UCSF is enrolling participants in a one-year study of the health benefits of yoga and stretching among overweight adults with metabolic syndrome, after a 10-week pilot study yielded promising results.

The “Practicing Restorative Yoga or Stretching for Metabolic Syndrome,” or PRYSMS, study is being conducted in partnership with UC San Diego and funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. It will consist of frequent group classes as well as at least three days per week of home practice, with half of the participants assigned to gentle yoga and the other half to active stretching.

With so many kinds of yoga classes offered around town or at your gym, it can be hard to choose the right one for you, especially if you aren’t well versed in the yogi language. For example, while Hot and Power Yoga focus on blasting calories, Yin and Taoist are more meditative, and Therapeutic is great for anyone suffering from a physical injury or trauma. In this informative slideshow, LivingHealthy expert and founder of Yoga Bloom, Cora Wen, breaks down 12 of the most popular types of yoga, explaining everything from what they’re about and what to expect in a class to what celebrities and personality types can be found bending, posing and chanting their way through classes. Namaste!

From injury rehab to circus moves, there’s a fit for you.

These days, yoga is taught in a wide range of dedicated venues, from small, local studios to glitzy, spa-like franchises of large international corporations. It’s also offered as an “added value” at gyms, fitness clubs, wellness and community centers. 

As a Therapeutic Yoga educator for over 20 years and a traditional Iyengar practitioner for more than 30, I have experienced the ins and outs of scores of studios, worldwide. (Iyengar is a precise alignment—based yoga.) Here’s how I recommend you select a studio:

First, ask yourself what you want:

Once you’ve narrowed down your options for the type of yoga you want to practice (see find the right yoga studio), it’s time to start shopping for teachers.

…At The Sweat Shoppe in North Hollywood, California, instructors including Naomi Priestley (Jason Priestley’s wife) lead classes in rooms heated to around 80 degrees. Trainer Tracy Anderson of the dance-inspired cardio workout Tracy Anderson Method, a favorite of Gwyneth Paltrow, Molly Sims and Jennifer Lopez, warms her New York and Los Angeles studios to 86 degrees. Hot 8 Yoga in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica attracts their clients including Colin Farrell, Kate Hudson, Drew Barrymore and Russell Simmons, with a barre fusion class in temperatures well past 100 degrees.  And at the recently opened  Hot Pilates, which has attracted celebrity fans Dania Ramirez, Paula Patton and Abigail Spencer, the heat is cranked up to 90 to 100 degrees during their 60-minute mat classes. 

If you are planning on heating up your workout, there are some health risks involved.  According to yoga therapy expert Cora Wen, extreme heat puts dangerous stress on the body, and heat stroke can result in death.   She explains that with all the sweaty bodies in hot classes, temperatures can top 100˚ F, at which point it’s nearly impossible to cool down. In order to play it safe she suggests keeping hydrated and if there are any signs of exhaustion, light-headedness, nausea, confusion, or muscle cramping, during a workout to stop immediately.  She also warns that people who have diabetes, heart disease, lung disease or women who are pregnant may have increased risk factors. Read more about it here.  

If you’re coping with a breast cancer diagnosis, going through treatment, or healing after surgery, try these 3 poses to calm your nervous system.

Parents rock their babies to soothe them; people stricken with grief or trauma often rock back and forth to comfort themselves. So it makes sense—and research backs this up—that rocking can calm the nervous system and assuage the fears of those coping with a breast cancer diagnosis, going through treatment, or healing postsurgery. Rocking appears to awaken the parasympathetic (relaxation) response and calm the sympathetic (stress and action) response. Moreover, it stimulates circulation and improves muscle tone and flexibility (great for lymphedema), without engaging the muscles or taxing energy.

The sloping edges of Three Minute Eggs provide a rocking motion that gives the spine a safe way to release.

While conventional yoga props allow you to experience a sense of opening and release, they don’t lend themselves well to a back-and-forth lullaby motion. So how exactly do you rock yourself into a gentle calm? I use Three Minute Eggs. Their sloping edges provide a rocking motion that gives the spine a safe way to release. This motion supports deep, conscious breathing and calms the nervous system so it can sort through—and make sense of—what’s going on. Conscious breathing helps increase oxygen exchange, circulation, and lymphatic drainage and rids the lungs of stale air, which, together with the rocking motion of the Eggs, provide a deeply healing experience. A body at rest is a body that can heal itself.

