(ARA) – Megan Johnson did something at 33 that she’d dreamed of since college — she entered a bodybuilding, figure and fitness competition and placed a respectable seventh in the figure category.

What’s the big deal? In addition to her age — the average female figure contestant is about 28 — she’s a mom of four: Max, 7, and triplets Hank, Sam, and Sophia, 6. She also employed a rather unusual workout regimen for a competitive figure contestant.

“I gained 25 pounds in college,” says Johnson, “mostly because I’ve always hated cardio. Weights I would do, but I just wouldn’t do anything aerobic.”

When Max arrived, Johnson knew it was going to be even harder to lose weight unless she faced her cardio phobia. That’s when she found a local women’s-only fitness center whose philosophy combined strength training and cardio.

“I belonged to a serious weight-lifting gym and I had doubts,” says Johnson, “But I knew I would never realize my dream unless I changed tactics, so I quit my gym and jumped right in.”

Johnson checked her progress against a friend who was training for the same event. “She lifted weights and did cardio two to three hours a day, six days a week. I did my 30-minute workout, three to five days a week, and nothing else. Our results were comparable.”

Research supports Johnson’s experience. Addressing the American College of Sports Medicine recently, Dr. Richard Kreider presented the results of the 2008 Curves/Avon Fitness Study, which tracked 43,000 women through the 30-day challenge. Participants worked out at Curves three times a week and were encouraged to walk an additional 120 minutes a week. The women saw considerable decreases in weight, body fat, inches, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar. “It’s possible to make significant improvements with this type of program,” says Kreider.

Johnson took multivitamins and followed her gym’s eating plan. She loved the flexibility, meal plans and recipes. “I make the chili all the time,” she says.

“People think you have to work out for hours a day to get really fit,” says Johnson, “but I’ve proven to myself that’s not true. As a mom of four, I don’t have time even if I wanted to. And the good news is, if I give it my all during those 30 minutes, I don’t have to.”

Megan’s Favorite Cozy Comfort Chili

“I make this in batches of 25 servings and freeze in one-cup portions,” says Johnson. “Take one out, reheat, top with cheese and enjoy.”

Ingredients:

Garlic, to taste
Onion, to taste
Celery, to taste
Bell Pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon oil
3 ounces 95 percent lean ground beef
1/2 can diced tomatoes, with juice
1/4 cup black beans, cooked
1/4 cup pinto beans, cooked
1/4 cup kidney beans, cooked
1/4 cup shredded low-fat cheese

Directions:

Saute your favorite vegetables and spices (you can use unlimited amounts of them) in oil. Add lean ground beef and cook through. Stir in diced tomatoes with juice, black, pinto and kidney beans. Stir and cook until bubbly. Top with 1 ounce (1/4 cup) shredded low fat cheese.

Recipe from the “Curves Fitness & Weight Management Plan.”

Courtesy of ARAcontent

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Available Anywhere

Yoga Zone DVDs are sold in bookstores, health shops, some sporting goods stores and especially online.  Even big chain web sites like Barns and Noble and Amazon.com carry them.  They run about an hour long, which is about as much time as you need for a helpful but not harmful workout.  Just enter “yoga zone DVD” into your favorite search engine, and you will be besieged with results.

Before You Begin

Before you try Yoga Zone videos, you really should check with your doctor that you are physically capable of handling the bends, dips and twists of some yoga positions.  If you get the okay, you need to wear form-fitting but not too tight clothing.  You don’t want your shirt to drop off over your head if you are doing a position where you need to lower your head.  You need to have a good grip on the flooring, so use an athletic mat.

What Are They Like?

Yoga Zone DVDs aren’t heavily reliant on things like plot, special effects and character development.  They are filmed exercise film so that you can pretend you are in an actual yoga class.  The advantage of Yoga Zone DVDs as opposed to taking classes is that they are cheaper, you don’t have to travel to the gym and back and you can see how some of the techniques are done.

The disadvantage is that even mimicry can lead to you improperly doing some of the positions.  These can lead to muscle pulls, sprains and worse.  This is why it is best to go for instruction with an actual human being to help put you in the proper position.  In this way, you learn how it feels to be in the proper position.

