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21
Nov 11

Colorado Springs marathoner uses yoga to improve health and fitness

If you happen to see Captain Caroline White in your Colorado Springs yoga studio, wish her luck. She'll be training around town until January, when she will be participating in the Olympic marathon trials.

If you happen to see Captain Caroline White in your Colorado Springs yoga studio, wish her luck. She'll be training around town until January, when she will be participating in the Olympic marathon trials.

Colorado yoga classes draw a wide range of enthusiasts, from amateurs to experts, kids to the elderly, expectant mothers to…marathon runners? Believe it. And if you happen to see Captain Caroline White in your Colorado Springs yoga studio, wish her luck.

According to Schriever Air Force Base News, she'll be training around town until January, when she will be participating in the Olympic marathon trials.

White told the news source that ever since she finished this year's Boston marathon in two hours and 27 minutes, she's been asked time and again how she prepares for a race.

"Many [people] have general questions, from nutrition to cross training, or general motivation," White said, explaining that besides her daily running routine, she uses yoga and swimming to stay toned and flexible.

She's not the first prominent woman to say that she uses yoga to improve health and fitness before a race (though she's almost certainly the fastest).

Recently, model and long-time yoga enthusiast Christy Turlington Burns told the Associated Press that she practiced the holistic routine to prepare for the New York City Marathon.

Though the New York Post said that she broke the tape at a respectable four hours and 20 minutes, that time is still two hours behind the fleet-of-foot White.

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18
Nov 11

Colorado residents can improve health and wellness with yoga

It appears to be more important than ever to use yoga to improve health and wellness. This even applies to children, who are increasingly being diagnosed with high blood sugar and pre-diabetes.

It appears to be more important than ever to use yoga to improve health and wellness. This even applies to children, who are increasingly being diagnosed with high blood sugar and pre-diabetes.

If you live in Colorado, chances are you live a pretty healthy lifestyle. After all, the Centennial State is consistently ranked as one of the healthiest in the U.S. But that doesn't mean that it isn't still important for Colorado residents to try biking, jogging, meditating, stretching or walking to improve health.

After all, 21 percent of the state's population is obese, according to the latest survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That may not sound bad – after all, that is the lowest percentage in the nation – but consider this.

In 1985, not one state in the union had a recorded obesity rate over 14 percent. That's quite a spike!

It appears to be more important than ever to use yoga to improve health and wellness. This even applies to children, who are increasingly being diagnosed with high blood sugar and pre-diabetes.

In response to this trend, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute recently released new health recommendations for children, in a report published in the journal Pediatrics.

Stephen R. Daniels, a senior staff member at Children's Hospital Colorado, told the Los Angeles Times that getting kids to stay active will have long-lasting consequences.

"If they can reach age 50 with low-risk status, they are very unlikely to have heart disease," he explained to the source. "That is the payoff here."

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09
Nov 11

Which is more effective, yoga or walking to improve health?

Yoga and walking entail a number of similar mental and physical benefits, though those offered by the holistic regimen are often more significant.

Yoga and walking entail a number of similar mental and physical benefits, though those offered by the holistic regimen are often more significant.

In order to improve health outcomes, many people try Dahn Yoga, which combines the exercise intensity of, say, a long walk with the relaxation and mindfulness of deep meditation. When it comes right down to it, yoga and walking entail a number of similar mental and physical benefits, though those offered by the holistic regimen are often more significant.

For instance, a study recently published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine found that yoga may have a greater effect on anxiety levels, compared to walking.

The authors, a group psychiatrists and neuroscientists from Boston University School of Medicine, asked participants to engage in either yoga or walking for one hour three times weekly.

After 12 weeks, researchers found that adults in the yoga group displayed lower levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid, a neurotransmitter associated with anxiety. These volunteers also reported feeling less stressed, compared to those given the walking-based intervention.

Other studies have reached similar conclusions. A report appearing in the journal Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine determined that six months of yoga classes helped elderly participants fight fatigue and improve cognitive function better than an equal time spent walking to improve health.

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03
Nov 11

Dahn Yoga helps runners improve health and fitness

Fortunately, Dahn Yoga can improve health and fitness for runners of all stripes.

Fortunately, Dahn Yoga can improve health and fitness for runners of all stripes.

Whether you like sprinting, running or walking to improve health, chances are a long jog can leave you feeling wrung out, achy and exhausted. Fortunately, Dahn Yoga can improve health and fitness for runners of all stripes.

