Tagged: wellness.
September 13th, 2010

Breath for Yoga and Singing

Haven’t posted in ages and doubt that this is going to improve much given how busy we are at work, but I just wanted to put this down for posterity.

I have been practicing fairly gentle hatha yoga for some time now and have dabbled with Vinyasa flow and also taken up a now-interrupted Anusara class. Part of this was due to problems with my knees - years of poor alignment and training for a 5km event in October ensured that my left, especially started paining me with symptoms of beginning chondromalacia.

Recently my Anusara teacher and a visiting Iyengar specialist recommended that I do 2 things for my knees - align my knees especially lengthening and strengthening the muscles running along either side and strengthen and reinforce my arches. This has worked and while they still twinge occasionally, my lunges and squats are far more fluid (tho’ I’m still careful about how deep I go). I’ve also reduced the running to about once a week.

What’s interesting tho’ is that I noticed that aligning my knees and concentrating on the mucles on either side of the patella (kneecap) has actually allowed me to open up my lower back and my breathing has really improved as a result (at least when I remember to do it). Side-effects - 1) I ran 4.2km without my heart-rate sky-rocketing like it usually does. 2) My singing (did I mention that I sing classical repertoire?) has suddenly got tonnes more support and depth. I was always groping around wondering what vocal teachers meant when they asked me to support with my back muscles and suddenly I know!

Being scientifically-minded, I spent some time trying to figure out what was going on and idle googling turned up the Bandha Yoga site that looks at the effects of yoga on the muscles and bones. Click through here to a fantastic animation that shows how the psoas and quadratus lumborum (lower back muscle) work together to arch the spine and flex the ribs. The psoas is a long muscle that runs from the lumbar spine to the femur (thigh bone). Stabilising the knees stops the part of the psoas that links to the femur from moving, thus meaning that psoas contraction will stabilise and open the lumbar spine. Voila, the quadratus lumborum can contract and pull the ribs down - and I discover what singing support actually means!

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∞10:30 pm, by betweenmoments ∩1  |  Comments
[Yoga] [Anusara Yoga] [Hatha yoga] [breathing] [knees] [wellness]
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July 18th, 2010

Getting fit - P90X Lean

Meez 3D avatar avatars games

I posted a while ago that I was embarking on the P90X lean journey in order to get fitter for Kota Kinabalu. Well, I’m now into week 3, ‘tho mind you, I am not following it religiously - how can someone with any life at all follow an exercise program that calls for you to manage an hour to an hour and a half of exercise 6x a week?

I’m not the 5:30am wakeup call for exercise kind either - I tried that a few years ago and just felt awful the entire day. However, I am keeping it up as much as I can (exercising most evenings) ‘though its probably going to be closer to a P150X programme for me.

I also haven’t followed the diet plan religiously ‘tho I have consciously tried to eat low fat/high protein as far as possible (difficult when Asian diets are pretty much carb city).

While I haven’t lost a tonne of weight (0.5 - 1kg depending on the day I take it), but my body fat percentage has been showing a very nice and consistent drop with every week I’ve been on the programme and is now hovering at 26.7% (having started at 29.8%). Measurements have dropped too and I have halved the size of my incipient beer belly.

I have to say the programme was torturous at the beginning - I could only do 40 minutes of the 1 1/2 hour YogaX programme on my first try and less than half of all the ab exercises, but it’s been getting much more doable and I am now pretty much keeping up with the guys onscreen through about 80% of the workouts as a whole. I’m still not doing pullups and relying on the bands tho’ - I hope I’ll be able to graduate to pullups by the third month on the programme.

In short, if you can stick with it, the programme does seem to work - I’m hoping that I can keep it up through 2 business trips to Korea and China starting from next week…. Found that ripping the videos to MPEG and sticking them on my mobile phone seems to work.

One thing I’ve stuck to is low-fat chocolate milk immediately after workouts and it really seems to make consecutive days of exercise easier. I drink more if I feel really wasted after the workout and less if it doesn’t seem warranted - really seems to cut down on aching muscles and tiredness.

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[Health] [P90X] [Weight loss] [experiences] [Wellness]
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10 Characters You May Encounter in Yoga Class. | elephant journal

Oh yes, we’ve all been there. I’d like to add:

The OM-averse - the lady who comes to Yoga class in her best Adidas top and leopard-skin pants; pushes through every Asana and then runs for the hills claiming a late appointment (at 9pm? Every class?) when it comes to talks on diet and meditation, or even an extended meditation.

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June 2nd, 2010

Samurai Camp: Japanese launch new war on flab

The video shows a fantastic new workout that is gaining popularity among Japanese women - its basically aerobics with swords to a Techno beat (not heard on the video). Founder Takafuji Ukon says that he liked dancing with swords and he also encourages his participants to practice their disemboweling strokes on imaginary enemies.

Ayako, a student, has a part-time job in a café facing the incessant demands of ageing customers, while Yukiko, a housewife, described her tedious battle with intransigent neighbours. Both denied that — while undertaking 40 consecutive disembowelment strikes — they had any particular person in mind.

Interesting point to note is that the class is an intense cardio session, promising to whittle off up to 5kg in just over a month. In fact, the men who joined the classes couldn’t take heat (or maybe the ferocity of the women?) and dropped out. In contrast, the original Tokyo night classes are now packed with women, and instructors are being trained to export the regime to other Japanese cities.

