- OneBodyMindSoul

COLLAGEN AND IT'S FANTASTIC EFFECTS! By Eliane Carotta

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 10:55:51 -0800

Most part of women in my classes are seeking for their balance between physical and emotional body. I try to guide them as healthy as I can, by giving daily tips during classes, but articles, like this, are very important to be read and followed...

With the years, come the aging process that Yoga is expert in decrease... but there are some other investments to be done regarding diet, because in the end, you are what you ingest!

Today the subject is collagen, the largest and most abundant protein in our body.
As we age, the production of collagen drops way off, and almost all our structures can be affected, since this protein is a connective issue for important organs and parts of the body.
The production decreases because of hormonal changes, nutritional deficits, the sun (yes Miamians!), overwork, alcohol... and many other things very common in the diet and routine of a normal person.

If you'd like to decrease aging process, increase tone muscles, firm skin, rebuilt joints and resolve chronic problems as osteoporosis and high blood pressure (among others), start to add the "super" collagen, or hydrolyzed collagen (or simply gelatin), to your diet. The basic difference between the "super" and the regular, is that the first, the hydrolyzed one, suffers a process to reduce it's proteins into small peptides, becoming highly digestible, fastening the process into the body, and having less (or none) side effects.

Attention vegans, collagen is natural and has almost no side effects, but it's found into animals bones, skin, and connective issues, as cow, pigs, horses and fish.
There are vegan ones in the market, but as far as I know, they are made from genetically engineered tobacco plants... It's always good to search and research about it's efficiency and effects!

Enjoy tons of gelatin and improve your body!

This is where I found interesting facts to inspire me for this article:
http://www.thedoctorwithin.com/collagen/Collagen/

Basic Class for Beginners

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 19:52:58 -0800

This class is very basic and simple. I recommend it to students that are busy to follow a schedule at a studio, or traveling a lot without the opportunity to follow a instructor…

Tadasana (Mountain Pose) – improves posture, improves bladder control.

During 3 deep breaths, stay in this pose trying to empty your mind, adjusting you body to start the others poses (opening chest, extending the spine, keeping both base of feet on the floor). Inhale look up, arms up, stretch all your body, keep the breath for 5 sec and relax when exhale with the arms on the side.

Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend) - calms the brain, relieve stress.

Stand in Tadasana, hands on hips. Exhale and bend forward from the hip joints, not from the waist. Try to grab your toes with the fingers if you can, or just grab your legs. Each time you exhale try to extend a little bit more. Keep for 5 breaths.

Vrksasana (Tree Pose) - improves balance

Bend the left knee, bringing the sole of the left foot high onto the inner right thigh, press the foot into the thigh and the thigh back into the foot. Keep your hands on the hips, and focus at any stopped point. When you feel balanced, extend arms and keep it for 5 breaths. Repeat w/ the other side.

Virabhadrasana I (Warrior Pose I) - improves balance, coordination and concentration

From Tadasana step your feet around 4 feet apart. Raise your arms perpendicular to the floor (and parallel to each other), bend the right knee, keep the left leg extended and the left feet diagonal from your body (around 45 degrees). Keep it for 5 breaths. Repeat w/ the other side.

Virabhadrasana II (Warrior II Pose) - Stimulates abdominal organs, increases stamina

From Tadasana step your feet around 4 feet apart. Raise your arms parallel to the floor and reach them actively out to the sides, shoulder blades wide, palms down. Bend the right knee; keep the left leg extended and the left feet diagonal from your body (around 45 degrees). Keep it for 5 breaths. Repeat w/ the other side.

Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle Pose or butterfly) - Stimulates the heart and abdominal organs, improves circulation, and helps relieve mild depression, anxiety, and fatigue.

Sit and bend the knees bringing the soles of the feet together and letting the knees fall out to either side. Open your feet like a book, and grab your big toes w/ the fingers. Open chest, extend spine and come into a forward bend. Five breathings.

Marichyasana III - benefits the abdominal organs and spine, stimulates the brain.

