Maxine Bahns got hooked on the exhilaration of athletic competition
in 2000, when she entered her first triathlon at age 30 and finished
third in her age group. "It fired me up like nothing else," says the Los
Angeles-based actress. But as she entered more and more races, she grew
increasingly uncomfortable with their physical and mental toll. 
When Melody Parker, a former professional volleyball player and the
coach of the Santa Barbara City College men's volleyball team, first
introduced her athletes to yoga, they were skeptical. But Parker, who
has been practicing for 15 years, persevered.
It's early in her morning practice when Gillian Gibree takes a familiar asana: Adho Mukha Svanasana
(Downward-Facing Dog Pose). To start waking up her arms and legs, she
presses evenly through her hands and feet. She lifts her sitting bones
skyward as she relaxes her neck and finds extension in her long spine. 
It's summer, and a hike in the sunshine beckons—but so does the yoga
class that starts in 15 minutes. Fortunately, opportunities to mix a
session of invigorating trail hiking with focused, mat-free asana
practice are everywhere these days.
If you love sports you know that injuries come with the
territory - caused by repetitive motion, imbalances in your biomechanics,
or in many cases both! But if you practice yoga, you have a great tool
at your disposal for preventing injuries. A yoga practice encourages you to take inventory of your body as you
practice.
When former president Bill Clinton mentioned in a CNN interview that
he'd adopted a near-vegan diet for the sake of his heart's health, the
media went wild. Once known for his love of hamburgers and junk food,
Clinton—who had bypass surgery in 2004 and an angioplasty in 2010 to
remove blockages from a clogged artery
Air travel may be more than just uncomfortable; it could be the cause
of a serious medical condition referred to as deep vein thrombosis
(DVT). DVT occurs after periods of prolonged immobility when a blood
clot—usually formed in the lower leg, but sometimes beginning in the
thigh or pelvis—blocks a major vein. Typically, such a clot dissolves
once a traveler reaches his or her destination and walks around.
Heather, a Boston-area bodyworker, has been under stress lately, and
she's starting to feel its effects. Blustery winter weather has arrived
in New England, and she has a hard time keeping warm. With the economy
yet to rebound, appointments at the spa where she works are still off
Yoga practice often acts like an elixir for restoring energy. Yet there
are times when even the most energetic practitioner suffers from fatigue
while on the mat. There are numerous causes for low energy during yoga:
stress, overwork, lack of rest, a poor diet, digestive problems, and
toxicity (ama), to name but a few. 
Springtime is magical, dynamic, and even sexy. As nature moves out of
the cold, wet, dark winter toward spring, the pulse of life quickens,
the earth warms, and blossoms unfurl, reaching for the sun. Nature makes
it look smooth, but for us humans it's not as easy to transition
gracefully from one season to the next
Each morning across India and beyond, people offer prayers to the
resplendent, full-breasted goddess Lakshmi. Adorned in a rich red silk
sari with copious golden ornaments and a full head of gleaming, long
dark hair, Lakshmi Devi's luminous skin, full face, and deep magnetic
eyes signal her irresistible enchantment.
Ayurveda,
which translates as "knowledge of life," dates back 5,000 years to the
ancient Sanskrit texts, the Vedas. It's a system of healing that
examines physical constitution, emotional nature, and spiritual outlook
in the context of the universe. According to the philosophy, universal
life force manifests as three different energies, or doshas, known as
vata, pitta, and kapha. We're all made up of a unique combination of these three forces.
Though everyone has some of each, most people tend to have an abundance
of one or two of the doshas.
Yoga handles stiff hips in a variety of ways, but most directly
through a family of poses that are known loosely as "hip openers." Some
hip openers increase the external, or outward, rotation of the femur
bone in the hip socket. Others lengthen the psoas muscle, a primary hip flexor
connecting the torso and legs that gets chronically shortened in our
chair-bound society.
Which yoga is for you? Yoga, by definition, is one thing: union. But
the methods used to achieve that union are many. By some counts, there
are hundreds of styles. To help you understand what's on offer, we've
created this guide to prominent yoga styles.
Occasionally a body builder will wander into one of my yoga classes
in Venice Beach from the famous Gold's Gym down the block (where Arnold
Schwarzenegger trained in the 1970s). These students have powerful
bodies, but I've noticed that they often struggle with poses like Adho
Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog Pose) because their muscle mass
isn't balanced with flexibility.
Remember Twister? It was "The game that ties you up in knots!"
Introduced in the 1960s, Twister took off after Johnny Carson and Eva
Gabor played a risque version of it live on The Tonight Show. The point
was for players to stretch in all directions; learn to balance on their
hands and feet in strange positions without falling over; interact with
friends in a new, slightly outrageous way; and of course, have fun!
How often have you heard people say, "I can't do yoga—I can't even
touch my toes"? What they don't realize is that yoga isn't about
touching your toes or achieving any other goal; it's about learning to
skillfully move your body through its appropriate range of motion. When
you practice Prasarita Padottanasana (Wide-Legged Standing Forward
Bend)
When you take Ardha Matsyendrasana toward the end of a challenging
sequence, it can be tempting to relax and use the twist as a way to wind
down. But don't let yourself zone out, or you'll miss the gifts this
pose has to offer. The real essence of a twist is not the shape of the
pose, which can seem fairly easy to assume. It's the action of twisting
that brings benefits—the contracting of your torso muscles, the
elongating and rotating of your spine, the deepening of your breath. If you work consciously step by step
Though it sounds impressive in Sanskrit, Urdhva Prasarita Padasana
rendered in English becomes the decidedly clunky "Raised Stretched-Out
Foot Pose." The name is much ado about a fairly simple exercise that has
deep benefits, but most teachers just call it by its initials. UPP
involves nothing more than lying on your back and swinging your extended
legs through a slightly less than 90-degree arc, from perpendicular to
the floor to nearly—but not quite—parallel, and back again.
Virabhadrasana I (Warrior Pose I) is a vigorous standing pose that
demands focus and determination to meet its challenges. The full
expression of the pose takes some serious multitasking. It asks you to
do several actions at once that seem to pull you in opposite directions:
You must lift up while grounding down and press forward while reaching
backward.
Whether you spend your days typing, driving, playing guitar, or
adjusting your yoga students, repeated motions can cause tightness,
strain, and repetitive stress injury. Because so many daily activities
involve the arms, shoulders, and wrists, says Daren Friesen, director
and founder of Chicago's Moksha
Yoga Center, you'd be wise to build
