Yoga

[deathmineral]

Anyone here do Yoga? I just recently started getting into and have to say, I'm enjoying it quite a bit. It's especially good for back pain and relaxation.

[twitchy]

I do some on the wii sometimes if it counts.

[rainpony]

I was tempted to do that, i guess I'd need lessons or something.
I was wondering though, since i have a terrible back, i'm not flexible at all, is that a problem for yoga ? I know i should work more on this :/

[deathmineral]

The terrible back part can be a problem for yoga since majority of the stretches work the back. There are a lot of exercises in yoga still that wouldn't be a problem for someone with a bad back though.

As for being flexible, I'm not very flexible myself, but there are a lot of exercises that don't require great flexibility. That's also part of the reason people do yoga though, to increase their flexibility.

A qualified teacher for yoga is usually a good idea, I personally just practice at home from a book but I only do the simple and safe ones so I don't really need a trainer. If I were to do more complex stretches like The Cobra, I would definitely want a professional there to help me.

The most important thing with yoga is safety though, a lot people believe it's always safe because it's simply slow stretches but a lot of the more complex exercises can definitely be dangerous. This is why I stick to only the simplest of stretches, there's very little risk of injury and it's easy to maintain proper form so risk of injury is almost none.

This video is a good example of some simple and safe exercises in yoga.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0BLxSY2L3Y

I do some of those stretches but that video doesn't seem to demonstrate my personal favorite. My favorite is a variant of the knee hug, normally with the knee hug you simply hug your knees to your chest and hold the pose for a bit. In my opinion, not the great of an exercise as it stretches the spine further than really necessary, great for trying to increase flexibility though. The variant that I do is to place my knees so that my upper leg and upper body form a 90 degree angle and then simply rotate my knees in a circular motion. This works to massage the lower back without much risk of creating tension and strain. All the exercises I do are like that though, I never choose exercises that strain any areas of my body. It's just a lot of common sense there really, if something hurts, stop doing it. Yoga should never create discomfort/burn like running or weight lifting would.

Edit: After the 14 minute mark in the video, she does an exercise similar to the one I describe, I don't recommend the one she does however, it can be a risky stretch as it's not that easy to maintain proper form on it. I screwed it up one time and I felt the hurt from it the next day, just an exercise that's not worth the risk.