Yoga Zone DVDs are helpful to keep your interest in yoga up after your Yoga 101 classes are done.  They are made by Yoga Zone studios and a couple were filmed in Jamacia.  Yoda Zone DVDs have won some awards, including “Best Yoga” from GQ, Allure and New York Magazines.  You can work out conveniently.  If you feel like skipping a position, no one will scold you.

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How A Yoga Workout Works

Most yoga workouts adapt positions which have been used for centuries to improve the state of self awareness and the physical state of an individual. If you are more interested in improving your physical state, you can try some yoga asanas which many experts believe are capable of toning one’s body and promoting flexibility. The positions or postures are the key to the yoga workout for better bodies.

At the start of each yoga workout, practitioners are encouraged to regulate their breathing in such a way that it is calm and relaxed. Beginners are usually started with easier poses so as not to jar their bodies with the more intermediate positions which may cause some difficulties for many novices. A yoga workout must not be forced onto a person’s body because force can decrease the concentration and rob the person of the yoga health benefits.

A yoga workout usually starts with breathing and then progresses to the positions at the same time focusing one’s mind on one’s inner self. A yoga workout can last for just less than an hour or for several hours depending on your stage of yoga. Most workouts involve positions that require some change in movement every few minutes. These movements of changes are done in a slow rhythmic way. Lowering one’s heels in a slow manner is important as well as the lowering on other parts of the body.

Benefits of Yoga

In a yoga workout the control of one’s body is a conscious movement. This is one of the factors that promote good body tone and flexibility of the body. There are other health benefits from yoga and these involve the promotion of better blood and oxygen circulation. Joints and ligaments are also maintained well by practicing yoga.

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Online Certification

Yoga can be practiced in classes or one can get yoga teacher training certification online and of course, there are quite a few advantages to choosing the online option including being able to work according to your own convenience. What’s more, when you opt for yoga teacher training through online medium, you can complete your course within a year and in fact, the certification so given is generally measured by the numbers of hours you put into your yoga teacher training.

The basic or level one yoga teacher training certificate requires that you complete at least two hundred hours of study which means that when choosing an online course, you must ensure that the certification is not given for less number of hours than the mandatory two hundred hours. The reason for this is that it you should not get taken in by any offers that promise you certification in shorter time because you need to remain very serious about how and where you get your yoga teacher training since, after all both your health as well as fitness are important enough that you don’t compromise on them.

In any case, getting yoga teacher training certification requires developing a number of skills which in turn requires being very dedicated and the course that you join must also reflect the same, especially in its teachings. The object of the program must always be to prepare you to become more adept at being able to teach yoga under various circumstances as well as in different places.

A higher level of yoga teacher training or the level two certification requires that you complete at least five hundred hours and in fact, without a doubt it would be wiser if you opted to invest some more time as well as spend extra money in order to gain this level of certification because it will enable you to find better jobs as well as attain higher educational competency.

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Pre-Routine Breathing

As you would stretch your muscles before an exercise routine, so you should do cleansing breath exercises before attempting any yoga techniques.  Breathing deep, cleansing breaths is also a yoga technique called “kapalabhati”.  Going into the lotus position is optional. You can sit in a chair and do this.

Take two normal breaths.  Then inhale deeply and exhale just as deeply, using your abdomen muscles.  Repeat for as long as you are comfortable with it.  This yoga technique is to help your subconscious to clear itself of worries and concentrate on the yoga to come.

Familiar Poses

Some yoga techniques will look very familiar to any woman who’s ever taken an aerobics class or watched a Richard Simmons’s video.  There are side-stretches, which are exactly as you think they are, where you bend to the side with the opposite arm curled over your head.  There is a more complex version of touching your toes where you grab the bottom of your feet.  There is also a yoga technique similar to a sit up, where you gab one leg at a time and touch your knee to your head.

The best thing to do to learn how to properly do any of these yoga techniques for women is to take a few yoga classes at the YMCA or from your local community college.  You will learn how to do these and any other yoga technique in a way that will not give your pulled muscles or neck sprains.

