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My Experiment: Applying Yoga breath/Pranayama to Running and Athletics

So I tried this for myself. First I did the smaller hill which usually takes me between 27 to 30 seconds to complete. I stood at the bottom of the hill and cleared my mind. I started breathing the way I do in yoga class until I felt I had the long, slow and deep breaths down. Then I bolted up the hill. I found that if I could keep the long breaths going, I brought my time down to 26 seconds which is an amazing improvement for a runner. I also realized that it didn't feel like I was…

The Best Diet for You

There are so many diets out there that the general public is confused as to what they should and shouldn’t eat. What many don’t realize is that some diets are geared to certain types of people. For example, an endurance athlete may have completely different dietary needs as a sedentary person with diabetes. Someone training to gain large amounts of muscle may not have the same nutritional needs as  someone who is trying to lose weight. To help clear up this confusion, I’ve listed some popular diets below and showed which diet works best for which type of person. These are…

The Limitless Pill

Yet the proper exercise and nutrition regimen has been clinically proven, time and time again to prevent and sometimes cure most of the deadliest illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and certain cancers. Being fit lowers the risk of many diseases such as Alzheimer's, depression, erectile dysfunction, fatigue and chronic pain. This fact is backed by countless of scientific studies. People who exercise have been cited in many studies to have a greater chance of being in a good mood, doing better on the job, and being more intelligent and alert.

What Pain Has Taught Me

I was able to move through my childhood unscathed. Maybe a scratch or bruise here and there, shin splints or a pulled groin muscle that healed eventually. There was that minor concussion after full contact sparring when I used to do kung fu. Actually, maybe I did get injured more than I thought I did but when we’re young, you bounce back and tend to forget. Then we get our first chronic injury, the one that keeps coming back to haunt us. That happened the first time I hurt my lower back. I didn’t even know why or how it…

The Switch Trick: How to Lose Weight Without Counting Calories

Happy New Year everyone! As I work with people, I realize how difficult it is for some to keep track of how many calories they consume so I have been trying to think of a simpler approach to weight loss. I came up with this method which is actually based on many studies on habit change and what we know about food. I call this The Switch Trick: I have always said that calories count and that if weight loss is your goal, you must burn more calories than you consume, but measuring calories can be a chore so here…

Yoga, Joy, Gratitude and Prana

Often, people approach their health from a place of poverty. We tell ourselves we must eat right and exercise because we are not enough. We are not skinny enough, strong enough or beautiful enough. We approach our practice from a place of desperation rather than a place of gratitude. We make our practice into a chore that we must push through. However, when we approach our practice from a place of gratitude, we find a great rush of positive energy that moves us effortlessly. If we approach our practice with appreciation that we can move at all--that we have the…

What Kind of Exercise Raises Our Metabolism?

Our cells consume extra oxygen (and burns extra calories) during a workout. This elevated oxygen consumption can continue after a workout because the cells are busy restoring and building tissue in order to prepare our body for the next workout. This phenomenon is known as excess post exersice oxygen consumption or EPOC. EPOC was first noted in the 1920’s but has been studied extensively since the 1980’s. Though the studies regarding how long EPOC lasts are conflicting due to different measurement methods, types of exercise, duration and mode; we do know that exercise intensity is the strongest factor affecting EPOC.…

My Interview with Raj Kumar, Author of “Create your Own Future Through Body Mind Programming”

I’d like to introduce you to my friend and colleague, Raj Kumar, who has helped to write a fascinating book which uses classic yoga and body mind programming principles in order to teach the reader how to take charge of his/her future. Raj has worked as a professional engineer and research scholar. After experiencing how holistic medicine changed his health, he became a yoga and meditation instructor in India. I am excited to announce that he and his colleague, Professor K.N.Krishnaswamy, have recently released “Create Your Own Future Through Body Mind Programming.” This post is my interview with Raj about how and…

Don’t be Fooled by Labels

I am pleased to announce that I have passed my exams and am now a certified fitness nutritionist specialist! I hope you don’t mind if I start posting more blogs on nutrition as well as exercise and yoga. Proper diet and exercise go together and it is not possible to be truly fit and healthy without a combination of both. That being said, there is a lot of information about food  that is not based on sound scientific principles and they are mostly shared with the intent to sell a particular supplement or diet. Some dietary information is shared because…