Sit and bend your right knee bringing the heel close to your butt and wide, keep the left leg strong. Rotate your torso to the right and place your right hand behind you close to your sitting bones. Make a pressure with your left arm against the right leg and look up to your right shoulder. Keep it for 5 breaths. Repeat w/ the other side.

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose) - stimulates the thyroid, rejuvenates tired legs, improves digestion

Lie on the floor; bend the knees bringing the soles of the feet close to your butt. Lift the hips up towards the ceiling. Relax head, shoulders and arms. Pay attention on the breathing (inhale inflate, exhale empty chest stomach and belly). 5 deep breathings.
Relax for 1 deep breath bringing knees up to chest, balance body massaging back and repeat again the pose for + 5 breaths. Repeat the relax again, but after balance and massage your back, let your knees fall to the side and prepare to the last one:

Lie down in Savasana (Corpse Pose) - pacifies the body and quietness the mind by discharging muscular, nervous, mental and emotional tensions
Relax the whole body, including the face. Let the body feel heavy. Stay in this pose for 5 min. It's very important that you do this pose! The body needs this time to understand the new information it has received through practicing yoga.

Sit in lotus pose and recite the mantra OM 3 times when you exhale after a deep breath.

Patanjali (who wrote the Yoga Sutras and is considered to be the father of classical yoga) taught that when we chant this sacred syllable and simultaneously contemplate the meaning of it, our consciousness becomes "one-pointed: and prepared for meditation.

Good practice! Namaste!
Eli

Photos: www.yogajournal.com

Do you take care of your wrist? by Eliane Carotta

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 09:13:56 -0800

Due to potential impacts, falls or repeated activity as sustaining your body during push-ups or Vinyasas, or specific techniques as wristlocks, the wrist is a vulnerable joint to lots of injuries.
It is a small and maybe the most complex joint with delicate tissues around, as ligaments that knits it’s bones together, and tendons that connect the forearm muscles to the fingers. There is very little covering muscle or tissue on the top of the wrist.

In the case of athletes that punch, remember that hand has around 27 bones that need to be protected, and always wear hand wraps to avoid mild tear, a strain, sprain or even a rupture. Always use a careful and gradual approach to increase wrist flexibility and strength!While studying to write this article, I read that lots of fighters hurt their wrists by punching anatomically incorrectly. They don’t pay attention on how to align the hand when striking, or don’t align the wrist properly when doing a straight punch. If it is bent or bends during contact, wrist injury might occur.

In my classes I always teach a wrist therapy learned from Duncan Wong during a Yogic Arts® Teacher Training. This is the link for the video, so you can also learn and stretch yours:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbNdVmzwPq4

Another exercise I always recommend, since my wrist is a little weak and it works perfectly for me, is squeezing the tennis ball: Hold and squeeze the tennis ball as hard as possible (without pain) for 5 seconds and repeat 10 times. Increase as you practice to more holding and repetition.

In case you injured your wrist, try icing the area to reduce fluid accumulation. Wearing rigid splints that keep the wrists from flexing can also help.
And don’t exercise if you are in pain.
Many experts advice that rest and 24-hour splinting for two or more weeks are needed to prevent permanent nerve damage.

Yoga to overcome fear by Eliane Carotta

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:22:14 -0800

My first experience in Yoga was in Brazil and it was terrible!
I didn't connect with the teacher, and the style I tried by the time wasn't what I was looking for.
Years passed by and when already in Miami, I had my second experience right before my firts teacher training. I tried an Ashtanga class and it was a hard challenge to my body. I loved it.
During the teacher training, the two important things I learned were the spiritual side of Yoga and how to control myself and feelings, specially how to overcame fears.

During almost fifteen years of Martial Arts, I was always surrounded by tough guys and learned how to have a tough attitude (without losing my feminine side, of course), but since they were all huge and used to treat me like the little sister, I was always in the comfort zone, and never tried to really overcome my inner fears. In fact I didn't even think about it. The body was in shape, the ego was surrounded by lots of testosterone, and everything seemed ok.

