Yoga Insider

Welcome to The Yoga Insider, a monthly publication by Yoga Alliance® compiling the most current news about yoga. Browse the news by category and check out the archived editions to your right.

Edition 6 | November 2014

Archives

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Categories

• Business
• Community
• Education
• Health & Research
• Inspiration
• Legal & Government
• Practice
• Sports
• YA in the News

Business

Let’s Get This Thing Started!

• NPR highlighted the popularity of yoga and mindfulness among Silicon Valley tech workers. San Francisco’s annual Wisdom 2.0 conference spreads the power of mindfulness, teaches “how to better listen, connect and observe in the course of a fast-paced life,” and features presenters such as Google marketing executive Gopi Kallayil. (October 21)

• Washington Post reports the NoMa (North of Massachusetts Avenue) Business Improvement District in Washington, D.C. opened “its own studio: Yoga NoMa,” on donated space with a neighborhood architecture firm offering “its interior design services gratis.” The payoff “is some of the most affordable yoga in the city.” The story includes a photo of Yoga NoMa instructor Lisa Loring, E-RYT 200. (October 28)

• Los Angeles Times profiled the “guy-centric” Broga Yoga. There are “more than 100 Broga Yoga instructors, expected to grow to 500 by the end of the year,” according to Broga Yoga co-founder Adam O'Neill. Meanwhile, in a “growing trend, craft breweries are offering on-site yoga instruction followed by beer tastings, known as BrewAsanas” or, in Los Angeles, “Detox Retox.” (October 24)

• Charlotte Observer (N.C.) reports on Yoga on Tap, a popular and free yoga class that takes place at Olde Mecklenburg Brewery. A spokesperson for the “mostly silent” sponsor Lululemon Athletica Southpark said the company “was interested in introducing more men to the female-dominated discipline and thought a brewery might do the trick. … Olde Mecklenburg Brewery, meanwhile, was interested in introducing more women to its beer.” (October 20)

• Washington Post reports the Gold’s Gym Elite Training Center in Woodbridge, Virginia opened in October “with a boxing ring, jungle gyms, aerial yoga and bubble soccer,” as part of a “new approach to fitness that challenged the traditional model” that many chains followed. (October 20)

• Washington Times reports about efforts made by Washington D.C.’s Congressional Cemetery’s president Paul Williams to make the cemetery more visited by scheduling unlikely events there, like races and yoga. Local resident Kristine Enderle: “They just started doing yoga classes that they call ‘yoga mortis’… [there’s a] really funny sense of humor that I really appreciate.” (October 23)

• Los Angeles Times profiled a yoga-Pilates “workout in a bag” called Rocket Innovations Xpodz. The story praises its “simple, effective and compact design that gives you a legitimate living-room strength and aerobic workout by accentuating the challenge of standard yoga and other exercise positions like downward dog and push-ups.” (November 7)

Community

Here’s to You and Yours...

• WISH-Indianapolis featured local yoga instructors Gail Payne, RYT 200, and Nancy Schalk, E-RYT 500, during a television broadcast discussing benefits of yoga for veterans, breathing exercises and two yoga postures that help ease tension in the hips that comes from a culture of sitting. (November 4)

• Huffington Post featured an interview with Kristin Cooper-Gulak, E-RYT 500, and Sylvia Jabaley, MPA, about their service, or seva, to orphaned girls in India through service trips, campaigns to build more orphanages and compassion. Cooper is the founder of Wilmington Yoga Center and Kunga Yoga School, RYS 200, RYS 300, in Delaware; Jabaley is the program coordinator for Homes of Hope India-US and the co-founder of Yoga Village. (October 28)

• Roanoke Times (Va.) profiled Grace Yoga Studio and the benefits of yoga that owners Colleen Carrell, RYT 200,and Patty Bartoldus, RYT 200, bring to their community. Students at Grace Yoga tout benefits ranging from lower blood pressure and increased mobility to glaucoma pain relief. (November 5)

• Seattle Times contributor Nicole Tsong, E-RYT 200, RYT 500, writes about Sol Yoga in Leschi, Washington, a studio that offers a combination class consisting of yoga and high-intensity interval training with weights. Tsong: “I underestimated how fun it is to add interval training to a yoga practice. It’s not the same experience as a yoga class, although you will get the benefit of breathing and yoga poses.” (November 7)

