your brain on YOGA

Your Brain---Your Brain on yoga!!!

This wonderful CNN article highlights a new field of study called, "Contemplative Neuroscience" or the science of Meditation. Scientists have now proven that meditation transforms the circuts or pathways to the brain to increase functionality, focus, empathy and happiness. Changes in limbic system, which controls the endocrine and autonomic nervous systems AND the left side anterior region , responsible for generating positive emotions.

If you are a yoga dork like me and enjoy the "science" of yoga, this is a great article!!

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/26/can-meditation-change-your-brain

half moon pose, Ankle Strength/Core

Ardha Chandrasana/Half Moon Pose
What is one of the most common Spring sports injury? The ANKLE joint. Now that the sun is beginning to peak it’s head out more often, it’s time to amp up your Spring training and use yoga balance poses to strengthen ankles, calves, inner thighs and core. Spring sports like Soccer and hiking depend on the quick response, strength and flexibility of your ankle joint.

Half Moon pose is an important pose in the yoga sequence, because it teaches both the front/back (anterior/posterior) of the body to stabilize and balance, by in large because the core has to fire both front and back. This pose also requires mind, breath, body coordination and stretching of the side waist and chest.

Break it Down
Do at least 10 minutes of warm up before starting standing balance poses like Half Moon. Set a block down by the front of your mat to use as an extension of your hand if it doesn’t easily touch the floor.

Starting in Warrior II (Virahbdrasana II) with your right foot forward, and your knee bent in a direct line over your foot. Ease your right hand down to the block as help to propel you forward, so you can lift your left leg off the floor with the front body open. The point is to pretend there is an imaginary wall on either side of you, front and back, so move slowly enough you stay open like a star shape and feel your core and inner thighs engage. Try not to fling your body parts into an awkward shape, move slow, with your breath, and “feel” your way into the pose.

Start by holding the pose for 5 breaths and then come down slowly back into Warrior II. Over time, you won’t need the block, and you’ll develop the strength and finesse to lightly touch the floor with your balance hand.
The focus should be keeping your front and back body open, strengthening the standing leg and ankle and stretching the side waist and chest.

Half Moon Pose, Ankle Strength/Core

Ardha Chandrasana / Half Moon Pose

What is one of the most common Spring sports injury? The ANKLE joint. Now that the sun is beginning to peak it’s head out more often, it’s time to amp up your Spring training and use yoga balance poses to strengthen ankles, calves, inner thighs and core. Spring sports like Soccer and hiking depend on the quick response, strength and flexibility of your ankle joint.

Half Moon pose is an important pose in the yoga sequence, because it teaches both the front/back (anterior/posterior) of the body to stabilize and balance, by in large because the core has to fire both front and back. This pose also requires mind, breath, body coordination and stretching of the side waist and chest.

Break it Down

Do at least 10 minutes of warm up before starting standing balance poses like Half Moon. Set a block down by the front of your mat to use as an extension of your hand if it doesn’t easily touch the floor.

Starting in Warrior II (Virahbdrasana II) with your right foot forward, and your knee bent in a direct line over your foot. Ease your right hand down to the block as help to propel you forward, so you can lift your left leg off the floor with the front body open. The point is to pretend there is an imaginary wall on either side of you, front and back, so move slowly enough you stay open like a star shape and feel your core and inner thighs engage. Try not to fling your body parts into an awkward shape, move slow, with your breath, and “feel” your way into the pose.

Start by holding the pose for 5 breaths and then come down slowly back into Warrior II. Over time, you won’t need the block, and you’ll develop the strength and finesse to lightly touch the floor with your balance hand.

The focus should be keeping your front and back body open, strengthening the standing leg and ankle and stretching the side waist and chest.

Good luck!

