solution is to make them consciously aware of this and start to work on not going to the extreme in these rotations and then working on internal rotations (oftentimes using straps and blocks) to build those muscles up so there’s more balance.

This happens both in standing poses as well as others, such as Supta Padangusthasana and even Child’s pose. The knees in Child's pose are so externally rotated that it’s no wonder there are so many knee problems. Baxter can probably address the knee problems too as I've seen many larger people hyper-extending in the knees, again putting so much stress.

A: Thanks so much for your helpful comments! It’s always great to get feedback from someone who has worked first hand with a particular group and who also has personal experience. Yours are very accurate observations. It seems to me that people with larger body mass in the lower belly and thighs, either because recent weight gain or a lifetime of being heavy, tend to push the belly and thighs apart through external rotation. The result is a “functional” imbalance (overly externally rotating) that can be brought back into balance, as you have pointed out.

But I would also like to add that I’ve also observed among the larger students that, just like any group of students, there are some people that have the opposite problem: very limited mobility. This is due to stiffness in their muscles, as it is for the general population, and is not related to their weight. So until we have more evidence about trends for larger people, it is best for all of us not to make assumptions about any individuals or ourselves. Instead, always start with your own observations about yourself (or your students).

—Baxter

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Where To Find Women Health Online

By Mattie MacDonald

Remaining healthy is one goal that anybody will work very hard to achieve. Of late there has been very complicated fitness problems that are scaring a lot of people. There are a lot of people who have specialized in women health online business. This is so because you may be faced with a very serious health problem that you may not have experienced before.

It may also happen that in your neighborhood there is no a medical practitioner who has the capacity to deal with the condition. With the liberalization of the world market many people have adopted the practice of online marketing of their products and services so as to attract a big pool of interested customers. If you are a medical practitioner you will also need a lot of customers because this is the only motive that you are in business.

You should consider some factors when making use of these tips. One of the issues that you need to address is the authenticity of the information. This is so because you may get misleading information that may if you adopted fully will lead you into more exaggerated health problems. This is very unfortunate.

The main reason as why some of these issues arises is due to the fact that there has been a lot of freedom in uploading any information that you may have regarding any topic. When this information is uploaded while it is not in any way factual it possess major challenges to your fitness if you follow their instruction. Due to lack of this important control about this internet content there has been uploaded a totally misleading information on many topics.

When this happens you may find yourself in problems that you may never had projected by acting on such information which you do in good faith. Today there exists very evil minded people who would want to take the full advantage of your desperate state so that they enhance your miseries even further. For example a person may claim to be very much knowledgeable about a certain health condition.

As such if you do some professional things to them they will be more satisfied and hence will keep on seeking your services which is a customer retention. Nowadays customers are not scared very much about the pricing of your services like the quality. You would rather offer your services or even your products at a high cost and the quality be high.

They are also very keen to give directions where you can find them in the event that you need the advertised medical attention. Their aim is to sell to the inappropriate drugs so that if your health worsens they will still be in a position to siphon more cash from you in pretense of treating you ailments. In fact they admit you in to their premises where they indicate to you that this will be for days.

In all this time they would not give you curative medicines except pain killers. When they give you pain killers and as a result the pain reduces significantly you will be deceived that you are recovering very well which is not the actual case. Your fitness situation is worsening day in day out due to these deceptions.

About the Author:

When you are looking for information about women health online, you can visit our web pages online here today. Details are available at http://www.womenhealthonline.co now.

Benefits Of Pursuing And Understanding Women Health Online

By Jaclyn Hurley

Good healthiness practices help to keep a person healthy and productive throughout their lives. It is for this particular reason that one has to keep them updated on their body status. Females however require such kinds of regular checkups and visit to their doctors more than men do. This is because their bodies are prone to more infections than those of men. Their reproductive systems for example are very sensitive and require attention at all times. This is why the women health online programs are essential.

Females have different problems that affect the way their body systems work. To begin with, it is good to know that they require regular breast checkups to detect abnormalities. Most of the ladies would fear suffering from breast cancer conditions. Doctors warn that any woman would suffer from this problem due to numerous factors such as poor feeding habits and family genes.