One day in a Jiu-Jitsu class (the Brazilian martial art I used to practice), some guys were trying to do hand and headstand and I was amazed, but couldn't do it... To be sincere, I never tried, was always scared thinking I was protecting myself, because the truth is: I was frustrated and sad for not being able to do it. I built a protection inside me that nobody saw, but that little thing bothered me A LOT.

During my first TT in Miami (under teacher Reed Taylor from It's Yoga), I was asked to do a headstand. I panicked! During seconds my body froze and I didn't know what to do. I was studying to be a teacher, there were at least ten people looking at me, and I felt the dumbest person in the world.
To make a long story short, he helped me and taught me how to hold somebody... I was doing it by myself after a week, with that amazing feeling: overcoming a fear!

Yoga really empower you and can even unblock negative feelings and fears from childhood. It requires practice and persistence, but if it happened to me and to LOTS of people I've met, it can happen to YOU!

Besides overcome your physical, you also can improve other fears: the fear of poverty, the loss of a relationship, or of a job. It's all on your mind, and YOGA can work on your mind braking the negative cycle of energy. It's like an anti depressant or an anxiolytic, but without side effects.

Namaste!

Thinking before find your best friend! By Eliane Carotta

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 08:54:51 -0800

After deeply thinking about writing this article, I decided to put my emotions on the side and do something very statistical. Been involved with abandoned animals for more than twenty years (since Brazil) and the huge amount of emails and situations I’ve witnessed lately, motivated me to do it.
If you are considering having a pet, or know somebody willing to do it, you should read it before.

According to the APPA (American Pet Products Association) America’s spending on pets has grown despite the recession, with a 5.4% increase in 2009. The APPA’s annual comprehensive review shows spending on animals, food, supplies, veterinary care, grooming, boarding and pet sitting jumped to $45.5 billion in American in 2009, up from $43.2 billion in 2008. And it projects another increase — of nearly 5%– in 2010.
Looking at these numbers, I guess Americans are pet lovers and care about their companions, right?

According to a National Pet Owners Survey (2009-2010) published by The Humane Society of the United States, there are approximately 77.5 million owned dogs and 93.6 million owned cats in the United States. Nineteen percent of owned dogs and twenty-two percent of owned cats were adopted from an animal shelter.
Still nice and positive numbers?

Unfortunately national statistics show that nearly 50% of all animals in shelters are euthanized due to the lack of homes.
America has become a nation of disposable pet owners.
Four million cats and dogs—about one every eight seconds—are put down in U.S. shelters each year. Often these animals are the offspring of cherished family pets. Spay/neuter is a proven way to reduce pet overpopulation, ensuring that every pet has a family to love them.

Many cats and dogs who die as a result of pet overpopulation could have made wonderful pets. Between six and eight million dogs and cats enter U.S. shelters every year; far too many to all find homes.

Are you and your family willing to make around 10 year commitment? Choose wisely, for when the bond breaks, everybody concerned suffers.

These are some options if you decided to adopt a pet:
www.adoptapet.com
www.petfinder.com

Duncan Wong by Eliane Carotta

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:29:47 -0800

His background comes from San Francisco’s Chinatown, where he was born and had his Buddhist master.

The influence of his grandfather’s Gung-Fu practice and formal dojang (Korean martial arts school) training are very significant in his martial arts knowledge.
In yoga he comes from Ashtanga lineage of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, and he is also certified in the Jivamukti Yoga method as taught directly by Sharon Gannon and David Life.

He is Duncan Wong, the founder of Yogic Arts, a practice that mixes yoga and martial art.
His body-language-form-of-practice and his inner peace make everybody follow his movements. The soundtrack is unique: a mixing of hip hop and oriental sounds that overcome the usual and transform the mat in a space where you workout body, mind and soul with spirituality, and even humor sometimes. His unique way, his knowledge and humbleness, were far ahead my expectations. It was such an honor has somebody like him to practice and learn from!

What is Yogic Arts?

The Definition:
A Synthesized System comprised of organic movements from the disciplines of Yoga, Martial Arts, Body Work, Pilates + Dance.

The Principle:
Physical Enlightenment through Sacred Touch + True Grounding

The Results:
Rhythmic Movement Therapy + Superior Core Conditioning + Purified Energy
When did you first practice yoga, and how was the beginning in this style?