If you have any questions, feel free to email me on

www.tonjareneehall.com

Tonja Hall teaches yoga for intense athletes (like you!) and sports teams in the Seattle area. She also teaches internationally and locally at Seattle Athletic Club as one of their senior instructors. Please check out her SAC schedule on her website

www.tonjareneehall.com

half moon pose

Ardha Chandrasana / Half Moon Pose

Now that the sun is beginning to peak it’s head out more often, it’s time to amp up your Spring training and use yoga balance poses to strengthen ankles, calves, inner thighs and core. Spring sports like Soccer and hiking depend on the quick response, strength and flexibility of your ankle joint.

Half Moon pose is an important pose in the yoga sequence, because it teaches both the front/back (anterior/posterior) of the body to stabilize and balance, by in large because the core has to fire both front and back. This pose also requires mind, breath, body coordination and stretching of the side waist and chest.

Break it Down

Do at least 10 minutes of warm up before starting standing balance poses like Half Moon. Set a block down by the front of your mat to use as an extension of your hand if it doesn’t easily touch the floor.

Starting in Warrior II (Virahbdrasana II) with your right foot forward, and your knee bent in a direct line over your foot. Ease your right hand down to the block as help to propel you forward, so you can lift your left leg off the floor with the front body open. The point is to pretend there is an imaginary wall on either side of you, front and back, so move slowly enough you stay open like a star shape and feel your core and inner thighs engage. Try not to fling your body parts into an awkward shape, move slow, with your breath, and “feel” your way into the pose.

Start by holding the pose for 5 breaths and then come down slowly back into Warrior II. Over time, you won’t need the block, and you’ll develop the strength and finesse to lightly touch the floor with your balance hand.

The focus should be keeping your front and back body open, strengthening the standing leg and ankle and stretching the side waist and chest.

Good luck!

If you have any questions, feel free to email me on

www.tonjareneehall.com

or FB Lionheart Yoga Training page

thank you!!

Pictures from my life in Thailand

The Cyclist and the Bangkok Cycling Challange

here's one of the funner stories from my travels as a touring Cyclist...enjoy!

">BKK Bilge Challenge


Let's just call today the Bangkok Addition of Survivor, Bangkok Cycling Challenge 2005.

Annie and friends, from the Cycling Hash (www.hashhouseharriersbangkok.com) decided it was time to school me on bike riding in BKK (Hereafter an acceptable abbreviation for Bangkok) and today was my first lesson. Basically you need to be insane which works really well for me, because I say a day without death defying adrenaline rush is a day not lived in Thailand!! After surviving being nearly crushed by taxis, busses, tuk-tuk, semi’s and lung collapsing pollution to the elevated walk/bike way 2 miles from my house we are off to a good start. Then it’s a series of on the bike, off the bike, heave it over my shoulder and huff up 3 flights of stairs every 30 feet for a mile. Urban cycle-cross.

Then it's the Bilge Challenge where we ride a cement catwalk over an open raw sewage pond for 2 miles, and if I don't puke or fall in I am golden, because no one will save me. Then through someone's overgrown back yard, under a fence, cross a freeway, opposite way down a one way street and finally make our dazed and confused way to the boat dock that will take us out of Bkk proper.


The colorful long boat pulls up and we angle our bikes in-between two wooden seats, enjoying the breezy 15-minute boat ride across the Chao Phraya River. I love it, 4 gringos (or “Farange” in Thai) clutching their thousand dollar mountain bikes on a Long boat in Thailand. Awesome!

We regain our cycling legs after the boat trip, then it's through the beautiful green countryside where we got "rad" on an over grown single track complete with snakes, lizards and feral dogs. The variety of green is such a cacophony that I stop, and open my eyes as wide as I can to take it all in.

The hardest part of the trip was the next 15 miles on the worst stretch of highway I've ever ridden. More trucks, taxis, semi's and tuk-tuks riding up our asses. There were sand traps, flooded road traps, and a tuk-tuk driver that slowed down to our 10 mile an hour pace, totally blocking traffic so he could practice his English. Meanwhile a symphony of semi horns was blaring. There were kids pouring juice on our heads as we passed the local bus. Thousands of motorbikes with whole families of 6 clinging off the back, feral children, ubiquitous 3rd world half dying dogs laying in the hiway as if they were safe as houses, push carts carrying everything from fruit to toilet plungers. The final straw, our cheerful but somewhat casual "guides" Annie and George who didn't really know the way but had a pretty good idea.