Remember, learning any yoga technique is not a competition.  Everyone learns at their own time and their own rate.  Try not to compare yourselves to others in the class.  Your goals are to improve your bone strength, keep your physical flexibility and lower stress levels.  Most yoga techniques can’t be learned by reading them out of a book or a web site; you have to try and do them before you can figure out how to do them.

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Maintain Your Existing Schedule

Some people may even be interested in opting for yoga teacher training programs that allow them to hold a job while at the same time learning how to teach yoga over the weekend. In any case, in such instances, you must choose only those yoga teacher training programs that help you maintain your current schedule by offering evening classes or which are even held over the weekend.

Another option available as far as proper yoga teacher training programs go is to attend courses at a yoga ashram or a yoga retreat where of course, you would need to totally immerse you in full time courses, and which may even require that you also live and stay at the ashram, or retreat. Such yoga teacher training programs are ideal for those who don’t have other responsibilities such as looking after a family or holding a regular job. In fact, most of these ashrams function just like normal universities function and thus they provide a very unique and pleasant atmosphere to learn to teach yoga.

Luxury Vacation Yoga Teacher Training is another excellent choice in yoga teacher training programs as they allow you to learn to teach yoga at the most exotic of locations, where you will need to totally immerse you in yoga studies while also being able to enjoy many creature comforts. If you are well heeled, then this is one excellent yoga teacher training program for you to check out.

On the other hand, if you have some prior yoga teach experience, you may want to check out another yoga teacher training programs that goes by the name of Yoga Teacher Correspondence Course where you will be able to independently study yoga in order to attain sufficient knowledge to become a yoga teacher. To get even more out of this course, you should train under a knowledgeable yoga teacher though you also will need to check out the syllabus first to ensure that it is indeed suitable for your particular goals.

Lastly, you may want to check out Weekend Yoga Teacher Training Intensives which requires doing a lot of homework and which also requires meeting regularly with the yoga instructor. However, even though you may think that such a yoga teacher training program will be over in a short time period – that is not the case since you need to study yoga continuously because there is virtually no end to how much you can learn about yoga.

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Two Hundred Hours Is Mandatory

Of course, in most instances, it is normal for a studio to require that students first have at least two hundred hours of certified yoga teacher credentials before they can be considered eligible to teach yoga. It is also a wise course of action for you to research the subject and also get as much information regarding how best to become a yoga teacher before you proceed any further. Thus, checking out the nearby book stores as well as local libraries in order to become better informed about yoga teaching, and even asking a yoga instructor for advice is recommended and in fact, some yoga instructors may even go as far as offering to mentor you free of cost.

However, regardless of how you go about learning how to teach yoga, there no doubts that becoming a yoga teacher is one of the most rewarding career options that will do a lot for you both in terms of better health as well as being able to share and also spread happiness and information with many other people. It is also definitely a good idea for you to get as much enjoyment out of your training/development as a teacher because there is vast amount of knowledge that you will need to learn with respect to yoga, and it is in fact, a never ending journey that will always have you coming back for more and it will also ensure that you never get bored and also won’t give up after you have mastered the basics.

The Yoga Alliance is an organization that is nationally recognized in the United States and it lays down the standards as far as Registered Yoga Teachers are concerned. You can register with this organization at different levels including the two hundred and five hundred hour levels. Having completed a course with Registered Yoga Teachers you will also find it much easier to land a job as a yoga teacher and so, this could be a great starting point for you in your quest to learn how to teach yoga.

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Samkhya Philosophy

In essence, the yoga sutras are built on the Samkhya philosophy and to put it concisely these sutras provide practitioners with a philosophy that outline an art as well as science of how yoga can help in achieving a higher state of self-realization. Thus, by studying the various yoga sutras, you should be able to examine, encounter as well as transcend different levels of false identity in your mind until there is a dawning of the true Self within you.

