If you intend to do your yoga-with-weights workouts at home, more power to you . You can carve out a personalized, private place to work out, you can exercise in front of a mirror, and you can adjust the room temperature and other settings to your specifications. We discuss these topics in the pages that follow.
Setting aside some space
Creating a workout space for yoga with weights is easy enough, because you don’t need very much space. If you have enough room to fit a yoga mat, you have plenty of space. Section off a corner of a room, a place on the deck, a few square feet in the backyard, or a few square feet on the roof, provided the roof of your house isn’t slanted. Or you can keep it simple and create a special, sacred workout place in your home for exercising.
We believe strongly in the benefits of exercising outside if you can manage it. As long as you don’t expose yourself to winds or unkind breezes, direct sunlight, or voyeuristic neighbors, the great outdoors is one of the best places for a yoga-with-weights workout. The fresh air adds to the benefits you get from yoga breathing, and you feel more free-spirited and thankful to be alive when you’re in nature.
Yoga with weights is different from most exercise programs because it challenges your powers of concentration. In fact, some exercises test and develop your ability to focus more than they do your physical strength. Therefore, you should choose a place to exercise where distractions won’t bother you. Not everyone can swing this, of course, but if you’re fortunate enough to have a large house or a fenced-in backyard, see if you can devote an area to yoga-with-weights exercises. By establishing a place away from the rigors and demands of your daily life, you’ll find it easier to concentrate on your exercises, deep breathing, and meditation. This special room or backyard space can be a source of resilience during difficult and demanding periods.
Keep your yoga mat, weights, and this book in your designated workout area (if your area is inside) so you can start exercising as soon as you set foot in it. You can keep this space simple or decorate it with fitness, yoga, meditation, or spa-style decor. Simple, bare, or elaborate — it’s up to you. As soon as you set foot in your area, you should know you’re there for one purpose — to work on yoga with weights. Knowing this helps you get into the exercise mindset. Think of your exercise space as a magic land or sanctuary where your health is the utmost concern. As soon as you step into the sanctuary, the exercises begin and nothing else concerns you.
Exercising in front of a mirror
If you have the room to hang a mirror in your exercise area, do so. Exercising in front of a mirror gives you the opportunity to make like a yoga-with-weights instructor and observe your workout so you know when you’re making mistakes or doing exercises incorrectly. Apart from showing how beautiful or handsome you are, the mirror shows you when your body is aligned correctly during an exercise. Having the correct alignment is essential in yoga with weights, because the exercises rely on your balance to work different muscle groups and tax the core muscles in your trunk and torso.
Pay attention to whether your body is in proper alignment with the following tips in mind:
Posture: If you stand during an exercise, stand up straight and look straight ahead. Traditional yoga teaches that body energy moves through the spine. Make sure your spine is erect so your body is energized and open.
Shoulders: Don’t shrug your shoulders; keep your breast bone gently lifted and your collarbones wide with your shoulders firmly on your back. Don’t slouch or cave in. Except for the occasional exercise when we ask you to roll your shoulders forward, you should stay gently lifted in the chest and breathe evenly into your body
Most people have one shoulder that’s higher than the other. Correct this imbalance when you see it in the mirror by consciously breathing into your imbalanced side, as if you’re inflating it. This gently unlocks your body and improves your posture.
Legs: In exercises in which we ask you to move one foot forward and the other foot back, make sure your legs are balanced and your body weight is equally distributed between both legs. Is one foot too far forward or too far back? You can tell with a glance in the mirror.
Knees: In squatlike poses where we ask you to bend your knees and sit in an imaginary chair, some people hardly bend their knees. Don’t be afraid to bend them — the movement is good for you. If you have stiff knees, always warm up first (see Chapter 6) and focus on the balls of your feet being on the floor when you bend your knees — this gives you a solid base. Never force or lock your kneecaps back; using your thigh muscles above your knees, gently lift your knees upward and into your thigh bones to strengthen the knee area for greater support.
Feet: In most standing exercises, your feet are parallel to one another. Don’t turn your feet out. When we ask you to place your feet below your hips or place them “hips’ width apart,” look to see if your feet are directly below your hips and if your stance isn’t wider than your hips.
The only drawback of doing the exercises in front of the mirror is that you may miss the from-the-inside-out experience of yoga. Recognizing and feeling each breath, moment, and exercise from the inside out is what makes yoga with weights an empowering practice. If you gaze in the mirror and look at yourself only from the outside in, you miss an aspect of the exercises and never discover what yoga is really about.
In our classes, we occasionally notice students gazing with puppy love at their reflections in the mirror, and that’s okay. Admiring yourself is allowed. Why not? It sometimes happens that someone who feels self-conscious and thinks he or she isn’t beautiful discovers otherwise in the mirror. As long as you do the exercises and complete the workout, you’re allowed to admire yourself. So strike that pose and then get over it so you can dive deep within yourself for the real rewards.
Use this book as a tool. Compare the exercise photos you see in this book to your reflection in the mirror to find out whether you’re striking the right poses as you exercise.
Filed in: Aerobic Exercise » Creating Your Workout Sanctuary at Home