As a teenager, I turned to yoga as a pathway for healing from my combative urban youth.
As a childhood laborer with early martial artist roots, and later as a yogi and a body worker; I took the multi-faceted teachings of my masters, and intrinsically developed a practice and a natural movement within my own life. Also, my every movement resonated and evolved the Yogic Arts practice, in the same way an animal develops a feeling for its innate balance and power.
As a teacher-practitioner with 20+ years of movement experience to reflect upon, I have a high regard for compassion and wisdom towards those driven to seek their truth and perfection.
How do you feel the connection between you body and mind in your practice?

Two parts of a greater whole, which constitutes the conscious machine which we utilize as the divine instrument to play our sweet lives through.
Do you ever find that yoga takes you more "out of the world" than "into" it?

This all depends on the amount of intention and meditative quality we apply to our practice and the daily actions of our respective lives.
Reclusion into an ashram to attain enlightenment and then remaining there without sharing such acquired insight with others less fortunate enough to have this experience, is the antithesis of the yogic way and tradition.

Since you are a kind of yoga celebrity, what keeps you humble?

The consistent humility exemplified by my teachers, colleagues and students; and also the kind smiles on the faces of all the labor workers of the world, which I am a proud member of.
How do you view the current yoga boom, and what advices would you give to somebody that is just starting?

I view it as a clear global necessity for the continuation of love and humanity on the planet.
First, welcome to the healer-warrior path. You’re a yogi now : )
Secondly, with practice comes a responsibility to love your Self and Others equally. This begins from within, and involves practicing slowly and without inflicting pain on your body, heart and mind.
Remember, if it hurts and your breath is uneven, you’re not practicing yoga.Duncan has recently launched DVD's, Books, an iPod product with Apple, and his own clothing line in Japan, as well as establishing his Yogic Arts
headquarters this year, at the Namaste Yoga Shala in Shanghai. His line of clothing in the US is represented by I Love Yoga (www.iloveyoga.com).
+ info on his work and lifestyle products: www.yogicarts.com

A little something to make us think. Eliane Carotta

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 06:51:06 -0800

Above is a movie about the sad reality of millions of people around the world.

We can choose…Choose see it or not, choose do something about it or not, choose just pass through life and enjoy the beauty of it, closing the eyes to the reality around us. The choices are there every day. We have easy ways to enjoy, but we have challenging (harder) ways to make us do the difference.

If you choose to see it, you will see that besides all the poverty, they are happy, they spend time together… the family routine, the magic core of our emotional support system. The more you nurture them, the more they will nurture you. And this is not limited only to our "blood family" ...

After watch this, try to re-think your life. Are you living or just passing through?

Functional Strength Training for Triathletes by Jacque Crockford

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:04:39 -0800

Swim, Bike, Run, Eat, Sleep, and Repeat: That is the mantra of many, if not most, triathletes, right? But is there something missing from this formula? Yes, and by adding this "F" factor, you will be able to swim, bike, and run longer, faster, and without those nagging pains that years of this repetition has given you.

The "F" factor is Functional Strength Training. So, how does this type of training fit into the weekly regimen of a triathlete? Why should all triathletes and athletes in general, add it to their mantra? These questions and more will be answered and we investigate the "F" factor. Functional Training: Ask any exercise professional and he/she will tell you what their definition is, each one more elaborate and confusing than the last. Simply put, functional training is exercise designed to improve activities of daily living. Are you the kind of person who sits at a desk all day, never exercises, and thinks unloading the groceries is hard work.? The chances are, if you're reading this article, that's not you. For active individuals, and more specifically, triathletes, functional exercises can really benefit not only your daily living activities, like unloading the groceries, but also increase flexibility, decrease pain, and prepare you to be a faster, stronger, more efficient racer.