Holistic healing regimens like yoga are catching on among all sorts of joggers, in part because the stretching and breathing techniques can prevent some of the damage caused by a long, hard run.

Tiffany Cruikshank, a yoga instructor at the Nike World Headquarters, explained to the Kansas City Star that deep breathing, meditating, stretching and posing provides multimodal relief for joggers and sprinters alike.

"Once runners know about yoga, they're hooked," she told the news source.

Doing Dahn Yoga poses before and after a jogging session can provide you with an efficient warm-up and cool-down routine. It can also improve the flexibility of your muscles, the depth of your breathing and the straightness of your posture.

Even yoga's mindfulness activities may improve your stride by helping you stay focused. No wonder Cruikshank noted that "it's easy to look at the physical stuff, but [it is] really the mental aspect of it that we [yoga teachers] look at."

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24
Oct 11

Colorado yoga classes seem practically recession-proof

It could be that the holistic mind-body regimen is simply too physically beneficial for eager enthusiasts to pass up.

It could be that the holistic mind-body regimen is simply too physically beneficial for eager enthusiasts to pass up.

Why are so many people flocking to Colorado yoga studios even during a time of dire economic straits? Financial analysts are not entirely sure, but whatever the reason, Colorado yoga classes seem practically recession-proof these days.

It could be that the holistic mind-body regimen is simply too physically beneficial for eager enthusiasts to pass up. After all, the Yoga Journal recently reported that 18.3 million Americans admit to being interested in trying the regimen.

This figure, which was derived from 2008 survey data, is triple that calculated just four years previously. Obviously, yoga is on the up and up. That is what two Denver-area yoga instructors recently told CNNMoney, anyway.

The duo opened their first studio in 1999. Now, they operate a 40-instructor center, explaining that yoga's popularity has not slackened off lately.

"We just continue to grow. We are seeing a continual expansion," the pair told the news source. "During the recession, we had our best years, and that was really phenomenal."

A recent IBISWorld report estimated that the number of yoga studios in the U.S. will top 25,500 in 2011.

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21
Oct 11

Want to know how to improve health in Colorado? Try outdoor yoga

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 21 percent of Centennial State citizens are obese.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 21 percent of Centennial State citizens are obese.

Even in what is apparently the healthiest state in the U.S., many residents still occasionally need a lesson in how to improve health. After all, having the lowest obesity rate of any state means less when you realize that one in five Colorado natives is obese.

That's right. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 21 percent of Centennial State citizens are obese. And that is the lowest state-level percentage in the entire nation.

Recently, Vermont Public Radio broadcast a story featuring several Colorado residents who are trying to reverse this trend by doing outdoor exercises as much as possible. Such activities can include running, hiking, mountain biking and even yoga, which entails the physical benefits but avoids the high-impact stresses.

Christopher Lindley, an official from Colorado Health Department, emphasized that many healthy activities are learned, often in childhood.

"One in four children is either overweight or obese. This is a major problem," he told the radio organization. "While Colorado might get some accolades of being the leanest state or having a great lifestyle, we are far from setting the model of where we want to be."

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18
Oct 11

In periods of calm, Colorado protesters practice yoga to improve health and wellness

This is what is regularly happening in the crowd gathered as part of the Occupy Denver rally, one of hundreds of protests that have sprung up worldwide in the style of the ongoing Occupy Wall Street movement.

This is what is regularly happening in the crowd gathered as part of the Occupy Denver rally, one of hundreds of protests that have sprung up worldwide in the style of the ongoing Occupy Wall Street movement.

Outdoor Colorado yoga classes don't sound especially strange, do they? How about a yoga class held in the middle of a growing protest movement outside the state capitol in Denver?

While this may sound a bit more unorthodox, this is what is regularly happening in the crowd gathered as part of the Occupy Denver rally, one of hundreds of protests that have sprung up worldwide in the style of the ongoing Occupy Wall Street movement.

FOX News Denver noted that as protesters cleaned their encampments outside the capitol building, at least one yoga enthusiast sat down and performed some meditation and deep breathing to cultivate a sense of calm.

Similar reports have filtered out of a number of cities both in the U.S. and abroad. For instance, Yahoo! News published a photo of protesters in Madrid, Spain, practicing yoga in the Puerta del Sol Square to improve their health and wellness prior to an Occupy-affiliated march.

The sense of calm and unity that yoga provides seems to have pervaded many protesters.

"It's not about being against things, it's about being for things," a 33-year-old yoga teacher and protester wrote on the Occupy Sydney website, as reported by Bloomberg.

