Any yoga "experts" here? page

[Valkyria]

I do a bit of yoga, but I've only ever used dvd's and books. I'm looking for exercises that might help relieve tension in neck/shoulders and upper back, and hips/inner thighs.
Advice/links would be very much appreciated.

[ErinC]

These are some of my favourite yoga postures. You can google them to get details on how to do them and/or pictures of how they look. These ones feel so good if you hold them for a really long time.

For hips:
Pigeon pose
Frog pose
Kneeling lunge with hands or forearms on the floor on the inside of the forward foot (man, I have no idea what this is called!)

For groin and lower back (which can contribute to tight hips):
Wide-legged forward bend
Garland pose (Hindi squat)

For shoulders/upper back:
Puppy pose/Happy puppy
Dolphin pose
Eagle arms

[Yvonne PHX]

Echo: pigeon, dolphin and eagle. I would also highly recommend taking a class (at a Yoga studio--not a gym) or even an alignment workshop if you can find a studio that offers them. It is so easy when doing yoga with books or DVDs to get the poses wrong and end up doing more harm than good.

[zoebird]

i taught in gyms for years, so ask the teacher -- as the teacher in the gym might be a very good and/or highly qualified yoga teacher.

though, in a studio, you might be more likely to find a more qualified teacher, but with teacher trainings running amok, that's not necessarily the case.

anusara teachers are highly trained, so look for anusara classes.

[Loana]

I have been doing yoga for years and love it. I agree completely with the poses suggested (eagle and pigeon help me the most with where I hold tension...along with lion pose for my notorious jaw tension) and I agree and also suggest taking a class...even just once every other week to supplement your at home practice. It is amazing how when you show up they always address something that you need to know...even if you didnt know what it was when you showed up. The shared energy in the room and the information you take away is SO worth it. I don't get to do this right now...a teenager, a toddler and a husband have squeezed the regularity out of my schedule. But, the value of it is still not lost on me. I'll be back!

[AndreaReina]

When performing the postures make sure that your attention is on the alignment of your skeleton and how the muscles feel. Not because alignment in itself is terribly important, but because moving a joint produces proprioceptive input to the brain which reduces all sorts of discomfort (tension at one end of the spectrum, pain at the other). Attention improves the effect, and being in a playful state of mind enhances it most of all.

You get proprioceptive input when the joint is still as in a yoga pose, but you'll actually get much more actually moving the joint. So you can do some simple mobilization drills instead: come into the pose, then come out of it. Repeat 30 times or so (the high number is very beneficial). Or since you'll get better input when the joint is moving but not loaded much, lie on your back, bend your knee, and do some leg rotations, making sure to get the edges of your range of motion. For the shoulders, get your back against a wall with your arms raised over your head, palms out. Keeping the arms and hands in contact with the wall, slide your hands down until they're beside your shoulders. Shrug slowly, release the shrug, slide the hands back up and repeat.

[Yvonne PHX]

i taught in gyms for years, so ask the teacher -- as the teacher in the gym might be a very good and/or highly qualified yoga teacher.

though, in a studio, you might be more likely to find a more qualified teacher, but with teacher trainings running amok, that's not necessarily the case.

anusara teachers are highly trained, so look for anusara classes.

ITA. I don't know what gyms are like in Europe. Here in the US, you may have a chance of finding a quality yoga instructor at a local gym, but the chance of finding one at the big corporate gyms is pretty much zero. I'll never forget going to my first yoga class in a gym and having the teacher say, "Don't think about your breathing -- just do the poses." Um...ignore your breath? In YOGA?

[unchatenfrance]

Tree pose and swan pose with quad stretch for hips!

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_d-omNOc9pB...n_TreePose.jpg
http://wholelivingdaily.wholeliving....-STRETCH-1.jpg

[Valkyria]

Thanks a lot for your replies everyone. You have been ever so helpful! I'll look into yoga classes, but I can't really afford to pay to much. Maybe a one-to-one session could be worthwhile if I can find someone who offers that.

[zoebird]

private lessons will run $75-100 per hour. I charge $100, and honestly, that's low for me, but i don't have a following here. well, i do now, but i didn't when i moved here.

anyway, classes. . . easy way to get inexpensive ones is to do work-study.

a lot of studios have odd jobs (eg, cleaning the studio) in exchange for yoga classes. i worked at one studio for YEARS just greeting people and taking their money before class, and got SO MUCH free yoga. Greet for one class, get two classes free! I often worked 3 or 4 classes a week, so that I could go to class every day. it was super-fun.

so, ask around. at my studio, i have 1 student in each class who cleans our studio for us after class. you vacuum and dust and it takes about 20 minutes. you get class for free. seriously, it works well for us.