I was exhausted, when we finally end up on a Military base near the sea, miles from our intended destination. I soon forgot my fatigue because they had a lively restaurant for Thai families on a Sunday outing and I could smell fresh pad thai stir-frying in the woks.

We slid into our seats sweaty, road grimmey, ready to devour our beautiful Thai lunch. The place was filled with families and young military men. Then the oddest thing begins to happen. Every 10 minutes or so, a Samba beat would play over the speakers and a transvestite, or Lady Boy (“ka toy”) in a gaudy Thai version of Carnival costume would parade out, do a few hip twirls, then wave at a friend and trot over to them while the families carried on as if nothing unusual in the least was happening. We all looked around to see if we were hallucinating. It was utterly surreal especially at 1:00 in the afternoon on a MILITARY BASE!!

I love the strangeness of Thailand and the absolute tolerance of paradox.

We then made our way back to the boat via chicken bus, where they pack hundred’s of people on hanging off the sides and us and our bikes. It was hilarious!

I survived fixing a flat in the grime soaked, and cockroach infested street of the local market, transvestites, 50 miles of pollution, sunstroke, dehydration, jungle and finally putting my bike on the subway home (I did the last 8 miles thru the streets of BKK by myself without GPS locator) My reward was pulling up to the straw shanty shack of a beer stand near my house, impressing the Thai homies by skidding to a halt, and slugging a cold one.

There is nothing I have found yet more refreshing than a cheep Singha beer after a death defying, sweaty day in Thailand.

If you are up for it, I challenge any cyclist to the BKK Bilge Challenge next summer.

I’ll buy the beer.

yoga pose of the month "Baddha Konasana"

Yoga Pose of the Month

Baddha Konasana

“Bound Angle Pose”

Spring is here! With all of it’s fickle weather that will have you smiling into the sun one minute, and running for cover from a hailstorm the next. Spring is such a tease, and it’s a time of wild transition that leaves most folks feeling a little spacey.

Time to get grounded!

At this time of year, most of us are trying to quickly shed our winter coats that may have settled around the mid section and the hips, creating some stiffness and discomfort. Baddha Konasana is one of the most perfect poses to gently stretch your inner thighs, groin and knees that will keep you flexible from your mid morning run or post winter soccer try outs. This pose is also soothing for menstrual pain and sciatica.

Here we go:

I suggest that you warm up with a few down dogs or vinyasa first to heat the large muscle groups of the body. Then, before you sit down on your mat, grab a blanket and fold it up like a burrito. Sit your sit bones on the edge of the “burrito” so your pelvic bone can tilt forward and give the knees, hips and inner thighs more room to stretch, especially if you have a tight low back. Once you are in position, bring the soles of the feet together, and draw your heels up as close to the groin as possible. From there, you can grab your feet, shimmy your sit bones back a touch, and round forward over your feet.

All together now.

Let’s put this pose together with a few others now for a little feel good sequence, that includes forward bending to kick in the relaxation response, and a mini back bend to fire up your nervous system and bring your forward bends into balance.

1. Sit on your “burrito” blanket in a cross-legged seat, for a seated twist. Bring the opposite hand to knee, and exhale on the twist.
2. Bring the soles of feet together for Baddha Konasana and sit in this pose for a minute.
3. Then, plant your feet on your mat about hip width, palms flat on the floor behind you, and lift your hips for Table Top pose. It is a half back bend.

Drop your hips back down on your “burrito” and extend your legs straightforward, bending at the hips for a forward bend.

Do this sequence 3x slowly after a run, or your workout, and you will feel amazing. Guaranteed.

P.S. great yoga pose resources are at www.yogajournal.com or at www.melinameza.com

Tonja Renee Hall

Yoga Instructor SAC downtown

Lionheart Yoga training

www.tonjareneehall.com

Yoga trainer for the Seattle SeaHawks and Sounders,fc.