The urinary tract of women is also vulnerable to bacterial and viral infections. This would be due to various reasons such as biological positioning. When the bacteria find their way into the genitalia of ladies, they cause infections in the bladder and urethra. When the bladder has infections, some of the symptoms would include its inflammation. However, doctors would help you avoid such using the internet services.

When the hair of most females is not in the bright condition, they feel inferior and unappreciated. It is good to note that the hair needs nutrients to look beautiful and awesome. Not all food that you eat is good for this aspect. You should read some of the feeding instructions that doctors post in the internet for better hair. The foods they advice to take would also prevent various diseases.

The reason why the internet options are the options of many ladies is due to their convenience. Most members of the female gender appreciate the use of the internet technology and address their problems to their doctors. They may not need to go to their offices since it would be cumbersome especially for those who seek these services from foreign medical specialists.

Females experience menstrual cycles every month whereby they lose a lot of blood. This means that their red blood cells and hemoglobin levels also drop significantly. This may leave them vulnerable to diseases such as anemia if one is not careful enough. A woman needs to ensure that she sticks to the right kind of dietary practice to enable her build up more blood.

Internet medical consultation is becoming enjoyable by day. This is due to the availability of essential technological devices such as phones. You would need to know that phones are affordable to everyone today and that you would reach your doctors well through them. The phones have facilities that connect you with any medical practitioner across the globe.

Internet use also ensures confidentiality as you will be the only one with the direct access to your medical advisor. This is provided in most sites that offer these services. The internet systems and channels maintain high confidentiality levels.

About the Author:

You can visit www.womenhealthonline.co for more helpful information about Discover The Advantages Of Pursuing Women Health Online.

Friday Q A Why Only Women in Your Photo Contest

Joy Sassoon, Age 60
by Tanya Constantine

Q: Why aren't you including men in your photo contest?

A: The simple answer is that if you scan through the posts on our blog, you will see a preponderance of photos of a white man in his 50s (Baxter Bell). So, to start, I wanted to get a bit more diversity on the blog and I decided to start with women (of all colors and body types). 

Karen Moore by Melina Meza

Secondly, older women in the yoga world—and in society in general—tend to get overlooked, much more than older men. There are lots of photographs out there of older yoga male teachers, and not so many of the females. In general, older women often comment that they feel "invisible," and older men appear as much as 10 times more frequently than older women in media (see The Case of the Disappearing Women Over 40: Anti-Aging and Symbolic Annihilation). Because I'm in the position to do something about that (rather than just ranting about it), I decided it was time to do my bit. And guess what? I posted the photo above of Joy Sassoon on our Facebook page, and it is literally going viral. I think that speaks to the hunger out there for more representation of this group.

However, there have been some complaints about lack of equality in this contest, so because I've received an outpouring of photographs of older woman doing yoga, I've decided that after I'm able to sort through all those photos and have posted a significant number of them, I will open the contest to men. Stay tuned!

Vincent, Age 51
Copyright by Sara Bennett 2013

—Nina

P.S. I received the following comment on Tuesday's post: 

"Although I love the women models I do not like the listing of their ages. If you added a caption with the age of all your models, it would be more balanced. Noting only the ages of women, and only older women, is feeding the 'anti aging' paradigm we would like to avoid."

This comment confused me. I thought women proudly stating their age was a good thing, as we are often taught to lie about our ages or be ashamed of being older. What do you think? Should I include the ages or not? (Of course, if I continue including the women's ages, I would also include the ages of men whose photos I post after that contest begins. I won't be posting Baxter's age on every single photo of Baxter, however, because I considered the photos of people demonstrating our poses to be in a different category.)

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Healthy Bones for Men and Women Alike

by Baxter

Man and Woman by Marie Lossky

Upon reviewing our blog this morning on the topic of thinning of the bones or osteoporosis, and its precursor osteopenia, I found we had discussed the condition quite a few times, with some posts looking at the very technical aspects of diagnosis, Wolff’s law and other helpful concepts (see What is Osteopenia? And How Can Yoga Help?). However, my motivation for investigating the topic one more time arose out of preparing for a Teacher Training workshop I led over the weekend in Berkeley.  I was teaching to a group of 18 yoga teachers attending a post-graduate program in yoga therapy at the Niroga Institute. Over the course of the weekend, we covered topics ranging from basic skeletal anatomy to diseases and illnesses like arthritis, scoliosis and osteoporosis. And in preparing for the seminar, I purchased Yoga for Osteoporosis by Loren Fishman, MD and Ellen Saltonstall, and read, with great interest, the first several chapters that lead into their recommendations of yoga poses for osteoporosis.

