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Challenge Yourself, Improve Your Health, Enhance Your Life! |
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"Once I slow down enough to relax, there's an entire world of unexplored details breathing with me."
-Claudia Cummins | |
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August Long Weekend Hours |
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July 31st - Aug 2nd Regular Schedule
Monday August 3rd
9:15 am & 3:30 pm
(5:30 pm & 7:30 pm cancelled) |
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Thank you from Bikram Yoga West Edmonton |
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Bikram West would like to kindly thank both Melissa Kjeldgaardand and Daryl Davies for their generous donations towards our "30 Day Challenge Gift Bags". Melissa donated lip gloss from "Sephora" and Daryl donated bags and coconut water from "Planet Organic Jasper Avenue". We are all grateful for your support! | |
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| Kids Summer Yoga Sessions ... Young Yogis and Yoginis! |
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We will be offering one week of Kids Yoga Sessions beginning Monday August 10th and running daily until Friday August 14th. Everyday, kids between the ages of 7 and 12 can experience an hour of Bikram Yoga. The fee is $8.00 / class or $30.00 for the full 5 days. This fee includes a mat rental. The room will be warm but not hot. Although drop-ins are ALWAYS more than welcome, if you know the dates that you will be attending, please stop by the front desk to register or email us your registration at jan@bikramyogawestedmonton.ca
Dates: August 10th - 14th
Time: Daily 11:30 am - 12:30 pm
Please remember your water bottle!! We will look forward to seeing you!
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| Karma Class - 5:30 pm Friday August 7th |
Please join us on Friday August 7th at 5:30 pm for a Karma Class to support Jennifer Nguyen. She will be participating in "The Weekend to End Breast Cancer 2009". Jennifer will be walking 60 km over the August 8th and 9th weekend to help raise funds for Breast Cancer treatment and research. We thought that a karma class the night before her walk would be a great way to help warm up Jennifer's walking muscles and support her in this very worthy cause!
A Karma Class is a class by donation only, no passes are in effect. We ask for a $5.00 minimum donation. Enjoy a 90 minute Bikram Yoga class and have a drink and a bite to eat after. Start off your weekend the right way and bank up some postive karma!
Date : Friday August 7th at 5:30 pm
Donation : $5.00 minimum
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| Welcome back to Ilona ! |
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Bikram West would like to welcome back Ilona Rakievich! Ilona has been a Bikram Yoga Instructor for 4 years and has recently taken time away from teaching to get married and finish off a VERY busy year at school teaching full time!! We are thrilled that Ilona has found time to return to teaching and practicing at Bikram Yoga West Edmonton. SO GLAD TO HAVE YOU BACK!
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BYWE's Featured Students - The Dynamic Duo! |
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Watching Karen and Mark Frost practice yoga beside each other is like watching two waves gently rolling in towards the shore together. (Cheesie, but very true!!)... Both of these practictioners humbly started their Bikram practice only months ago, yet appear as though they have been on the yoga journey for years! They are both tremendous supporters of Bikram Yoga West Edmonton and we are thrilled to have them with us! If you ever want to see two people move into and out of postures at exactly the same time (even when they are practicing on opposite sides of the room to each other), take a look.... Yoga magic! Please read more about Karen and Mark... Thanks for being such great supporters of Bikram Yoga West Edmonton...
"As individuals and a couple, we make a commitment to a lifestyle that supports our health and wellness. Yoga is something that we were open to learning more about but the fear of the extreme heat and other unkowns led us to discount Bikram Yoga.
It wasn't until I saw a Reader's Digest article about a Canadian woman who'd made a remarkable recovery with Bikram Yoga that I gave it another thought. I sent an e-mail note to the BYWE to get a feel for the place, asking them how they manage the 'heat sensitive fainting types' and Julie's response was so warm and engaging that I stopped by the next day for a visit. Jan graciously showed me around the studio and reassured me on my tentative decision to give it a try. And I didn't faint, as my imagination suggested that I might!
After I'd gone for a couple of weeks, Mark also decided to give it a try. For the past five months, we've both been hooked on the healthy challenge and the immediate benefits of Bikram Yoga and now practice 4 - 6 times a week. As a couple, it's a terrific way to participate in an activity together where the difference in our body strength won't compromise one or the other. There is no finish line and no one gets left behind! We can't always practice together, but really enjoy it when we can.
