The BENEFITS of SUPERPOWERSYOGA® by Robert Powers
“What is yoga good for?” While “everything” sounds too good to be true, my experience is that yoga addresses a person’s weaknesses and builds complete physical and mental health like nothing else. The biggest advantage of yoga practice is transformation and healing: the ability to change your “normal.” In yoga, we say the postures do not change, but you do. While many think they must get in shape for yoga, yoga is how we get in shape. The key is to start. Yoga (to yoke, unite, join, connect) and meditation require practice. Pitfalls and setbacks are part of learning and growth.
Yoga delivers unique results, especially for pain relief and mental relaxation; both are achieved through breath control. Yoga is essentially the practice of breathing. Breath is our life force. Breath is the physical doorway into the yoga mind. Yoga teaches to prioritize breath above everything else as the most wise and healthy thing we can do. Asanas, or body postures, are the more familiar and visual elements of yoga. This yoga focuses on the spine as the center of whole body health, aligning energy paths. Historically, yogis have searched for the utmost development of self-knowledge, and connection to a universal energy and rare, superhuman abilities.
SUPERPOWERSYOGA, in addition to being Hatha yoga (stillness in postures, stillness in-between, conscious breathing), delivers a healthy dose of BACKBENDS and ONE-LEGGED BALANCING. Backbends are the “healers of the spine,” although they are physically and even emotionally exhausting. Backbends expand internal organs and expose your heart to the world. Backbends are an antidote for sitting, slouching and slumping. One-legged postures create leg strength, core strength, body awareness and, of course, balance (both physical and mental). The one-legged series, or YOGAEROBICS™, raises the heart rate yet forces you to be still. One-legged balance helps prevent injuries by stabilizing joints. Please try yoga as a “prehab,” before you get a knee or hip replaced!
Yoga is connection or union between mind, body and breath. Yoga is breath control. Prana = lifeforce or breath. Yama = control. Pranayama, or breath control, is the cornerstone of yoga practice. Yoga is different from gymnastics and acrobatics because of stillness and breath focus. Yoga is not music and candles. Yoga is a physical doorway into spiritual transformation. To open oneself to change is courageous, and we don't want to avoid the necessary discomfort that comes with change.
Physical Benefits
STRENGTH: The stillness of Hatha yoga postures can require muscular contraction on both sides of a joint, which balances the body. Yoga is the original static bodyweight exercise. By strengthening every auxiliary muscle in the body, we improve balance, posture and spinal alignment. We learn to control our own body with strength rather than the leverage or momentum often used in sports. SUPERPOWERSYOGA postures always give you a mechanical advantage, so the focus is on strong muscles, not unnecessarily wearing out joints through repetitive stress.
FLEXIBILITY: Everyone wants flexibility and is afraid they don’t have enough. Yoga postures definitely test and improve flexibility. You don't have to BEGIN flexible; just go to your Yoga Edge (TM) and breathe. Time, patience and consistency are your friends. Simultaneously, yoga helps increase mobility, symmetry, and range of motion, which all may be more revealing and helpful than flexibility. A “stretchy” body amazingly leads to a more flexible mind, more at ease to approach your life in a new way.
ENDURANCE: The idea of a cardio workout in stillness is foreign to most, but yoga will elevate the heart rate. Holding postures in stillness, through the shaking and quaking of twitching muscles and overly active minds, teaches us to find calmness and determination when the body is stressed or fatigued. We call the one-legged balance series YOGAEROBICS™ because standing on one leg raises the heart rate as much as running or jumping.
HEALING: Yogis would like to fix the body, and heal the body for good. While we must maintain our practice to maintain the benefits, the alternatives of medications and surgeries (and their questionable benefits) are poor substitutes for self-knowledge and a regular workout. Movement heals. Yoga is both diagnostic (to better know yourself and the source of problems) and therapeutic (to fix what’s wrong and truly transform). Many experience immediate relief of chronic back or joint pain, better sleep, and disease suppression. See “Why SAVASANA?” below.
Mental Benefits
FOCUS: It is a massive human challenge to think about one thing to the exclusion of all else, but focus can be trained with practical techniques. Distractions to breathing come from the outside (difficult yoga postures, injuries, the yoga class environment) and from within (racing mind, self judgement, cares of the world). We train to deal with these distractions. We develop determination (mind over matter). We observe and acknowledge without attachment or judgement. We continually return to a meditative focus on the breath.
PATIENCE: The yoga journey demands failure and practice, and thus the control of frustration or impatience. The avoidance of a feeling of failure is the biggest hurdle to people trying yoga. But it is essential to stumble and fall in the yoga room, to strain muscles and experience setbacks. Yoga has growing pains. We say: If you do 1% of the posture with effort and intention, you get 100% of the benefit. Beginners get all the benefits out of yoga, so don’t worry about looking like your teacher.