• WYFF-Greenville (S.C.) featured local yoga and meditation instructor Craig Metcalf, E-RYT 200, in a Nov. 9 television broadcast about techniques for safe driving, including deep breathing, time management and respecting other drivers. Metcalf: “The more we can make that human connection, the more that we will be able to foster…compassion on the roads.” (November 9)

Education

The Best Defense is a Proactive Offense

• Buffalo News (N.Y.) reports University at Buffalo associate professor Catherine Cook-Cottone, RYT 500, and Williamsville school counselor Linda Kane conducted studies "in both the Williamsville school district and at Nichols School" in Western New York to learn how yoga can be used as a "prevention tool" for eating disorders. "The research was defended in April by Emily Keddie in her dissertation, 'Eating Disorders and Anxiety in a Middle School: A Yoga and Mindfulness-Based Primary Prevention Program.'" (November 3)

• Pickerington Times-Sun (Ohio) reports about “Mindful Mondays” at Tussing Elementary School, a program led by school counselor Kathy Baird. For 15 minutes, students in grades 1-3 may trade in recess for a community-donated mat to practice yoga for relaxation and stress management. Baird: “Truly, it’s the best part of my week.” (November 4)

• Daily Utah Chronicle (University of Utah) reports about a free yoga class and tour of the Krishna: Lord of the Vrindavan exhibit at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA). Coordinator for campus engagement at UMFA Iris Moulton: “I want [attendees] to feel a new energy at the museum…while there are people looking at the [art], there is a chorus of ‘ohms’ in the background.” (November 5)

• WGN-Chicago profiled Smarty Pants Yoga in Chicago during a television broadcast, interviewing founder Annie Warshaw, RYT 200, about business "teaching 1st through 5th graders in 40 different city and suburban schools." Each class "centers on a different issue told through the story of a strong female character. ... The classes give young ladies a chance to find their voice and express it in the right way." (October 27)

Health & Research

A Mantra a Day Keeps the Aches at Bay

• Wall Street Journal reports a study reveals how scoliosis patients have benefited from yoga. “Researchers suggest practicing the side plank, or vasisthasana, pose on the curved side can strengthen muscles in the lower back, abdomen and spine that allow the spine to straighten.” (October 27)

• TIME reports about a study on alternative therapies for breast cancer patients published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute Monographs that rates yoga and meditation, along with visual imagery relaxation, as the three most beneficial methods for reducing anxiety and “symptoms of mood disorders…common among” these patients. (November 4)

• Saratogian News (N.Y.) reports this marks the first in a series of “yoga programs for veterans and their families.” Gulf War veteran Doug Hildebrand: “Regaining the connection with self is invaluable when dealing with the stress from combat. Yoga has helped me reclaim that connection.” (November 9)

• WXIA-Atlanta's Jaye Watson reported during a television broadcast about the positive effects children experience from practicing yoga. Watson: "So the kids really do get a lot of benefit from yoga. It enhances their flexibility, strength, (and) coordination. It helps them de-stress, improves their concentration and many believe it can improve self esteem." (November 12)

Inspiration

The Discipline of Yoga

• Huffington Post features guest contributor Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s first installment of posts in which he explains the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, a collection of short aphorisms, teaching how to apply them to life. Shankar discusses the first sutra, Discipline of Yoga, and how it helps connect back to the self and “contend with the overpowering nature of [mind’s activities].”
  
  Shankar: “Discipline arises when something may not be enjoyable at first, but you know it will bear fruit over time that will be enjoyable. When you are centered in your Self, you are in joy, peace and happiness. There is no discipline there. But when this is not so, the mind is busy and ‘wags its tail’ all the time. Discipline is essential to calm the mind so it can come back to the Self. The fruit of discipline is joy and happiness.” (October 22)

• WCVB-Boston reports yoga instructor Marsha Therese Danzig, E-RYT 200, RYT 500, "developed a specialized" yoga program "for amputees," which caters to affected military veterans in Yarmouth, Massachusetts. Danzig, who "lost her leg to cancer" as a teenager: "I knew that they would connect with me. In fact after the class, someone said one of the guys wasn't going to do yoga at all. But then he mentioned that I was an amputee and he said, 'Oh, OK,' and he did it."
  