I would so love to try this!!

via: Big Trouble little Nippon

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April 25th, 2010
Omron HT-456 Sonic Rechargeable Toothbrush Review I acquired this toothbrush about 3 months ago as receding gums run in my family and I noticed that the area around my canines in particular had been showing signs of recession over the last year. The sonic action is supposed to extend the reach of the toothbrush beyond what the triple-action bristles can physically touch. After I got used to the frenetic action of the toothbrush and figured that you only have to touch it fairly gently to your teeth to clean them, I found this toothbrush excellent. It has 3 swing modes that change the horizontal and vertical vibrations and clean the back of the front teeth and gums very effectively. I no longer detect an invisible hard plaque area at the base of my teeth and my gums have actually extended their reach up the tooth slightly - I can see this clearly from the shape of the gums - from a deep V to a happier-looking U. Well worth the $150+ dollars paid so far, but I’m a lazy brusher so the toothbrush is probably making up for the lack of physical action.

Omron HT-456 Sonic Rechargeable Toothbrush Review

I acquired this toothbrush about 3 months ago as receding gums run in my family and I noticed that the area around my canines in particular had been showing signs of recession over the last year. The sonic action is supposed to extend the reach of the toothbrush beyond what the triple-action bristles can physically touch.

After I got used to the frenetic action of the toothbrush and figured that you only have to touch it fairly gently to your teeth to clean them, I found this toothbrush excellent. It has 3 swing modes that change the horizontal and vertical vibrations and clean the back of the front teeth and gums very effectively. I no longer detect an invisible hard plaque area at the base of my teeth and my gums have actually extended their reach up the tooth slightly - I can see this clearly from the shape of the gums - from a deep V to a happier-looking U.

Well worth the $150+ dollars paid so far, but I’m a lazy brusher so the toothbrush is probably making up for the lack of physical action.

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April 3rd, 2010
Spring (Hay) Fever - Neti This is how I’m feeling this morning. For more great comics, visit www.phdcomics.com. One thing that helps me when I’m like this is the traditional yogic practice of Neti.  For the uninitiated, this is nasal irrigation using either a traditional Neti pot or just a bowl of water. I tend to use saline (1/2 teaspoon salt + 1/2 teaspoon sodium bicarbonate to 1 pint of tap water) as it makes my nasal passages feel more comfortable when they’re being flushed out. It’s especially good for the headachey kind of sinusitis but does help with general sneezing and wheezing as well. The bicarbonate is a mucolytic so it really helps clean the passages out. Using the Neti pot, the goal is to flush saline through one nostril and out the other. This isn’t as difficult as it sounds. If you sniff backwards at the same time, you also get the saline running through your nose into the back of the throat which helps if you have nasal drip. Recently, I’ve also started using the yogic practice of clearing the nose after Neti ie I bend over from the waist with my nose facing the floor and breathe in through my mouth and then out through my nose for 10 breaths to remove leftover water. I then stand up and breathe in and out through my nose (with forceful exhalation) to make sure everything is as dry as possible. If you’re wary of this procedure, please note that it is now a recommended practice for postoperative cleaning of the nasal passage. It’s worth giving it a go IMHO if you have a clogged or runny nose. Yogic practice recommends once a day but I only do it about 1x or 2x a week at most - there are some studies that show too frequent irrigation can actually cause more infection, although getting rid of the water afterwards helps a great deal. Related articles by Zemanta Nasal Irrigation after Rhinoplasty (realself.com)

Spring (Hay) Fever - Neti

This is how I’m feeling this morning. For more great comics, visit www.phdcomics.com.

One thing that helps me when I’m like this is the traditional yogic practice of Neti.  For the uninitiated, this is nasal irrigation using either a traditional Neti pot or just a bowl of water. I tend to use saline (1/2 teaspoon salt + 1/2 teaspoon sodium bicarbonate to 1 pint of tap water) as it makes my nasal passages feel more comfortable when they’re being flushed out. It’s especially good for the headachey kind of sinusitis but does help with general sneezing and wheezing as well. The bicarbonate is a mucolytic so it really helps clean the passages out.

Using the Neti pot, the goal is to flush saline through one nostril and out the other. This isn’t as difficult as it sounds. If you sniff backwards at the same time, you also get the saline running through your nose into the back of the throat which helps if you have nasal drip. Recently, I’ve also started using the yogic practice of clearing the nose after Neti ie I bend over from the waist with my nose facing the floor and breathe in through my mouth and then out through my nose for 10 breaths to remove leftover water. I then stand up and breathe in and out through my nose (with forceful exhalation) to make sure everything is as dry as possible.

If you’re wary of this procedure, please note that it is now a recommended practice for postoperative cleaning of the nasal passage.

It’s worth giving it a go IMHO if you have a clogged or runny nose. Yogic practice recommends once a day but I only do it about 1x or 2x a week at most - there are some studies that show too frequent irrigation can actually cause more infection, although getting rid of the water afterwards helps a great deal.

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[PhD Comics] [hayfever] [sights] [spring] [wellness] [Sinusitis] [Nasal irrigation]
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March 30th, 2010

D-Narn Spa soap - Chatuchak

D-Narn Spa Rice Milk SoapI was in Bangkok, Thailand, last week and stumbled across a D-Narn Spa stall at the Chatuchak market. They sell the most wonderful smelling natural soaps and I couldn’t resist the rice milk soap. It’s supposed to reduce skin irritation and that’s something I sorely need at the moment.

The soap also gives a wonderful creamy lather which I love and all for only 60 baht (less than US$2), even less if you buy more than one.

I also couldn’t resist this ultra cutesy rubber duck soap - it really smells like cupcakes!! The shop has a Thai language website here.

D-Narn Spa Rubber Duckie soap

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[sights] [wellness] [Khet Chatuchak] [Bangkok] [Thailand] [Soap]
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