We've both seen lingering injuries from previous sports mishaps completely resolve themselves. Physically, we feel stronger and more fit and mentally, more relaxed in our day to day undertakings. We have shared our enthusiasm for this experience with those that we care about and have seen some friends and family give it a try as well! We intend to maintain a life long Bikram Yoga practice."
 
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| Finish off your Summer Balanced! - Intelligent Cross-Training |
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The final two sports that we will be highlighting for effective summer cross-training include tennis and swimming. Both are quite different in that swimming is a non weight-bearing activity and tennis challenges the body by placing a fair amount of stress and strain on the joints through weight-bearing and jarring movements. In both activities, the mental discipline developed through a regular yoga practice naturally compliments each individual sport. We practice on the yoga mat, so then we can take all of the wonderful benefits, whether they are mental, physical, and/or emotional and allow them to support our daily activities and sports!
Swimming
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Body alignment, which is absolutely vital to sport performance, is thrown off kilter in swimmers due to a progressive overdevelopment of the front of the body (pectoralis muscles and anterior deltoid). This is due to chronic overuse in the free-style, butterfly, and the breast stroke. Yoga postures that counter this chronic tightening of the chest and lengthening/weakening of the upper back are vital for longterm health and sport performance.
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"... drawback to a fitness routine based solely on water sports is that the body can't get stronger without gravity. Just as a coiled spring gets its force from resistance, the body needs stress to build strength in muscle and bone. Bone density is developed through low- and high-impact weight-bearing exercise. Yoga is one of these exercises.
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Consistent yoga practice results in the development of EXTENDED muscles rather than CONTRACTED muscles. Extended muscles are vital for the swimmer in that each stroke or kick requires a full extension through a healthy range of motion.
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Breath awareness is key in both yoga and swimming. "Swimming is a sport in which the senses are withdrawn and awareness is pulled inward... It's a sense of the fifth limb of yoga - pratyahara, literally, a gathering towards oneself."
Focus on Bikram's "Standing Bow" and "Bow" pose to stretch out the tightness in the chest (Pectoralis Major and Minor), and encourage range of motion in the shoulder and rotator cuff. Also, focus on "Full Locust" (Airplane Pose) to strengthen your mid-back and muscles between your shoulder blades (Rhomboids).
- excerpts taken from "Yoga for Swimmers, Yoga Journal (2009), Baron Baptiste, Kathleen Finn Mendola
Tennis
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"A big part of tennis is getting rid of inner chatter, which yoga does"... "We teach them (athletes), to look at the strings of the racquet and go completely internal, so they will breathe and concentrate between points"
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It is possible to learn how to CREATE power through relaxation, rather than muscle tension. The practice of yoga brings energy, rest and vitality in to the body rather than fatigue, so that ater a match, you feel better instead of feeling depleted.
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Tennis can be punishing on the knees, ankles, hips, shoulders and wrists. Yoga will increase the longevity of your tennis career and your joint health.
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"Flexibility is one of the most important things in tennis... they (players) have to leverage their bodies every square inch to reach a ball, and they have such spinal arch when they are serving. Yoga can help them achieve this."
Focus on Bikram's "Fixed Firm" Pose to realign and stretch the lower extremity, nourish the hips, knees, and ankles. Enjoy extra time in "Triangle" to stretch into tight adductor and groin muscles to help strengthen and prevent injury.
For more information, link to http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/193
Quotations from "Yoga for Tennis", Yoga Journal (2009), Baron Baptiste, Kathleen Finn Mendola
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Feature Posture - Trikonasana |
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What does Trikanasana mean? 
In Sanskrit, it means "Triangle Pose"
This posture is an integrative posture; it uses tremendous strength and balance as well as flexibility to maintain the posture. Triangle is both physically challenging and mentally challenging; it demands your mind to micromanage your body in many ways simultaneously.
Triangle works every system, organ and gland of the body. A to Z, 360 degrees which makes Triangle the most therapeutic asana.
Triangle increases the strength and flexibility in the hips and tones the muscles on the sides of your torso such as the obliques and the intercostals. Flexing and strengthening the last five vertebrae in this posture can alleviate crooked spines as well as rheumatism and lower back. It improves every single bone, muscle, joint and tendon and internal organ and it revitalizes nerves, veins and tissues. Triangle is the perfect marriage between the heart and lungs meaning Triangle forces them to work together. Breathing deeply and consistently is the key to these systems working well together.
*One of the most important components of Triangle is to NOT put any weight on the fingertips touching the floor; doing so ruins the posture and benefits. So no pressure against the floor; just touch them lightly .
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