One of the fastest growing areas in the yoga world is the application of yoga as a therapeutic modality for a myriad of physical and emotional conditions. One of the most highly recognized and renowned leaders worldwide in this area is veteran yoga teacher and therapist Cora Wen. Wen, a senior ERYT-500 Yoga Alliance certified instructor and registered yoga therapist with the International Association of Yoga Therapist, recently submitted a new 1,000 hour course of study with IAYT to meet the new standards for yoga therapists set by that organization. Wen recently shared with YogaBasics her outlook (and contagious enthusiasm) for the field of yoga therapy.

YogaBasics: What exactly is yoga therapy?
Cora Wen: There seems to be some confusion about yoga therapy. We understand that sports therapy is for the athlete and dance therapy is for dancer; physical therapy is for the dancer, the athlete and the general population, but yoga therapy is not just for yoga practitioners. Yoga therapy is the therapeutic application of yoga science and art that can be used in sports, dance, physical and occupational therapy and rehabilitation. Yoga therapy is really more of a complimentary and alternative medicine. It’s for all people.

YB: People unfamiliar with yoga therapy tend to think of it as the simple application of poses as a therapeutic modality. But there is a lot more involved, right? Your program prepares therapists in the areas of physiology, psychology, anatomy, kinesiology, not to mention family and marriage therapy. Why such a breadth of study?
CW: This is preparing yoga teachers or therapists to ultimately be able to work with the medical and wellness community. There’s a lot of that that’s added to learning. It’s not just learning to do a sun salutation; it’s how we can work to use a yoga application within a clinical setting.

Celebrating with family and friends is one of the treasured gifts of winter. One way to enjoy it all, amid shorter days and greater demands on your time, is to incorporate more rejuvenating sequences into your regular routine. Cora Wen, a yoga teacher based in San Francisco, designed the following sequence, which will leave you feeling energized and refreshed.

Wen, who studied with Judith Hanson Lasater, travels the world teaching the fine art of restoration (or restorative yoga), but her sequence here is unique. “In restorative sequencing, the body may feel relaxed and rested, but you usually don’t want to do a lot of activity after,” Wen explains. If you want to calm and rejuvenate yourself before heading out for more activity, hold each pose for only 1 to 3 minutes, rather than what Wen describes as the typical restorative hold of 8 to 15 minutes—which might be more appropriate before bedtime.

With so many kinds of yoga classes offered around town or at your gym, it can be hard to choose the right one for you, especially if you aren’t well versed in the yogi language. For example, while Hot and Power Yoga focus on blasting calories, Yin and Taoist are more meditative, and Therapeutic is great for anyone suffering from a physical injury or trauma. In this informative slideshow, LivingHealthy expert and founder of Yoga Bloom, Cora Wen, breaks down 12 of the most popular types of yoga, explaining everything from what they’re about and what to expect in a class to what celebrities and personality types can be found bending, posing and chanting their way through classes. Namaste!

I am text block. Click edit button to change this text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Don’t hit the mat without this instructor checklist.

As we all know, a school is only as good as its teachers. It’s a principle that applies especially to modern-day yoga, where there is such a wide range of skills and experience among instructors. Finding the right teacher can mean the difference between dropping out after one class and sustaining a long-term practice capable of changing your life.

Once you’ve narrowed down your options for the type of yoga you want to practice (see find the right yoga studio), it’s time to start shopping for teachers. Check out their professional bios; get some word-of-mouth references from students or colleagues. Then go sample a class and, if possible, chat with them afterwards. 

Here are the questions to ask:

Take any yoga class and chances are you’ll be asked to turn upside down. Most yogis swear by such inversions, claiming they offer a slew of benefits, from calming the nervous system to stimulating the brain. But is upending yourself safe?

While inversions are typically defined as any pose (asana) in which your head is lower than your heart, they can vary in exerted effort and impact, says LivingHealthy expert Cora Wen, a yoga therapist whose clients include Mariel Hemingway and Ben Folds. Postures such as headstands (which Wen practices daily) or handstands—where body weight is balanced on the head or hands—are strengthening and energizing. Inversely, poses such as forward bend or downward dog—where the feet are grounded and the head hangs freely—are more restorative.

