My Plan For Health

After several weeks away from yoga, I returned to class with Holly Wagner, RN,  and got a bit of a surprise.

She asked us to sit straight up, legs crossed — a typical beginning posture. She reminded us to reach around and pull the fleshy parts of our backsides out to the sides, so that we could plant our sitz bones (the bones on the base of the pelvis) directly on the mat.

This is a standard yoga move not just for plus-sized people, but for anyone who… well, anyone who has a backside. And I’ve been doing it for so long now that it’s second nature.

What I noticed that day was that I seemed to have a little less backside to move out of the way than I’d remembered. That was a nice, positive thing to think about as I started class!

One of the most valuable parts of the book MegaYoga comes near the beginning, when author Megan Garcia explains how to manipulate a curvy body for certain yoga postures such as bends and twists. She advises that we take a moment to smooth the fleshy parts of the body out of the way — for instance, moving the buttocks out of the way as I just described, or smoothing the belly up and away from the hip joint during a bend. After reading the book, I tried out some of these techniques in Holly’s class, and they worked.

Garcia offers advice on how to safely attain poses, and how to adjust using props such as yoga blocks and yoga straps. I was glad to see that she explained how to safely stand up from the mat, a procedure she calls “mindful standing.” I tend to get dizzy sometimes when I stand up, so her instructions on when to pause and breathe during standing were particularly useful to me.

There are a wide variety of poses in the book, from beginning level to advanced, including handstands and shoulder stands. Garcia definitely proves that plus-sized people can perform any pose with the proper adjustments — and lots of practice, of course. She explains each move step by step with photographs.

At the end of the book, she offers a 30-minute routine for beginners, a 60-minute routine for intermediate students, and a 90-minute routine for advanced students. These are good for practice outside of class — something that I aspire to.

Read about Garcia’s yoga studio and classes.

Bonus: Long before I heard of MegaYoga, I found the video Yoga for Round Bodies, which encourages the use of props and lots of self-acceptance. Read about the making of the video here.

Marblehead Lighthouse

I just got back from vacation in Lakeside Marblehead — a week of swimming, shopping, walking the shoreline and watching the surf.

We stayed in a resort on Sandusky Bay, and I enjoyed a spa package — a pedicure and my first-ever massage. The pedicure was excellent, and I was certain after the massage that the world was a bright, happy place and I was impervious to all evil.

Ommmmm.....ommmmm....

My thoughts did occasionally turn to work, and I felt a little stressed about falling behind at the office, but by the end of the week I think I had finally relaxed. It took a while to break out of my old mental patterns and actually feel like I was on vacation, you know?

What do you think? Do I look relaxed? My husband Bill took this photo one afternoon as we sat on the shore at Marblehead Lighthouse.

Everybody needs time away from work once in a while. Stress has very negative effects on the body. Ohio State researchers have shown, for instance, that stress slows the body’s ability to heal and even makes allergy attacks worse. That’s why, when I took the PHA test, WebMD advised me to lower stress for overall health.

In case you’re wondering why I look so blissed out above, here’s the video of what I was looking at (when my eyes were open, anyway). Video courtesy of Bill Gorder.

Click on the image to see a QuickTime movie of the waves at Marblehead Lighthouse

With FSFP’s water aerobics program over for the summer and only one week left in my belly dancing class, I have to think seriously about what I’m going to do fitness-wise between now and September (aside from going to the gym, that is). I can’t just go to the gym every day, and I miss being in the pool!

Currently, I’m looking for places to do water aerobics on my own, and have bought a pool membership from Hilliard Recreation and Parks. FSFP instructor Ya-Ting was kind enough to share her lesson plan with me. I’m going to laminate it and take it with me to the pool!

As to belly dancing, it was fun and challenging, and I plan to continue practicing at home. I’ve recorded many episodes of Shimmy, and discovered another show — All Star Workouts on FitTV — that has a belly dancing episode. While Shimmy has excellent production quality, I’ve decided that the All Star Workouts show is easier to follow, since it offers a more traditional classroom experience.

Some of the girls in my class at Habeeba’s have commented that they don’t know where to find belly dancing music for practice at home. So I put together a list of songs that I especially like. They are all available through Amazon (most via MP3 download if you want) and most of them are probably avialable via iTunes:

Marco Polo — Loreena McKennitt

Maris — Stellamara

Nahan – Niyaz

Hayati Inta — Natacha Atlas

Moi Et Toi – Abdel Ali Slimani

Dari — Zachary J. Mechlem

Gayatri Mantra Shuffle — Adham Shaikh

One new class I’m going to try this summer is Zumba. RPAC is offering it — here’s the description:

Zumba - Tired of the treadmill? Zumba is a high energy, heart pumping, dance-inspired workout that fuses traditional Latin rhythms such as Salsa and Meringue with hip hop. Each class will feature simple yet incredibly fun routines that will help tone your body and get your heart rate up! Dance experience is NOT required - Rachel will work with the group to ensure the best results. Best of all, you will be having so much fun you’ll forget you’re even working out!

Upper Arlington is offering it as well. And last Saturday I took a Zumba class at EquiVita in Grandview, which is offering free class trials for the month of June. I think most people don’t know about EquiVita yet, because I was the only student in the class! I got lots of personal attention, as you can imagine.

I think I’ll try several different Zumba classes to see what I like best. If I decide to stick with it, I’ll have to put together a Latin dance playlist!

The latest video feature from our New Media unit highlights a yoga class for cancer survivors, as well as Ohio State’s unique Integrative Approaches to Wellness minor for undergraduate students.

Web editor Kristen Convery writes:

When Daniel Snider’s aunt was dying of abdominal cancer, Snider wanted to get to know her better and help her deal with her disease.

So he created a yoga routine for her.

Read the full story here.