  Retired Army Specialist Steve Bohn, who was severely injured by a suicide bomber, "tried yoga before, but learning from Danzig brought his experience to a new level because she has a better understanding of what his damaged mind and body are experiencing." Bohn: "I think she gives all of us inspiration. Everyone helps, has their own challenges and it just proves that no matter what your injury is, there's always an adaptive way of doing it and it gives you hope again." (November 11)

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Legal & Government

And Now It’s on to the Next Round

• Arizona Daily Star reports former probation officer Peter Lund, 70, "spends his Friday afternoons volunteering at the same place he retired from — this time, as a yoga teacher for the children being held at" the Pima County Juvenile Detention Center. Detention center inmate Matt, 17: "You can't be mad when you're in a tree pose." (October 29)

Practice

Whatever Floats Your Boat…

• Huntsville Times (Ala.) profiled yoga teacher Lori Smith, RYT 500, who includes Christian biblical teachings in her classes. She "transforms the suggested chant of 'om,' a Hindu prayer, into 'Shalom,' which is Hebrew for the peace that comes from completeness, the peace that ends all chaos." Smith: "Some Christians don't accept me because I practice yoga. And some yogis don't accept me because I incorporate Christian prayer into the practice. So I'm kind of a pariah." (October 29)

• Reuters reports that “a worldwide survey of more than 3,000 fitness professionals” published in October by the American College of Sports Medicine rated Stand Up Paddleboard Yoga (SUP) “number seven among the top 10 fitness trends for 2015.” The story quotes SUP instructors Gillian Gibree, E-RYT 200, and Jessica Matthews, E-RYT 200. (October 27)

• CBS News reported during an October television broadcast about the benefits of children’s yoga in an October 22 broadcast that features Pleasance Silicki, E-RYT 200, RCYT, RPYT, an organizer of the inaugural National Kids Yoga Conference. Silicki: “We want to give [kids] some tools to function in this really stressed-out world.” (October 22)

• Miami Herald profiled the second annual A Mindful Miami conference, which took place in Miami on October 25 and focused on the positive benefits of consciousness and mindfulness on all aspects of life. Early Childhood Initiative Foundation president David Lawrence, Jr.: “Mindfulness, at its soul, helps us to be better people.” (October 19)

• Yoga Dork highlights the October 24 episode of popular game show Jeopardy and how it featured a category titled “Strike A (Yoga) Pose.” The category was about yoga poses and was the last group of clues to be chosen by contestants. (October 27)

• Northwest Florida Daily News features a mother-child yoga class at the Coastal Branch Library, where mothers can relax while their children play and connect to themselves and their mothers, says instructor Lauren Catanese. Another local yoga instructor, Kim Mosby, RYT 200, says children can benefit from “yoga’s nonjudgmental atmosphere.” (November 9)

• Courier (Tx.) contributor Jan Dial, RYT 200, writes in a column, "For those who feel they have let their health slide in recent years, or for those who are looking for ways to enhance their current regimen, yoga and its sister science [A]yurveda offer guidance from the very start of the day. Three simple habits — hardly adding a minute to your morning routine — can produce results that are immediately noticeable." (November 2)

Sports

Top Dog, Thanks to Down Dog

• USA Today reports on high school basketball player Jaylen Brown’s “bi-weekly” practice of hot yoga to stay in shape. Brown is a Georgia resident ranked second in ESPN’s 2015 Recruiting Database. Brown: “The different stretches and different poses unlock energy reserves in your body. I can definitely say that I’ve seen a difference since I’ve been doing it.” (October 16)

• Wall Street Journal reports that yoga is part of Atlanta Hawks center Al Horford’s approach to training as he recovers from recurring injuries sustained during basketball season. Horford: “I discovered there’s more to it than just improving flexibility. It gives me a lot of energy and calms my mind.” (November 3)

• Scout.com reports Rutgers University football player Gareef Glashen "finds himself as the top dog at cornerback" on the team, crediting "three days a week of down dog, and a dozen other positions learned in yoga class." Glashen: "I think it helps everything. When you're more loose and more flexible, you're just a better football player." (November 7)

YA in the News

Sounds Pretty Good to Us!

• Associations Now features an article on Yoga Alliance®’s Social Credentialing system and the benefits Yoga Alliance® has reaped from it thus far. Yoga Alliance®'s former President Richard Karpel, on a Registered Yoga School’s complaint about a trainee’s publicly posted review of its training program: “Her comments were exactly the kind…Social Credentialing [is] designed to encourage—thorough, factual, constructive feedback the school can use to improve.” (October 23)