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11
Oct 11

Former Colorado resident uses yoga to improve health and fitness, loses 120 pounds

Recently, a holistic healing enthusiast and one-time Colorado resident told the Palm Springs Sun that he used Colorado yoga classes to shed 120 pounds.

Recently, a holistic healing enthusiast and one-time Colorado resident told the Palm Springs Sun that he used Colorado yoga classes to shed 120 pounds.

Improving health and fitness with yoga is one thing, but losing nearly half of one's body weight? That's something else entirely. Recently, a holistic healing enthusiast and one-time Colorado resident told the Palm Springs Sun that he used Colorado yoga classes to shed 120 pounds.

Ron Splude, now 58 years old, revealed to the newspaper that he took his first yoga class nearly 30 years ago, and the mind-body regimen has stood him in good stead ever since.

He admitted that at one time he was too large, stressed and generally unhealthy to accomplish even basic tasks.

"I really struggled with [yoga] in the beginning," Splude explained to the news source. "I couldn't sit on the floor without falling over. I was just too fat."

While he had trouble with yoga initially, over time the system gradually made sense to him. Splude went from being morbidly obese to having a trim, healthy physique – and a studio of his own, at that. (He now teaches others to lose weight with yoga.)

Research has shown that holistic stretching and posing can both facilitate weight loss and prevent weight gain, as evidenced in a recent issue of the journal Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine.

It's little wonder that Yahoo! Sports recently promoted yoga as a way to get thin while improving flexibility and relaxation.

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05
Oct 11

Breast cancer survivor uses yoga to improve health and wellness

She resolved to use yoga and other exercises to improve her health and wellness following treatment for the disease.

She resolved to use yoga and other exercises to improve her health and wellness following treatment for the disease.

When she first found out she had breast cancer, Doreen Wiggins had recently lost her husband to a heart condition during a trip to Colorado. She resolved to use yoga and other exercises to improve her health and wellness following treatment for the disease.

Today, she bicycles and runs every week, according to the North Kingstown Patch. Wiggins is part of a yoga group that includes other breast cancer survivors, like Janet Lefkowitz, who discovered a lump on a hiking trip.

Both women are now cancer-free and continue to use yoga to improve their health and fitness. Lefkowitz regularly runs in triathlons, the news source noted.

These ladies have something else in common as well. Both are medical professionals – namely, obstetrician/gynecologists. They swear by yoga, to the point that Wiggins will respond to inquiries about her impressive health by saying, "Come to yoga with me."

"It was the thing that actually saved me," she revealed to the news source.

While the holistic mind-body system is not a primary treatment for cancer, numerous studies have revealed that yoga may reduce pain and hot flashes, as well as improve quality of life for breast cancer survivors.

Fittingly, October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

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29
Sep 11

Yoga can improve health outcomes in many different ways

Colorado residents may be thrilled to hear how healthy they tend to be. That said, it's still important for them to pursue activities that can improve health outcomes, like yoga.

Colorado residents may be thrilled to hear how healthy they tend to be. That said, it's still important for them to pursue activities that can improve health outcomes, like yoga.

If you're like many Colorado residents, you are happy to live where you do. It's beautiful and verdant, with a populace committed to improving its health and wellness. Just look at a recent Reuters article, which announced that Colorado has the lowest obesity rate of any state in the nation.

The news source stated that "just" 19.8 percent of adults in the Centennial State are obese, according to an annual study conducted by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

By contrast, Mississippi, the so-called "fattest state in the union," has an obesity rate of more than 34 percent, the news organization noted.

Colorado residents may be thrilled to hear how healthy they tend to be. That said, it's still important for them to pursue activities that can improve health outcomes, like yoga.

Just look at what the newest studies are discovering about this ancient mind-body regimen:

- A report appearing in the latest issue of the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise announced that engaging in yoga significantly reduced fatigue while stabilizing participants' circadian rhythms.

- Another study in the same journal determined that yoga classes helped veterans improve their balance following a stroke.

- Have persistent pain? There's a yoga class for that. A report published in the journal Pain suggested that this holistic healing system may have far more applications for chronic aches than are currently understood.

- Yoga may also reduce the risk of developing blood sugar disorders. An investigation appearing in the journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine described a three-month yoga therapy regimen utilized by adults at risk for type 2 diabetes. Compared to those given traditional treatments, participants who engaged in yoga experienced greater improvements in blood pressure, weight, insulin sensitivity and cholesterol levels.

No wonder Colorado is such a yoga-friendly state!

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