There were several points that jumped out at me that I feel are worthy of repeating or, in some cases, sharing for the first time on these pages. First off, there is the perception that I believe still exists among the general population that osteoporosis is primarily a problem for women, and so men immediately tune out when the topic comes up. I’d recommend you tune back in, fellas! The following statistics are compelling for me as a man to start addressing prevention of osteoporosis in my own life:

While it is impressive that one in two women over 50 have an osteoporosis-related fracture, it is still quite impressive that one in four men over 50 will also experience an osteoporosis-related fracture.  More men over 50 will sustain a hip fracture due to osteoporosis than will develop prostate cancer (this was shocking to me!)  How come this is not being announced all over the country! And the mortality rate in the first year after a hip fracture is 25%! That’s right, one in four adults who sustain a hip fracture will be dead and gone within the 12 months that follow the break.

So, it is now clear to me that this condition is of equal concern for both men and women and has profound and serious consequences once it develops. The typical recommendation, still found on all of your standard info outlets, is for patients with osteoporosis or at risk for osteoporosis to do weight-bearing, impact exercise ( like walking and running) to stimulate bone growth.  The trouble with this, as Nina notes in her evaluation of the Fishman early protocol for osteoporosis (Friday Q&A: Is Loren Fishmans Osteoporosis Sequence Safe?), is that this approach can actually worsen other conditions we often have as we get older, like osteoarthritis.

But the great news that I shared with my aspiring yoga therapists is that low-impact practices like yoga asana may be as effective as older, mainstream recommended practices, like walking, hiking, aerobics and such, with less chance of worsening conditions like arthritis. The research data that shows that we can stimulate new bone growth along lines of stress by holding poses for between 8-72 seconds is, for me, the pivotal nuance to add to the yoga practice you are already doing. Because of this, I have been working recently with holding postures for 30-60 seconds, depending on the physical demands of a given pose (for example, holding Downward-Facing Dog for 60 seconds while holding Hand to Foot pose (Hasta Padangustasana), a much more demanding pose on many levels, for 30 seconds).

Remember that engaging opposing muscle groups while doing the pose increases the stimulation of the underlying bone cells that make new bone. So, in Downward-Facing Dog I consciously engage the muscles around all the joints I can think of: wrists joints (the third most commonly fractured joint in osteoporosis), elbows, shoulders, hips (the second most commonly fractured joint in osteoporosis and the one with the gravest consequences), knees and ankles. And because the vertebrae of the spine are the number one area of fracture in osteoporosis and often lead to chronic, debilitating pain, I have been adding in accessible back bends, like Locust pose, low Cobra pose and Bridge pose, which engage the extensor spinae muscles that attach along the entire length of the spine, and therefore each vertebrae, and holding these poses for 30-60 seconds.

Fishman also notes that while the mainstream medical community has often warned about twisting actions for osteoporosis, as they could lead to vertebral fractures, he and Saltonstall have continued to include simple, basic twists, like seated Sukhasana twist, in their protocols. He believes they may actually be stimulating vertebral bone strength. And the main caution in doing yoga if you already have osteoporosis or osteopenia (precursor to osteoporosis) is avoiding or modifying deep forward bends, which can increase your chances of vertebral fractures.

So, the take home messages for my trainees and all of you:

• Osteoporosis affects both men and women as we age, and it is easier to prevent than it is treat it, so get your yoga going, especially you fellas!
• A well-balanced yoga practice, done on the feet or hands or both, is a “simple, silent, inexpensive, and impact-free (for those with arthritis) way of applying force…” to build bone. 
• Holding your poses for 30-60 seconds is the key adaptation in transforming any yoga asana practice into a bone-building practice, even for your limbs that may not be bearing weight (such as your arms in Warrior 2, for example).
• If you already have a diagnosis of osteoporosis or osteopenia, minimize or avoid forward folding poses.

Live long and have strong bones!

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