For most triathletes time is of the essence, so a day in your life might look a little like this: Wake up at 5am. At 5:05 you jump right on the bike until 5:55.You transition to a run until exactly 6:28 and are in the shower by 6:30. You grab whatever leftover pastry is on the counter for breakfast, sit through meetings all day, and at 6pm you drive to the pool. You arrive at 6:18 and are busting out hard 50's by 6:20. At 7:25 you're done with your last set and by 7:30 you're back in the car driving home. By the time you get home, your body is exhausted, feet hurt, quads sore, back on fire, and the only thing there to eat is leftover spaghetti and one lonely meatball. Sound familiar?

Putting the nutrition aside, by adding a few dynamic warm-up, strength, plyometrics, core, and flexibility exercises to your routine that desk job and drive home will be more comfortable, not to mention the improved performance you'll see, even at 5:05am. A study from the University of Nebraska School of Health said that " results indicate that anaerobic power is significantly related to distance running performance and may explain a meaningful percentage of variability in 10-km run time. Therefore, it may be beneficial for distance runners to supplement aerobic training with some power and speed development such as plyometrics and sprinting."

First, let's discuss the warm-up. As you probably know, it's never a good idea to go straight into a hard physical activity without a warm-up of some kind. The Q-10 rules states that for every 1 degree Celsius your body temperature increases, enzymatic activity increases by 10%. These enzymes increase blood flow to the working muscles and improve the pliability of the connective tissue. A few, very simple, body weight exercises are the first part of the "F" factor. March forward with tall posture, then change that to a knee hug, by actively pulling your knee into your chest as you walk forward. Next, try a traveling lunge, keeping your front knee over your ankle and reach both arms up to help stretch your lats and hip flexors. Lastly, jog 10 yards with high knees and then 10 yards with heels up to your backside. In as little as 5 minutes, your blood with be flowing, your muscles will be oxygenated and tissue's lubricated.

If you are the type of athlete who "doesn't have time for strength training", not only are you setting yourself up for an injury, but let's face it….yes you do! A 2007 study from the University of New Zealand found that "high-intensity training may improve performance but the combination of high-intensity training and explosive resistance training in the competitive phase is likely to produce greater gains in trained cyclists than high intensity cycling alone." Twice a week for about 30 minutes is all the time it takes to maintain strength and see benefits from functional training. After a dynamic warm-up, putting together a few full body, low weight, and high repetition strength and plyometric exercises is a great way to increase cardiovascular endurance as well as improve how your body moves as a unit. Why would you sit on a bench and do a bicep curl when you could stand on one foot and alternate the curls, or perform a full body squat and stand up into an overhead dumbbell press? Pick a few more exercises like these, put them together in groups of three or more, and you will have yourself a functional circuit. By doing 12-20 repetitions of these with 30-45sec rest after the last exercise, you will not only increase your muscular endurance, but will also be improving your lactate buffering system to help you finish a race with a strong kick.

Core training goes hand-in-hand with the functional exercises. Your core, or all of your body not including your appendages, must be strong in order to support your movements while you are swimming, riding, running, and yes, even unloading those groceries. If you have weakness in the center of your body, you will be drawing energy from other places, making movements more challenging when they don't need to be. Think about it: imagine if you were trying to shoot a canon from a canoe (I know, just go with me on this one). If you're in the canoe and the cannon goes off, you and the canoe will be shot backwards across the lake, right? Now imagine that you're shooting a canon off a solid block of concrete. Nothing moves, right? So if your core is strong you will be able to accelerate, or shoot off the canon, in the direction you want, not backwards into the reeds somewhere! By adding 5-10 minutes of exercises to strengthen your core (including shoulder joints, abs, glutes and hips) you will help to create a more balanced, stable environment where no energy will be lost. Scapula/abdominal/gluteus activating exercises such as planks, glute bridges, straight leg lifts, and pushups can be done in 1-2 sets of 10-20 repetitions 2-3 times per week. With this small investment of time, you will see a decline in back pain, improved posture, and an overall improvement in performance.

Lastly, static stretching should be an integral part of the triathlete's mantra. After your workout or training session is done, before you hop back in the car for the commute home, take five minutes to statically stretch (without movement) those major muscle groups that you just worked. Try to hold each stretch for 30-45 seconds. This gives the muscle time to adjust to the length and after 45 seconds, no added benefit has really been seen. You will feel better and chances are when you wake up tomorrow morning for your 5am bike ride, you won't be as sore.

