Yoga Injuries

Potential yoga injuries must be a hot topic lately as I (Jen) have just read the fourth article about the risk of injury to participants. You might think I'd be quick to jump to yoga's defense but, surprise, no I'm not. People often turn to yoga as a therapeutic, relaxing way to spend some. It absolutely can and should be used that way. But participants need to be aware that even though we move slowly and there's quiet music going on and the teacher speaks in a soft calming voice, it's still involves moving the body in ways outside of our normal routine. The chance of incorrectly aligning the joints is fairly great. When I first started doing yoga, I just did videos at home and had no one there to tell me the reason my knee hurt is that it was way out of place. Sometimes it can be so tempting to try to stretch thiiiiiiis much past the point we really should be, especially when the guy next to me can bend a mile further than I can. I find that I can get wrapped up in it and obviously I'm not alone as it's all over the news. But when we get competitive with others, we risk injuring ourselves and we also risk missing out on the mental relaxation we can find, which is a fundamental part of the yoga experience.

From a physical standpoint, the great thing about going to a any kind of class is the idea of having the instructor there to assess how your body looks as you move. One article I read spoke about instructors jumping on and pushing students to force them into poses. You're never going to experience that in our classes. Luckily, all of our instructors have had training on proper alignment. Our ethos is not about manipulating students to get this one idea of how a pose has to be. We encourage students to find their version of a pose. The concept of a deep stretch is so subject to the individual. It doesn't matter how great of a teacher we are, none of us will ever know the level of sensation a person feels as well as they will and we recognise that stretching one inch for one individual can be at least as challenging as a limber person stretching a foot. We work to encourage participants to become aware of their own personal limits and then to be honest enough to honor those boundaries. When the other instructors and I teach, we try to stress the importance of listening to your body. You'll often hear us giving tips about where we want our joints in relation to each other. Listen to those, they are intended to help prevent injury.

We want people to get the best experience they can have emotionally as well as physically. Yoga offers people the chance to turn off their day. You can get into this mental "yoga zone" that can be hard to describe but feels great. Personally, final relaxation is the part that first sold me on yoga. There is no where else in my day where I get the chance to have quite reflection for even 5 minutes, and I'm sure I'm not the only person out there like that. If someone is moving through our series of poses to the best of their abilities, using the alignments cues the instructor offers, not worrying about what their friends, spouse, neighbor is doing, they can get into that zone. However, if someone spends their time straining to power through the whole class and worrying about everyone else, they probably haven't really had the chance to mentally decompress. That means they have missed out on an important component of yoga and that's unfortunate.

Take heart that coming to yoga does not necessarily guarantee you will walk out our door limping or worse, at risk for stroke or anything else that's currently being reported. Here you have instructors that work to safely guide you through your yoga practice in order to help you give yourself a wonderful experience that can be repeated over and over again. Keep honest with yourself about your abilities and keep coming to class!

Interesting study...

Here's an interesting article I (Jen) read in an email newsletter I receive called "Well-Being Wire":

Working out releases a hormone that instructs your body to change bad fat into better fat, researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School find.
When adults gain weight, most accumulate “white fat,” which stores energy and is metabolically inactive. “Brown fat,” by contrast, exists in smaller quantities, is more active, and burns energy at a greater rate, the New York Times reported Jan. 11.
When you exercise, a chemical called PGC1-alpha “talks” to fat cells, helping to release irisin, a hormone that turns inert white fat into brown fat, the researchers say. Though exercise alone often does not lead to weight loss, elevated levels of irisin do appear to prevent weight gain, the study says.
Changing white fat to brown could drastically improve your health, since white fat often collects around vital organs (where it’s most deadly). That’s true even if you don’t lose weight, researchers say.
The study appears online in the journal Nature.

Live Healthy Iowa

Live Healthy Iowa’s 100 Day Wellness Challenge kicks off Jan. 23, 2012, inviting all Iowans to take part. Registration is now open.

The 100 Day Wellness Challenge, which starts on January 23rd, is a simple and affordable challenge encouraging Iowans to make healthy choices. Over the course of 100 days, teams (2-10 people) take part in friendly competition tracking activity minutes and/or weight loss through the Live Healthy Iowa website.

For $20, participants receive a training T-shirt; weekly motivational emails; personal tracking, goal-setting, tools and resources; 100 days of access to TrainingPeaks; health and wellness discounts from across the state; chance to win team and individual incentives; a one-year subscription to a lifestyle magazine; and more.

A $5.00 coupon is available through Hy-Vee at www.hyvee.com code LH2468.

Learn more about Live Healthy Iowa and the 100 Day Wellness Challenge by going to www.livehealthyiowa.org

Resolutions

Those of you that come into the fitness center have probably read our quote of Joey Adams, "May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions." Cute, right? Of course, we are here to help you make your wellness-related resolutions last longer than any troubles you may have. We have all our standing incentive program, "It Pays to Attend" in which you receive a free massage or gift certificate after 60 visits in 6 months. It's a reward for exercise! We also frequently have smaller prize programs such as Warm Up Your Winter Blues, which we just finished. We offer free personal training sessions. Taking advantage of those could help to steer you in the direction you're looking for. Additionally, any of us are happy to answer an questions you might have, all you have to do is ask. You've got quite a few resources available to you, just let us know how we can help you!

Resolution recipe

Got some New Year's Resolutions involving healthier eating but still crunched for time? Here's an easy recipe that you can throw into the rotation that could help out:

Slow-cooker Brisket Sandwiches (courtesy of Food Network Magazine)

8 hr 30 min
Prep
30 min
Cook
8 hr 0 min
Yield:
4 servings
Level:
Easy

Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 5-to-6-pound first-cut or flat-cut brisket, cut into 3 pieces
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
4 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
1 12-ounce bottle stout beer
4 stalks celery, cut into large pieces
2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup dijon mustard
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon paprika
2 brioche or other rolls, split open and toasted
Coleslaw, for serving
Directions
Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the brisket with salt and pepper, then brown on all sides, about 10 minutes, adding the garlic in the last 2 minutes. Transfer the meat and garlic to a 5-to-6-quart slow cooker. Pour the beer into the skillet and simmer 30 seconds, scraping up the browned bits from the pan; add the beer mixture to the slow cooker.
Nestle the celery around the meat and add the brown sugar, tomato paste, vinegar, mustard, soy sauce, bay leaves and paprika. Stir, then cover and cook on low 8 hours or on high 6 hours. Transfer the meat to a cutting board and let rest 10 minutes, then thinly slice.
Serve on brioche halves with coleslaw; drizzle with the cooking liquid.

Per serving: Calories 474; Fat 16 g (Saturated 7 g); Cholesterol 128 mg; Sodium 265 mg; Carbohydrate 18 g; Fiber 0 g; Protein 61 g

Notes:
You'll have plenty of leftover brisket: Use it in tacos, quesadillas, chili or even on a pizza.