According to Wen, both types change the circulation pathway in the body. And that reversal of blood flow feels good. After three to five minutes in a headstand, you can feel the fluids start to drain out of the feet and legs. No wonder doctors recommend elevating the feet once a day (legs up-the-wall in the yoga world) to help relieve heaviness around the ankles and prevent varicose veins.

Hot Yoga is just the beginning.

The concept of practicing yoga in a heated room started in the late 1970s when a man named Bikram brought his version of yoga to America. Hot Yoga was a marketing coup; over subsequent decades, it has become wildly popular. And now this craze has permeated the entire fitness arena, with the likes of Hot Pilates, Hot Spin, Hot Barre and Hot TRX cropping up everywhere. Gyms and fitness centers are warming their classrooms from 90 to 117 degrees, and everybody is ernestly sweating their way through “intense” workouts.

Is hotter better? Let’s examine some of the myths and concerns behind this sizzling trend.  

First, it’s important to remember that traditional yoga in India was practiced at dawn and dusk–not in the midday heat—for good reason. Gently stretching our muscles is desirable; over-stretching ligaments and tendons is not. At higher temperatures, you feel more flexible than you really are, making it easier to over-stretch and get hurt. 

If you’re coping with a breast cancer diagnosis, going through treatment, or healing after surgery, try these 3 poses to calm your nervous system.

Parents rock their babies to soothe them; people stricken with grief or trauma often rock back and forth to comfort themselves. So it makes sense—and research backs this up—that rocking can calm the nervous system and assuage the fears of those coping with a breast cancer diagnosis, going through treatment, or healing postsurgery. Rocking appears to awaken the parasympathetic (relaxation) response and calm the sympathetic (stress and action) response. Moreover, it stimulates circulation and improves muscle tone and flexibility (great for lymphedema), without engaging the muscles or taxing energy.

The sloping edges of Three Minute Eggs provide a rocking motion that gives the spine a safe way to release.

While conventional yoga props allow you to experience a sense of opening and release, they don’t lend themselves well to a back-and-forth lullaby motion. So how exactly do you rock yourself into a gentle calm? I use Three Minute Eggs. Their sloping edges provide a rocking motion that gives the spine a safe way to release. This motion supports deep, conscious breathing and calms the nervous system so it can sort through—and make sense of—what’s going on. Conscious breathing helps increase oxygen exchange, circulation, and lymphatic drainage and rids the lungs of stale air, which, together with the rocking motion of the Eggs, provide a deeply healing experience. A body at rest is a body that can heal itself.

Celebrating with family and friends is one of the treasured gifts of winter. One way to enjoy it all, amid shorter days and greater demands on your time, is to incorporate more rejuvenating sequences into your regular routine. Cora Wen, a yoga teacher based in San Francisco, designed the following sequence, which will leave you feeling energized and refreshed.

Wen, who studied with Judith Hanson Lasater, travels the world teaching the fine art of restoration (or restorative yoga), but her sequence here is unique. “In restorative sequencing, the body may feel relaxed and rested, but you usually don’t want to do a lot of activity after,” Wen explains. If you want to calm and rejuvenate yourself before heading out for more activity, hold each pose for only 1 to 3 minutes, rather than what Wen describes as the typical restorative hold of 8 to 15 minutes—which might be more appropriate before bedtime.

Celebrating with family and friends is one of the treasured gifts of winter. One way to enjoy it all, amid shorter days and greater demands on your time, is to incorporate more rejuvenating sequences into your regular routine. Cora Wen, a yoga teacher based in San Francisco, designed the following sequence, which will leave you feeling energized and refreshed.

Wen, who studied with Judith Hanson Lasater, travels the world teaching the fine art of restoration (or restorative yoga), but her sequence here is unique. “In restorative sequencing, the body may feel relaxed and rested, but you usually don’t want to do a lot of activity after,” Wen explains. If you want to calm and rejuvenate yourself before heading out for more activity, hold each pose for only 1 to 3 minutes, rather than what Wen describes as the typical restorative hold of 8 to 15 minutes—which might be more appropriate before bedtime.