ACCEPTANCE: Humility. Yoga can open our eyes in a challenging way and force us to admit there might be disconnection between our minds, our bodies, and our reality. Luckily, yoga means to unite, to join, to connect. First, we learn about ourselves, then we begin to change. Falling (out of balancing postures, out of practice) is part of a yogi’s journey, and the only way to grow. Group practice gives us common bond and elevates our concentration level.
RELAXATION: The yoga mind is not a prerequisite for attending class, and actually very unusual. We use the physical doorways of breath control, posture alignment, and open eyes, to obtain the mental state of yoga. Relaxation, or decompression, is physically linked to the depth of our exhales. In SUPERPOWERSYOGA, we train to relax instantly from stress. While the yoga practice is active, the relaxing effects are felt throughout your life. Speaking of relaxation…
Why SAVASANA?
In Sanskrit, “shava” means corpse, and “asana” means seat, or a yoga pose. The practice of doing nothing is the most shocking and impactful of all yoga lessons. Savasana, or corpse pose, is one of the neutral postures that we take between more stressful or physically challenging postures. Corpse can be on the back, whole body on the floor, eyes open, palms up. Corpse can also be on the belly, face to the side, arms at the sides, eyes open, palms up. (Standing on the feet, we return to “mountain pose” between other postures.) Always with conscious yoga breathing, not “daily breath.”
Physically, yoga postures create joint compression, blood vessel constriction, and blood pressure. Savasana or corpse is a release of the body which creates incredible blood flow, to cleanse blood vessels and speed oxygen to all cells, from bones to skin. Savasana provides a return of energy, a recovery, a chance to build muscle memory, that is absent in a lot of exercise. All exercise breaks you down, but only Hatha yoga builds you back up. The less activity in the body during savasana, the better the blood flow.
Savasana is also a mental challenge. We transition immediately from stressful, challenging postures to a passive state where we aspire to not twitch, fidget, adjust or even blink, yet continue to focus on the breath and observe feelings in the body. Hatha yoga’s biggest challenge to most trained athletes is the stillness. Our societal training to “do more, never quit” conflicts completely with yoga, which proves time and time again that frequently in life, the best thing you can do to improve your situation is nothing. With yoga, you learn how to work or rest with equal focus and efficacy.
Yoga is a practice that requires consistency, but YOGA WORKS!
© 2018 Robert Powers SUPERPOWERSYOGA
“What is yoga good for?” While “everything” sounds too good to be true, my experience is that yoga addresses a person’s weaknesses and builds complete physical and mental health like nothing else. The biggest advantage of yoga practice is transformation and healing: the ability to change your “normal.” In yoga, we say the postures do not change, but you do. While many think they must get in shape for yoga, yoga is how we get in shape. The key is to start. Yoga (to yoke, unite, join, connect) and meditation require practice. Pitfalls and setbacks are part of learning and growth.
Yoga delivers unique results, especially for pain relief and mental relaxation; both are achieved through breath control. Yoga is essentially the practice of breathing. Breath is our life force. Breath is the physical doorway into the yoga mind. Yoga teaches to prioritize breath above everything else as the most wise and healthy thing we can do. Asanas, or body postures, are the more familiar and visual elements of yoga. This yoga focuses on the spine as the center of whole body health, aligning energy paths. Historically, yogis have searched for the utmost development of self-knowledge, and connection to a universal energy and rare, superhuman abilities.
SUPERPOWERSYOGA, in addition to being Hatha yoga (stillness in postures, stillness in-between, conscious breathing), delivers a healthy dose of BACKBENDS and ONE-LEGGED BALANCING. Backbends are the “healers of the spine,” although they are physically and even emotionally exhausting. Backbends expand internal organs and expose your heart to the world. Backbends are an antidote for sitting, slouching and slumping. One-legged postures create leg strength, core strength, body awareness and, of course, balance (both physical and mental). The one-legged series, or YOGAEROBICS™, raises the heart rate yet forces you to be still. One-legged balance helps prevent injuries by stabilizing joints. Please try yoga as a “prehab,” before you get a knee or hip replaced!
Physical Benefits
STRENGTH: The stillness of Hatha yoga postures can require muscular contraction on both sides of a joint, which balances the body. Yoga is the original static bodyweight exercise. By strengthening every auxiliary muscle in the body, we improve balance, posture and spinal alignment. We learn to control our own body with strength rather than the leverage or momentum often used in sports. SUPERPOWERSYOGA postures always give you a mechanical advantage, so the focus is on strong muscles, not unnecessarily wearing out joints through repetitive stress.