Yoga denotes union while sutra means a thread and thus the aim of yoga is to bring a person to unite the self which should help overcome the divided person and when it is combined with the thread or sutra, it helps create a tapestry of better insight as well as direct experience. What’s more, the practice of adhering to the teachings of the yoga sutras goes back to about 400 BC and some even believe that it was practiced even earlier to about 3000 BC.

The best part about the yoga sutras is that it is easy to commit to memory all one hundred and ninety-five separate phrases and it also lends it well to modern yoga practices, which is why it is held in high regard by every different type of practitioner of yoga. However, the exact origins of these sutras is open to debate though what is known is that they were authored by Patanjali, though even this is open to debate and in fact Patanjali is actually considered by some to be no more than a compiler of the yoga sutras than their author.

In any case, the yoga sutras comprise four books including Samadhi Pada that contains fifty-one sutras, the Sadhana Pada that contains fifty-five and a like number are contained in the Vibhuti Pada while thirty-four are contained in the Kaivalya Pada. Patanjali’s yoga sutras are a staple for many yoga practitioners who use the ideas contained in the sutras to achieve a higher state of being.

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Drop-In Classes Is A Good Beginning Point

As a newcomer to a yoga shala you may want to begin by attending drop-in classes which can be continued for as long as you like and there is also no need to be registered in order to attend such classes. You can then opt to take immersion classes that can last from three to even five weeks and these classes can be taken on a daily basis and they usually involve performing intensive yoga.

However, for those who are not conversant with what yoga is and how to practice it, they may need to take a yoga fundamentals course at the yoga shala where they can learn the basics of yoga that in turn will help establish a strong foundation for practicing future and more strenuous yoga practices.

The yoga shala is also an ideal place where you can understand why so many different forms of yoga exist and it is also the right place to even learn more about various yoga practices that have been especially adapted to suit Western users and cultures. As the needs of different students change, these have to be reflected in different styles of yoga and thus, an essential feature about good yoga shala is that it must be able to teach an appropriate form of yoga to meet diverse needs of students.

Another requirement of a yoga shala is that when practicing yoga classes, students must practice yoga on an empty stomach, and if a light snack has been consumed, then the yoga should only be practiced an hour or two after consumption of such light snack. In addition, if a person has consumed a heavy meal, then they need to allow three to four hours before attending a yoga shala.

You should also not consume water when performing yoga at a yoga shala since water can interfere with the body’s inner heating, and in addition, you also must ensure that you are clad in comfortable attire and are not using perfume, heavy jewelry or even body oils.

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What Do They Look Like?

Unlike other footwear geared for martial arts or tai chi, yoga sandals are not slippers but sandals.  Instead of having one support between your two biggest toes, there are four supports for your toes to fit into.  They certainly help keep your balance and not put all of your weight on the bones of your feet.   They also help encourage your toes to spread out instead of curl up, which also helps in balance and circulation.

Yoga sandals come in many different colors, but black and earth tones are popular.  They can be made for women or men.  They look a lot like flip-flops, except your feet won’t be doing any flipping or flopping in them.  Some people love wearing yoga sandals, but don’t actually wear them during any yoga sessions.

The Natural Style

Yoga Sandals (a trademarked branch by Beech Sandal Company of Australia) or yoga sandals (knock-offs of the Beech versions) is generally worn as casual footwear instead of exercise footwear.  Using the principles of flexibility and physical alignment in order to find your balance not only in your body but in your life, Yoga Sandals help you become healthier in just your normal walking activities.

There is a general movement to try and live more naturally and in tune with Nature more than in the previous generations.  Some stores and shops talk of “the yoga lifestyle”, which includes products like Yoga Sandals.  Generally, this is comfortable and more eco-friendly fashions that are often patterned after Hindu traditional robes and sandals.

Yoga Sandals are not actually seen in India.  Usually, yoga is practiced barefoot in India.  Shoemakers in Australia’s Beech Sandal Company noticed the toe-holders used by professional pedicurists in order to keep the elaborate toe-nail polish and decorations from getting smeared as they dry.  This was the inspiration for Yoga Sandals.

Like many things about yoga, it can happily marry the best ideas of East and West in order to help you move through the Chaos of life.

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