So, now that you've been introduced to the "F" factor let's rewind that day in the life and see what's changed: 5am wake up, 5:05 dynamic stretching, 5:10 on the bike, 5:55 full body strength circuit completed three times, 6:20 full body static stretching, 6:30 in the shower….work, meeting, lunch, call home, drive the pool, 6:18 arrive at the pool, 6:25 finish a few core activating/dynamic stretches and in the pool, 7:25 out of the pool stretching back, quads, and shoulders. 7:30 drive home. You are feeling refreshed, tired but invigorated, loose and ready to go home with enough energy to cook a healthy meal. So it looks like there's a new triathlete mantra: Swim, Bike, Run, "F" Factor (as in functionally training my entire body to perform better), Eat, Sleep, and Repeat!

Jacque Crockford is a USAT Certified Coach and an Associate Coach with BodyZen MultiSport Coaching. She can be reached at jacque@bodyzen.com or visit www.bodyzen.com for more information.

Inspirational words, by Amanda Harris

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:57:39 -0800

Recently I felt completely out of my usual character. My typically energized personality was confronted with a sense of boredom in my daily routine. My mind and body literally felt numb as I let this negative mood sit in my mind. Aware of what I was feeling, I decided to take some time alone to find the true source causing these emotions.

At first I blamed my boredom on "the season" of summer as there are many less people living in Miami at this time. As I moved the blame to my professional life I noticed myself creating reasons as to why things hadn't been accomplished & choosing to believe that I had no control to make the change I desired. Suddenly I realized my lack of interest was all because I was expecting external sources to supply me with excitement. I was choosing to be bored and thus I became exactly that.

Immediately I decided to change the way I was looking at my life. I began to think of ordinary task as a challenge with great importance and in turn felt pride as I accomplished even the little things. As unexpected obstacles were thrown my way I choose to approach them as a sort of bonus round in this game of accomplishment I had created in my mind. Without notice everything I was doing became more fun and exciting. I became driven with passion and a natural energy developed, helping me live graciously in the present moment.

Nothing literally changed in my life, but I felt like I was in a whole new world of opportunity. I am thankful for this moment of negativity and for the ability to be conscious of my thoughts. For it made me realize that circumstances may be out of our control, but attitude, inspiration, and enthusiasm is powerfully directed from within.
Peace and love,
Amanda Harris
Yoga Coordinator
The Standard Spa Miami Beach

Om & Namaste, what does it mean? By Eliane Carotta

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:36:23 -0800

It's been a while that I was figuring something easy and nice to share. There are two "words" that we usually see on stickers, t-shirts, and even non-regular students repeat in yoga classes or salute in emails, but do people know what it means?

NAMASTE"Nama" means bow, "as" means I, and "te" means you. Therefore, Namaste literally means "bow me you" or "I bow to you." Namaste is generally used as a salutation, and can also mean "I honor the light in you that is the same in me." It also could be a more religious salutation where would be described as "I respect the divinity within you that is also within me", no matter what religion it is.
To perform Namaste, we place the hands together at the heart charka, close the eyes, and bow the head. It can also be done by placing the hands together in front of the third eye, bowing the head, and then bringing the hands down to the heart. This is an especially deep form of respect. Although in the West the word "Namaste" is usually spoken in conjunction with the gesture, in India, it is understood that the gesture itself signifies Namaste, and therefore, it is unnecessary to say the word while bowing.

OM - or AUM - is the universal sound and the most holy symbol in the hindu dharma (cosmic and ethical principals about the good and the right). It is also considered to be the root mantra from which all other mantras emerge and to encapsulate the essence of the many thousands of verses of Hinduism's holiest texts, the Vedas.
According to the Upanishads, "Om is the one eternal syllable of which all that exists is but the development. The past, the present, and the future are all included in this one sound, and all that exists beyond the three forms of time is also implied in it".
Often chanted three times at the start and/or finish of a yoga practice, the sound of OM is actually three syllables - a, u, and m. Some people chant "AUM" instead of "OM".