FLEXIBILITY: Everyone wants flexibility and is afraid they don’t have enough. Yoga postures definitely test and improve flexibility. You don't have to BEGIN flexible; just go to your Yoga Edge (TM) and breathe. Time, patience and consistency are your friends. Simultaneously, yoga helps increase mobility, symmetry, and range of motion, which all may be more revealing and helpful than flexibility. A “stretchy” body amazingly leads to a more flexible mind, more at ease to approach your life in a new way.
ENDURANCE: The idea of a cardio workout in stillness is foreign to most, but yoga will elevate the heart rate. Holding postures in stillness, through the shaking and quaking of twitching muscles and overly active minds, teaches us to find calmness and determination when the body is stressed or fatigued. We call the one-legged balance series YOGAEROBICS™ because standing on one leg raises the heart rate as much as running or jumping.
HEALING: Yogis would like to fix the body, and heal the body for good. While we must maintain our practice to maintain the benefits, the alternatives of medications and surgeries (and their questionable benefits) are poor substitutes for self-knowledge and a regular workout. Movement heals. Yoga is both diagnostic (to better know yourself and the source of problems) and therapeutic (to fix what’s wrong and truly transform). Many experience immediate relief of chronic back or joint pain, better sleep, and disease suppression. See “Why SAVASANA?” below.
Mental Benefits
FOCUS: It is a massive human challenge to think about one thing to the exclusion of all else, but focus can be trained with practical techniques. Distractions to breathing come from the outside (difficult yoga postures, injuries, the yoga class environment) and from within (racing mind, self judgement, cares of the world). We train to deal with these distractions. We develop determination (mind over matter). We observe and acknowledge without attachment or judgement. We continually return to a meditative focus on the breath.
PATIENCE: The yoga journey demands failure and practice, and thus the control of frustration or impatience. The avoidance of a feeling of failure is the biggest hurdle to people trying yoga. But it is essential to stumble and fall in the yoga room, to strain muscles and experience setbacks. Yoga has growing pains. We say: If you do 1% of the posture with effort and intention, you get 100% of the benefit. Beginners get all the benefits out of yoga, so don’t worry about looking like your teacher.
ACCEPTANCE: Humility. Yoga can open our eyes in a challenging way and force us to admit there might be disconnection between our minds, our bodies, and our reality. Luckily, yoga means to unite, to join, to connect. First, we learn about ourselves, then we begin to change. Falling (out of balancing postures, out of practice) is part of a yogi’s journey, and the only way to grow. Group practice gives us common bond and elevates our concentration level.
RELAXATION: The yoga mind is not a prerequisite for attending class, and actually very unusual. We use the physical doorways of breath control, posture alignment, and open eyes, to obtain the mental state of yoga. Relaxation, or decompression, is physically linked to the depth of our exhales. In SUPERPOWERSYOGA, we train to relax instantly from stress. While the yoga practice is active, the relaxing effects are felt throughout your life. Speaking of relaxation…
Why SAVASANA?
In Sanskrit, “shava” means corpse, and “asana” means seat, or a yoga pose. The practice of doing nothing is the most shocking and impactful of all yoga lessons. Savasana, or corpse pose, is one of the neutral postures that we take between more stressful or physically challenging postures. Corpse can be on the back, whole body on the floor, eyes open, palms up. Corpse can also be on the belly, face to the side, arms at the sides, eyes open, palms up. (Standing on the feet, we return to “mountain pose” between other postures.) Always with conscious yoga breathing, not “daily breath.”
Physically, yoga postures create joint compression, blood vessel constriction, and blood pressure. Savasana or corpse is a release of the body which creates incredible blood flow, to cleanse blood vessels and speed oxygen to all cells, from bones to skin. Savasana provides a return of energy, a recovery, a chance to build muscle memory, that is absent in a lot of exercise. All exercise breaks you down, but only Hatha yoga builds you back up. The less activity in the body during savasana, the better the blood flow.
Savasana is also a mental challenge. We transition immediately from stressful, challenging postures to a passive state where we aspire to not twitch, fidget, adjust or even blink, yet continue to focus on the breath and observe feelings in the body. Hatha yoga’s biggest challenge to most trained athletes is the stillness. Our societal training to “do more, never quit” conflicts completely with yoga, which proves time and time again that frequently in life, the best thing you can do to improve your situation is nothing. With yoga, you learn how to work or rest with equal focus and efficacy.
Yoga is a practice that requires consistency, but YOGA WORKS!
© 2018 Robert Powers SUPERPOWERSYOGA
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